By Karanja A. Ajanaku, kajanaku@tri-statedefender.com

In a provocative email sent out last week, the Coliseum Coalition shared that the group’s team of experts had determined that would it cost at least $7 million less to reopen the Mid-South Coliseum than the approximately $30 million price tag that surfaced as the previous mayoral administration explored the feasibility of a Tourist Development Zone.

On Monday, The New Tri-State Defender invited the group’s treasurer, Roy Barnes, and its building chair, Charles “Chooch” Pickard, to our Downtown office to amplify. Mayor Jim Strickland has ruled out using any of the city’s operating and capital improvement dollars at this point, citing pressing needs such as public safety and other basics.

The Coalition projects that an upgrade could be completed for $23, 837,107. That includes making it compliant with federal American Disability Act standards. And, said Pickard, an architect, “The consultant who looked at these costs was actually being pretty conservative. So I really believe with the right effort it could be even cheaper than what we’ve got here.”

TSD: Would you…define your group and what your mission is?

Roy Barnes: The Coliseum Coalition is a group that formed early in 2015. It had been simmering, a lot of different groups. We just thought we’d come together, to bring the public in a big way – as much as we could do – into the discussion of what would happen with the Mid-South Coliseum….We decided one of our main goals was building public support; not just building it, showing that it existed… One of our first big efforts was what we called the Roundhouse Revival.

TSD: You had two of those, right:

Barnes: Yes. … Our group is a non-profit and we’ve spent last year mostly… putting it in the public eye, mayoral elections. When the Urban Land Institute came, at the behest of the city, to do a study, we tried to rally anyone to come and give their opinion about what should happen with the fairgrounds and the Coliseum…. We were very pleased by the day the election came around that all the mayoral candidates had at least called for a new look at the Coliseum.

TSD: At the beginning of the year you wrote a column…in which you were expressing hope. Are you still riding the same hope bubble?

Barnes: Yes. Absolutely….I don’t particularly like to use the word “saved,” but I think…imminent demolition is definitely off to the side…. One of the big stories was the building was in bad shape, which is absolutely not true….And there has been zero maintenance for 10 years….

TSD: Wasn’t there some type of May deadline for people who wanted to submit proposals who wanted to go in and look at it?

Charles “Chooch” Pickard: I worked for about six months after the mayor was elected just trying to get in the building. I worked with them on creating a program that would allow more than just our group in (so) it wouldn’t be one sided. I don’t remember how many groups they actually let in in the end, but it was successful. I personally have actually been in it 3 times.

TSD: Help us see it. What does it look like in there?

Pickard: It’s almost completely intact. I mean, it looks like they could have a wrestling match or a basketball game tonight. …Literally, people have told me when they went in, “Why can’t we just power wash this thing and get it open?” … It just looked like it stopped in time 10 years ago. There are issues. It was closed because of the Department of Justice ruling that all municipal buildings had to be accessible and meet the ADA standards…and it does not…. There’s still technically a legal case open in it right now.

TSD: How would we get around the ADA concern?

Pickard: That’s part of this $23 million dollars. It’s actually a pretty small part of that….($2,585,463)… We were all told that the ADA issues were just so insurmountable and we’ve found creative ways to take care of all of those for a reasonable price. The major reason why it’s so expensive to renovate is the old HVAC system, the heating and air…it’s 50 years old….

TSD: You’ve got it down conceptually to a lower price than we might have thought, but we still are dealing with the situation where the city says, “Hey, we don’t have any money to contribute but we might be open to partnership.” Have you talked to them since this point?

Pickard: They’ve always said they’re open to proposals. We have not given the city this. …We actually put the press release out before a final report because we really wanted to get this number out there and get people talking again. Really, the big message isn’t the details in the report, it’s that the ADA issues are not insurmountable from a physical or fiscal standpoint.

The next hurdles are, you’re right, the city not wanting at this time to put any money in it. However, when this city has a project that they want to get behind we always seem to find the money. Tiger Lane cost $16.5 million. That was a parking lot right next to this that brings in very little income.

Barnes: It (Tiger Lane) is great for the community.

Pickard: It is. If we’re willing as a city to spend $16.5 million dollars on an amenity like a parking lot, it seems crazy to me think that we can’t find $23 million to have something that’s an amenity that everybody in the community would be able to use.

TSD: Let’s say that’s true but that it still doesn’t go forward.

