We, as the largest historical district in Memphis, Tennessee, do not need one of our visible corners in the heart of our neighborhood to fall to decay and neglect.  Shuttered windows and doors at the corner of Cooper and Young is to say the very least insensitive to our growth.  It is an abomination that the Bank of America would even consider this action.

This action will hurt us in attracting new businesses to our area, will alienate prospective residents to our area, and will disenfranchise our current and future patrons to our area.  Hundreds of people have worked for 4 decades in an effort to bring back the Cooper Young Historic District after being red-lined by the banks and deemed "a neighborhood in decline" by the City of Memphis.  Having an empty building at our historic intersection will slam us back to the 1970s where razor-wire, vacant business parcels and slum housing was the norm in Cooper Young.

The Cooper Young Historic District is the "poster child of redevelopment for the City of Memphis."  The Cooper Young Historic District is made up of 187 business parcels.  The independent business owners and the 3,400 households consisting of some 6,400+ residents have banned together to bring this area back.  In the 1970s, our census tracts were lower income and now they are two middle and one upper income tracts.  In the 1990s, our Development Corporation with over $1.5 million dollars in grant money rebuilt and repaired a fourth of the homes in the area.  In 2012, we received the honor of being named "One of the Top Ten Neighborhoods in America" by the American Planning Association.  Just this week, one of our non-profits, New Ballet Ensemble, received one of the highest honors from the White House - The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

We need your support to tell the Bank of America it is OK to close their branch but don't keep the ATM and leave our historic district with an abandoned office and drive-thru ATM.  This closed office will fall to decay and neglect and criminal behavior in the very heart of the Cooper Young neighborhood!