Just visted Memphis - some ramblings (live in, restaurants, prices)

[Chuckity]

I had lurked on this board occasionally for the last few weeks after we planned a tagalong vacation with my husband who had business there this past week.

I grew up in Chicago and have visitied many different cities all over the country, and quite a few in the south over the years, and I was speechless by the state of Memphis itself. Some quick thoughts:

* Some streets were almost completely void of any businesses - including what I would consider the heart of downtown. This was shocking to me.

* There were MANY homeless people sleeping in the park close to the river.

* It was strange to walk down a downtown Memphis street in the middle of a workday and find the streets practically deserted. There is no hustle & bustle at all.

* Peabody Place made me sad. Has it ever seen an almost full capacity
of retail establishments?

* People that I came into contact with fell into 2 catagories - either extremely helpful, pleasant and very accomodating or rude, slow and horribly unhelpful and just plain not nice. There was no inbetween.

* The smell of garbage on the city streets was overwhelming. Yes it was summer and pushing 100 degrees at times but I worked in downtown Chicago for many years over many hot HOT summers and was never overwhelmed by stentch on almost ever block.

The pluses ...

* The traffic. Um, there is none.

* The food. Even TGI Fridays in Memphis was better than a TGI Fridays up north. Strange.

* Gas prices. Whoo-hooo! Under $4!! What a deal!

[mzloolue]

Interesting observations.

Downtown is an odd and quirky place and is only a very very tiny part of the community as a whole.

Most natives don't go down there without a really good reason.

[simcity]

You got that right. Most agree that we have fantastic food here in Memphis, especially for steaks. As an 8 year resident, I must admit that the rest of your assessment seems rather accurate, at least for the areas that you visited. Please realize that Memphis is a sprawling 280 square miles and our downtown is far from an ideal utopia. There are some thriving areas in the city but they are vastly overshadowed by the urban blight as Memphis is a relatively poor city, one of the poorest large cities in this nation. We only look good when compared to Detroit, and even that is debatable.

I’m hoping higher gas prices will result in a gentrification and repopulation of our city, a reversal of the "white flight". Perhaps the suburbs of today will become the ghettos of tomorrow as some are predicting.

[strumpeace]

I'm always fascinated (and heartbroken) by the number of Memphians who promote gentrification. How very sad. Racial and economic divides are what got Memphis into the situation it's in now. Displacement is not a good thing. It's a devastating thing.

Chuckity -- Pretty fair observations, imo. There is some bustle downtown on weekdays, typically on the stretch of Main close to the government buildings.

[RikBrooks]

When I was a boy downtown Memphis was always busy. I don't remember any homeless but I reckon there probably were some.

I left for many years and came back a couple of years ago and it all changed. I'm still trying to find out what caused it but it seems that nobody really knows. I've heard a few theories and most of them revolve around our mayor who, if I can believe those that talk to me, is very racist.

Whatever happened it was definitely massive. I went downtown during the week a month or two ago and was shocked at how vacant it is.

[juiceman]

I just moved here from Los Angeles in June. I live in Downtown and it is not exactly thriving with business. I can't figure it out, but it does seem that there are projects in the works. I love being by the river and taking walks. I hope it rebounds but there are good restaurants and things to do. I am really liking Memphis so far. The heat is the only thing!!

[RikBrooks]

The heat goes away. This is the subtropics and that's the way it is. You get several months of cool temperatures each year and even some cold temperatures. I find the heat only 'really bad' in July and August and July is almost over

[bjh]

HOw soon into September does it cool down? Okay, I doubt it is like tripping a switch, but in Texas, from whence I came, it is still very warm well into Sept. HOw about here?

[strumpeace]

Some years, it's still in the 90s well into the first week of October. Usually October is a very dramatic month weather-wise in the Mid-South. It may be upper 80s - low 90s on the 1st and 50 on Halloween evening. Crazy.

[Pearlbob]

It's warm all year round to me! it never cools off enough, other than maybe a few weeks in the "winter."

But yes, it's known to stay hot hot hot well into the fall. Was it this past spring.....? I remember turning the A/C on in February recently. Other than the humidity though, I would think Memphis and most parts of Texas are similar in regards to temps.