Pickard: Well, I really believe regardless of whether the city can raise the $23 million or not there’s got to be public/private programs… There’s got to be someone come in, whether it be a non-profit and raise the money through donation or whoever would want to operate and…maybe they’re leasing it from the city for a small amount a year and the city get’s some proceeds…

TSD: Any new movement in that direction in terms of that type of private funding? Is anyone talking about it?

Pickard: We’re talking to some…promoters that are interested in pulling some things together. Then the other hurdle is the Grizzlies agreement with the city.

TSD: The non-compete agreement?

Pickard: We hope that we’ll be able to get them to come to the table to just start discussing it. There were statements made by them a year ago that if we got the arena down from the 11,000 seats it is now to 5,000, that it wouldn’t bother them. That was kind of just a quick comment; no discussion on what that truly means.

TSD: Does this (cost estimate) involve any lower number of seats?

Pickard: It does. I don’t have an exact number in there. It’s still conceptual too. We do anticipate lowering the number of seats for several reasons. We need to get more accessible seating. Obviously you’d take out some of the others and it’s a balance of how many you need in each area that are accessible versus how many are not to make it acceptable to the DOJ and to Memphis Center for Independent Living (one of the partners that went in with the Coalition.)…

TSD: We’re not ready though to go back to the Grizzlies and get them to the table yet, right?

Pickard: I think soon, if we were to have the right event promoter talking with them that shows that this is a reality. That is absolutely a next step. I’d rather they throw out a number and say, “Well, this is what’s acceptable” and we see if we can meet that. I honestly think a number around 8,000 is more appropriate for the size shows we think would be in there…

As the discussion wound down, Pickard and Brown talked about the desired relationship between a reopened Coliseum and the surrounding communities.

Brown: I think that’s a huge thing no matter what. It’s just got to be a positive for the communities around it.

Pickard: We’ve worked really hard in the last year and a half to have those stakeholders from all the communities around be a part of the input process….

TSD: When you say stakeholders, we’re including the Africa-American community, right?

Pickard: Primarily those neighborhoods. We’ve met in Orange Mound a ton. We’ve had people from Beltline and Orange Mound and Cooper Young and, of course, other stakeholders with the institutions that are there too.

TSD: What do you hear from them?

Pickard: They want somewhere that their kids can go. They want somewhere their kids can work; where their kids are going to graduate. They just want that civic feeling there and be something that’s not a vacant blight on the community and be a catalyst for development there.

Other needs are more

previously estimated.” That As our building chair Chooch Pickard can expand on, the lion’s share of those costs are not in bringing the building to ADA standards or repairing neglect, as many have said, but in modernizing the core environmental and infrastructural systems — HVAC, plumbing and electrical.

The building is in awesome shape and not an obstacle to reopening.

By Janika Bates, Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Editor’s note: While our former intern Janika Bates is in Rio, she will keep our readers updated — not just on the games themselves, but the whole experience. Look for her updates on TSDMemphis.com, the Digital Daily and in our print edition. And if wi-fi in Rio is good, you might even see her broadcasting live at www.facebook.com/TSDMemphis. As they might say in Brazil . . . bon viagem, Janika! Safe travels!

Transferring to the University of Memphis in January 2014 was one of the best decisions I have made. I have been blessed with wonderful opportunities — internships with The New Tri-State Defender in Memphis; another with Entertainment Tonight in Los Angeles.

But my biggest adventure so far starts this weekend. In April 2016, I found out I was one of 14 U of M journalism students chosen to cover the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which start next week!

Other than me, four of the 14 student journalists, are African American. And like me, Sydney Neely, Rebecca Butcher, Catrell Maclin and Omer Yusuf are all excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Another group of students from The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill will join us in Rio — the only two universities chosen for this assignment.

Playing basketball throughout his life, Catrell Maclin — son of the late Corey Maclin, longtime sports anchor at Fox 13 — had dreams of going to the NBA. However those dreams faded once he lost his passion to play the sport and, in turn, grew a passion for learning how to report on the sidelines.

“God has given me an opportunity like none ever before,” Maclin said. “To be one of 30-plus students who get to work and make contact with the best talent in the media realm, get hands-on experience and build my resume has literally floored me.

“When I walk across the stage in May of 2017 and talk to the first TV station interested in hiring me,” Maclin continued, “their first question will probably be, ‘Tell me about your experience in Brazil working for the Olympic committee.’”

