Daily thoughts of a Downtown Memphis resident
Today I was walking around Court Square taking more pics of the “locals,” and off in the distance I noticed this new restaurant at the intersection of Third and Court:
It’s called Roma Pizza, Pasta, Subs & Philly Cheese Steak and a sign in the window says it will be open soon. If you click on the image to view it in full size, you can see some of the menu items they have planned – Italian dishes mostly.
The Memphis Flyer is hosting 3rd Thursday, a pre-rooftop party at Swig from 5 to 7 PM this Thursday, July 19. Free hors d’ouevres, drink specials, prizes, entertainment. The Flyer always throws good parties, so it should be worth it to drop by.
Just snapped a photo that illustrates one of the biggest elements of the panhandling problem in Downtown Memphis:
Every day this same cast of characters loiters outside the entrance to Walgreens at 2 N. Main (corner of Madison). Some days they’ll literally hang there all day long. When they get thirsty, they start asking people entering or leaving Walgreens for money. When they collect enough, they walk across Madison to CeCe’s Liquors to quench their thirst. Well, some of them do. About half of them are banned from CeCe’s and they have to send the others over to fill their orders.
Let’s have a closer look at this group, shall we?
There are actually a couple more members of the crew, who I suppose decided to sleep in this morning. Although Walgreens is their preferred location, they make guest appearances at Court Square and outside Jack’s Food Store at Main and Jefferson.
Why does Walgreens allow these people to loiter outside their store all day? It can’t be good for business for them to be there. Some would argue, “Well, the Main Street Mall is a public walk and they have a right to be there,” but that’s not necessarily true. A friend of mine owned a business nearby several years ago. He was able to swear out some kind of writ or statement or warrant (I forget its exact name – if anyone knows please fill me in) against individual panhandlers. Once that was in place, if they were caught loitering within a certain distance of his business, 10 feet I believe, he could have them arrested for criminal trespassing.
Want more? Here’s an Eyewitness News video, shot a couple of weeks ago, of two of these guys fighting over a bottle of booze outside of Walgreens. (It’s actually a story about a homeless man getting hit by a trolley, but they captured video of the fight while they were down there.) The guy involved in the fight who isn’t in the wheelchair is named Willie Norfleet and I’ve had him thrown in jail before for harassing tourists. Of course, he was back on the streets hours later. Mention the name “Norfleet” to any cop down here and they’ll immediately know who you’re talking about.
Here’s a pic I took of him last summer, while he was busy bothering attendees of the Court Square Concert Series:
Mayor Herenton may be King Willie, but this Willie is king of the bums.
This kind of thing has been going on outside Walgreens EVERY DAY for the entire 5 years I’ve lived Downtown. Except maybe Sundays – CeCe’s Liquors isn’t open so there’s less incentive for them to hang out on the corner of Madison and Main. NOTHING has been done about it. Walgreens doesn’t seem to care that these guys are constantly around.
Thinking about buying a condo in the core of Downtown Memphis? Take a look at the pics above and meet your new neighbors.
Bumwine.com has added a “Where to Buy” page, letting its readers know which stores across the U.S. carry all five of the top bum wines (Cisco, MD 20/20, Night Train, Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose). There aren’t any Downtown Memphis listings, making me think that maybe we need to round up our street people and put them on a bus to one of the listed cities, where they’ll be happier. There is a listing for Nashville… let’s send ’em there.
And as far as I know, there AREN’T any places Downtown that carry all five of the wines. CeCe’s has MD 20/20 and Wild Irish Rose. When Frank’s was open, it carried Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose, and used to carry Night Train years ago. I don’t know of anyplace Downtown that carries Cisco, although there may well be a store in the South of Forum district or on Crump that does.
The Bumwine site has also added a page explaining why Boone’s Farm does not count as a bum wine. Glad they put that page up to clear up misconceptions: It’s a great wine for college students on a budget to get trashed on, but at only 7% alcohol the hardcore bums aren’t going to waste their time.
Thanks to the Downtown panhandler photo album I posted Sunday night, my blog set a new record yesterday – 687 hits in one day.
I also received requests to continue with the photo series, to help inform Downtowners who the career panhandlers are, so they can be avoided. Guess I’ll have to take the camera out today and get started on part 2.
AC Wharton issued a statement to the “Draft AC” group informing them that he won’t run for mayor of Memphis. Media coverage:
Looks like we may be stuck with Willie for four more years.
From the Memphis Business Journal:
– 21 condos were sold Downtown last month, compared to 43 for June 2006, more than a 50% decline.
– For 2007 through the end of June, there have been 116 condo sales Downtown, a 45.8% decline from January-June 2006.
– Condos sold in June spent an average of 132 days on the market, compared with 76 days for June 2006.
Looks like the condo boom is slowing down in Downtown Memphis.
(Edited to add: Maybe the reason people don’t want to buy down here anymore is because Downtown Memphis has become a panhandler’s paradise.)
My favorite band The Dempseys will play two of my favorite places this week:
– Thursday, July 19, they’ll be at the Flying Saucer at 9:30. Beer, waitresses, and rockabilly!
