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Mid-Second Redux
A short while back I wrote a blog entry on the neighborhood known as Mid-Second, the neighborhood the Tobacco Bowl is fortunate to be a part of, and one which was named, obviously, by committee. LG at the CCC recently read that entry and let me know she enjoyed it. At first I was surprised because I didn't really know if anyone read this blog, at least not without me asking them to. Then I 
wondered why the CCC didn't get any input from the businesses and residents in the area on the district (and THEN I thought maybe they did, but my business didn't rate enough to be asked about it). Our community - Mid-Second, if you must - needs to come together to promote ourselves just as the South Main Arts District (cool name), Pinch District (cool name) and Edge (cool name) communities are doing.
At the very center of downtown, our area has a very high concentration of business, residential and visitors - more so than any other area in the CBID, yet we're left out as a community when the CCC or some other entity talks about the re-emergence of Downtown Memphis. And we're left out because we don't have a cool name, something catchy, something that's easy to slip into a sound bite. A few years ago I and some of my fellow business owners in the neighborhood tried to unite under the moniker 'The Exchange District', which we took from the stately Exchange Building at Madison and Second, from the trolley exchange at Madison and Main, and from the idea that we are in the center of the three aforementioned communities. Well, The Exchange District never really took off because of a lack of interest and because most of us at the time were focused on trying to keep our businesses open with the trolley construction that was going on at the time. But the idea was there, and it was a good one. And now the name is just sitting out there, unused.
I suggested to LG that they use the name “The Area That Surrounds Memphis Tobacco Bowl for Two Blocks on All Sides” or “TATSMTBFTBOAS”, but I really don't think they're going to take it. So I welcome them to bestow The Exchange District on our humble nabe and to please include all of us in any ideas they may have to generate traffic to our area or spruce the place up or market us to the masses.
The first step in a neighborhood coming together is a good team name...and Mid-Second isn't it.
Posted by Richard Alley at August 18, 2005 03:47 PM
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