Residents, advocacy group press Memphis council on Frasier safety, gentrification and proposed blight ordinance

Members of the public told the Memphis City Council on July 22 that recent reconstruction at the Fraser Boulevard and Overton Crossing intersection has produced unsafe conditions and that broader city policy and development practices are contributing to gentrification and community displacement. Marvis Rogers, a Fraser resident, told the council the reconstructed intersection “is not only inconvenient and they also potentially unsafe for both drivers and pedestrians,” and said residents’ repeated complaints had been dismissed. Rogers said Accelerate Memphis staff met with Fraser residents in 2022 and that $400,000 was discussed for local priorities; she said that did not prevent the current project from proceeding in a way she described as hazardous. Patricia Lee, speaking for the Memphis Black Agenda, and Catherine Larchais also addressed the council, arguing that Black homeownership is being undermined by sales to out-of-town and foreign investors and by policies that they said would exacerbate displacement. Lee called for expanded homebuyer assistance, federal grant programs for historically redlined neighborhoods and action to prevent further loss of long-standing African American homeownership. Catherine Larchais objected to a proposed blight-remediation ordinance the group opposes, calling it “anti citizens” and warning that enforcement actions such as penalties for uncut grass would disproportionately affect poor residents. Multiple public commenters urged council members not to advance the blight initiative as written. Damon Curry Morris, also with the Memphis Black Agenda, said the group delivered a copy of its demands to the council and county commission and repeated calls to dissolve the blight initiative, citing social and economic harm to disinvested communities. He cited a legal-sounding requirement—“Section 353, authority to pass … no ordinance shall be valid if it embraces more than one subject, the subject to be expressed in its title”—as part of the group’s challenge to the ordinance’s scope. Speakers said the demands reflected outreach: Dr. Carnita Atwater said the agenda represents 23 predominantly Black neighborhoods and referenced 15,000 questionnaires and a 25-signature petition backing their demands. Several speakers specifically demanded that no new jail be sited in the New Chicago community. The council did not take final action on the blight initiative during the meeting; several items on the formal agenda (consent and zoning matters) moved forward separately. Public comments on these topics came during the…