Mayor Strickland's Weekly Update

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Friends,

You may have seen yesterday that we celebrated another big win in our ongoing battle against blight. The long-vacant Pendleton Arms Apartments near Airways and Interstate 240 are coming down, and neighbors as well as the 150,000 drivers who pass by there each day will no longer have to see those gutted buildings.

Yet Thursday’s news leads me to a larger point I want to make in our regular Friday email.

If you've heard me give a speech in these past seven-plus months, you've probably heard me say that city government can’t solve all of the city’s issues alone. Our challenges are great; our resources are limited. That’s why we spend so much time working with partners for creative solutions.

Enter the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law’s Neighborhood Preservation Clinic. In a one-of-a-kind partnership that started with my predecessor, Mayor A C Wharton, law students prosecute blighted property cases on behalf of the city. The apartment complex we started to tear down Thursday was one such case. Clinic students are now involved in some 600 cases on behalf of the city -- 600 that we may not have been able to get to otherwise.

Partnerships like this one speak to how I view my role as mayor. I want to lead city government to do everything it can to make Memphis better, and work with partners to keep the momentum going. For example, we did that this summer with Literacy Mid-South, enabling its literacy pilot program to take root in seven community centers. It’s what I plan to do more and more of in the coming months and years, especially when it comes to providing opportunities for young people.

Never before in our history has there been so much energy to do great work in our city, from so many people and in so many different fields. As your mayor, I will continue to do everything I can to encourage and work with this momentum, so that we don’t let our limited resources keep us from tackling the issues that matter.

Back to blight for a second: It’s worth noting that just in 2016 alone, action has been taken on three highly visible properties in Memphis. In addition to Thursday’s announcement, demolition was recently completed on the long-vacant hotel near the Interstate 55 bridge, and the old United Warehouse eyesore on the south edge of Downtown is being converted to a U-Haul storage facility.

Here’s a before-and-after photo from the first building that was demolished Thursday:

BeforeAfter

Good luck, Coach Smith: Last week, I showed you a photo of my visit to the University of Memphis football team. Not to be outdone, Tiger basketball coach Tubby Smith came to my office Wednesday for a quick chat. Here's a photo of Coach Smith chatting with my special assistant for community affairs Ken Moody, a former Tiger, and me:

Tubby

Go Tigers Go!

You have to see this video: Watch this three-minute video from Shelby County Schools -- trust me.

Thank you, Officer Robinson, for the work you do for our police department every day, and the work you’re doing in the lives of these young people. And thank you for your service to our country -- we’ll be thinking of you.

Yours,

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