Memphis public bus service a lifeline for those without a car just as MATA cuts back routes



Cortez Walker rides the Route 20 Bellvue bus in Memphis.

For Cortez Walker, riding the bus is not just a way to get around, it is the key to his future.

The 29-year-old Memphian just started going to school at Rhodes College. With no car to get around, he needs the public bus.

“I ride the bus everywhere. I live in Hickory Hill, and I come downtown and go to school,” Walker said. “I’m trying to get a degree right now so I can get a job.”

On a Monday morning in late August, Walker was on his way to the Whitehaven Branch Library on the Route 20 Bellvue/Winchester line.

The Route 20 bus, however, is one of the lines where service was recently reduced by the Memphis Area Transit Authority, which means the route will continue, but it come less frequently. During peak times in the mornings and afternoons it is coming only every 30 to 40 minutes and in the off-peak times it is coming every 75 minutes.

People like Walker will continue to be able to ride, but it means a lot more down time to get around. He estimates that it takes upwards of an hour to get from his house to school because of the time it takes to catch a bus in Hickory Hill, transfer at the downtown North End Terminal on North Main Street and then take another bus to the Rhodes campus on North Parkway near Overton Park.

Walker is seeking a business degree, and Rhodes started classes the last week in August.

But on this day, things are a bit more relaxed for Walker because it is prior to the start of school, and all he’s had to do was meet with people and get his class schedule set during the orientation week. The Route 20 bus left the downtown terminal on Main Street just before 10 a.m. with Walker and 11 other people filling up the more than 35 seats.

As the Route 20 bus rumbled through downtown, people got on at several street corners as the seats filled up. The busiest stop was on Union Avenue right in front of the University of Tennessee Medical Center when eight people got on including two children clinging to their parents.

By the time the bus rolled onto Elvis Presley Boulevard, the bus was more than half full. Walker spent his time reading the Bible and listening to music.

“I’m trying to stay on the right path with everything in my life,” Walker said.

Like many riders, Walker had heard about the reductions in service. Two public hearings were conducted in late July where riders could voice their displeasure with the cutbacks. Walker said he was not in favor of the reductions.

“That would make it pretty hard for me to get back and forth. A lot of people need the bus if they have no car to get around,” Walker said. “It’s the only way for people to get around including me.”

Walker got off at the intersection of Winchester and Mill Branch, but the Route 20 bus kept rolling right through to the intersection of Shelby Drive and Tchulahoma Road, dropping off people until getting the end of the line where only five people were left.

As it headed back north to downtown, people got on and off, and the bus again was more than half full while on Elvis Presley Boulevard. After more than two hours, the Route 20 bus had made a complete circle and arrived back at the North End terminal with, coincidentally, 11 people on the bus.

One of those people waiting to get on was Earnest Gwinn, 43, who said he was homeless. He said he spends his time riding around Memphis on the public bus looking for work. To get money for the fare, he asks people for loose change. He gives out his sister’s cell phone number to anyone who might know of a job opportunity for him, and he crashes at her house when she lets him.

Gwinn said he heard about the bus service reductions via an announcement made on the bus, and he said it will be hardship on a lot of people in his position.

“I ride around to stores to get something to eat. I hang out at Walgreens,” Gwinn said. “Basically, I need someone who can help me find a job. I don’t have a car, and for me the bus is the only way I know to get around.”

Sales tax holidays no benefit say some parents; not so good for the economy either

What started as a feel-good attempt to give families a break and stimulate the economy has turned out to be not so popular with the savvy parents of school-age children and not all that good a way to help the economy either.

The season of “sales tax holidays” has arrived with stores in Tennessee giving consumers a break from paying sales taxes on Aug. 2-4 and in Mississippi on July 26-27. The timing is set to help parents pay for back-to-school supplies by eliminating sales taxes on everything from clothes to shoes to electronics.

But some parents say tax free weekend is not worth the effort.

