Good morning, Memphis. It’s Tuesday, Nov. 3, and today is Election Day. We’ll be keeping up with the happenings at area polling locations during the day via our live blog, and here’s what you need to know right now. We’ll also have real-time election results later on tonight as the polls begin to close and the tallies start rolling in. 

The Memphis City Council will also be in session, though it should be a fairly light day; it is expected to hear the third reading of an ordinance requiring lobbyists to register annually with the City of Memphis. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Jennifer Oswalt listens to a presentation by developer Tom Intrator in November 2019 about his proposed Pinch District development. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)

DMC head pilots new course: Downtown Memphis Commission president Jennifer Oswalt will be leaving the organization, and Memphis, at the end of the year. Oswalt, who is a CPA, began her time at the DMC as its chief financial officer; when Terrence Patterson resigned in 2017, she became the interim and then permanent president. Her next position will be the chief operating officer and chief financial officer at HF Capital, the newly formed family investment office for the Haslams (yes, the Pilot Flying J/governor-type Haslams) in Knoxville. 

U of M takes back plan for student housing: In response to opposition from neighbors — as well as the threat of legal action — the University of Memphis’ M. David Rudd said yesterday the school would revamp its plans for five, four-story apartment buildings on Deloach Street, near Poplar Avenue. It now may look at graduate or faculty housing on the site, but the question of on-campus housing for students remains, especially as the U of M seeks to attain Carnegie R1 status. 

The Nylon Net Building at 7 Vance Ave. (Daily Memphian file)

On the Net: Though we’ve been talking for some time about what the Carlisle LLC plans to do with the historic Nylon Net Building on Vance Avenue, the company just bought the property yesterday. It paid a little more than $3 million for the 225,000-square-foot warehouse. 

Zoom away? We’ve all had our share of trouble with, and laughter over, our meetings using Zoom and similar web-meeting software. But most of us probably aren’t answering to the public, either. At least one alderman in Germantown thinks it’s time to get back to in-person public meetings and believes those could happen in the town’s Great Hall or at the Germantown Performing Arts Center if the regular meeting space is too small. For comparison, Arlington, Collierville and Lakeland have already brought back in-person meetings. 

MEET MEMPHIS 

Chandra Watson poses for a portrait inside the Your CBD Store location in Millington last month. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

For Chandra Watson, “lashes speak louder than words.” She opened Wink Spalon in East Memphis in 2007, specializing in lash extensions. Now, with the help of a former client, she’s expanding her business, with a new shop in Millington. Watson’s husband, who is also an entrepreneur, calls his wife a “super mom boss” and says, “The cape comes out all the time, and it matches her makeup.”

THE NICE TO KNOW

Coletta’s Italian Restaurant owner Diane Coletta talks to customers from the South Parkway location. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Barbecue pizza is forever: Coletta’s is one of Memphis’ oldest restaurants and, well, its owners aren’t exactly spring chickens, either. So, when COVID-19 rolled into town, the grown Coletta children talked to their parents — Jerry and Diane Coletta — about taking a little break from the business. Jerry “laughed” at them and said “there was no way he was going to stop working.” In the latest from Jennifer Biggs’ “Bread and Butter” series, the Coletta family talks about their restaurant going on 100 years and how their specialty, barbecue pizza, is the original takeout food.

Draft picks and FanDuel: If you are a subscriber to the Grizzlies Insider newsletter, you know that online sportsbooks could give the local NBA team new avenues for coverage and marketing. Yesterday, just a day after online betting launched officially in Tennessee, the Memphis Grizzlies announced a new partnership with FanDuel Sportsbook. FanDuel’s CMO called the agreement a “no-brainer given the team’s popularity and long-standing success.” The team is also looking at this month’s NBA draft and what it can do with its only pick, No. 40.

FedEx Corp. has been working with Memphis International Airport to test use of drones on the airfield. (Submitted by FedEx)

As long as it’s not a jet pack: After three years of drone testing, Memphis International Airport and FedEx have signed a new agreement with the FAA. Generally speaking, the FAA prohibits drone use within five miles of an airport, and Memphis is the only one of the FAA’s drone pilot programs that happens within the heavily restricted airspace of a commercial cargo and passenger airport. 

A focus on families: A development planned at the very end (or very beginning, I guess, depending on your perspective) of Walnut Grove at Houston Levee is headed back to the Land Use Control Board after 11 years. It was first approved over a decade ago, but the newest plan reveals the changes in the market since then, with new office space being nixed completely and retail being reduced. Instead, the project now relies more heavily on multifamily and single-family housing.

WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

The day Chef Kelly English almost destroyed the local Twitterverse with one admission ... 

I also don’t know how this would be possible, but don’t forget to vote if you haven’t already. And, we’ll see you tomorrow, when we may know the country’s future or we may not. 

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