“Smells horrible,” one woman told News 2’s sister station, WREG.
She never thought much of it and didn’t think she could do anything about it. She also never goes past the end of her block into the small industrial district between her neighborhood and the lake.
*****
I know it's Memphis, but it took them 6 years to finally get off their asses to figure it out?
Guess the.... oh, nevermind.
ReplyDeleteWell it took all of 3.2 seconds for them to pull the race card. Thanks minority from Utah that has nothing to do with this area.
ReplyDeleterayvet, you're back! Hadn't heard from you in a while.
DeleteThanks for noticing. I've been lurking lately. Been busy at the clinic (not a complaint, just as I get older getting harder and harder on my psyche) but things have settled down a little so hopefully will be more interactive with you folks again.
DeleteI tried sending an email to see if you were okay but apparently I've lost your email address. Glad you're okay.
DeleteDon't they have buzzards in Memphis? Or is it a matter that Memphisians don't know what buzzards do?
ReplyDeleteBuzzards avoid Memphis. Something about the smell.
DeleteThat and Memphisians would probably eat them.
"Marginalized community".
ReplyDeleteI was sympathetic until the article began with the racism stuff. People can be assholes without it being racist.
ReplyDeleteWe have a chicken rendering plant that's been in operation since before I moved into the area over 30 years ago. The smell is constant and is a variability of strengths and pleasantries. Sometimes it smells like fresh dog food, sometimes it smells like the ass end of a cow. But the smell can be smelled, all the time, for 10-15 miles. Complaints have been lodged, but nothing done. Oh, did I forget to mention, there are no minorities within 10 miles of this place? It's as white as the driven snow. The type of people living nearby have nothing to do with it.
DeleteCan't do much about it until the rendering plant sends a truck.
ReplyDeleteDaryl
This smell, in East Memphis, probably would’ve been complained about the first day, not two years later,” one woman said.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean blacks are to stupid to complain?
I've used Dino's -- the processor in question -- for a few deer in the past, so I am at least familiar with the area. They did a dang fine job, BTW, but I'm cheap and eventually learned to butcher my own.
ReplyDeleteDino's is located in a weird mix of industrial park with some houses around but not many and not many just next door. That part of Memphis is pretty old and dates from the days when folks walked to work, so they lived by the factory. That model went away a long time ago with the arrival of affordable automobiles, but you do see these leftover neighborhoods around the fringes of Memphis and other cities. The notable thing is that all of these old style neighborhoods in my experience are in serious decline and destined to be torn down and redeveloped eventually. Add historical patterns of industrial pollution into the mix, and we aren't talking about the nicest area of town. Kilowatt lake is a nice body of water, but the signs all say don't eat the fish! That's a long winded way of saying that the folks there might not have a lot of options for moving away.
When I was using them a few years back, I never noticed a smell, so my hunch is that the dumping ground hasn't been in use for that long. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they started doing it that way when the TWRA designated Shelby County as a special zone due to Chronic Wasting Disease being identified in our deer herd. You used to be able to just toss that carcass into a dumpster, but they added a lot of restrictions to how you dispose of them once CWD was declared. Just a hunch though.
And, the person quoted is 100% correct, had this happened in East Memphis, then the complaints would have been fast and furious. Of course, East Memphis is about 10 times as densely populated, which might have something to do with that.
That’s what they seem to be saying.
ReplyDeleteJFM
Starker here,
ReplyDelete"authorities would have been more responsive if the issue happened in a predominantly-white neighborhood."
Two words, Love Canal!