“It’s a zoo. It’s crazy that weekend. I would be out that weekend only if I needed to make a major purchase like a computer. But even then, if you needed a computer, you could always buy that online if you wanted to save the sales tax,” said Debbie Penney, 49, of Cordova, mother of three children including a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. ”There are plenty of sales prior to, and even after, the tax free weekend you can take advantage of.”

The timing is not so good either because in Tennessee the tax-free weekend comes the weekend right before the start of school for many students including those in the new Shelby County School District, which has an opening day of Aug. 5.

For parents who have a lot to buy and lots of children, waiting until just days before the start of school is not practical. Savvy shoppers recognize the sales tax holidays as a gimmick that does not save them money.

“I would go that weekend only if I had to buy electronics, but not for general school supplies. Usually, I find them on clearance at Wal-Mart or Walgreens right after the school year ends and get things for the following year,” said Anji Bishop, 31, of Millington, mother of three boys and two girls, ages 5 to 12. “It is not worth it trying to save just 10 cents on the dollar.  … I just feel that you can buy items like this cheaper at other times of the year.”  

Seventeen states this year are conducing some form of a tax free holidays, reports the Federation of Tax Administrators. Some states set them at the same time every year while others approve them every year depending on the political winds at the time. Tennessee’s tax free holiday weekend, which was first conducted in 2006, is set by state law the first weekend in August.

During the recession of 2007 to 2009, some states suspended them due to the cost to state government.  And the costs are significant in lost revenue to state government. Estimates are that in 2012 the state of Tennessee did not collect between $9 and $10 million on the sales tax weekend. Tennessee continued the sales tax holidays even when total sales tax revenues for the state slumped during the recession

The cost to state government is sometimes minimized by the fact that stores often work employees more hours that weekend to accommodate the crowds, which means more state income tax, but in Tennessee that is no benefit due to the lack of a state income tax. Other factors that mitigate the cost to state government happen when the tax free holidays attract shoppers from other states who then buy items that are subject to sales tax.

“Retailers tend to like them. Some customers like them too, but there are studies to show that retailers will jack up the prices so the customers do not get much of a benefit at all,” said Ronald Alt, senior manager for economic and tax policy at the Federation of Tax Administrators. “Customers are not getting much of deal because normally the stores would have sales to bring in people doing the shopping for back to school.”

Alt said most states that participate view them as a way to boost the local economy rather than a way to help consumers. A 2012 study by the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research group, determined that despite their political popularity, sales tax holidays are not a good idea.

 “Sales tax holidays introduce unjustifiable government distortions into the economy without providing any significant boost to the economy. They represent a real cost for businesses without providing substantial benefits. They are also an inefficient means of helping low-income consumers and an ineffective means of providing savings to consumers,” the study determined.

The study found that sales tax holidays only shift the timing of purchases instead of increasing them, distort the economic climate by choosing to make only some items tax free, mislead consumers about savings and also make it difficult on retailers who have to suspend the collection of taxes for a few days.

The retailers, however, like them as they are often used to lure people into stores at a time when consumers are in a mood to spend. At least one retailer defended them as good for consumers. Ursula Roman, marketing director for Fred’s Super Dollar, which has 17 stores in the Mid-South, said she cannot comment on the policies at other stores, but Fred’s does not suspend its specials on the tax free weekends.

“We want people to come into the store that weekend for sure. The tax free is just another added benefit for customers. We run our regular ad circular specials that weekend,” Roman said. “In fact, if customers could combine our ad specials with the tax free and even get more savings.”

One strategy to save on sales tax without buying on the sales tax holidays is to shop consignment sales. Tennessee law allows organizations to conduct two consignment sales per year and not charge the customers sales tax, said Barbara Sampson, assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

Another idea is to buy online, where sales tax is not collected in Tennessee if a consumer is buying from a store outside the state or a store that has not agreed to voluntarily collect sales tax. But Sampson said consumers are obligated to pay a use tax even though most consumers do not bother with it.