Having a knack for entertaining and telling stories, Rebecca Butcher had dreams of becoming an actress before she finally settled on journalism. She feels it gives her a “wider, more direct impact” on telling the everyday person’s story.

“What I’m looking forward to most about the Olympics is witnessing people from all cultures share a spirit of unity at the games,” Butcher said. “Sure, everyone is rooting for their country or their favorite athlete, but I think it will bring a sense of global community like it does every four years. I’m excited to not only witness it, but to report on it.”

Roxane Coche, assistant professor in the U of M’s Department of Journalism and Strategic Media, will be supervising the program from July 29 to Aug. 22. We will begin work Aug. 1 and will receive three hours of academic credit. The 2016 Summer Olympics open Aug. 5.

Coche, who received her doctorate at UNC, is one of the driving forces behind this amazing opportunity. She sent about two dozen emails seeking credentials and, to this day, she’s not even sure which email got through to the right person with Rio’s Olympic Organizing Committee to set this adventure into motion.

However, students would need to come up with money to go — about $3,000 per student. In the spring, our team began raising funds including a crowdfunding effort at the U of M website that raised more than $3,000 for the effort.

And despite fears of a Zika virus outbreak in Central America, our determination to experience this opportunity hasn’t changed.

Zika is spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. It can be transmitted through mosquito bites, through sex, and possibly a blood transfusion. It can also be transmitted from a pregnant woman to her fetus, causing a birth defect called microcephaly, which causes a baby to be born with a smaller head.

The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eye). Though it is something we will keep a close eye on, the virus is not something we fear.

I can’t wait to share my experiences with you — right here via the TSD!

By Tony Jones, Special to The New Tri-State Defender

A protest on Tuesday outside of the Greater Memphis Chamber – and the business leaders group known as Memphis Tomorrow – was necessary to bring attention to what is missing in Memphis – economic equity, said activists who rallied under the banner of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

Keedran Franklin alerted social media of the protest with a statement describing it as an “informational picket and INDICTMENT against the Chamber of Commerce and Memphis Tomorrow for the crimes of aiding, abetting, distributing and perpetrating poverty in Memphis, TN.”

The day after, Franklin and street activist Frank Gottie said they stand on the statement. One of the real problems, they pointed out, is the widespread use of temporary employment services.

For about three years, Gottie has been advocating for street peace through an organization dubbed (Put The Gun Down) Fight Like A Man. He said it is totally committed to the aims of the Coalition Of Concerned Citizens.

“We just want a better future for the people of Memphis, Gottie told The New Tri-State Defender. “That’s why we wanted to go down there (to the Greater Memphis Chamber and Memphis Tomorrow) because we know they’re the ones that control the temporary services, and the temporary services are the ones enslaving people. It may be a $13 an hour job and they pay you minimum wage. That’s just wrong.

“And they say they want the crime rate to come down,” said Gottie. “How are people supposed to eat? You lock us up, then expect us to go get a job. You go through the temporary services, they work you for seven days then go get you off the line, talking about they missed something in your background. Now you don’t have job. Then you have to wait two weeks for that check. And when it comes it has to go to bills.”

People are being hurt in all kinds of ways and trying to get help, said Gottie.

“I’m talking about the real street guys. They’re crying for help, but man, these people aren’t trying to help; not for real. We had that big meeting and people came down there begging for help, but they still haven’t reached out to the brothers.”

Franklin said “the power” of the temp services was one of the main points made during the meeting with Mayor Jim Strickland at Greater Imani Church – Cathedral of Faith the day after protesters shut down the Hernando Desoto Bridge.

“I’ve worked at jobs where the temp agency wouldn’t let me get hired because they felt I was more of an asset for them. And it happens all the time,” he said. “There is a union movement at Electrolux trying to get people hired. They’re bringing in people through the temp agencies instead of hiring them. All we want is equity.

“These companies have tax incentives where they don’t have to pay taxes for 15 or more years and they’re still not paying the workers. That’s not equity. That’s like enslaving people again.”

The protesters congregated on Front Street between Madison and Jefferson. At one point, Phil Trenary, president of the Greater Memphis Chamber and its chief executive officer, ventured out to talk with them.

“It was a very respectful meeting. We have far more common objectives than anything different,” Trenary said on Wednesday.

