Success in 2008

I have only one top Memphis event of 2008. Only one because a) I'm lazy, and b) people from the future have assured me it dwarfs everything else. I have this:

Term Limits added to the City Charter.

This change was a systematic and democratic repudiation, approved by a hugely overwhelming majority of voters, of Memphis' historic (and royally fucked-up) paternalism.

The change will create more leaders, and not just political leaders. The more leaders we produce, the more creative, dynamic, honest, responsive, prosperous -- greater -- Memphis will be.

Here's to a civic Memphis that looks more like a Mississippian mound than an Egyptian pyramid.

The Empty: a Theory

The economic and social expectations (and the wealth that sustains the expectations) of so much Memphis commercial space is too great for a local grassroots entrepeneurial ecosystem to successfully form in that space, given Memphis' present density and available capital.

As a result, buildings remain empty rather than rented or purchased at economically sustainable and viral lower levels.
It's a theory, and subject to proof, if not too badly theorized.

Is it a verbose way of saying we got speculation going on? I think it's more than speculation.

It's that those at the top of the Memphis pyramid are oblivious to the large wealth gaps that separate them not only from the poor but from the middle class. Consequently, they set their expectations to their and their peers' resources, rather than the resources available to Memphis' talent rich, capital poor entrepeneurs.

Mini-Me-mphis

I believe the problems of MATA are Memphis' writ (not much) smaller:

good people.
bad systems.

How can we have good people and bad systems? Because our leadership -- the connection between people and systems -- is broke down.

When leadership is hierarchical, incumbent, exclusivist, disconnected, unusing, unaware, uncommunicative, uncreative -- command-and-control -- it will happen. When the people who have the power to fix leadership issues don't, it will happen. Systems will decay, break, obsolesce, or never work in the first place.

Some very talented, motivated people can still build and correct great systems in world shaped like this, but systematically we will produce and maintain crappy systems.

Mindset in Memphis

Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, the author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success will be speaking at Grace St Luke's Church on April 8th.

Her research shows that parents and educators have a profound influence on a child's mindset and his or her self-concept. In her book, she discusses how parents and teachers can unintentionally reinforce a fixed mindset that limits a child's learning and success potential. She also shows how it is possible for an individual to change his or her mindset at any stage in life to achieve success and see things in a new way.

Very important stuff for parents, educators and citizens of Memphis, for Memphis.

Something I wrote previously on the subject, kinda.

Branding the Public

It's official. The Commercial Appeal's Chris Peck has called the public a "herd".

He tells us what he really thinks in Sunday's editorial that functions as part of the local building industry's marketing campaign.

The public, of course, often operates in a herd mentality, thundering to the worst-case scenario because everyone else is going there.

Herd, hear this. There is a plausible alternative.

Not just operates, but "of course" operates in a herd mentality. Well, at least it explains the many apologies and advertorials that Peck has made for Memphis' rich and powerful.

I think Peck might be the AntiWells.

Memphis FassBackward: Memphis and the World

Just a few weeks after a historically misplaced series on the Boll Weevil, the Commercial Appeal has calcified its position as cheerleader and publicist for Memphis' status quo with the series, "Memphis and the World".

Rather than investigating how the world has changed us, is changing us, can change us, should change us, for better and sometimes worse, it takes Memphis as it is, has been for at least 35 years*, and goes off on a grand tour. Their plan**: send back picture postcards of travels with major institutions of Memphis. As associates of those companies, we will identify with them and passively make their successes our own. We will become associates of Memphis.

The world is changing us -- it should change us. We're not passive in the change, we have the ability to cultivate the change. That is the story. The Commercial Appeal ignores it, and us, and a future that isn't the past, by venturing off on an atavistic ass-kissing holiday.

*they could have plotted the series in the mid-seventies, given the age of the institutions in its lineup -- Bellevue in India, Elvis in Israel, Dunavant in Zambia, COGIC in South Africa, St. Jude in Brazil, Knights Templar in Haiti, FedEx in China.

**that was the plan, which has been a major source of controversy. The beauty of the first installment, Bellevue in India, is its subversion of that plan. Trevor Aaronson doesn't send us a postcard, he sends us a "I'm With Stupid" t-shirt.