All agree that stores will be crowded as they always are that weekend. Michael Holland, 41, of Memphis, father of a 2-year-old daughter going to pre-school said he will shop on the sales tax holiday only for a big ticket item.

“It would make sense for me with a computer or maybe some of the more expensive clothing items, but not for the regular everyday items. You could find better sales another time of the year, and on that weekend those kinds of sales are hard to find,” Holland said. “It may be kind of a gimmick, but sales tax is high around here so on a big ticket item is where it makes sense.”

Journoterrorist Michael Koretzky brings his unconventional style to the University of Memphis

Michael Koretzky talks to Bryan Heater. sports editor
at The Daily Helmsman

Michael Koretzky calls himself a “journoterrorist” and says that he likes censorship. He tells audiences that he was expelled from high school, suspended from college and fired from two different jobs.

The South Florida writer and editor has published a newspaper for the homeless, written for supermarket tabloids and helped students put on programs whereby they give up their First Amendment Rights in exchange for food.

Koretzky is no traditional role model, yet he inspires journalism students to do great things.

He brought his non-traditional style to the University of Memphis March 27 as part of the 31^st annual Freedom of Information Congress at the University Center Theater. More than 100 people attended the event, and many more met with him as he spent the day in the Meeman Journalism Building meeting students and addressing the staff of The Daily Helmsman.

 “He was really insightful. He told us what we are doing right, and what we are not doing so right. He gave us a ton of good ideas for stories, and he told us how to cater to the student audience,” said Chris Field, a junior journalism student and sports writer for The Daily Helmsman. “He gave us a lot of ideas of how to take the paper in some new directions.”

The title of his presentation was  “Why I like Censorship (I seriously do, this isn’t a cheap reverse psychology marketing ploy)” He lambasted the thin-skinned news media along with pompous university administrators.

Koretzky used his own story as a way to inspire students, telling them that getting fired is not the end of the world - if you get fired for the right reasons. The right reasons would be standing up for principles and speaking truth to power.

For example, he discussed his experience as the campus newspaper advisor at Florida Atlantic University, where he was fired in 2010. He says he was fired because the school administrators did not like how the campus newspaper was calling them to task.

So instead of going away, he volunteered as an advisor at no pay, even though the school told him he could not do that.

Christopher Whitten introduces Michael Koretzky
at the Freedom of Information Congress.

One of his messages is that it is OK to fail. You will be better for it. He said he is a better journalist for getting suspended from the University of Florida in 1989 and then dismissed from the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1997.

“Commit sins of commission, not omissions,” is one of his mantras for young people who sometimes are too timid to take on people in positions of power and authority.

Memphis journalism students said they found Koretzky inspiring.

“I learned that you should do what you love. We are all journalists, and I am a writer so I should be writing about what I love,” said JJ Greer, journalism student. “He convinced me that there is a market for what we write about. I am a soccer player, and I do live to write. He convinced me to turn my career into someone who writes about soccer. You have to write about your passions and your interest.”

Koretzky said he was humbled by the invitation to be part of the Freedom of Information Congress, an event in the past has featured such journalism heavyweights as Anderson Cooper of CNN, the late David Broder of The Washington Post and Helen Thomas of United Press International. The event is sponsored by the U of M Society of Professional Journalists chapter and the department of journalism.

To find out more about Koretzky’s unconventional ideas, visit his blog, journoterrorist.com. He currently works as a magazine editor, and he continues as a regional representative for the Society of Professional Journalists.

About his experiences in Memphis, Koretzky wrote,” It turnsout the University of Memphis is a quirky and contradictory place. It bothdepressed and impressed me.”

 

Research answers the question: Was The Commercial Appeal responsible for Martin Luther King's death?

From the Commercial Appeal, Feb. 23, 1968. 

