Keeping our Inner Ring Alive

Memphis, along with a lot of other cities, experienced a booming development period after World War II. Cities began to sprawl out with residences and manufacturing a few miles out from the city core. These older suburbs were just the start and cities have continued to grow outward. The manufacturing facilities are long gone, as are the jobs, and these old suburbs are now in decline. These suburbs around the inner-ring do still have one big thing going for them: Location. A family can still enjoy its single family house and half-acre of land less than 5 miles away from the city center. In the case of Memphis, Frayser is a classic example of one of these inner ring suburbs that is in decline.

Unrealized Potential

Frayser was once a working class neighborhood with a bustling local economy that lost its jobs and is now struggling. For the past few years, Frayser's foreclosure and crime rates have both been among the highest in Memphis. In spite of this, the neighborhood still has a lot of things going for it. It is close to downtown, the Wolf River, and Meeman Shelby State Park. And, unlike any other neighborhood in the city proper, they have hills!

Frayser is also home to one of the top notch community development corporations in town fighting against the blight in the housing stock. And despite the declining neighborhood economy, there is a sizable retail sector. I use Frayser as an example because it is familiar to me, but there are similar stories around Memphis and cities across the country. What can these fledgling neighborhoods do to get a steroidial boost in their economies?

It's All Been Done Before

One idea that is gaining traction across the country is the concept of Urban Main Street. That is, taking the principles of the traditional Main Street program and applying it inside cities. Main Street has a reputation of ignoring social issues while focusing on the economy, but inside cities the program has the opportunity to be partnered with community development organizations. Main Street principals have been successfully applied to develop Urban Main Street programs in Boston and St. Paul, among other cities, both through programs run by community development organizations as well as private developers.

So, Urban Main Street has shown to be a good model for multiple social and economic environments. This raises the question: Could Frayser and other neighborhoods around Memphis start one of these programs?

Why Not in Memphis?

The big question mark here is funding. All of the successful examples I can find have backing from local governments. Is there a way to promote the same principles with less resources? If anyone can point towards research attempting to answer that question, please let us know. It is not unthinkable that a group of business owners and community leaders could get together and create a brand, promote investment, and lobby for street improvements and other aesthetic improvements in their own neighborhood, but success seems a lot less probable without investment from the city.