The Early Word: Monorail was doomed from the start; Tigers are AAC champs
Spring break won’t be forever, despite what James Franco says in Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers.” But it will be for this week. It’s Monday, March 10, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools students are out for the week. Suburban kids will just have to wait though.
Over in Germantown, aldermen will consider abolishing the suburb’s rules around when certain holiday decor can be displayed. That’s because the city is being sued after a resident was cited for adding a skeleton to her Christmas display.
And the Memphis Grizzlies return home tonight, fresh off two road wins, to take on the Phoenix Suns at FedExForum. Plan the rest of your week with This Week in Memphis.
The Mud Island monorail cars haven’t moved since 2018. That’s when six passengers had to climb out of a hatch after the monorail stopped halfway through the ride. (Yikes.) And that’s just one of many, many problems to haunt the rail cars that once ferried passengers from Front Street to Mud Island River Park. In his latest “Ask a Memphian” series piece, Jody Callahan looks at the city’s fascination with monorails dating back to 1902 and the pomp (and controversy) around the rail’s opening on July 4, 1982. I have fond memories of riding the monorail to shows at the amphitheater in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but if I knew half of the problems Callahan details in this piece, I’d have never set foot inside a car.
The Memphis Tigers are AAC regular-season champs after defeating South Florida, 84-88, on Friday night. The win was largely due to a second-half surge by the team’s seniors (fittingly in the Tigers’ Senior Day game). It was the team’s first outright conference championship under Coach Penny Hardaway and the first regular-season conference championship since 2013. The Daily Memphian’s Geoff Calkins chronicles Hardaway’s post-game celebration, and our own Parth Upadhyaya looks at the team’s long road to success after a tumultuous season last year. So, what does this mean for the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament seeding? Here’s what the bracketology experts are saying.
Plus, MATA lied about bus routes, Colossus gets more colossal and the Grizzlies finally snapped their losing streak.
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Bianca Phillips
Bianca Phillips is a Northeast Arkansas native and longtime Memphian who’s worked in local journalism and PR for more than 20 years. In her days as a reporter, she covered everything from local government and crime to LGBTQ issues and the arts. She’s the author of “Cookin Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South,” a cookbook of vegan Southern recipes.
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