An examination into the Memphis Commercial Appeal from the winter of 1968 shows that the newspaper played a role in the death of Martin Luther King.

I recently presented a research paper “Beyond the Bounds of Tolerance: Commercial Appeal and the 1968 garbage strike” at The Media andCivil Rights Symposium at the University of South Carolina. The research examined the editorial page copy in the newspaper from February to April 1968. It specifically examined the editorials and the editorial cartoons.

It showed that the newspaper’s anti-union and paternalistic attitudes failed to act as a voice of reason. The strike of garbage workers is what precipitated the visit of Martin Luther King to Memphis, where he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.

The research revealed that the newspaper’s belligerent tone at the start of the strike changed as violence began to erupt, and toward the end the newspaper was calling for conciliation. The newspaper at first vilified King and derided him for coming to Memphis. But after this death, the newspaper timidly praised him.

The research was enhanced by a never-before published interview with Frank Ahlgren, who was Commercial Appeal editor at the time. Ahlgren helps put into perspective the motives of the newspaper and its staff during the strike.

The symposium presentation was made on March 22, and it coincided with other research that focused on how the media influenced the civil rights era. Also attending the presentation was Hank Klibanoff, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Race Beat.

Watchdog Workshop at the University of Memphis shows journalists the power of investigative reporting



Russ Ptacek of WUSA shows some of his work.

Journalists from the Mid-South joined students and faculty for a Watchdog Workshop Jan. 25-26 where participants learned how to maximize Google searches, unleash the reporting power of Excel spreadsheets and expand the investigative muscle of Twitter.

Investigative Reporters and Editors presented the workshop, which was sponsored by the U of M Journalism Department and the student Society of Professional Journalists chapter. It attracted more than 50 people to the all-day Friday session, and another 25 to the hands-on Saturday classroom training.

“The most interesting thing I learned was how much information is waiting to be found online,” said Taylor Smith, a junior journalism student. “It really is true that everything stays online, and if you know how to find it and analyze it. You can get some incredible stories.”

Presenting at the workshop was Mark Horvit, executive director of the IRE; Russ Ptacek, investigative reporter for WUSA in Washington; Brian Faughnan, Memphis attorney Alison Young, investigative reporter for USA Today; and Doug Haddix, director of the Kiplinger Program at Ohio State University.

Horvit discussed how most people, journalists included, rarely use Internet search engines to their full potential. Offering some concrete examples of how it is done, Horvit showed how within minutes a reporter can gain valuable background information on just about anyone in the world.

“The Internet's a big storage file of personal and private information. I'm not sure a lot of people realize that,” said Beth Cooper, a senior journalism student. “In the workshop we learned how to use that to our benefit as journalists, looking for associations and information that may lead to the formation of a story idea, or just to fill in the holes inside a story with more factual information."

Ptacek discussed his own work as a reporter to identify unsafe restaurants, corrupt politicians and social injustices. In one piece, he demonstrated how asking the right questions uncovered discrimination in the way Washington cab drivers treated black customers.

Faughnan discussed some of the pitfalls with Tennessee’s open records law while Young showed how to complete quick investigations. Young’s work at USA Today and at the Atlanta Journal Constitution included examinations of toxic chemicals near closed factories and her coverage of issues associated with the Centers for Disease Control.

At the hands-on training, Horvit showed how a journalist can use an Excel spreadsheet to organize information and come to conclusions about issues that otherwise no one would know.

“I learned how simple the process of analyzing information actually is,” Smith said. “It can be a little intimidating when you're handed an Excel sheet for a story, but going to the workshop taught me how to break documents like that down and wring out all the data I could possibly need.”

Haddix showed how social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are valuable reporting tools. Any journalist not using social media to report a story is missing out on half the news. A journalist using Twitter can identify news stories, locate news sources and uncover information.

Investigative Reporters and Editors is a nationwide organization of reporters dedicated to improving the quality of journalism. It conducts Watchdog Workshops around the country as well as training programs at his base in Columbia, Mo.

