Weekly Update

Friends,

It is in times of adversity that a person’s character is revealed. Over the last several weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to see that character over and over again by witnessing so many acts of kindness, generosity, and Memphians coming together to do what we do best—roll up our sleeves, and get the job done.

Over the course of my time as mayor, I’ve talked in this space often about running a data-driven government, a government that moves at the speed of business, and a government that is willing and able to adapt to the challenges at hand.

During these last several weeks, I have seen the character of our City of Memphis employees. They truly embody the words “Memphis Strong” and they have more than adapted to our current challenges. Whether it is our men and women of MPD or Memphis Fire bravely protecting our city, our Solid Waste employees making sure our trash is picked up, our Code Enforcement Officers working to implement Safer at Home, our roughly 40 employees who have been serving as contact tracers for the Shelby County Health Department, or our many members of library and parks staff that have helped package and deliver thousands of meals to Shelby County Schools’ children and those in need—I could not be more proud and honored to have the privilege of working alongside them every single day.

Thank you are two words that we can never say enough, and in this Friday’s email, I wanted to say a very heartfelt thank you from a very grateful mayor.

To our City employees—thank you for everything you do.

MPD Awards: Recently, the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance notified us that the Memphis Police Department had been selected as the 2020 Destination Zero award winner in the category of Officer Traffic Safety.

This award is presented to the law enforcement agency that has taken proactive measures to demonstrate a program’s success in improving officer traffic-related safety practices. As a result of implementing our officer traffic safety programs in 2018 MPD has since reduced their officer at- fault crashes by 20%.

In addition to winning this award, MPD was recently awarded the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) hiring grant through the U.S. Department of Justice for $9.8 million spread over three years. That brings us to a total of $13 Million in grants this year alone.

Breaking down the numbers: Below is a chart that takes a look at our data points over the last several weeks.

Counts per day	Tests Reported		Test Positivity Rate (%)	Confirmed Cases	Estimated COVID Hospitalized	Estimated COVID ICU Hospitalized	Deaths
4/2/2020	150		7.5	2
4/3/2020	1022		-29	66	83	28
4/4/2020	335		9.8	48	83	28
4/5/2020	401		14.4	35	99.2	33.1
4/6/2020	439		6.7	56	91.8	35
4/7/2020	559		11.4	52	99.4	38.4	3
4/8/2020	729		7.9	52	120.6	43.5	2
4/9/2020	1303		11.4	100	126.2	48	2
4/10/2020	555		8.5	98	122.4	48	1
4/11/2020	343		10.4	69	118	54	0
4/12/2020	849		12.5	53	104	48.4	0
4/13/2020	737		17.9	82	102	40.4	4
4/14/2020	653		13.5	81	101.6	40.4	1
4/15/2020	585		14.9	76	100.3	46.2	1
4/16/2020	1386		9.8	108	102.5	49.8	3
4/17/2020	354		8.5	115	100.7	49.8	2
4/18/2020	805		5.9	35	107.7	50.1	0
4/19/2020	983		9.3	41	114.4	40.8	1
4/20/2020	621		6.7	50	102.8	44.4	1
4/21/2020	499		7.9	37	91.3	40.5	2
4/22/2020	446		7.5	37	101.4	42.2	0
4/23/2020	894		5	50	101.9	45.1	2
4/24/2020	855		14	57	99.4	42.2	1
4/25/2020	1460		4.9	95	104.9	42.2	1
4/26/2020	1329		11.5	187	95.1	41.5	0
4/27/2020	449		4.6	38	105.7	41.2	1
4/28/2020	733		5.7	45	112.7	43.5	0
4/29/2020	1643		3.1	81	112.2	48.8	1
4/30/2020	1306		6.2	72	103.8	47.1	3
5/1/2020	1347		5.8	98	116.2	54.5	3
5/2/2020	1483		9.6	95	110.3	51	0
5/3/2020	1636		7.1	101	115.5	49.8	0
5/4/2020	641		4.7	72	113.4	45.7	4
5/5/2020	691		5.4	26	118.5	46.5	1
5/6/2020	1650		5	92	122.1	46	6
5/7/2020	1467		7	73	114.8	46.2	2
5/8/2020	616		3	27	121.9	51.3	1
5/9/2020	1435		3.5	90	112.1	51.9	0
5/10/2020	1843		3.8	85	103.8	48.2	0
5/11/2020	1667		5.3	106	117.9	51.6	5
5/12/2020	1212		6.4	41	123.7	52.9	4
5/13/2020	1326		4.9	61	141.6	52.5	2
5/14/2020	1686		5.4	46	120.6	53.6	4
5/15/2020	1634		3.3	72	126.5	42.7	2
5/16/2020	1775		6.4	78	123.8	48.6	0
5/17/2020	738		5.2	42	122.6	48.8	1
5/18/2020	2565		4	116	141.2	48.2	3
5/19/2020	1701		1.6	128	153.9	56.9	0
5/20/2020	1424			29	156.5	56.7	3
5/21/2020	1400			49	147.8	54.3	0
Data Source: Shelby County Health Department.
Bureau of Epidemiology and Emergency Preparedness
*Estimated COVID Hospitalized are COVID positive and 20% of Persons of Interest (suspected positives) in hospital with pending results. *Estimated COVID ICU Hospitalized are COVID positive and 20% of Persons of Interest (suspected positives) in ICU with pending results. The COVID ICU hospitalized cases are a subset of All hospital cases”

Continuing the momentum: I know many of you are staying home and not driving around as much as you normally would. But, to see a reminder of our city’s momentum all you have to do is get out and take a stroll around town. Below are some highlights to help jog your memory.

Our Renasant Convention is truly transforming before our very eyes each day (on time and on budget I might add). Last week, we removed the clock tower on Main Street to make room for entry to the new Loews Hotel once completed. The Memphian in Overton Square is coming along nicely. In April, Collage Dance Collective was issued a building permit for their new 20,000 square foot studio facility in Binghampton at Tillman and Sam Cooper, and a $50 million addition to the UPS package delivery center at the Memphis International Airport moved forward to construction.

This month, work continued on the new Amazon facility in Raleigh with an additional construction permit for the building systems, and Hyosung HICO received a building permit for an industrial addition valued at $10 million on the former Mitsubishi facility at Pidgeon Industrial Park.

Overall, investment and construction have continued to move forward throughout our city over the last three months, in part enabled by the Division of Planning and Development’s efforts to launch a temporary online permitting system. The new system will soon expand to offer full service and remote video inspections to keep our inspectors and the community safe while the momentum continues to move forward.

Over the last few months, we have taken some hits due to the pandemic, but we’re still in the fight. All those projects (and those are just a few) are proof positive of that fact.

Memorial Day: As we move into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, please take time to remember and honor the many brave men and women who paid the ultimate price so that we can enjoy the many freedoms being an American affords us.

I know many of you will be spending time with family and friends over the weekend to remember those brave men and women, and you should. All I ask is that you do so safely—maintain social distancing, wash your hands thoroughly, and if you’re not feeling well, stay home.

Stay safe, and stay strong, Memphis.

Yours,