The Memphis City Council Chair's Recap for December 6, 2016

Good evening,

We’re in the holiday spirit here at City Council, wrapping up the City’s work for calendar year 2016. I’ll say more about this after my final meeting, but it has truly been an honor to serve the City as your Council Chairman this year. Please see below for today’s update.

Memphis Championship Celebration Week: Memphians across the City—from District 2 to District 5 and District 7 to District 3—are celebrating the success of our high school student athletes, who made history the past two weeks by going 4-0 in Tennessee State football championship games. The Council was honored this afternoon to recognize the coaches and player-leaders at Trezevant, East, and Whitehaven (with Lausanne to be honored soon)! Please join those players, coaches, friends, family, and their entire communities in celebrating at the parade this Saturday, starting at 10am at the SCS offices near Union and Hollywood.

Reimagining a Sacred Civic Space: If you haven’t already heard, the historic Clayborn Temple in downtown Memphis is being reactivated and reinvigorated, and I was delighted to join many fellow Councilmembers in a tour there over lunch today. There are popup activities throughout the month: we hope you too will check those out.

 

Energy Burden’s Impact on Children and Health: Councilwoman Robinson’s MLGW Committee hosted one further discussion on the topic of energy burden this morning, bringing together community leaders from MLGW’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee, Le Bonheur’s CHAMP program, and Habitat for Humanity’s “Aging in Place” team. The impact of poor housing through high bills, a proliferation of allergens in the home, and forcing families and elders out of their houses is interconnected and cannot be overstated. It impacts education, it impacts health, and it impacts quality of life. Pay attention in the coming weeks, as I understand Councilwoman Robinson will soon bring a solution before the Council that will push forward progress on this topic.

In other news:

• The Council heard nine items in Planning & Zoning today, a sign of the continued activity, development, and investment taking place in the City of Memphis today: it’s an exciting time!
• Included in those nine items were two hotel reuse projects downtown, just two of dozens of active hotel projects in downtown and across the City

Have a great week and thanks for calling Memphis home. Sincerely,