Weekly Update

Friends,

Earlier this week, Council voted to approve our broadband ordinance opening the door for much needed digital equity in our community.

As a reminder, the ordinance applies to any high-speed broadband network developer that will invest in an additional 60% citywide coverage and 60% low-income coverage areas. City Government will incentivize any interested company by reducing our costs through reductions in permitting fees and right-of-way fees. Additionally, we will streamline our process to allow a company to get to work faster.

By working with our partners Blue Suede Networks and Meridium who are planning to invest $750 million to provide fiber to the premises to 85 percent of our city, we will not only dramatically increase our download and upload speeds, but we are future proofing our infrastructure.

I want to thank City Council for their partnership; our City team, Blue Suede Networks and Meridium for all their work getting us to this point; and a special thank you to the late George Cates for having the foresight several years ago to really start us on this journey.

Holding Criminals Accountable Works:  As I have said many times, the missing piece of the puzzle on the law enforcement side of reducing crime is a lack of punishment and intervention from our court systems.  Here are a couple of examples of how other cities have turned things around.

First, for months, I have noted that MPD has arrested almost 2,400 people for car theft and breaking into cars in a recent 18-month period and that there has been little to no punishment or intervention for those criminals. San Francisco has shown that jail time reduces crime for car thefts.

Several months ago, the district attorney’s office in San Francisco changed its operations to begin, “vigorous prosecutions” of car thefts and break-ins. “Those people are being held responsible and are in custody as these cases move forward.  Prosecutors are filing detention motions to keep people in jail after they are charged…hoping to debilitate organized theft rings by removing the key players.”

“The results were staggering. Between Sep. 1 and Nov. 26, San Francisco logged 3,399 smash-and-grab reports, less than half of the 6,703 documented during the same time frame in 2022.”

Second, in Detroit, there was a large backlog of cases in the court system as a result of COVID. For the last two years, a concerted effort was made and eliminated the backlog on gun crime trials.  As a result, more offenders were held accountable, and homicides have been reduced by 18 percent. 

The Detroit mayor said, “We were making significant progress [reducing violent crime] before COVID, then all across America, violence soared….We know why: The criminal courts shut down. You couldn’t put 12 jurors in one room.  Also, it was hard to hire police officers.” 

The facts in these two cities sound familiar, and the remedies they used in their communities could have the same results here. Our judicial system is broken and needs systemic changes to uphold accountability and punishment for serious criminal behavior.

Multicultural Advisory Board: We recently held my final meeting with the Multicultural Advisory Board, a group initiated under this administration. In this time, the board has expanded to include 29 members representing diverse backgrounds and cultures from Cameroon to Vietnam, including various religious communities, individuals with diverse mobility needs, and an LGBTQ liaison.

The enriched composition, which incorporates groups like the Refugee Empowerment Program and Su Casa Memphis, underscores the board's commitment to inclusivity.

This group is led by President Kalimah Azeez Rashada and Vice President Vaneet Singh and under the guidance of Mayor's Community Outreach/Multicultural Affairs Manager Queen Keskessa. The board has successfully established key committees focusing on government affairs, education, and outreach. I want to thank them for their service and for their commitment to making our community more inclusive and welcoming to all.

Special moments: I want to say thank you to two neighborhood groups who gave our team special recognition this week at their meetings.

The first is Hyde Park Matters. They gave our city team (Steve Shular, Anniece Robinson, Joy Touliatos, Darius Jones, and me) the “Boots on the Ground” award for our eight-year partnership working with them to improve the neighborhood.

The second group is the Watchful Eye Neighborhood Association in Whitehaven. Thank you to this group for your partnership over the last eight years, and thank you for the beautiful card.

One of the highlights of this job is the people you get meet and the relationships you create over time. The people in these groups definitely fit into the highlight category. Thanks to Steve Shular for his work in growing and improving our relationships with our neighborhood groups.

A new addition: Please join us to introduce and celebrate the latest of Liberty Park’s developments--the Liberty Pocket Park. This new addition will open to the public this Sunday, December 10^th  and we will host a ribbon at 2:00 p.m. in sync with the one-year anniversary of the Memphis Sports & Events Center.

The park, located at 2388 Southern Avenue, at the corner of Southern and Early Maxwell Blvd., features a 1/5-mile walking trail and 10 pieces of interactive cardio equipment throughout the space.

The ribbon cutting is open to the public, weather-permitting. The Memphis Sports & Events Center will be open to the public from noon until 3:00 p.m., so hopefully you can visit both.

If you get a chance, I recommend visiting the new park, and while you’re there, see the additional new assets in Liberty Park, including new fields for football and soccer, as well as a new ninja gym course inside of Memphis Sports & Events Center.

Enjoy your weekend and hope to see you on Sunday!

Yours,