I heard the blues at B.B. King's. I sopped The Little Tea Shop's cornbread in the turnip greens' pot likker. I watched The Peabody's mallards march and -- naturally -- I went to Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum.

Although none of that makes me a true Memphian -- a great phrase -- after an eight-day visit this month, I have a richer appreciation for the city's complex history and traditions. I came to Memphis as one of 12 Knight Fellows in Community Building, a mid-career program in planning and urban design based at the University of Miami. (I'm not a planner, but a journalist who writes about cities and growth, mostly in my hometown of Charlotte, N.C.)

Our project was to run a charrette -- an odd term architects use to mean an intense, public community planning session -- for a neighborhood that lies between St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center.

Some are starting to call the area Intown. Others call it Winchester Park. Whatever you call it, it's a challenging site bordered by North Parkway, Interstate 240, Jefferson Avenue and Danny Thomas Boulevard. The medical and educational institutions have expanded, and as a result huge areas hold only institutions and parking lots. To create an honest-to-goodness neighborhood is a tough order.

Much of the housing nearby is in deplorable shape. Crime and poverty rates are high. Some houses look abandoned. Trash is piled in vacant lots. The people who live and work there want something better.

The charrette team of architects, students and Knight Fellows spent days listening, sketching and sometimes arguing about ways to improve the area's look and the lives of its residents. I have to brag a little: What we produced is visionary but practical. (More information is at www.arc.miami.edu/knight and at urbanartcommission.org.)

During all our work, I began to notice some patterns that seemed significant to all of Memphis, not just one small neighborhood. For instance, as I learned about Winchester Park/Intown, I began to envision the junk drawer we have in our kitchen, and I bet you do, too. It holds an unorganized jumble of things, many of them useful, that don't fit elsewhere: pencil stubs, skewers, screwdrivers and so on.

For decades Winchester Park/Intown has been Memphis' junk drawer. Yes, any city needs water plants, maintenance yards, electric substations, public housing, homeless shelters, juvenile courts and freeways. One of those things won't devastate a neighborhood. But put too many in one small area, and who'd want to live there? It translates into lower property values, and thus lower property tax revenue.

As a long-term city strategy, it's dumb.

If, as I expect, Memphis' leaders want to boost their tax base, they should push to ensure that the Winchester Park/Intown recommendations are put into place. The area can, over time, become one where people choose to live, work and visit. And they should make sure no other neighborhood ever becomes a municipal junk drawer.

Here's something else I learned: Memphis is not doing right by its street trees. City officials told us no department is responsible for maintaining trees planted in street rights of way. Pardon my rudeness, but that's nuts.

In fact, Memphis has a proud history of caring for some of its trees. The National Historic Register parkway system and its trees are bragging points on the city's Web site. But the rest of the street trees languish, and many streets have no trees at all, especially near Downtown. The 95- to 100-degree temperatures during our visit made obvious why they're needed. Their shade lowers street temperatures 4 to 7 degrees. Trees make walking more attractive. They tend to slow motorists. They reduce stormwater runoff, absorb air pollutants and raise property values.

For a healthy future, Memphis must figure out how to plant and maintain trees along its streets.

Like all cities, mine included, Memphis has problems, civic blind spots and cranky local customs that baffle outsiders. Since I'm just an out-of-towner, I don't know enough local politics to prescribe how best to create a street trees program, or how to pull Winchester Park from its slump and start solving the poverty and blight I witnessed.

But I have faith in cities in general, and yours in particular. Memphis, especially Downtown, is experiencing a remarkable revival. It was thrilling to see it -- like watching a friend who's been seriously ill recover and start running marathons. The revival is spreading into areas such as Uptown and -- I hope -- Winchester Park/Intown.

Memphis has too much to offer -- in history, culture and goodwill -- to rest easy while Winchester Park or other areas sink into unrecoverable despair. The charrette is giving you a road map for one neighborhood. I hope you can use it.

BIO INFO Mary Newsom is an associate editor for The Charlotte Observer. Read her Urban Outlook columns and her blog, The Naked City, at charlotte.com. Reach her at mnewsom@charlotteobserver.com.