As his campaign was preparing for a major fund raiser at Memphis Botanic Garden Tuesday night, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton acknowledged publicly that he would be seeking a second full term in office.

"That's why you raise funds," said Wharton, 68. "The point is I don't talk about it because after that, everything becomes campaign related and we've got too much work to do."

A fundraising letter asked supporters to donate $1,000 to help Wharton "build a team of other elected officials, community leaders and organizations that share his vision."

Wharton said elections now are so expensive, fund raising must begin years in advance -- the next mayoral election will be in 2015 -- and that it was important that he keep his campaign structure intact.

"You've got to keep your election organization in place and you can't wait until the election to do it," he said.

The Memphis Botanic Garden was the scene of Wharton's election night celebration in 2011.

Citing his accomplishments as Shelby County mayor, Wharton won a special election in October 2009 to serve the remaining two years of former mayor Willie Herenton's last term.

In October 2011, Wharton defeated nine challengers and overcame strong union opposition to take his first full term in office with 65 percent of the vote. Wharton's closest competitor was former City Council member Edmund Ford Sr., who had the support of unions representing city workers and got 28 percent of the vote.

Wharton arrived in the mayor's office as the city faced dismal financial conditions, caused in part by the Memphis City Council's 2008 decision to hold back $57 million from Memphis City Schools, delivering an 18-cent tax break to residents while increasing city spending by $40 million.

This month, Wharton named a committee, working under Housing and Community Development director Robert Lipscomb, to lay the groundwork for a long-term strategic financial plan for the city.

Supporters listed on the host committee for Wharton's fundraiser included Gary Shorb, president and CEO of Memphis Healthcare; Ray Pohlman, vice president of government and community relations for AutoZone; businesswoman and philanthropist Gayle Rose; Tom Marshall, a former City Council member and principal at O.T. Marshall Architects; and current council members Harold Collins, Myron Lowry and Bill Morrison.

At the Botanic Garden Tuesday, retired Circuit Court Judge George Brown said he's watched Wharton develop over the decades.

"I've known (Wharton) since he was in law school," Brown said. "While I might disagree with him on certain positions, this community is blessed to have someone of his quality and character devote himself to public service."

At 15, Onzie Horne Jr. stood in his back yard on Mississippi Boulevard, sling blade in hand. The grass was taller than he was, with debris and brush mixed in. His father had told him to have the yard cleared by the time he returned.

"That was the day I decided I had to make something of myself because I couldn't do that for a living," Horne said.

As deputy director of Public Works Neighborhood Improvement for the city of Memphis, Horne, now 63, ended up clearing lots for a living anyway, but on a grand scale. This year, he organized crews to tackle overgrown properties and blight in 25-square-block areas across the city. And his crews will help restore the neighborhood of his memories, which has since been overtaken by poverty and crime.

Horne's childhood home is in one of the areas the city of Memphis is trying to revive with a $4.8 million grant from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private Bloomberg Foundation. (The grant, matched by $2.4 million of the city's money, also is aimed at reducing gun violence among youths.)

The funding will target the Madison Avenue corridor, Downtown and Binghamton, as well as a five-square-mile area in South Memphis, said Tommy Pacello, project manager of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton's Innovation Delivery Team.

Horne said the corner of Mississippi and Walker once tied his South Memphis community together, attracting travelers from all over the world, including celebrities like Horne's distant cousin, the late Lena Horne.

It was the site of a popular dry goods store, the Ritz Theater, Johnson's Pharmacy and Sundry and the Four Way Grill. Over time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Teddy Pendergrass, Redd Foxx and Isaac Hayes were among diners at the Four Way. It's the only original business still operating on the corner, though it has changed management.

"The Four Way was fine dining for African-Americans up to and through integration," Horne said. "The front door was the entrance to the café and the back door was the dining room entrance where the maître d' decided whether or not you could come in. The dining room had a dress code."

A few doors down from the historic corner, Elvis Presley and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority held annual fund-raisers at the Sarah Brown YWCA to provide children with eye glasses, Horne said.

Ida Dennis, who has lived in South Memphis more than 40 years, said she used to go to the Ritz on Mississippi Boulevard with her friends on weekends. After it closed, "We had to go all the way Downtown to the New Daisy Theater."

Pacello said the city has been working to fight "economic leakage," caused when community residents don't have resources in their own neighborhoods and are forced to spend money elsewhere.

"An unhealthy amount of money is being spent outside of their neighborhood," Pacello said of South Memphis. "It's a real hassle to go across town to go to the grocery store. … Businesses used to be there, you can see the store fronts that are empty."

The city's Bloomberg-supported neighborhood revival plan could focus on the South Memphis area on Mississippi between E. H. Crump Boulevard and Kerr Avenue, Pacello said. The plan will be modeled after the Broad Avenue project to encourage small businesses – "A New Face for an Old Broad – in the Binghamton area. Pacello said his team believes that such "tactical, small-scale, high-return strategies" can be replicated in neighborhoods like South Memphis.

"We have to be told by the community members what is needed," he said. "They're the experts."

Pacello said the city has been working with the Gibbs Planning Group, a firm that specializes in urban retail, to gather data to prepare the neighborhood for a comeback. Crime will make the area a "tough sell" for investors, Pacello said.

Mary Cashiola, city spokeswoman, said Mayor Wharton has targeted the area through Memphis City Beautiful; the city divisions of Public Works and Code Enforcement; and the fire and police departments.

"We are bringing all these efforts together so we can make a substantial difference," she said, noting that "cleaning the streets, taking care of abandoned buildings and cutting lots" are among the tasks.

"Our goal is to clean it, activate it, sustain it," she said.

Dennis said she used to walk up Mississippi to get her hair pressed and curled at the beauty shop, or to eat at Harlem House, a 24-hour restaurant, with her girlfriends for breakfast on weekends.

"I am very excited about the city's plans," she said. "I will have something to be proud of again."