By Paul Morris, Special to Viewpoint
Commercial Appeal
Landing Pinnacle Airlines in One Commerce Square is an enormous win for Downtown. Pinnacle will shore up the biggest building in the Memphis skyline, and Pinnacle's hundreds of employees will enjoy and support existing Downtown retail, restaurants, entertainment venues, sports venues, residential projects and hotels.
Pinnacle will join other recent office openings to bring vibrancy to Downtown and serve as a catalyst for Downtown's re-emerging office market. Pinnacle will cause pivotal and positive change in Downtown.
But what do Downtown's successes mean to the rest of Memphis and Shelby County? That's a fair question, and one that speaks to the reason I decided to work at the Center City Commission.
I didn't take this position simply to make one neighborhood -- Downtown -- better. I passionately believe that a strengthened Downtown is necessary to advance the city and county.
Not to diminish the good news about Pinnacle, but the reality is Memphis' future is threatened. We are losing talented people, and our population is shrinking. Our tax base is shrinking, and the cost of government services is on the rise, in part because of urban sprawl. Our property taxes, the highest in Tennessee, are driving businesses and jobs away.
Paying special attention to Downtown can help solve these problems. Here's how:
Downtown Memphis is our community's brand.
Downtown is where this city was born, and our identity is wrapped up in this space. Whether you live in East Memphis, Bartlett, Whitehaven or anywhere in Shelby County, think of Downtown as our community's front door.
When people around the world visualize Memphis, they think of Downtown, including our skyline, the Mississippi River, Beale Street, St. Jude, the Orpheum, AutoZone Park, FedExForum, the Rendezvous, The Peabody, South Main and the National Civil Rights Museum.
When people consider moving to this community, they go Downtown to see what this city is about. When businesses think of relocating here, they look Downtown to see if this city has its act together. When millions of tourists from around the world come to Memphis each year, Downtown is a part of their visit.
So Downtown is Memphis's brand, and if we improve our brand, we can better sell our city to potential residents and businesses.
Downtown Memphis is a proven talent magnet. In the past 10 years, Downtown's residential population has increased 12 percent, while the city's overall population decreased 7 percent.
About a third of Downtown residents moved to Memphis from other states and countries. And Downtown's fastest-growing income group earns more than $75,000 per year.
This says loudly and clearly that a dense, urban environment is where knowledge workers want to be, and improving on our Downtown is critical to making Memphis a City of Choice.
Downtown Memphis is sustainable.
A vibrant Downtown is the solution to urban sprawl. Across the nation people are migrating to walkable, urban environments, and our Downtown is no different. It is the most densely populated area in the county and is shared by 23,000 residents, 64,000 employees, a growing population of students and educators, and millions of visitors each year.
So when we improve Downtown, those improvements affect most taxpayers in the city.
What city planners know is that this density actually costs all of the taxpayers less to maintain, because it is more efficient to provide city services to a densely populated area.
Downtown contributes more than double the local taxes per square mile than the rest of Memphis and Shelby County. So Downtowners cost local government less and pay local government more. Continuing to attract people Downtown is critical to solving the long-term budget problems our local governments face and is the best chance we have to eventually lower our tax rates.
Downtown's 6.5 square miles is only a small part of Memphis -- about 2 percent of its geographic area -- but this relatively small space is our whole community's brand and a powerful talent magnet that is also the answer to unsustainable sprawl.
If we get this 6.5 square miles right, we can change our image, attract more people and jobs to our community and set ourselves on a path toward financial sustainability.
Paying special attention to Downtown is a necessary investment in the future of our whole region. As Phil Trenary, the CEO of Pinnacle, said, "Great cities have great downtowns."
Paul Morris is president of the Center City Commission.
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