“The most important thing is we agreed to have a very open dialogue. I invited them to come back Monday at 11 o’clock… to bring anyone (they want). Our doors are open. We will lay out what we’re doing…to break the cycle of poverty, increase minority contracting, lowering the rate of unemployment in the African-American community. They can share with us (their) concerns. What the business community should be doing that it is not. Hopefully we’ll find…common ground, which I believe we will.”

Trenary was asked if he thought the city’s business leader would actually listen to the concerns coming from the group?

“The business community is invested heavily in this,” said Trenary, pointing to what he viewed as successful moves in creating jobs, lowering employment, increasing the number of middle-class jobs and providing skills training for young people to go to work.

“Perhaps we haven’t done as nearly a good job as we should in letting people know that.”

Asked about the concerns Gottie and Franklin detailed about temporary services, Trenary said, “We can’t just say we don’t want any more of certain types of jobs. What we can say is here is where we want to focus our efforts and that’s on the middle-class jobs and higher-paying jobs that traditionally are not temp jobs.”

By Brittney Gathen, Special to The New Tri-State Defender

The message: Mayor Jim Strickland and his administration are dedicated to the proposition that the Memphis community and local government should be on one accord.

The message-bearer – Ken Moody, special assistant for community affairs to Mayor Strickland – was on message as he spoke to the Frayser Exchange Club (July 21).

“In my role with the mayor, one thing I always want to highlight and what he talks about more than anything is that we’re public servants, and we want to do our best,” Moody said.

“He talks about being brilliant at the basics. We have a commitment and we talk about it all the time, that if we can just do the basics well – pick up trash on time, pave streets, make sure we support our police officers, clean up the blight in the community – we feel that we’re going to be doing our best.”

Strickland and his administration recognize that there are challenges and that they need help.

“The mayor always says that the problems we face are too big for the government to handle by itself,” Moody said. “We’ve got to work with you all in your communities to help you make your communities better. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: safe, clean neighborhoods and job opportunities. There are many challenges, but we try to look at those challenges as opportunities to make our city better.”

One such “opportunity” is associated with the protests that led to the shutdown of the Hernando Desoto Bridge on July 10 and ongoing calls to address concerns about law enforcement and economic disparity.

“We know that there’s a bigger issue we’re dealing with,” Moody said. “The march and the shutdown of the bridge was an attention-getter. We know we’ve got to deal with the economic disparities in our city that start with poverty and education.”

Moody has been tasked with reaching out to protest leaders, talking with them about issues they have identified and exploring ways to work with them on solutions.

“The tough time we’re having is trying to identify leaders in the group. The mayor’s ready to address the requests. We’re not going to give up. We’re going to make sure that we listen to them.”

Moody also addressed the ongoing process of deciding upon a new Memphis Police Department director, including calls for the appointment of Interim MPD Director Michael Rallings.

“Regardless of the demands that some have made to the mayor, there’s a process in place and he’s allowing that process to play out,” Moody said. “Please understand that it’s not that he’s being stubborn, wasting money or anything of that nature. He’s trying to allow this process to play out to select the best person. We know who the favorite person is, but the process has to play out, so please be patient.”

To help area youth, the Strickland administration is focused on providing more structured programs in community centers, Moody said.

During the Q&A segment, Shelby County Schools Board Commissioner Stephanie Love (District 3) asked Moody to identify what programs had been discussed to help juvenile youth, their parents and their schools. Moody said he and Strickland would work with SCS Supt. Dorsey Hopson and his chief of staff to discuss different programs.

Pastor DeAndre Brown made reference to the July 11 meeting (at Great Imani Church – Cathedral of Faith), which followed the I-40 bridge shutdown.

“A lot of people were hurting that had been promised an opportunity to speak, but it was quickly taken away,” said Brown, who also emphasized the need for individuals in the community to have training on how to “express themselves with conflict resolution skills.”

Kayon Montague wanted to know if the Strickland administration planned to do more than recruit workers from outside of Memphis. She asked if there was a plan to make sure Memphians are qualified for other than low-level positions.

Moody said that issue would be discussed with Hopson. More people need to be made aware of jobs opportunities in Memphis, he added.

Reiterating the Strickland administration’s dedication to collaborate with Memphis communities, Moody drilled down to Frayser.

“Frayser is definitely a jewel,” he said. “We’re committed to working side by side with you to do all that we can.”