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Mayor Herenton holds annual prayer breakfast


watnow1425

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Though it is certainly a debate as to which cities are "progressive". Within the top 10 most dangerous of cities over 500,000 are high growth cities such as Washington DC, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Phoenix. And in cities of 100,000 to 499,999, Atlanta, Hartford, Richmond, and Tampa grace the top 10 most dangerous.

When looking at 25 most dangerous metros, Phoenix, Miami, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Charleston (SC), Tuscon, Little Rock, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque all make the list.

This is in no way to diminish Memphis' terrible crime problem, being #4 in large cities, #13 in overall cities, and #2 in the metro (which isn't helped by Tunica-related crime), but instead to show that the problem is nationwide and in cities that many people look to as "safe" or cities that to which Memphis should aspire. Maybe those cities listed are not "progressive", but many of them are experiencing major growth in population and business, and their high crime is either not a factor for some reason or is well-hidden by local leaders.

http://www.morganquitno.com/cit05pop.htm

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Though it is certainly a debate as to which cities are "progressive". Within the top 10 most dangerous of cities over 500,000 are high growth cities such as Washington DC, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Phoenix. And in cities of 100,000 to 499,999, Atlanta, Hartford, Richmond, and Tampa grace the top 10 most dangerous.

When looking at 25 most dangerous metros, Phoenix, Miami, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Charleston (SC), Tuscon, Little Rock, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque all make the list.

This is in no way to diminish Memphis' terrible crime problem, being #4 in large cities, #13 in overall cities, and #2 in the metro (which isn't helped by Tunica-related crime), but instead to show that the problem is nationwide and in cities that many people look to as "safe" or cities that to which Memphis should aspire. Maybe those cities listed are not "progressive", but many of them are experiencing major growth in population and business, and their high crime is either not a factor for some reason or is well-hidden by local leaders.

http://www.morganquitno.com/cit05pop.htm

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I don't think it's a very interesting proposal no matter what our fiscal or crime situation is. "Let's build a new stadium!" -- big whoop, we've had a stadium for 40 years -- "1965, here we come!". If it's about dollars and cents (cost of ADA compliance vs. costs of a new stadium) Mayor Herenton should have chosen a more mundane setting, with more specific figures, as he would for a sewage treatment plant. But his new year's day speech is the mayor's state of the city speech -- where he unveils his vision. It left a lot of people scratching their heads.

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Good point I'm glad you made the board aware of this. It really doesn't matter how many facts you present to the panel about progressive cities with crime problems, some people just don't try to get it, they are convinced and scared senseless. No city and I mean no city can stop the rebuilding of a city just to appease some who disagree every time a new stadium is proposed. Did Detroit not build Ford Field because of their crime problem? Did Baltimore not build Ravens field because of their crime problem? Did Washington decide not to build a baseball stadium for the Nationals because of crime? This panel should really not buy into the hysteria from the media and from scared suburbanites who are probably scared of their own shadow.

PLEASE SPARE SOME OF US THE FEEL SAFE THEORY!!!!!!!

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Herenton did say he was going to budget more money for hiring officers and upgrading our tactics in fighting crime. Unfortunately you aren't going to wake up one morning with a news report on how the city spent a billion and there is no more crime. Its just not going to happen. Build the stadium.

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No city and I mean no city can stop the rebuilding of a city just to appease some who disagree every time a new stadium is proposed. Did Detroit not build Ford Field because of their crime problem? Did Baltimore not build Ravens field because of their crime problem? Did Washington decide not to build a baseball stadium for the Nationals because of crime?
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Wasn't the Fedex forum completed without tax increases to Memphis citizens? The financing is based upon ticket sales and hotel/ rental car taxes which mostly affect out of town residents. I'm surprised that there is still resentment against the forum.

