Memphis Flyer

After being advised not to invest a portion the city’s $2.4 billion pension money in a local nonprofit’s investment fund, the city said the final decision will be up to the city’s pension investment committee.

The city was asked in December by the nonprofit Epicenter to allocate a portion of Memphis’ pension fund to a pool of money used to invest in entrepreneurs here.

Epicenter’s aim is to aid 1,000 entrepreneurs, including 500 new firms by 2025, while the nonprofit’s ultimate goal is to raise $100 million to fuel a 10-year strategy generating resources in and access to capital, talent, local customers, and technology commercialization.

The request by Epicenter for $10 million from both the city and county funds was reviewed by each administration’s respective adviser.

After a preliminary review, the city’s Atlanta-based pension consultant, Segal Marco Advisors, recommended on Friday that the city not invest the money into Epicenter’s fund, as the nonprofit doesn’t meet the city’s rules requiring that money be handled by organizations with “demonstrable financial stability” and a “competitive record of performance.”

In response to a Tuesday story in The Commercial Appeal entitled “Should city pension funds finance Memphis’ economic ambitions?,” which reported that “it’s too soon to say whether Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland will follow Atlanta-based pension consultant Segal Marco Advisors recommendation,” the city said on its Facebook page Wednesday that the decision is not the mayor’s:

“As this reporter was told, the mayor has no input in any pension investment,” the post reads. “The reporter was also informed the pension investment committee has the sole authority regarding investment of pension funds, and that the mayor is not on the committee.

“In addition, based on the advice of the adviser, the chief financial officer will not present investment to the committee. End of story.”

The Memphis City Council extended a public art moratorium for the second time Tuesday.

The moratorium inhibits any new public art projects — with the exception of a few pre-approved projects — from going up in the city without council approval.

Councilman Berlin Boyd said he’s been working to integrate new language into the guidelines for public artwork in the city that will “help curtail future issues.”

“It just needs to be clear and concise as to what can be drawn and painted on public structures and in public community [spaces],” Boyd said.

Justin Fox Burks

Karen Golightly, director of Paint Memphis with zombie mural city council members called ‘satanic.’

The first 120-day moratorium was implemented in March 2018 after the council publicly criticized one organization’s murals. The council deemed a handful of murals sanctioned by the nonprofit Paint Memphis as offensive and, in some cases, “satanic.” Some of the less popular murals featured Elvis Presley with a snake coming from his orifices, a cow skull, a dancing skeleton, and a zombie.

The hold was originally implemented to establish a “road map” or legislation that regulates art in public spaces done by outside entities, Boyd said at the time.

Now, nearly a year after the first moratorium was approved, Boyd said the new language is close to completion.

The council also began discussion in its executive session of adding a second vice-chairperson — an idea proposed by newly appointed chair Kemp Conrad. Conrad said it’s something that’s been talked about before in past years, but never been implemented.

“If the chairman’s out of town and the vice chair is running the meeting, then who is the vice chair and what happens if that person is incapacitated?” Conrad said.

The committee recommended the proposal for approval and the full council will vote on it at its February 5th meeting.

The council also approved a $50 million loan for a 2,000-space garage — a piece of the Union Row project.

Funding the garage is vital step in moving forward with the near $1 billion project, developers said Tuesday. The funds will be from a $100 million pool of money set aside for projects that is set to be replenished with 3 percent interest payments over a 45-year period.

LRK

Rendering Union Row

The council voted 8-1 in favor of the loan. Martavius Jones voted no and Joe Brown abstained. Jones expressed concern over using that much of the $100 million for one project.

“I’m in total support of the Union Row project, but I do have some concerns,” Jones said. “If we have a total of $100 million for parking projects, we are essentially tying up what would be 50 percent of our available funding for this one particular project.”

However, Jennifer Oswalt, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) said the DMC has already accounted for five or six tentative projects that could be off the ground soon.

Memphis is the 11th most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians, according to a report released Wednesday.

Produced by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Street Coalition, the report called Dangerous by Design ranks states and big cities using a Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI). The PDI measures how deadly it is for people to walk in a certain place based on the number of people struck and killed by drivers while walking.

The number of people living in an area and the number of people who walk to work there are used to calculate the PDI. Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System used for the report dates from 2008 to 2017.

Tennessee comes in at the 12th most dangerous state for pedestrians, but Memphis is the state’s only city to make the list of cities. With 297 pedestrian deaths between 2008 and 2017, Memphis’ PDI is 184, up about 31 points from the number reported in the 2016 Dangerous by Design.

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Other cities on the list include Jackson, Mississippi at number 10, North Little Rock in 19th place, and Orlando, which comes in at the most dangerous city for pedestrians in the United States and has a PDI of 313. The report shows that the majority of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians are in the South, concentrated in Florida. Cities on the list outside the South include Detroit, Albuquerque, and Bakersfield.

Across the country, drivers struck and killed a total of 49,340 pedestrians between 2008 and 2017, which is the equivalent of a large jet of people crashing and dying every single month during the nine-year period, according to the report.

Of the nearly 50,000 pedestrians who were killed nationwide between 2008 and 2017, the report cites that older adults, people of color, and people in low-income communities represent a disproportionate number.

It is almost twice as dangerous for people over 75 years old than it is for the general population to walk, the report says. While, people of color, specifically American-Indian and African-American pedestrians, have a PDI of 33 and 18.3 respectively, compared to the general population with a PDI of just under 15.

Finally, analyzing where pedestrian fatalities occur relative to the median household income of the surrounding area, the report found that people die while walking at much higher rates in lower-income communities compared to higher-income ones.

2019 Dangerous by Design

“This is unsurprising, given that low-income communities are significantly less likely than higher income communities to have sidewalks, marked crosswalks, and street design to support safer, slower speeds, also known as traffic calming,” the report says.

Since 2009, pedestrian deaths have risen steadily. Meanwhile, traffic fatalities for those in cars decreased during those years.

The report concludes that people aren’t walking more, but people are driving slightly — or 8.1 percent — more than in 2008.

2019 Dangerous by Design

The report suggests that instead of allowing streets that are dangerous for pedestrians to continue to be built that the federal government should prioritize creating safer streets by implementing performance measures, producing more high-quality data on street conditions where fatalities occur, and dedicating more funding to projects that support walking, biking, transit, and other modes of transportation.

“This year, Congress has a major opportunity to reshape our mobility future as they begin the work of reauthorizing our federal transportation bill in 2020,” the report reads. “To address our continuing safety problems, they must create policies that change the way we fund, design, and measure the success of our streets nationwide to make sure the safety of all people who use the street including people walking, is our highest priority.

“It is our hope that this report will inspire communities across the country to take action. Policymakers at the federal, state, and local level can and should do more to ensure streets are designed and operated to protect the safety of all people who use them regardless of age, ability, income, race, ethnicity, or mode of transportation.”