The Downtown Project (Part 1)
Welcome to The Downtown Project. This is a four-part series on the part of our city that makes Memphis Memphis.
We started this series with one simple question: How is Downtown doing? That question became important because perceptions of Downtown Memphis — and Downtowns everywhere, we discovered — were not exactly positive.
Narratives emerged: Covid drained the office workers from Downtown Memphis. The downstream effects of that hit restaurants, events, stores, and more. Another narrative held that violent crime had gotten so bad in Downtown Memphis that people refused to go there anymore.