City Council Compromises with the Minions of Satan

Today I saw that the City Council passed an ordinance concerning new pay day/car title loan locations. I mapped and wrote about these bloodsucking minions of Satan over two years ago here. I guess I should be happy the Council has finally somewhat addressed this issue. What galls me is the fact the Council felt the need to compromise on the language of the ordinance. Language referring to the clustering of predatory lenders in depressed areas was removed. What the fuck? The maps show this very fact. The Brookings Institute did a study of the 8 worst cities for predatory lenders and we were one of the cities. There are @170 of these predatory lender locations (Almost as many as total bank locations) and they aren't in Germantown. Of course they are clustered in depressed neighborhoods. They target the working poor and those in desperate situations. And the particularly target latinos. If you target the weak and the poor you are SATANIC, purveyors of iniquity. Some how enforcing 1,000 ft bans and special permit requests will make it hard for these storefronts to opening. You know what really keeps these places from opening? It's called a saturated market and we've pretty much got that until Cordova gets Hickory Hill-ed.

The past few days I have been particularly enraged by the situation in Memphis. My disgust at the tolerance of inequality ebbs and flows. I've read a lot about the history of the city. At times I take a degree of solace in knowing that a large section of the city's population has lived in horrid conditions, such as high crime, environmental pollution, poor housing, poverty, and general disenfranchisement since Memphis was founded. But then I get pissed at my own complacency and the historical resignation to the fact that for over 100 years 20% or more of the Memphis' population has lived in poverty common to the third world. For generations, hundreds of thousands of people have had the distinct misfortune to be born a poor Memphian. It looks like at least a couple more generations will continue the tradition.