South City is best known for the Foote Homes development, Memphis’ last public housing project. The $250 million South City revitalization aims to transform the 420-unit institution into mixed-income apartments and rental homes with an emphasis on safety, maintenance, and green space. The project is expected to be complete by 2021. Community leaders hope as South City efforts extend to the areas surrounding the Foote Homes site, they’ll link with efforts in South Memphis and the Downtown Core for a continuous corridor of deep investment.
If I drive in South Memphis, or North Memphis or Frayser, I see more pawn shops, more payday loans than anything. If I drive in Germantown, if I drive in Cordova, you have to have a magnifying glass to see one. They flash across the TV screens here. It's more in our neighborhood than other neighborhoods.
Advance Memphis can't repair decades of disinvestment, generational poverty and community decline, but the nonprofit can set ZIP 38126 on the right path by connecting entrepreneurs with resources to start their own businesses.
Located at 575 Suzette, a warehouse maintained by Advance Memphis hums with activity. Residents of ZIP 38126 can walk to work to fulfill short-term contracts or use the warehouse as a space to incubate their own businesses.
For many, babysitting a short-term gig. For Ashley Gladney, she's turned that old fashioned model into a business thriving in South Memphis with low overhead and a host of clients.
Girls Inc. of Memphis plans to renovate part of Georgia Avenue Elementary, which has been shuttered since 2012. In the building, Girls Inc. will install a 30,000-square-foot center unlike anything else in its Mid-South footprint.
When principal Alisha Kiner joined Booker T. Washington, the historically African-American high school had a graduation rate of 53 percent. Her leadership has skyrocketed that figure. In 2017, the school graduated its largest class of seniors.
The National Civil Rights Museum and Beale Street cannot contain all of Memphis' cultural heritage. An innovative project, the Memphis Heritage Trail, brings the history of Memphis' streets and structures from South Memphis to Orange Mound to life through art installations and signage.
Overall population in Shelby County is projected to increase by 0.4 percent by 2020, and by 2040 the area is expected to grow by 33,000 households. Memphis 3.0 is charting how to meet that growth.
Almost 30 at-risk youth have been employed with Sweet LaLa’s Bakery since it opened in 2014.
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