NOT RACISM: What Happened to District 8?
Local & National News | August 05, 2024
Local & National News | August 05, 2024
I despise problem misdiagnosis as with the current day local claim of “systemic racism”. In the public Memphis sphere, systemic racism asserts that white people are oppressing black people through public legislation and decision making. This charge comes while public legislative bodies and boards have been diversely represented for years.
At the same time, everyday black and white people get along fine in Memphis and have been doing so for years. This is not to suggest that racism does not exist. But does systemic racism exist in current day Memphis? Not hardly, but there is an “ism” at play in Memphis and its called elitism. Systemic elitism is carried out by a racially diverse Memphis public-private complex.
Then there are calls pointing to notable decline and disparities in Memphis City Council majority black Super District 8. So, what happened to district 8? I can assure you District 8 disparities are not due to the “average white guy in the pickup truck” that wrongly carries the load of the systemic racism charge. Let’s explore historic District 8 public decision making.
The fact is massive amounts of public discretionary spending has occurred and is occurring in District 8. But that discretionary spending is highly concentrated in Downtown and not throughout District 8. Some objectionable discretionary spending occurred in District 9 with the building of Leftwich Tennis Center with some other planned for a $6M golf clubhouse for Audubon golf course, but nothing like Downtown. What’s really in order now is a public readout of all Accelerate Memphis spending and planned spend. But no one is asking for that. WOW!
At the same time, we can examine historic City Council voting to see where massive Downtown spending decisions received their support. City Councilors representing district 8 to also include 3, 4, 6 and 7 have historically supported robust spending concentrated in Downtown but not throughout District 8.
Surveyed votes include Council votes taken back to 2007 to include Beale Street Landing, Memphis River Parks, PILOT extension fund and FedEx Forum. Keep in mind discretionary public spending downtown approaches $1B. Of the Votes surveyed, these are the results:
Some will say the MRPP in TDZ funds could not have been spent anywhere else. But they could have been spent on Mud Island, which would have freed up funds now targeted for needed repairs at Mud Island for neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, in the current environment, controversy surrounds Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP). Riverfront overspend appears to have also resulted in additional public ripoffs, through potential public fund diversion. Potential fund diversion projects include the Cossitt, Cobblestones and Mud Island.
Potential fund diversion hopefully concerns the Memphis City Council and should be addressed in an upcoming committee hearing.
Hopefully the City Council will see through the marketing of black pandering and engage in rigorous oversight. After all, black pandering was used to garner massive funding support, away from neighborhoods, for Tom Lee Park, Cossitt and Brooks. Such pandering is commonly used to generate massive public funding support for arguably unneeded public projects. Rigorous Council MRPP oversight will hopefully involve the following:
Unfortunately, no taxpayer centric public testimony is scheduled in opposition to MRPP. For whatever reason, taxpayer centric testimony is never scheduled in Council Committee that supposedly represents taxpayers in a majority Memphis black community in need. Let’s hope the lack of scheduled MRPP opposition in committee does not result in more Council political theatre.
This blog asserts the principles of taxpayer justice. Taxpayer Justice demands public transparency and oversight and is historically the most inclusive public paradigm that has ever existed or will ever exist.
In this way, taxpayer justice prioritizes delivering value to all taxpayers while prioritizing discretionary funding for impoverished areas and taxpayers. To that extent, without a bunch of pandering, taxpayer justice, based on demographics in Memphis, benefits mostly black people.
As far as what happened to District 8, the area is a victim of taxpayer injustice. Just look where most of the discretionary public spending has and is occurring in District 8, while knowing also who historically supported the location of that spending. The former drives the conclusion that District 8 is not a victim of racism but a casualty of elitist taxpayer injustice.
