By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-901074.mp3
Memphis, TN – Memphis doesn't have a comprehensive plan that dictates how the city will grow. Now, normally, journalists don't do stories about things that don't exist--like unicorns--but a comprehensive plan isn't exactly a mythical beast. A lot of cities have them. Lakeland, Bartlett, Germantown, and Collierville, for example, all have comprehensive plans.
And plan or no plan, the size of the city effects everything--from the budget, to policing, trash pick-up, and even how often parks get cleaned.
Early on a Saturday morning, volunteers fanned out across a Memphis city park, in the Hickory Hill neighborhood. They wore gloves, carried trash bags, and bent over to pick up litter.
Boy Scout Jaylon Duncan has a pet-peeve--bottle tops. Duncan says litterers, "Just don't think about it. It is kind of really irritating to see the lapse of thought."
Lynda Whalen says that same lapse of thought applies to the way Memphis has planned its expansions. Whalen helped organize this clean-up and lives nearby. The park and the larger Hickory Hill neighborhood became a part of the city of Memphis in 1999, and Whalen hasn't been happy with the services since.
"The city does the best they can, but the city is so stretched out," Whalen said. "They've bit off more than they can chew."
A comprehensive plan would lay out how--and why--the city would expand, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all of good planning. Phyllis Betts is the Director for the Center for Community Building at the University of Memphis. Despite being for a plan, she says, "We have got comprehensive plans that sit on shelves in many cities."
Prior to any annexation the Office of Planning and Development looks at how much it's going to cost the city, but that cost estimate doesn't include schools or public transit.
Then the Office of Planning comes up with how much money it thinks the city can get in taxes from the new area.
But the city has annexed areas even when the cost was greater than the projected income; and the planning office comes up with plans only after an area has already been picked out for annexation.
The senior member of the City Council, Myron Lowery, has been on the council for 19 years. He says as far as he can remember all annexations were approved by the council, but the land was first picked out by the mayor's office.
When asked what made taking in a particular area a good idea Lowery said, "Basically, your gut reaction."
The current mayor, AC Wharton, has not yet asked the council to move on any annexations. When asked if Wharton was going to annex any of the unincorporated county, or if he was going to proceed with two areas slated for annexation in 1997, the mayor refused to reveal any plans. His office released this statement:
"Any comment on the matter at this point would simply be premature."
Phyllis Betts says Memphis has learned from its past mistakes.
"If we are just looking at annexation I would say, yes, they're thinking it through. And that's why they have put the breaks on the annexation," Betts said.
But Betts warns, "Now the bigger issue--in terms of are they thinking it through vis-a-vis consolidation, are they thinking it through in terms of what the city of Memphis will do if we don't have consolidation? I think they are just scratching the surface there."
Lowery says long-term planning might not be in the best interest of an elected official.
"There is no guarantee that any member of this council right now will be here in the next 24 months because we will have an election," Lowery said.
Lowery was talking on a council day, "Today, for example," he said, "we are going to deal with one to 200 issues on the council agenda. I'm going to be focusing, with the council, on the budget."
The size of the city effects the budget, and just about everything else.