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Wasn't the Fedex forum completed without tax increases to Memphis citizens? The financing is based upon ticket sales and hotel/ rental car taxes which mostly affect out of town residents. I'm surprised that there is still resentment against the forum.
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Those same sources of revenue potentially could have been used to finance other capital improvements...for instance, using the hotel/rental car taxes to finance airport improvements, or entertainment district surcharges for a transit system.
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I have been watching this thread for a little while along with the rest of the Memphis threads. I will start off saying that I was born in Memphis and lived there for most of my life until when recently I moved to the center of the state. I see so much potential for this city and I am excited to see what will the future entails.

Getting to the point, I see so many problems that HAVE to be fixed for us to get to the full potential that I envision for the city with the main one being crime. I keep reading these posts that say that crime has nothing to do with the progression of the city and that our city can compete with any other city even with all this crime. I have a question for all of you, name one top 10 progressing city that has an outrageous crime rate. It doesn

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Why do we really need a new stadium? I have always been a huge fan of the Liberty Bowl for one. The stadium was built when a bowl game was actually played in a bowl shaped stadium. There is a lot of history in this thing, why tear down something with so much history. I may be wrong, but I have not heard any word about them tearing down the rose bowl or for that matter the stadium at notre dame. If the director of the liberty bowl had not screwed up the teams coming to play here and we had a new years day bowl generating a lot of money, would there still be reason to tear it down. We used to have teams like notre dame and boston college among others play in Memphis. It used to be a great bowl and I think it might be rising again, but I can

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As for crime, this is an issue and for people to over look it is not good. I will not harp on this issue at all even though it something that desperately needs to be fixed. I will just ask one question, What happens after we have spent a hundred million dollars on this new stadium and crime has kept on escalating and we have 200 homicides a year, do we sit back and finally try to solve the problem or do we just build another stadium to briefly take out mind off the growing problem?
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I think that the city should invest on education and community services. The MPD is actually on a good track with the new PDA's so the police have less time filling paperwork and more time out on patrol. Infact, repersentatives from the Detroit police were in Memphis for ideas on how to run a successful police department :P How successful was Operation Blue Crush? The MPD was in New York City to study how they reduced their crime rate. Here's their program called Compstat, kinda similar to Blue Crush...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompStat

I really don't see a connection between a new stadium and crime. I won't knock Herenton until I see the plan. Atleast this guy is a visionary.

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Rardy, I see what you are saying. Public projects are great for a city, it gets people excited and boosts moral. The fedex forum has done wonders for downtown, honestly I think it was just icing on the cake for the incredible things that were already going on down there. The forum has greatly increased the size of downtown by adding another district for new construction.

I just don

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lets not forget that the proposal is for a 30 million dollar stadium, which is a ridiculously cheap price for a new stadium.

theres absouloutly no reason to tear down the Liberty bowl either. I can think of at least 20 Colleges and universities who are in stadiums that are well over 20 years old and still functional, and still good looking.

and i dont even think the liberty bowls attendance is good enough to warrent a new stadium.

Does the U of M even sell out their football games? If UM sold out every single game and there was still a lot of demand.. then maybe it could warrent a new stadium.

Lets think about what advantages a cheap stadium would bring

revitalizing the fair grounds:Not really. Liberty bowl from an engineering standpoint(and i am a structural engineer) is a good looking stadium. very classy looking structure. a 30 million dollar replacement will never look as good as the liberty bowl.

pride and honor: Im sorry... a new college stadium thats most likly going to be smaller than the previous will not make me any more proud of the city than i already am.

If the stadium was to attract and NFL team by all means i'd support it, even though I'm not sure our city could support the NFL team.

supporting the need for a new stadium: Is there really a demand/need for this type of facility. no. what there is a need for though is- using the pyramid, using the colliseum, figuring out what to do witht he former liberty land, lowering crime, improving public education at the elementary-high school levels, and of course slowing urban sprawl.

the liberty bowl was constructed in 1965 for 3.7 million dollars. in 2007 dollars thats $23,847,694.84

the renovation of liberty bowl in 1987 cost 19.5 million which today is $35,524,451.51

so what Mr. Herington is trying to say is, for 30,000,000 USD we can demonish a very large structure AND build a new ''''state of the art'''' stadium... im sorry thats laughable.

