VOL. 133 | NO. 4 | Thursday, January 4, 2018
Last Word
Bill Dries
Last Word: The Stay Away Plan, Kroger and the Lamar Gateway and Silo Square
By Bill Dries
City Hall says ignore and avoid the two parks that used to have Confederate monuments and the Tennessee Welcome Center Saturday. All could be the scene of gatherings Saturday by groups opposed to the removal of the monuments including white nationalist groups. If this sounds familiar it’s because this was the city’s strategy in 1998 when a Klan group from Indiana rallied on the courthouse steps and there was a marked departure from that in 2013 when another Klan group – also from Indiana also rallied at the courthouse – different set of steps though. More on the history behind all of this when next we meet.
Millington Schools out Thursday because their heating systems are out.
The Kroger Delta Division announcing Wednesday it will close three stores – the Kroger in Southgate, another on Lamar near Airways and a third in Clarksdale. All closing next month. The Delta Division says all three of the stores have been losing money since 2014.
The Kroger closing near Lamar and Airways comes despite a Fairgrounds blueprint late last year by the Strickland administration that called for making the Lamar-Airways intersection and its businesses there more of a commercial gateway just south of the Fairgrounds.
Developer Brian Hill has plans for a 228-acre mixed use development called Silo Square in Southaven. The Southaven board of aldermen approved it Tuesday. This is on the west side of Getwell between Goodman and Nail Road and Hill told the aldermen the model for this is the Collierville town square.
Speaking of Collierville, plans for an 18-lot residential subdivision – Lenox Place – on eight acres on the northwest corner of East Shelby Drive and Fleming Road. The same LLC had a set of single-family homes planned for the same corner as well as the northeast corner back in July under the name Arches of Collierville that drew some concerns from the Collierville Planning Review team including a call for more trees.
Here come more candidates running for more offices starting Friday when the rush begins for qualifying petitions to run in the August state and federal primaries. Here is an early read on what is shaping up already.
Ahead of Friday the candidates keep coming. Add Katrina Robinson, the owner of Healthcare Institute, in southeast Memphis to the candidates for the legislature. Robinson plans to run in the Democratic primary for state Senate District 33 in what will be a primary challenge of Democratic state Senator Reginald Tate.
Three new assistant coaches in the offseason for Tigers football.
The leader of the cause of legalizing pot in Tennessee for medical uses says it can’t lead to legalizing recreational use here the the way it has happened in other states – through a statewide referendum. Those are only for amendments to the Tennessee Constitution here. So state Rep. Jeremy Faison tells our “View From The Hill” columnist and Nashville correspondent Sam Stockard he’s trying to make medical marijuana happen in the capitol and is finding the going tough there despite what he says is a public demand for medical use. Other legislative leaders say look for a debate on the latest version of medical marijuana but no passage in this election year session.
Some Mississippi homeowners – about 270 -- should be getting notices in the mail about payments from a legal settlement over improper servicing of mortgage loans by PHH Mortgage Corp. of New Jersey. PHH settled without admitting it did anything wrong but the AGs in Mississippi and several other states alleged the company violated standards for underwriting government-backed mortgages. This covers those PHH foreclosed on or threatened to foreclose on between 2009 and 2012.
A forecast on the gig economy locally in 2018 shows it’s happening here but not as much as it is in places like San Francisco or Chicago. And wage and hour laws aren’t keeping up with the change in which workers nationally make under $30k a year and typically get no benefits.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy shows Memphis is the most generous metro area when it comes to charitable giving and those in the philanthropy business here are still trying to gauge the impact of tax reform at the federal level on giving in Memphis.