Midtown Neighborhood Meetings

I've had a lot of people reply to me about some neighborhood safety meetings after news broke about the Central Gardens shooting earlier this week. I've listed a couple of the meeting info pieces below so please check them out if you're concerned about the current safety issues in the area.

1. There is actually a Central Gardens/Idlewild meeting at 2049 Cowden on Sunday at 2:00 pm. This happens to be a friend of mines house and is also right in front of where the shooting occured. Try to stop by if you live in the neighborhood and throw in your ideas and listen to some current recaps of what's going on.

2. The other meeting is at the Union Station Police Precint at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, April 21. They will have police services there to talk about several security issues in midtown and how best to protect you, your family, and your home.

Hippies, Jewish Rap, and Reggae

WOW! There's a good show coming up at Minglewood Hall. Check out the Flier above....

Shooting in Central Gardens!

This is ridiculous. It's so insane that it calls for obscenities. THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS!!

Here is the info from the CA....

A man walking his dog near Central Gardens in Midtown Memphis was shot three times Tuesday night, police said.

Percy Clarke, 49, was in the 2000 block of Cowden when he was approached by a man in a gold Camry at about 8:15 p.m. The man asked for directions, then started firing, hitting Clarke in the head, chest and shoulder.

Police aren't sure what prompted the shooting since robbery didn't appear to be the motive.

Clarke lives near Cowden, police said.

He was in critical condition at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis late Tuesday, but police believe he will survive.

This really scares/irritates/pisses me off. I mean come on people! What is going on here!??! I live less than a block from this!

Be careful, keep your eyes open and start carrying a baseball bat and automatic machine gun when you go walking your dog at dusk apparently. I hope this guy is ok. Also, I hope the dog is ok too. Seriously. This is just ridiculous.

COGIC no more

I bet this will piss a ton of people off but I'm going to write it anyway.

I just saw in today's CA that COGIC has decided to move it's annual convention to St. Louis starting in 2010. I say GOOD! The article is filled with Memphis area business people who mourn the passing of the annual convention but I'm willing to bet that they are the only people in the area sad to see it go. I'll agree that times are tight economically and that every dollar spent in the city is good for us all, but having worked in the restaurant industry for years until recently, I think I speak for everyone involved in the restaurant and service areas when I say good riddance! I know that sounds harsh and I realize that it may seem like I'm generalizing here but unfortunately I'm not. At first you'll probably think that a few bad COGIC apples spoiled the whole basket for me here but I was around long enough to see that way too many COGIC people visiting the city at this time were rude, cheap, unappreciative and felt way too entitled for their own good. I even worked downtown at Cafe 61 about 6 years ago when their convention visited the city and let me tell you, the ENTIRE service industry downtown dreads that week. I've never seen so many people try to take off work for vacation at the same time EVER!

These visiting supposedly nice churchgoers are the epitome of rude, cheap and ungracious people and I hate to stereotype a whole group but I never met anyone to prove otherwise. For years, their head pastor and leader was a patron of one place I worked at and you would think that a recognized public figure would realize that if he's cheap and rude to people at restaurants then word would get around. I mean talk about bad PR, but he never seemed to put the pieces together nor did his congregation.

So while I'm understanding about the loss of revenue to the city, I'm not sad to see the group go up to the STL. Let that city cowtow and cater to their whims. We can do better than this and I hope it motivates Kevin Kane and other city leaders to bring in some better groups and upgrade the convention facilities!