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Written by: Joe B Kent

Mayor Paul Young and the Historic City Council under Chair JB Smiley are institutionally enslaving the taxpayer. Taxpayers have no choice in the matter. The enslavement is with a black pandering Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) that rips off the taxpayer in a Memphis majority black community in need.  

With all the undone work from a $4M grant, MRPP is being rewarded with a massive taxpayer bailout funded in part with the recent and enormous 49cent property tax increase. The amount of the bailout is not clear, but will occur, in part through, according to the Daily Memphian, the City’s pledge to upkeep river parks.

Such upkeep will require the City taxpayer to fund major maintenance gaps left by MRPP. More river parks planning was mentioned in the hearing pointing to the failure of multiple previously authored plans by the Riverfront Development Corporation dba as MRPP, as well as, failed promised economic development and vitality of those plans after 20 yrs. Here is how Chair JB Smiley describes the enslavement and Council August 6th MRPP hearing:

In Parks & Environment Committee, we had a discussion regarding Mud Island and other riverfront parks and properties. We all know the importance of having nice, safe riverfront amenities for residents and visitors to enjoy and the transformative nature of such amenities in communities around the country. We will be continuing the conversation in partnership with Memphis Parks, Memphis River Parks Partnership, and the City Administration to ensure that we engage stakeholders for feedback on the future of these amenities and that we move forward in a way that produces development that all citizens can enjoy.

While recognizing no other entities by name regarding the Riverfront and while working with the Young administration, Chair Smiley confirms his intent to enslave the taxpayer and bailout a black pandering MRPP public-private, that rips off the taxpayer in a majority black community in need.

MRPP proven direct taxpayer ripoffs include the Cossitt Library and now Mud Island Park. Also, the City managed Cobblestone Landing restoration project was mysteriously ripped off during MRPP’s over the top Tom Lee Park renovation.  

The total MRPP bailout amount is unknown and occurs through incomplete public work and will further occur in the minutia or details of day to day City Parks Riverfront upkeep activities. Local elitists that bogusly tout “government efficiency” wanted the recent massive City tax increase to fund elitist bailouts, like MRPP, as well as other elitist public ripoffs.

During the hearing, Council supporters of taxpayer enslavement spoke up. In committee hearings Councilor Dr. Easter Thomas wants to avoid the “minutia” related to the taxpayer MRPP bailout. Dr. Easter-Thomas leanings are the exact opposite of what should happen regarding $4M in granted Accelerate Memphis funding for Mud Island. Besides, through the “minutia” is how the elitists daily rip the taxpayer, while enslaving them to high taxes and poor public services.  

During the oversight hearing, NONE of the City Councilors referenced the listing of MRPP Mud Island deliverables, which are documented in the next section. Do they even care to know? Doesn’t seem like it.

Councilors should be going down the list of $4M Mud Island excessive cost deliverables publicly at each meeting, demanding and tracking progress. Or best, just take the hit, and get rid of MRPP. But the Young Administration and Council clearly want to enslave the City of Memphis taxpayer to the MRPP public-private that rips off the Memphis taxpayer in a majority black community in need.

During testimony, MRPP’s Carol Coletta said the $530K renovated Mud Island restrooms were inaccessible due to “blood and feces” in the restrooms. Ok, clean it up and open the $530K restrooms. It’s hard to believe that feces would be everywhere unless the toilets are inoperable, and renovation is undone.

And if done, how could public restroom renovation cost $530K? The ripoff scandal is proven in a Mud Island 7/30/24 inspection video posted at the end of this blog. Again, besides Mud Island, other Riverfront ripoff scandals have also been proven to include the Cossitt Library and Cobblestones.

Coletta also stated that the lighting was fine at Mud Island. That is especially so on a summer day, as Mud Island Park closes well before dark at 5pm. So why did taxpayers spend $150K on replacing and painting light poles, which clearly has not been done. Or worse yet, why $730K for 3000 sq feet of concrete pavers?

Councilors should be demanding, at every meeting, the $4M in Mud Island Park deliverables are complete and open to public inspection. This work and general maintenance  also includes the trashed out Mud Island City Gateway. It seems so easy to board up the engine room and sell some advertising on a properly covered engine room. And why the Young Administration seems so reluctant to try and figure out a 400 yd mobility solution, across the harbor where the decaying monorail sits is baffling.

Director of Parks, Nick Walker, also testified regarding public feedback for parks. Walker stated that “the weighting of public feedback is the "secret sauce" to producing a useful plan.” That’s right and Walker knows.

After the last parks survey, a consultant team excluding the City decided the City needed the $30M Leftwich Tennis Center. That was definitely “secret sauce” as public survey results showed low interest for tennis.

Leftwich was subsequently built and supported by black pandering marketing that touted teaching poor black kids to play tennis and a home for University of Memphis tennis. All that to say, it’s not clear if Leftwich is even used to teach poor black kids to play tennis. Much of that activity is housed at Bellevue Tennis Center, which is adequate for such work.

So why the $30M tennis spend? It wasn’t about teaching poor black kids to play tennis but about a new home for another public-private in Tennis Memphis. Former Strickland Deputy, Dan Springer, now with MFA handled both Leftwich and Mud Island projects for the Strickland Administration. 

There was also discussion around insane economic development projections, even though Leftwich has entirely inadequate seating and parking capacity to accommodate a major tournament.

And then there is the Memphis City Council MRPP Board designate, Phillip Spinosa, who is supposed to be the primary Council overseer of MRPP. What was Spinosa’s contribution to the hearing? Spinosa changed the subject and asked Nick Walker how the Audubon golf opening went, punctuating Council legislative curiosity of MRPP.

Given Spinosa’s designation, he should have been the Councilor informing discussion with insight and current MRPP financial information. Just know Spinosa wears crazy socks, as does Gerald Thornton County personnel director and Harris administration salary increase winner, as does Cliff Norville, County public works director. As we know, its impossible for crazy socks to be a fashion statement because they are uncoordinated. So why wear them? Crazy socks signal a wink wink lean to being on board with local elitist priorities. 

I have tried and am still trying to get Spinosa to meet me at the Cossitt Library. At the Cossitt, I can show Spinosa the entirely unnecessary MRPP botch of the concrete floors that were supposed to be sealed as part of the MRPP Cossitt renovation. Sealing the floors is low cost and high impact. Instead ugly unsealed floors remain in the Cossitt due to one of MRPP's taxpayer rips.

Its blatant disrepect for the taxpayer and the black leaders the Cossitt set out to honor. But Councilors do not want to explicity witness the elitist taxpayer injustice that is systemically going on all the time in a Memphis majority black community in need. 

Some progress was made though. Council Parks Chair, Jeff Warren, voiced his support for pissing in the bushes at Mud Island, while the $530K restrooms are closed…..

City Council

Daily Memphian