Fighting the blight
Mayor leads tour of run-down apartment sites
Mayor A C Wharton led an entourage through gutted, gloomy apartment complexes with overgrown vegetation, scattered debris and histories of providing cover for illegal activities on Friday to demonstrate some of the obstacles to eliminating blight.
Accompanied by city and state officials, police officers, building inspectors and reporters, Wharton began the afternoon tour with a visit to the site of a long-awaited victory — the Winchester Gardens at 1895 Winchester, which is expected to come down in about six weeks by the order of Environmental Court Judge Larry Potter.
Obtaining that order involved a tiresome threeyear-long game of tracking ownership changes that had been arranged to avoid responsibility, explained Wharton and Steve Barlow, a city of Memphis staff attorney.
“What we really want to get out is that unless we get some help in the way of new laws … that’s what we have here, and the neighbors have to suffer while the rich investors are out in the Bahamas living the life of Riley,” Wharton said. “We really need help from the state on changing these laws.”
State Rep. Karen Camper was on hand to say she would do her best to help and to thank residents of the neighborhood who have decided to stay and complain about eyesores rather than flee from the problem. “If the laws need to be strengthened, that’s what I’m here for,” Camper said.
Barlow said the decline of the property began with a foreclosure resulting from the 2007 economic collapse. “The initial investors may not have even been interested to know how many people lived here. They may A former Memphis Housing Authority property, the Walter Simmons Estates apartments at 3720 Knight Arnold, is set for demolition. “We feel that for us to be on the right moral ground that the city has to clean up also,” Wharton said. not have been interested to know whether it was boarded up or not,” he said.
“All they were interested in was trading one piece of paper for another piece of paper and making a margin. What we need to do is figure out how to stop that kind of behavior.”
An even more complicated situation was described at the third stop on the tour — the Wooddale Condominiums at 4876 Winchester, where the city had to locate and serve papers on some 187 owners in order to get condemnation proceedings under way.
That process, begun in 2010, finally has been accomplished, Wharton said, and a hearing is set for January.
Gesturing toward a pile of car tires near one en- trance to the boarded-up development, “Look, someone is using this as a dump,” Wharton said. “Right here in the middle of the city.”
An entirely different situation was outlined by Wharton at the 26-acre Walter Simmons Estates at 3720 Knight Arnold.
That former Memphis Housing Authority property was vacated in 2003 when the city developed plans to relocate some of its operations to the site. Those plans fell through, and the apartments have been vacant ever since, but the City Council has recently approved demolition funds.
“We wanted to feature this,” Wharton said, “because we feel that for us to be on the right moral ground that the city has to clean up also.”
needs stage crew volunteers for A Christmas Carol. Shelby Farms Park Conservancy seeks volunteers to help with parking, ticket sales and merchandise sales at Starry Nights in November and December. Memphis Botanic Garden needs volunteers to assist with various Caterpillar Club activities. Mid-South Food Bank seeks volunteers to answer phones and greet visitors; to receive donated turkeys, Nov. 25-27. ALSAC/St. Jude needs volunteers to assist in various capacities at St. Jude Memphis Marathon and to serve in St. Jude Spirit Spots, Dec. 7. Volunteer Mid-South seeks volunteers to participate in the Delivery Day (Dec. 12) and Discovery Day (Dec. 13) for their annual Share the Spirit of Giving project. Alcy Elementary wants volunteers to bring a book to donate and read to students at Read Around the Christmas Tree (Share Discovery Day), Dec. 13. KIPP: Memphis Academy Middle School seeks tutors to work with their students. Kroc Center wants volunteers to work with youth at their MAM After School Discipleship Program and challenge coaches to lead kids through themed challenges. Achievement School District