Sonia Walker is retiring as associate pastor of First Congregational Church. 

Members of Oak City Church braced below-freezing temperatures to attend Christmas Day service Sunday, Dec. 25.

As an influx of projects slowly but surely rise against Downtown Memphis’ horizon, the city inches toward walkability. But “you don’t get walkable communities thinking solely of pedestrians.”

As Ya Ya and Le Le prepare to return home to China in the coming months, Memphis Zoo officials are preparing to make an official bid for a new mating pair of pandas. 

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Leaders, residents say goodbye to giant pandas

The 60-acre Parkside at Shelby Farms mixed-use development received a development agreement extension until Dec. 31, 2023.

“If we adopted a new approach to vacant land, we could actually reduce the amount of work that is required — and money that is spent — by our city as it intervenes and attempts to maintain health and safety at abandoned land.”

The 5% surcharge on items bought and rooms rented at the Downtown Sheraton hotel goes to finance a renovation of the existing 600-room hotel by the Renasant Convention Center. 

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City Council passes Klondike tax vote, but residents’ concerns remain

The unanimous Memphis City Council vote approving the tax increment financing district in Klondike follows months of delay. Debates about residents’ displacement and representation will stick around into the new year.

“It is really important for us to take care of our Downtown space,” said Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis. “It is the face of the rest of the city.”

A public hearing highlighted skepticism about past efforts to bring blighted areas back to life, and fears the North Memphis neighborhood’s current residents could be displaced.

A new multi-year report from the U.S. Geological Survey found the range of black carp in the Mississippi River basin now includes the entirety of the river, from New Orleans to the southeastern edge of Iowa.

Humans and hounds head to Hollywood Feed for suitable-for-framing holiday souvenirs.

“The menorah was always lit in the Temple, and it was a symbol of the eternal and unbreakable connection between God and the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Jeff Dreifus of Temple Israel.

Of the 100 stores Workers United says are honoring the strike, two are in Tennessee. 

The island you see across from Greenbelt Park and Harbor Town and Shelby Forest is called the Loosahatchie Bar, and all of it — bigger than all of Mud Island and some of Downtown together — is in Shelby County.

According to authorities, Mark Coleman said he was assaulted by Wesley Caldwell while playing golf at the Links at Whitehaven. 

A sandwich with green beans? Yep. The longtime favorite was gone for a while, but it’s back at Pop’s Deli with a few changes. 

Cooper-Young residents will go caroling Saturday. Instead of singing, however, they will use boomboxes, Bluetooth speakers and their phones.

This is the third time that closing dates for the near $1 billion development, slated for Union Avenue near Danny Thomas, have needed to be restructured.

As Mayor Jim Strickland formally opened the Memphis Sports and Events Center on Saturday, he had a contract on his desk for the commercial mixed-use development along Central Avenue.

After the East Memphis barbecue restaurant caught fire earlier this year, owner Jimmy Stovall decided to remodel. And at least one new touch nods to the building’s previous life as a gas station. 

The Summer Avenue Merchants Association president wants to protect area small businesses, but says there’s value in national chains like Starbucks and Chick-fil-A, too.

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Crime, speeding, reckless driving top concerns for Summer Avenue area

Summer Avenue and the neighborhoods that surround it have, like most every area of the city, their fair share of problems with crime.

Marcaren Christian launched the event three years ago because, “I saw the cool things that all these people were doing and I just wanted to put everyone in the same room so that we could all see each other.”