“The workshop helped stimulate me to find better stories, not just everyday story ideas, but ones that really inform about key issues,” Cooper said “I think the IRE is doing great work and I'm really satisfied with how much I learned in such a short time.”

Shea Flinn a fish out of water in Memphis politics

Councilman Shea Flinn

By his own admission, Shea Flinn is an anomaly in Memphis politics.

The 39-year-old City Councilman is a white Democrat in a city where the racial divide cuts along the political divide. The Democrats are black, and the Republicans are white. So perhaps it is fitting that Flinn is making his mark on city council where the positions are officially non-partisan.

“At the end of the day I am a white Democrat in a city where being Democrat is synonymous with being black so I would lose most primaries on that issue. I am far too liberal on social issues to ever be elected in a Republican district so it’s a pretty short ceiling,” Flinn said. “I recognize that, and that’s fine. … It is an honor and privilege to be on city council, but it is not something I would want to do forever.”

First elected to council in November of 2007, Flinn is in the forefront of the biggest city issues, and he has not been afraid to tackle some of the thorniest. He rarely can be pigeon holed.

For example, he injected himself into the 2011 campaign that convinced Memphis citizens to give up its school charter and force the merger with Shelby County Schools, even though he was not a school board member and it only indirectly affected city government. His goal was to reduce the burden on the city, which was embroiled in a debate over whether the city should support the city schools.

Flinn is championing the cause of reducing property taxes to make Memphis more attractive to businesses and new residents, a cause most closely associated with conservative Republicans. His goal is to increase taxes and increase fees in other areas in order to make the city a more attractive place to buy a house or start a business.

He also proposed and promoted establishing an adult entertainment district for the city, an issue that other politicians would not even touch. His thinking is that adult entertainment is here to stay so why not make sure it is allowed to operate in an area that will not offend the neighborhood.

Basically, Flinn wants to make his mark in Memphis politics by being the person who is willing to make the difficult decisions and tackle the difficult issues. The status quo has just not been working in a city with a poverty rate of 25 percent and a stubborn unemployment rate for the Memphis metro area of 9.6 percent.

“We are not going to continue do things the way we have always done it. We have been losing population in the city. We have been losing population in the county. How we’ve always don’t it, is not working,” Flinn said. “We have to find new ways to do things.”

Because he sees no wider political future, Flinn is willing to speak up for issues and say things that someone with higher political ambitions may not say. That includes raising fees on some services in order to lower property taxes and get the city out of the business of doing things that Shelby County should be doing. The school issue is the best example, but he is also working to get the city out of the business of doing vehicle emission inspections and turn that over to the county.

As one of the three representatives to Super District 9, which is the northern part of Memphis, Flinn, was first introduced to politics as a fill-in for state Senator after the election of Steve Cohen to the House of Representatives in 2006. He previously ran un-successfully for the state House before determining his future was in non-partisan politics.

His day job is as general counsel for Flinn Broadcasting, a company his father owns. He is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Memphis Law School. Flinn attributes his independence to the fact his mother was a Democrat, and his father a conservative Republican. His father George Flinn won the Republican primary for Congress this past summer.

“I have the zeal of a convert about my distaste for partisanship. I can’t stand it. I think it is ridiculous. It is a team sport view of politics, and that is not how politics is supposed to work,” Flinn said. ”Someone once said about politics it is like professional wrestling. All the fighting is for the cameras. The problem we have now is that cameras are never shut off.”








U of M students, faculty at Tennessee Press Association

University of Memphis students along with faculty members Tom Hrach, David Arant and Otis Sanford attended the 2012 Tennessee Press Association winter conference in Nashville on Feb. 8-10. At the event, students learned about the newspaper business and opportunities at some of the state's weekly and daily newspapers. Also attending were several state legislators along with Gov. Bill Haslem.