Wen Jiabao for Mayor

It's too late to draft him, but Memphis can still heed his words.

Corruption is caused by many factors, and the most important factor is excessive concentration of power and the lack of effective checks and oversight. This makes it necessary to reform our system. We must implement the Administrative Permit Law that has been enacted and reduce the number of matters that require government approval. When government departments have excessive administrative resources and power of approval, it will give rise to corruption where public officials trade power for money, abuse power for personal gains, or act in collusion with business people. We should work to redress concentration of power and enhance public supervision of the government. All the decisions on administrative approval, particularly those concerning the interests of the general public, must be made in an open, fair and transparent way.

...

This means we need to ensure people's rights to democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic oversight. It means we need to create conditions for people to oversee and criticize the government. It means we need to ensure that everyone enjoys all-round development in an equal, fair and free environment and that people's creativity and independent thinking are fully released. It also means that we need to run the country according to law, improve the legal system and strengthen the rule of law.

He's a commie talking about socialist democracy, yet he speaks more liberally and candidly than any present civic leader of our long democratic city.

Clarification: I wrote most of this post a long time ago, and posted it before I had seen any of Thursday's election results. I'm not talking about one man. I'm talking about a system that has existed for a long time in Memphis, that existed long before he was first elected and would have survived his defeat. It's not just our political class that's the problem. In fact, focusing on that class and giving a pass to our business and institutional classes tends to racialize the issue, which serves the status quo, as racism has always served the status quo.

In point of opinion, I see the same love of authority, hierarchy, incumbency, opacity and exclusion, and their attendant corruption and cronyism, stagnation and public relations, coming from all quarters of Memphis leadership, public or private.

Transparency, Accidentally

The argument given in favor of funding a Public Affairs Officer at Juvenile Court:

...it's important for the court to have some way to communicate with the media...

Ludicrous, given that the court was communicating with the media in giving that reason. Obsolete, given the ubiquitous technological possibilities to communicate with as many people as you want and who want to listen.

Memphis doesn't need any more gatekeepers. Memphis doesn't need gatekeepers anymore. Throw the gates open!

(bonus example: important person communicating without aid of Public Affairs Officer.)

The Mindsets of Memphis

I saw this diagram in a post by Guy Kawasaki.

It seems pretty obvious to me that Memphis has a fixed, as opposed to growth, mindset. Or perhaps I should write, Memphis' dominant mindset is static. A fixed mindset has historically dominated, but does not determine, Memphis.

Where does that mindset come from, and how do we fight it?

I think it comes from racism and anti-democratic hierarchism, which still tell us that there's only so much we can do, so sit down and shut up while the leaders figure out the rest.

We fight it by learning and creating -- otherwise ignoring and/or making fun of the boundaries that never existed.

And we can read the book by Professor Carol Dweck, who was the subject of Kawasaki's post.

Creativity and Democracy: An Illustration

I think this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid is a great illustration of all hierarchies, not just corporate.

The Memphis angle, besides the shock of recognition and possible lesson learned? The pyramid, of course.

From Mr. MacLeod's excellent essay, How To Be Creative and the section titled, "Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity".

Coup d'Ville?

Last Tuesday, our City Council, at the request of the Mayor's office, usurped -- swiped -- power from the citizens of Memphis. They did it by contravening the City Charter -- specifically ordinance 5063 -- and the will of the citizens who voted for it in November 2004. The ordinance states:

ORDINANCE NO. 5063
A) “HEREAFTER ALL PERSONS, EMPLOYED SOLELY
BY THE CITY OF MEMPHIS OR ANY OF ITS
DEPARTMENTS, BOARDS, BUREAUS OR COMMISSIONS,
SHALL BE REQUIRED TO LIVE AND MAINTAIN A
RESIDENCE WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CITY
OF MEMPHIS, AS NOW DEFINED OR AS MAY BE
HEREAFTER DEFINED AND EXCEPT THAT THE CITY
COUNCIL MAY EXEMPT THEREFROM EMPLOYEES OF
ANY DIVISION, BOARD, DEPARTMENT OR BUREAU
WHOSE DUTIES AS EMPLOYEES OF SUCH
DEPARTMENTS, BOARDS, BUREAUS OF COMMISSIONS
REQUIRE THEM TO PERFORM SERVICES FOR THE
CITY OUTSIDE THE TERRITORIAL LIMITS THEREIN.”
B.) FAILURE OF ANY OFFICER OR EMPLOYEE TO
COMPLY WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION
SHALL BE CAUSE FOR REMOVAL OR DISCHARGE
FROM CITY EMPLOYMENT, EXCEPT THAT NO
INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYED BY THE CITY AS OF THE
EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS ORDINANCE, INCLUDING ANY
APPOINTED EMPLOYEE WHO MAY BE LATER
REAPPOINTED, SHALL BE DISCIPLINED OR DISCHARGED
FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY. NEW EMPLOYEES SHALL BE
ALLOWED SIX (6) MONTHS AFTER THE DATE THEY ARE
HIRED OR APPOINTED TO COMPLY WITH THIS SECTION.

The emphasis mine, but the text is the complete referendum from the sample ballot of November 2004 [pdf!]

This was put on the ballot by the vote of the City Council in June of 2004 [p-d-f!].

ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF MEMPHIS, SAME BEING CHAPTER 11 OF THE ACTS OF 1879 AS AMENDED, PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 11, SECTION 9 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE HOME RULE AMENDMENT SO AS TO AMEND THE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT OF THE PERSONS EMPLOYED SOLELY BY THE CITY, SECTION 190 AND TO SUBMIT THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO THE QUALIFIED VOTERS OF THE CITY OF MEMPHIS AT THE FIRST GENERAL STATE ELECTION TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 2, 2004, UP FOR T H I R D AND FINAL READING.
Ordinance No. 5063
MOTION: Marshall
SECOND: Holt
AYES: Ford, Holt, Hooks, Lowery, Marshall, Mitchell, Peete and Chairman Brown
NAYS: Chumney and McCormick
Taylor recused himself
Jones and Sammons did not cast a vote
APPROVED

So when it was approved by Memphis voters in November 2004, it became part of the City Charter.

The City Council voted 9-3 to relax this residency requirement in order to increase the pool of police officers. As the bold text should make clear, this referendum and therefore the City Charter in no way gives them this power. It reasonably gives them the power to exempt employees whose job duties for the city take place outside of the city limits. The power to exempt is explicitly limited to this. This exemption would be for, say, a city lobbyist in Nashville or Washington, or an city economic development officer in New York or Los Angeles -- because their duties require them to live elsewhere. Unless the MPD plans on patrolling Collierville or Bartlett or Millington, police officers do not qualify.

The City Council illegally replaced the bedrock of the City Charter and the explicit will of the voters with the quicksand of their discretion.

You might not think it's a good idea to have a residency requirement. Let's re-open the debate then. But we can only decide the issue by repealing or amending the referendum in another referendum, or legally replace our present Charter with another. The City Council got it on the ballot once, they can put it on the ballot again.

But they can't repeal it. They're officers of the Charter, not rulers.

I have to add that the Commercial Appeal has been lax in its duty as a member of the Fourth Estate. This article states that the City Council voted to "relax its mandatory residency requirements" [emphasis mine, again]. There is no possession by the City Council. It is the City Charter's requirement, not the City Council's. Secondly, the article doesn't even mention that the ordinance is part of the Charter. The CA's editorial on the subject the next day makes the same "its" assertion, then adds

"[Joe] Brown, who voted against the measure, said the council "broke the law" since the issue already had been decided by voters. But the ordinance states clearly that the council may exempt employees from the residency requirements."

The ordinance states very clearly under what circumstances they may exempt, and it is not a blanket power of exemption.

So why I am getting all bent out of shape and boring you with it? Progress in this world is aligned with democracy and the rule of law, in opposition to hierarchy and fiat. Memphis, historically exclusivist and hierarchical -- with lots of bullet holes and empty lots to show for it -- has much, maybe everything, to gain from jumping into the river of progress. In a couple of years, we'll vote on a new City Charter that may allow us to do just that. But if our leaders can "repeal" our present Charter and public referendums at the behest of really bad counsel, they can do the same to our new City Charter as well.