MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Business owners, who have called the Raleigh Springs Mall for years, were not happy with Mayor A C Wharton.
They said they found out about the city’s plans to knock down the mall the way most everyone else did.
On TV.
The city wanted to build a new library, police precinct, community center and retail space on the property.
According to the timeline, the mall would be gone in 60 days.
Alan Kuntz was one of the 14 business owners affected by this decision.
“He needs to get in his fancy little Cadillac, drive down here and talk to us,”said Kuntz.
He owned a tee-shirt shop inside Raleigh Springs Mall, and said he found out he would soon be out of a job on News Channel 3 Thursday night.
On the TV, he saw city officials speaking at a meeting he said he was never told about.
“We were looking for a second location. But now the way they are talking it’s going to be our only location,” Kuntz explained.
“I’m excited. I think the community is excited,” Bill Morrison, the Raleigh represetative on the City Council told WREG Thursday.
Apparently not everyone.
Fourteen businesses must find a new home.
They said they wish the mall owner, the mayor and their city council representatives would have gone over the details with them and not kept it a secret for so long.
WREG reached out to Mayor Wharton’s office, and Councilman Bill Morrison but neither returned our request for answers.
But Thursday night Morrison said he believed this plan would help cut down on crime.
“Violence doesn’t occur in communities that are united,” he said. “It doesn’t happen in places where people know their neighbors, and talk to each other and look out for each other.”
Morrison said this plan has been in the works for two years.
Kuntz wished they would have been more transparent about the process before he signed a lease.
“They might have even changed my idea on moving into this mall three months ago. I would have went somewhere else,” Kuntz explained.
Business owners told WREG they planned to get together this weekend to discuss their next moves, including hiring a lawyer.
