Weekly Update

Friends,

Tomorrow is an important day in Memphis.

I’ll be at Crosstown Concourse -- you may remember it as the old Sears Crosstown building -- for a couple of ribbon cuttings as the amazing rehabilitation of that massive building comes online. I’ll join Mama Gaia restaurant, and then Church Health.

It’ll be a spring and summer full of ‘firsts’ for Crosstown Concourse, which will formally hold its grand opening celebration in August. But it’s only fitting that we have celebration after celebration leading up to that, given just how big of a deal this is for our city -- particularly our core city.

I’m proud of city government’s role in Crosstown Concourse. When I was on the City Council, I voted for our participation, which will create more than 700 new jobs. Our investments are directed toward development-enabling infrastructure, which is a hallmark of how we operate.

Crosstown Concourse will create jobs, spur growth in a core city neighborhood, help people through great organizations like Church Health, and become another great amenity in a city full of them. What’s not to love about that?

Speaking of the core city: We’re proud to be part of a group that’s sponsoring the arrival of the Incremental Development Alliance in town next week for a pair of seminars. IncDev’s programming has a simple goal: To equip would-be developers with the tools to develop real estate on the smaller scale.

As much as we rightfully celebrate the impact of a big project like Crosstown Concourse, it’s important that we do what we can to enable smaller projects. This program seeks to help knock down some of the barriers.

If you’re interested, sign up here. I’m planning on dropping by.

Our fight against crime continues: Our large police recruiting class -- Memphis' largest in seven years -- is a major item in our fight against violent crime in the short term. But it’s also worth noting two other items that took place this week that are major events in our community’s collective fight against crime: a Multi-Agency Gang Unit investigation shut down a nuisance gang drug house in Southwest Memphis; and the U.S. Attorney’s office indicted 14 alleged gang members after an extensive drug trafficking investigation.

Compromise is key: You probably saw this in the news earlier this week, but our administration was proud to play the role of bringing both sides to a compromise in the disagreements over proposed changes to the ordinance that governs when the city and labor associations can’t reach agreements. No side got all of what it wanted, but we all agreed that moving forward together beats the alternative.

This is proof of our commitment to compromise for the good of our city.

Take the survey: Director Rallings wants to hear from you. Take a couple of minutes to answer this survey about what you consider to be reasonable force used by an officer. (And at the end of the survey, enter this code: MEMCIV17.) The more MPD hears from you, the better our policies can be.

Thank you, Mayor Wharton: It was our honor this week to unveil the portrait of former Mayor A C Wharton in the Hall of Mayors. As I told the crowd, Mayor Wharton is a credit to his family, to his profession, and to Memphis. I thank him, as I hope you do, for his years of service to Memphis and Shelby County.

See you at FedExForum: I’m excited to be heading to FedExForum for tonight’s NCAA South Regional games -- and I’m proud to welcome Butler, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA to town! I’ll be visiting with NCAA officials tonight, and I plan to let them know how thankful we are that they’re here -- and how much we hope to see them again soon.

This morning, we had a special visitor at City Hall -- Butler Blue 3, Butler's bulldog mascot!

Yours,