– And then Sunday, July 22, they play DOWNTOWN HUEY’S!!! Although the Saucer is my favorite bar, Huey’s is the best place to hear the Dempseys play, because there’s more interaction with the crowd and Sunday nights tend to be very laid back. They start at 8:30 and play until about midnight.
Also, a reminder that The Sauce Boss plays Blues City Wednesday-Saturday of this week. I wrote about him a couple of weeks ago – he cooks gumbo onstage and sings songs about gumbo as he cooks. At the end of the show, everyone eats. This guy is a must-see, so figure out which night works best for you and head on down there. Looking at my schedule, it appears that Friday night will be the night I’m there.
I got to talk to the Westin Hotel’s concierge again yesterday, and I asked her about a subject we hadn’t talked about much before: The Daily Grill, the restaurant in the ground floor of the hotel. Couple of things she told me:
– Every weekday during happy hour, the Daily Grill has smaller versions of their regular menu items available for $2.95 each. Although the portions are smaller, they’re still substantial. I remember last month during their Downtown Night… I was sitting at an outdoor table with a member of my BBQ team, and he had a plate of seared ahi tuna that he had bought for $2.95. It was nearly enough to be a meal, and I thought, “Nah… that’s got to be a mistake. The restaurant’s new, I bet the cashier rang it up wrong.” But no, that’s the correct price.
That’s one of the best deals I’ve heard of Downtown in a long time… I’m definitely going to go down there and check that out sometime this week. Actually, tonight wouldn’t be a bad night to go, since Di Anne Price plays piano in the lobby on Mondays. I’ll see how my schedule looks this afternoon…
– I also asked the concierge, “Suppose I’m visiting from out of town, and I’m only going to be able to eat at the Daily Grill one time. What would you recommend?”
She immediately responded: “Chicken pot pie. Best thing on the menu.”
That’s all for now. Preview of what’s coming this week:
– Help clean up a centerpiece of Downtown Memphis
– Thursday night rooftop pre-party with free appetizers
– My favorite band at my favorite bar
– Upcoming job fair
And more!
… that’s the word on the street about Downtown Memphis. The word on other cities’ streets.
I’ve been told that other cities are shipping their panhandlers/vagrants/bums here because Memphis is known to be a city that is soft on panhandling. Little Rock in particular I’m told does this. They had a major Tae Kwon Do convention two weeks ago, and right before the city was mysteriously “cleaned out.”
I took the camera out this weekend. Let’s see what we’ve got:
I spent about half an hour watching this dude sitting at the trolley stop Saturday afternoon at Madison and Main. He’d wait for tourists to stop to wait on the trolley, engage them, and then ask for a “donation.” Isn’t panhandling at trolley stops illegal? Why can’t MATA install cameras at their trolley stops to put an end to this? In this day and age it couldn’t be that expensive. Did I mention that the Madison/Main trolley stop is steps away from CeCe’s Liquor’s, which caters to the $2 and under crowd? Wonder if that could have had anything to do with his choice of location.
Next up we have this guy sitting on Beale Street: “How you doin’, sir? You aight?” Bum-to-English translation: “Give me money,” as was seen once he started talking to people who were more interested in conversation with him than I was.
This afternoon friends and I went to the Flying Saucer and sat on their patio… while we were there, no less than SIX bums came up to the window and hit up the people sitting there. If you’ve spent any amount of time on Second Street downtown, you’ve met the sad sack pictured above. For the entire five years I’ve lived downtown, he’s walked Second between Union and Beale, looking as forlorn and destitute as possible and asking for help. I’m almost positive he’s NOT homeless. One of these days I’m going to follow him and see where he goes when he gets off “work.”
Here’s another one at the Saucer’s window.
“Hey man, look here. I ain’t had nothin’ to eat in about 3 days, can you help me out?”
This is the guy who comes up to you and sings… and then expects a tip. Fellow Sunday bruncher John D wanted to be mentioned in the blog, so here ya go, John… this guy came up to the window about 4 PM, his second time to do so Sunday afternoon. He noticed that “Humpty Dumpty” was still there.
Another longtime resident of Downtown Memphis stops at the Saucer’s window to ask for “assistance.” The Saucer’s landlord is Belz/Peabody Place, don’t they have security that are supposed to keep these people from bothering the customers? Sure didn’t see them.
This guy was all over Peabody Place and Second Street looking for handouts.
Here’s the same guy again, having come up to the Saucer’s window to ask for money. Why is he looking up? Because one of the patrons hit the switch to lower the window, to put a shield between him and us. He wasn’t happy about that at all.
Hey, you remember the guy who was begging at the Madison trolley stop Saturday afternoon? Well, here he is again. The liquor store isn’t open on Sunday so there was no need for him to stick close to it. Here he is on Second in front of Jillian’s, using one of the oldest gimmicks in the book, picking flowers from a public display and then giving them to people in exchange for “tips.”
Other cities have made it clear that panhandling will not be tolerated… why can’t we? I’m sick of hearing about their “rights.” What about our right to sit outside and enjoy a beautiful Sunday afternoon without being bothered time and time again?