What about Uptown Memphis?

In reference to the 11/25/09 CA article entitled “Fight awaits CCC on beer, panhandling”, I find the debate lacking a comprehensive perspective from our newly elected Memphis political leadership. Any honest debate has to discuss the inescapable issues of the homeless and the mentally ill from a political perspective. Policing is a short-term answer; public policy is a long-term attempt to deal with the issue.

I love downtown, and I appreciate the function that the Center City Commission serves in promoting the development of downtown, but who is lobbying on the behalf of my immediate neighborhood – East Memphis? In recent years, it seems that every corner on Poplar between White Station and Kirby are occupied by panhandlers or the mentally ill. It’s not a fluke that they don’t occupy the street corners in on Poplar throughout Germantown. Panhandling is not tolerated in Germantown or any other outlying suburb. I know it’s not politically correct to say it, but it does not reflect well on Memphis to have panhandlers on every corner of what is …for lack of a better description … Memphis’s “uptown” – Poplar between 240 and Kirby.

With that said, the city of Memphis has scattered the panhandlers all over Memphis with HUD Section 8 housing subsidies and the net effect is that there are no social services (mental health, job counseling, etc.) readily available to them. They are on the streets with no means to avail themselves of the services that are currently available. This is COMMUNITY issue first, a housing problem second, a health issue third.