Memphis Metropolis

Commercial Appeal real estate reporter Neil Streibig joins Emily to talk about recent and proposed urban redevelopment projects, both large and small.

The Core Transit Management Association (TMA) is a coalition of organizations focused on improving commute options in and around downtown and the Medical District. In this program, Lauren Bermudez from the Downtown Memphis Commissions discusses many of the tools and programs available to residents and businesses, including bike share, the Groove Shuttle, and new parking facilities and strategies.

Friends for All executive director Diane Cuke and Chooch Pickard, architect at A2H, discuss FFA's new home in the Evergreen neighborhood and the organization's new name and expanded programs and services.

The Memphis and Shelby County Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) works to revitalize target neighborhoods -including Uptown, Binghampton, and others - through affordable housing and blight remediation programs that are supported by tax-increment financing (TIF) funds. In this program, president Andrew Murray discusses CRA's recently expanded geography and explains how citizen-led neighborhoo...

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Nicole Gates from the Frayser Connect Center. Frayser Connect is an initiative of Frayser Community Development Corp. Together with Epicenter, RISE Foundation, and other patners, Frayser Connect is working to empower Frayser entrepreneurs and residents through a retrofitted church off North Watkins Street. For more information, visit the Frayser Connect website and...

In this show, we welcome guest Vance Lauderdale, the eccentric scion of the Lauderdale family and author of the widely-read Ask Vance column in Memphis Magazine. Vance explains more about his family's checkered history; talks about some of his favorite columns and places; and shares some stories about ghosts, a castle in the Alcy Ball neighborhood, and getting lost in the stairwell of the Ster...

Tucked away in an industrial neighborhood of Binghampton, the Binghampton Development Corp. (BDC)'s Business Hub is quietly undertaking some of the city's most innovative recycling programs while at the same time offering employment opportunities for workers looking for work in an environment that provides both training and support. Business Hub director Andy Kizzee and employment developm...

While the Bickford Bearwater area in North Memphis may not be as well known as its southern neighbor Uptown, it is bustling with families, school children, and seniors. For the past two decades, Oasis of Hope CDC has been working to strengthen the community through after-school programs, recreation, affordable housing, and more. In this show, executive director Joy Marseille and marketing and comm...

Jackson McNeil, a longtime friend of Memphis Metropolis, recently joined Innovate Memphis as Director of Transportation and Mobility, overseeing the Commute Options program. In this show, we discuss the hard work of (and many obstacles to) getting Memphians out of their cars and onto alternate modes of transportation. Jackson and Emily also discuss the recently published Safe Speed Index, which ra...

When Junior Achievement of Memphis moved its headquarters from downtown to Binghampton, it gained new partners and a visible new location but faced challenges converting a former grocery store into the flexible and child-friendly facility they needed. JA president and CEO Leigh Mansberg visits Memphis Metropolis along with Veronica Tansey, project manager and interior designer at Fleming Architect...

A city's ParkScore is a measure of how it compares to other places, using criteria such as access, acreage, equity, and investments. The ParkScore Index is prepared annually by the Trust for Public Land, a people-focused parks and public land advocacy organization. In this show, Noel Durant of the TPL's Tennessee office visits Memphis Metropolis to talk about why ParkScores are so importan...

Sabrina Norwood, executive director of Young Actors Guild, visits Memphis Metropolis to talk about their organization's first permanent home, their commitment to arts access at the neighborhood level, and alumni who have gone on to perform on Broadway and in Hollywood. More information about Young Actors Guild

Shelby County's Environmental Court - one of the first in the country to be established - plays an important role in addressing the issue of blight in Memphis. In this program, Judge Patrick Dandridge explains how cases make it into court and the combination and carrots and sticks that are available to compel property owners to fix up their property. Judge Dandridge and Emily also discuss the...

Nick Oyler has spent the last several years working in and with the community to improve the city's active transportation systems, first with the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and most recently as bike and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. Nick is leaving Memphis to pursue new professional opportunities in Denver, and we asked him to return to Memphis Metro...

Memphis may have been the cleanest city in the US at one point, but most of us can't remember a time when there wasn't too much litter. Memphis Metropolis invited Janet Boscarino from Clean Memphis to visit the program, to discuss why litter is so bad, what works and doesn't work in terms of prevention and mitigation, and more. Want to get involved in tackling litter? Visit the Clean M...

This week we welcome Jana Wilson of the Arkwings Foundation to Memphis Metropolis. Located just off James Road in the Frayser neighborhood, Arkwings is a historic home turned arts and culture center -focused specifically on mind, body, and spirit wellness. In the program, shares the history of the home as well its current features, which include a multi-faceted art garden.  Visit the Arkwings...

Mary Helen Butler, assistant director of the Memphis Botanic Garden, visits the program to talk about the Botanic Garden's origin story, which begins with a gift of irises to the city and continues through today, with multiple gardens and structures and a year-round calendar of events and programming.  For more information Memphis Botanic Garden 

Hyde Park is a small neighborhood in North Memphis, one of several off Chelsea Avenue. Like many urban neighborhoods, it was once a thriving area of homeowners and commercial districts, where residents had a sense of pride and community. But for the past several decades it has experienced a lack of investment and a declining population. Today, a grassroots organization called Hyde Park Matters is...

When a property is chronically blighted, there aren't any easy solutions. Remedies need to be balanced between the needs of surrounding neighbors and those of the property owners. And many times, owners can't be located at all or don't have the resources or ability to fix the property up. That's when government, nonprofits, and other partners need to get creative.  In this show, attorney Vinc...

Pedestrian deaths in Memphis are at an all-time high and the city is one of the most dangerous in the U.S. for people who get around on foot. But while driver behavior and poor street design are the primary contributors to the problem, pedestrians themselves - the victims - are often blamed. Nick Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager in the city's engineering department, pays a return visi...

Jason Farmer, founder and CEO of BLP Film Studios, visits Memphis Metropolis to talk about the 100-acre film production facility the company is developing in Whitehaven. 

The Henry Turley Company has been at the forefront of enlightened neighborhood development and redevelopment for decades, including developing Harbor Town - which became a national model, partnering with the city and others on redeveloping the Uptown area, and most recently, adding a mixed-use community, Orleans Station, to the Medical District.   In this program, company CEO Alex Turley...

Andre Jones of Jones Urban Development joins Memphis Metropolis this week to talk about so-called "missing middle" housing,  the duplexes, quads, and small apartment buildings that fill our older neighborhoods but haven't been developed in newer neighborhoods. Jones and his company are bringing missing middle housing back, starting in the Uptown neighborhood. In this show, he discusses his Ma...

In this show, Memphis Metropolis does a deep dive into state preemption,  or when state legislatures use their authorities to preempt or essentially override local control of issues as wide-ranging as gun violence, blight remediation, and whether or not Confederate statues can be removed.  Guests Dr. Megan Hatch from Cleveland State University and Dr. Austin Harrison from Rhodes College...

Shopping centers, offices, and residential neighborhoods often come to mind when many people think about the real estate business. But industrial real estate - where the region's warehouses and distribution centers are located - dwarfs those other sectors locally. Commercial Advisor's Kemp Conrad joins Memphis Metropolis to explain the geographic and transportation factors that drove industrial re...