Main Street Journal is a monthly newsmagazine covering issues and culture in Memphis and Shelby County. Subscribe online - its safe and easy. Subscribe online — it’s safe and easy!

Table of Contents: February

On the River

Michael Roy Hollihan: How Your Drinking Water May Change

Shep Fargotstein: On Finances: Market Outlook 2008

Joe Saino: Do Memphis Citizens Have the Right to Petition Memphis Government?

On Repeat

Jason Middlekauff: Radiohead: In Rainbows

Judith’s Picks

Judith Conroy

Lead Article

Jonathan Lindberg: The Rise and Fall of Fred Thompson: How a presidential campaign came undone

Feature Articles

Opinion Editorial: A Good Day: Two Sensible Proposals on the Same Day

Edward F. Williams III: The Way Things Were: Court Square

Ties that Bind

Dr. David Patterson: The Biblical Reply to Environmental Paganism

On the Shelf

Jonathan Lindberg: Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu

On the Money

Chuck Bates: What it Takes to Make Your Community a Safe Place for Investment: Part III

Main Street Journal is a monthly newsmagazine covering issues and culture in Memphis and Shelby County. Subscribe online - its safe and easy. Subscribe online — it’s safe and easy!

Table of Contents: January

On the River

Jonathan Lindberg: Polling Polls

Michael Roy Hollihan: To the Scrap Yard

Joe Saino: Will 2008 Bring Real Change or More of the Same

Opinion Editorial

Opinion Editorial: Mayor Keith McDonald: Cooperation Not Consolidation

Judith’s Picks

Judith Conroy

Lead Article

Joe Saino: Bloated: How Mayor Herenton Has Been Able To Abuse His Appointment Power

Feature Articles

Daniel Johnson: The Triumph of Evil

Edward F. Williams III: The Way Things Were: Howard Hall

Ties that Bind

Dr. David Patterson: The Holiness of the Holy Land

On the Shelf

Jason Middlekauff: Starbucked

On the Money

Chuck Bates: What It Takes To Make Your Community a Safe Place For Investment: Part II

The following is an excerpt from our December issue. Subscribe now.

by: Chuck Bates

Living in the same community we all have one issue in common that determines our future success or demise as a locality. We all want our community to survive economically. Whether someone is living in the most toney neighborhood or just in “the hood” we all have to make a living and in order to do that we have to attract capital to our community in the forms of new families and new businesses. Let’s face it everybody must feed, house and clothe themselves’ and that requires capital. But what does it take to retain that capital?

Capital looks for two things: 1.) Economic Stability and 2.) Political Stability. One need only look to other regions of the world to see the risk aversion of capital. Why are there no serious skyscraper lined cities in say Republic of Congo? Simply the risk to capital due to both economic and political instability overwhelms the potential reward for investing in the area. It is not due to a lack of natural resources as the nation is mineral rich. The problem lies specifically in the political upheavals and constant warring between factions thus destroying any hope of economic stability. But we don’t have to look to developing areas just look at Lebanon. Lebanon was at one point considered “The Riviera of the Middle East”. It was a business and banking center and today it is in constant turmoil due to political instability to the point new investment in such a place would be almost certain loss to the investor. Yugoslavia is another example of a nation that was on its way to modernization both politically and economically. The Winter Olympics were even held in the country but today it is a shell of a nation nowhere near where it was just two decades ago, all due to political instability and the subsequent flight of capital.
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The following is an excerpt from our December issue. Subscribe now.

By: Michael Roy Hollihan

It began again at the well-attended Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast in October. This was Mayor Herenton’s highest profile appearance after his record-clinching fourth re-election. He had the ears of many of Memphis and Shelby County’s biggest and most powerful business leaders and politicians. Herenton announced a lot of things, but he made sure to note that consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County governments was high on his list of priorities in his coming term.

The mayor’s been lying low ever since but the bugle call to consolidation is echoing around.

This war has been going on for many years now, and consolidation is no closer than it’s ever been. But this time it looks as though the consolidation campaign might actually gain some ground. Three fronts have opened up: education, police and charters. Each may gain a foothold.

From a chance, offhand discussion at Legislative Plaza in Nashville, a proposal has been crystallizing that would freeze the Memphis and Shelby County school districts. By changing State law to re-allow “special school districts” the boundaries for both systems would be set for years to come, regardless of geographical changes in city/county status. Both school systems could end the tricky negotiations and over-long logistical planning that goes into deciding where to build new schools. The County would no longer have to build schools with half an eye to an encroaching, consuming Memphis.
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