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You were there for 10 years, can you please share 1 or 2 specific examples of how Memphis is in your words, "...at least 15-20 years behind....whether politics,race relations, crime, education, transportation, shopping, restaurants, planning, government functions...it was all inferior and pretty bad."
All you did is speak in generalities and to understand what you are talking about. Please elaborate if you have the time and desire. Thank you.
There is a Memphis forum you can read for yourself. You can read the FBI crime stats for yourself. You can Google the former Mayor, Willie Herenton for yourself, the city council too. You can also read extensively on the web -for example: search using the term "Memphis sucks" - the hits you will get are enormous, from Yaho to Indeed to CD, T O P I X, TripAdvisor and many others. Everybody can't be lying on Memphis. It doesn't matter much what I, one poster who has lived there concludes. I will however offer this: Fred Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx, whose corporate home is Memphis was QUTOED as declaring "Memphis is not competitive". (You can verify that as well). My point is that Mentallect is not over-stating the (relative) condition and stature of Memphis. One doesn't have to like the truth. Sometimes the truth is a bitter pill. I have no agenda, just issuing one person's opinion.
There is a Memphis forum you can read for yourself. You can read the FBI crime stats for yourself. You can Google the former Mayor, Willie Herenton for yourself, the city council too. You can also read extensively on the web -for example: search using the term "Memphis sucks" - the hits you will get are enormous, from Yaho to Indeed to CD, T O P I X, TripAdvisor and many others. Everybody can't be lying on Memphis. It doesn't matter much what I, one poster who has lived there concludes. I will however offer this: Fred Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx, whose corporate home is Memphis was QUTOED as declaring "Memphis is not competitive". (You can verify that as well). My point is that Mentallect is not over-stating the (relative) condition and stature of Memphis. One doesn't have to like the truth. Sometimes the truth is a bitter pill. I have no agenda, just issuing one person's opinion.
You can use that Google search query and substitute any other city for Memphis and come up with the same number of results. If by "behind", you're referring to the poor areas with high crime and bad schools, they are in every city in the country. Maybe they will take care of that problem when the rest of the country figures out how to. Those problems can be avoided by avoiding those areas, as in any other city. Where Memphis is also far behind is in traffic, COL, and the first World problems that are taking a big hit on the QOL on residents from more successful cities. A slower, less stressful pace of life is a welcomed alternative to me.
Think as you will. It's sophomoric to rely on a flimsy declaration that "crime is in every city", "every city has poor people". "every US city is behind". "every city has bad drivers". "every city has bad traffic", "every city has racism" etc etc etc.
Those weak rationalizations beg the issue about Memphis. It avoids the plain truths about Memphis. Excuses or over-rationalization is self-serving. I have never lived in a city where so many people intentionally wear thick blinders and rose-colored glasses which distort reality. Sorry, That's my informed experience having lived there. Most Memphians (natives) seem impervious to objectivity in their own condition. Others remained in a xenophobic state of denial.
By the way, "avoiding" specific areas in any city is not congruent with living in a smart, progressive, dynamic or thoughtful city. That's called sticking your head in the sand. That's the essence of what I witnessed in Memphis. I no longer choose to live in such an environment. Life is too short to waste time, waiting on Memphis to wake up. Nashville has demonstrated that it is a better "bet". Compare the advancement of the 2 cities over the last 15 years for yourself.
Compare the advancement of other cities in the region such as Birmingham, AL, Greenville-Spartanburg, Jacksonville FL, Tampa, FL, or Charlotte, NC. One would have to be perfectly blind not to acknowledge the advancement differences. I would really use Birmingham, AL as an example.
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