Marc Perrusqia’s article in the Commercial Appeal about Triangle Noir, Mayor Herenton’s proposal to redevelop the area south and east of the FedExForum, is a must-read for Downtowners. 20 blocks of Downtown stretching from Union to Crump would be redeveloped under this plan.
The Foote Homes and Cleaborn Homes housing projects would be demolished, with renters in those projects given Section 8 vouchers for private housing. New development would include modern housing, a 300-room luxury hotel at Fourth and Linden, and possibly the expansion of the Beale entertainment district.
This could help clean up crime Downtown, as many of the area’s panhandlers list Foote and Cleaborn addresses when they get arrested. Their arrests include not only panhandling charges, but car break-ins, burglaries, and drug charges. Not nice people to have as neighbors.
However, I’d like to know if the Triangle Noir project will include the redevelopment of Abel and Allen Streets, two run-down streets to the south and east of Third, running from Vance to Butler. These streets are not within housing projects, but they contain a mixture of flophouses and boarded-up low-rent apartments. Many of Downtown’s panhandlers, scammers, and street criminals live there, and it is believed that other panhandlers go there to buy drugs. Two houses on Abel were busted as crack houses a couple years back. I hope Abel and Allen are within the 20-block redevelopment plan. Wiping those two streets entirely off the map of Memphis would do a lot to curtail crime Downtown.
Read the article and draw your own conclusions. I’m skeptical of anything King Willie does these days, but this looks like it could be one of his better ideas in the past several years.