Some decisions we make in our lives are easy, while some are more difficult. For Eric R. Coleman, 45, a medically retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer (E-8), the decision to assume the responsibility of raising his only daughter was a no-brainer. There was no decision to be made, it was just the next logical step to take in his life at the time. “I recently retired from the military,” said Coleman who was running marathons before leaving his daughter to go off in deployment. “Life changes and I come back from deployment in a wheelchair. My daughter has been through a lot. It has been tough on all of us.” Coleman had narrowed his search down to three homes in Shelby County and chose one that was near an elementary school to purchase. “At the time my daughter was in elementary school,” said Coleman who was married and was able to rely on his former spouse as a support mechanism for his daughter during his deployment. “Bartlett has been our home for the past five years. I chose to move to the Bartlett community because I had found a house that was conveniently located right around the corner from an elementary school which allowed me to be able to drop by to pick my daughter up on my way home from work.” Coleman likes to be an active he served our nation in uniform, hands-on service by volunteering St. Jude Children’s Research and Literary Memphis. One of his Adopt-A-School program with a provided opportunities for support a reading program. Even knows his current and future provide enough for he and his “Because we’re blessed, I feel said Coleman when discussing receive if elected as the next Sentakes bipartisanship to make our Whitehaven resident Lorenzo Caldwell (right with arm extended) discusses the lack of need for residential units and desire to return the exodus of stable entities of family, sit-down type restaurants and entertainment needs for museums and other amenities in Whitehaven during the Thursday evening, January 24, 2019, forum session for the Memphis 3.0 plan for Whitehaven as Alexander Preudhomme of Opticous (center), District Planning staff member Angelica Carey (beige sweater), Abundant Grace Fellowship Church Communications Director Arnest Martin (far left) and entrepreneur and real estate agent Sherrill Walker (rear facing forward) listen to his suggestions. Did You Know? Whitehaven Plaza Planning into Action, a series of district planning sessions ran from April through June 2018. During those months, City of Memphis staff planners Melanie Batke and Angelica Carey were joined by Neili Jones, a local artist making themselves available to discuss concerns specific to the area that assisted them in developing a comprehensive plan. Self + Tucker Architects provided their expertise on building and design and led three district workshops. During the first workshop, residents and stakeholders identified the strong, weak, and areas of opportunity in the district. Relying on the areas identified in the first workshop, the second workshop was a community led tour hosted by the planning team and included discussions on the types of changes the community identified. Four areas of Whitehaven were identified by those in attendance as anchors. The third workshop allowed attendees to confirm the previously identified anchors and to add any additional anchors found. Discussions concerning what actions should occur at each anchor in the future and the prioritizing of the timing of which actions would move the district forward were the main topics. It was during this meeting that the Whitehaven Plaza was chosen as the anchor that would propel the most change in the area. The result, with existing building footprints remaining, included the addition of new multi-story commercial and approx. 209 new residential units. Future development would include existing and new pedestrian refuge and crossings that would decrease block sizes at the Elvis Presley and Raines intersection, offer additional pedestrian safety, street trees for shade and to block wind creating a more enjoyable public space, wider sidewalks, greater access, curb extensions, bicycle lanes, and lower speeds through the addition of a median with tree plantings for a parkway designation. One to five story buildings abutting the streetscape combined with a planted median or curb extensions shrink the space to a more enjoyable human scale by creating vibrant walkable spaces where people are encouraged to stay and mingle promoting economically stable conditions over the long term for the anchor. For additional information, visit memphis3point0.com, email info@memphis3point0.com, or call (901) 636-6100. To watch videos from the final day’s presentation, visit here. 14 part of the community. Not only has he serves our community through at the Ronald McDonald House, with LeBonheur Children’s Hospital, and many efforts includes developing an local elementary school that locally stationed service members to without his active duty pay, Coleman level of economic stability will daughter to live comfortably. that blessing must be paid forward,” the additional income he would ate District 32 representative. “It government run effectively. I’m running for this position to restore balance to the legislature so all voices are represented. It is something we can do together. It’s a small salary, but it would just be greedy for me to accept it and just use it as more money to spend or more money to save. If elected, I plan to donate my salary to charity after taking out for my travel and related expenses.” The upper house of Tennessee’s General Assembly is called the Senate. Tennessee is divided into 33 senatorial districts, each district is represented by one person serving a four-year term. To qualify for election to the Senate, a person must be 30 years old, a U.S. citizen, a state resident for three years, a qualified voter, and a resident of the district in which he or she is asking to be elected in for one year immediately preceding his or her election. A special primary election for TN Senate District 32 was held January 24, 2019, and the special general election for the seat will be held on March 12, 2019. Early voting will begin February 20th. District 32 covers Shelby and Tipton County, the Metro Memphis area, and the cities of Bartlett where Coleman resides, Covington, Gilt Edge, Lakeland, Memphis, Millington, and Munford, several districts, and the towns of Arlington, Atoka, Brighton, Burlison, Collierville, Garland, and Mason. The actual ZIP Codes of people eligible to vote for the next District 32 candidate includes 38002, 38004, 38011, 38015, 38016, 38017, 38019, 38023, 38028, 38029, 38049, 38053, 38058, 38069, 38125, 38128, 38133, 38134, 38135, 38139, and 72338. “A grassroots campaign cannot survive without the help of citizens motivated for change. You are encouraged to help us achieve our goal of victory on March 12th by getting involved where opportunities arise.” For more information or to make a donation to fund this mission, click here or visit Eric Coleman online at www.ericcoleman.org. 23
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