Progress or a pain?— New streetscaping sparks complaints amongst community members, business owners in South Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – If you build it, Memphians might complain. South Memphis is the latest community to tell the City of Memphis that changes designed to make the streets safer for drivers and pedestrians actually made it more dangerous.

Residents say it’s too hard to navigate around the new streetscaping and they say drivers are not letting up off the gas. And there’s another problem: the City of Memphis builds all the bump-outs with pretty potted plants and landscaping. But who’s going to maintain that infrastructure? And with what money?

JoElle Thompson, co-owner of The Four Way restaurant, a historic Black-owned business on Mississippi Boulevard at Walker Avene, an intersection under heavy construction for a year now, says progress brought pain to the neighborhood.

“Y’all said the impact would be on speeding,” she told Mayor Paul Young and city leaders at a town hall on Tuesday, “but people still drive down Walker 80 miles per hour. Most recently, somebody drove all the way into our fence and completely obliterated our outdoor furniture.”

Streetscaping designed to slow traffic is not popular in South Memphis and South City, as Mayor Young quickly found out.

“That made it a little difficult,” said Brenda Fox, “because now where it was a lane going both ways, now you have to share the lane, and you know, that’s a little problematic.”

This isn’t the first time Memphians rejected new, pedestrian friendly improvements. The tables, chairs and plants along Peabody Place in downtown were removed after a year. The giant pots along Highland near the University of Memphis disappeared, hit by cars too many times.

Drivers also keep running into the median on Cooper in Midtown, knocking down the sign installed to boost pedestrian safety. And the pots along MLK Boulevard fell victim to confused drivers, too.

Action News 5 asked Mayor Young if the bump outs can be removed if South Memphis residents really hate them.

“We’ll talk to the engineering teams about what happens, but we’ll certainly be evaluating how well the infrastructure performs and whether it’s creating any issues,” he replied.

One major issue for the community involves the maintenance of the new streetscaping.

“In the beautification of our neighborhood,” Rebecca Hutchinson of SCORE – South City Opportunity Revitalization Empowerment CDC – told Mayor Young, “we have these lovely medians in the middle of Lauderdale that are never weeded, that are never cut. That adds to the blight in our community. We want to have a nice-looking neighborhood too, Mr. Mayor.”

The city only maintains the plants in the streetscaping for the first year. City Engineer Manny Belen told town hall attendees that Public Works is responsible for maintaining all roadway infrastructure. But keeping potted plants looking lovely, may become a community chore.

“Somebody needs to take on additional responsibility and some funding to make sure that it is carried on,” Belen said.

That’s a difficult ask in one of the city’s poorest ZIP codes, but Mayor Young promised to address any problems.

“I think there’s been a lot of pain during the construction process,” he said, “But I hope as the roads are opened up and completed, a lot of that pain will go away and that the streets will be safer as a result.”

The engineering department is collecting data on how the improvements impact traffic and safety. Belen said adjustments will be made accordingly.

Mayor Young also acknowledged he is aware that the streetscaping is causing confusion in other communities, and problems are also being reported in Orange Mound.

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