Weekly Update

Friends,

Remember last week, when I described all the ways we’re an Opportunity City?

I want to continue to get the word out on that. So our team developed a quick-and-simple website with connections to many of the opportunities that exist in our city, and we’re debuting it in today’s email.

It’s opportunitymemphis.com.

Share it with someone who could benefit. Spread it to your neighborhood association or to your church. Post it on social media.

We need you to help us tell others about the opportunities that exist in our city.

Marveling at our momentum: There have been a handful of stories in the media recently about the momentum our city is enjoying, and I want to make sure you saw them. Such as:

• Shay Arthur’s story on WREG.com describes some new commercial development -- and the growing demand for homes in our city.
• In The Commercial Appeal, Tom Bailey outlines work that started this week on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s westward expansion. Remember, our $25 million infrastructure investment in the Pinch is helping to enable this.
• Frayser is due for “the first development of its kind … in more than three decades,” the Memphis Daily News reports. In a project we supported before the EDGE board, a shopping center anchored by a grocery store should break ground next year.

And those are just stories that ran this week! There is, of course, the ongoing rehab of the old Peabody Place mall for ServiceMaster, the opening of Crosstown Concourse, the cranes we see at Methodist University Hospital, the steel being put in place for a new shopping center in Binghampton, the massive new Elvis Presley Enterprises developments in Whitehaven, and the always-growing South End.

Remember, Cushman & Wakefield’s inventory of recent, current and future development says we have about $9 billion going on in our region right now -- with the large majority inside the city limits of Memphis.

We have momentum -- and you can see it all around.

Sharing congratulations: Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I congratulated our Finance Division for the national honor it received for our Certified Annual Financial Report? I left out someone who needed the credit: Shirley Ford, our comptroller. Sorry, Shirley -- and congrats!

Taking to the road: I often get asked if recruiting out-of-town is a focus of our renewed police recruiting efforts. The answer is simple: Yes! In fact, our recruiters will be in Little Rock, Jackson and Birmingham next week.

Will you sign the pledge? Pedestrian safety -- and really, the safety of all users of our streets -- is important to me. We have too many pedestrians injured or, unfortunately, killed on our streets every year.

That’s why I bring to light an initiative of the Memphis Medical District Collaborative — the Be Aware initiative, our city's first implementation of the national Vision Zero campaign to eliminate all pedestrian fatalities by 2020. Be Aware seeks to increase awareness of pedestrians in the Medical District, which we all know is an active pedestrian community of residents, medical employees, patients, and guests.

For the safety of all Memphians, will you Swear to be Aware?

Thank you, councilman: The best accomplishments are collaborative efforts, which is why I was proud to help mark the completion of the Sentinel program that has placed 70 new SkyCop cameras all across our city. (We used MPD data to determine the placement of these cameras.)

Councilman Philip Spinosa did the heavy lifting on this project, which benefits our entire city.

Celebrating the holiday: As you celebrate our nation’s independence this July 4, I hope you’ll enjoy one of the many fireworks displays or parades that take place all across our city. I also hope you’ll note the garbage collection changes -- Tuesday customers of city crews will have their collection on Wednesday, with no other days affected; and Inland Waste Solutions customers from Tuesday on will have their collection delayed a day.

Yours,