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lets not forget that the proposal is for a 30 million dollar stadium, which is a ridiculously cheap price for a new stadium.

theres absouloutly no reason to tear down the Liberty bowl either. I can think of at least 20 Colleges and universities who are in stadiums that are well over 20 years old and still functional, and still good looking.

and i dont even think the liberty bowls attendance is good enough to warrent a new stadium.

Does the U of M even sell out their football games? If UM sold out every single game and there was still a lot of demand.. then maybe it could warrent a new stadium.

Lets think about what advantages a cheap stadium would bring

revitalizing the fair grounds:Not really. Liberty bowl from an engineering standpoint(and i am a structural engineer) is a good looking stadium. very classy looking structure. a 30 million dollar replacement will never look as good as the liberty bowl.

pride and honor: Im sorry... a new college stadium thats most likly going to be smaller than the previous will not make me any more proud of the city than i already am.

If the stadium was to attract and NFL team by all means i'd support it, even though I'm not sure our city could support the NFL team.

supporting the need for a new stadium: Is there really a demand/need for this type of facility. no. what there is a need for though is- using the pyramid, using the colliseum, figuring out what to do witht he former liberty land, lowering crime, improving public education at the elementary-high school levels, and of course slowing urban sprawl.

the liberty bowl was constructed in 1965 for 3.7 million dollars. in 2007 dollars thats $23,847,694.84

the renovation of liberty bowl in 1987 cost 19.5 million which today is $35,524,451.51

so what Mr. Herington is trying to say is, for 30,000,000 USD we can demonish a very large structure AND build a new ''''state of the art'''' stadium... im sorry thats laughable.

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the U of M didnt get any where near a sell out crowd this year and they never will as long as their in confrence USA, a 30 million dollar stadium will NEVER lure an NFL team. We need to spend that money on the airport and on a lightrail train connecting the airport to downtown and maybe even east memphis to downtown

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i think that some of us really need to look at raw numbers before believing in unreliable rankings. I read in today's CA that New Orleans had either 160 or 161 murders in 2006. THE LOWEST IN 60 YEARS, with a as population of only 200,000. As compared to Memphis 160 out of nearly 700k. What are some more numbers from other cities? Anyway, as someone stated earlier, murder rates arent' a good measure of how "safe" the city is, as an overwhelming percentage are between people that know each other.

Off topic: But I was reading Wendi Thoma's article last week about a tourist who had visted the city serval times, but had his truck looted at the Midtown Applebee's and vowed to never return. I've lived in Memphis for 27 years, and have only been the victim of crime twice: had my car broken into as a student while at UTK and was robbed when i was visiting Atlanta. I'd sound like a complete idiot if I said I would have never gone back to either of those cities. This article and antecdotes just contribute to the media hype and poor self-esteem the city has.

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i think that some of us really need to look at raw numbers before believing in unreliable rankings. I read in today's CA that New Orleans had either 160 or 161 murders in 2006. THE LOWEST IN 60 YEARS, with a as population of only 200,000. As compared to Memphis 160 out of nearly 700k. What are some more numbers from other cities? Anyway, as someone stated earlier, murder rates arent' a good measure of how "safe" the city is, as an overwhelming percentage are between people that know each other.

Off topic: But I was reading Wendi Thoma's article last week about a tourist who had visted the city serval times, but had his truck looted at the Midtown Applebee's and vowed to never return. I've lived in Memphis for 27 years, and have only been the victim of crime twice: had my car broken into as a student while at UTK and was robbed when i was visiting Atlanta. I'd sound like a complete idiot if I said I would have never gone back to either of those cities. This article and antecdotes just contribute to the media hype and poor self-esteem the city has.

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