Tag: Mayor Jim Strickland

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Circular Firing Squad

CREDIT: Featureflash | Dreamstime

It’s really hard to believe that the mayor of Memphis would denounce “outside agitators” and make a stand against activists wanting to take down the city’s confederate statues. I mean, how tone-deaf can you be?

I’m speaking, of course, of former Mayor Willie Herenton, who, in 2005, used that epithet to describe the Rev. Al Sharpton, who’d come to Memphis to support local activists who wanted to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis statues and rename the city parks where they stood.

Sharpton’s response to Herenton: “You need outside agitators when you don’t have enough inside agitators. Don’t get mad at us for doing your job.”

I think it’s safe to say Memphis now has a sufficiency of “inside agitators.” The persistent and vocal push to remove the Forrest and Davis statues has reached critical mass, having gained support from current Mayor Jim Strickland, the Memphis City Council, and even Governor Bill Haslam.

It’s been a long time coming. I did a little casual research on the Flyer website and noted that the paper has been reporting on and editorializing about this issue since at least the mid-1990s, when we first began putting our content online.

There have always been those who took a stand against the statues, but for years their voices were buried by bureaucracy and stymied by local politics and well-organized and well-funded opposition from confederate supporters. No more.

It seems inevitable now: The statues will come down in Memphis, as they are coming down all over the country. The devil is in the details and the timing.

We would not have gotten to this point if not for people willing to take a stand; people willing to make other people uncomfortable; people willing to confront the status quo. Through their persistence and courage — and the inadvertant “help” of those using confederate symbols in conjunction with acts of terrorism and murder — more and more people are coming to realize that too often it’s not “heritage” that’s being served by these symbols and monuments — it’s racism and tacit veneration of white supremacy and slavery. And more people are supporting the idea that decisions about such symbols should be made by local municipalities, and not subject to the whims of rural state legislators whose values are not those of most Memphians.

I think it’s important at this juncture that the disparate forces moving to make the statues come down do all they can to avoid the “circular firing squad.” The goal has been agreed to. The agenda is no longer in question. How and when we get there is what is still in dispute. But those with a mutual goal should avoid demonizing each other. That just muddies the water, weakens the process, and strengthens the opposition.

The mayor and the administration seem bent on taking the battle to court, challenging the Tennessee Historical Commission’s 2016 ruling against the city. Activists want more immediate measures taken — ceding the park land to private conservancies, for example, or just removing the statues and dealing with the legal consequences afterward.

It would help if, instead of attacking each other and creating more divisiveness between folks who have a common stated goal, the various contingents could work together to find mutual ground, say, agree upon a date by which the statues must come down, one way or another. A good target, in my opinion, would be March, 2018, at the latest — prior to the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in our city.

Let’s all agitate in the same direction. We’ll get there faster.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

“Fed Up” Falls Short

The issue of violent crime here in Memphis, particularly that of gun crime, has once again given birth to another “approach” aimed at reducing the numbers of Memphians killed on our city’s streets.

The “Fed Up” campaign, with its message of intense investigations and tough prosecution, as well as its promise of longer and stiffer sentences, has been introduced as a way to curtail violence and to put into place measures that will let the world know we are “anti-crime” here in the Bluff City.

Raumesh Akbari

Mayor Jim Strickland, District Attorney General Amy Weirich, and the Crime Commission here in Shelby County are supporting this campaign and have plans to promote it heavily in weeks to come.

Will it work? This campaign follows a bill passed by the General Assembly that, among other things, calls for enhanced punishment with longer sentencing. Will the infusion of $15 million of taxpayers’ money (the legislation’s fiscal note) in order to put people behind bars for longer periods of time actually bring about the anticipated decrease in crime?

Does this equation — Increased Incarceration = Decrease in Crime — reflect the result we’re looking to get in the interest of public safety?
 
I believe our leaders are being responsible in their efforts to rid our communities of guns and the carnage that results from the violent use of these weapons. I believe that if you commit a crime with a weapon, that should mean jail time. Definitely.

However, I see two fallacies in this latest approach. One, it does nothing for the underlying issues that cause criminal behavior — issues based on social deviances, a lack of conflict-resolution skills, a resistance to education and training, and familial problems. Data has shown that honing reasoning skills among children at an early age, especially when those skills are reinforced as they grow older, has a lasting effect throughout their lives.

Many crimes occur when people know each other, from arguments and retaliatory moves. Training in social skills, through education and programs, could get at the problem early in life, helping to stifle the violent reactions displayed by many of our young people today.

Two, under the Fed-Up approach, the nonviolent offense of possession of a weapon by a person with a previous felony conviction could qualify that person for a longer, extended sentence. Mere possession, not perpetration of a crime in these cases, could land a person behind bars for years. How many people will this affect? And do the funds expended for this possession show “best use” of the money?

Then there is another factor: societal re-entry, the process of putting able-bodied, formerly incarcerated persons back to work. My assistant at the legislature tells me that more than half of the calls we receive at our office deal with persons wanting to clear their records so that they can work to feed their families, support themselves, and re-enter their communities as contributing citizens.

One of the bills I passed during the first half of this Assembly reduced the amount of money needed to expunge criminal records of qualified individuals. Putting people back to work is a solid move toward crime reduction. But it cannot work unless we also focus on creating more full-employment opportunities for our citizens, not the temporary, minimum-wage jobs many employers offer.

I represent much of South Memphis and parts of East Memphis and Midtown. I want to see my district with safer streets and neighborhoods. I want to see children be able to grow up in their communities without the fear of gunshots and violence due to the proliferation of guns and other deadly weapons.

To make this happen, we cannot rely merely on the prison system to solve the problem. Certainly, there are those for whom incarceration is the only justifiable answer, but we must also work hard to reduce the numbers of weapons on the streets, weapons that are too easily acquired and accessible. To work this equation from start to finish, we must understand that it must also take policies of education, training, employment, and social programs to make this work.

The equation that will work is this one: Early Intervention + Employment + Vigilance + Gun Reduction = Decrease in Crime.

We must make this happen.

Raumesh Akbari is a state Representative from District 91 in Memphis and a member of the General Assembly’s Criminal Justice Committee.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Extreme Vetting at City Hall

Years ago, in more innocent times, the Flyer‘s front door wasn’t locked during business hours. It led to some interesting encounters, mostly for those of us in the editorial department.

People would come in to the front desk with a “story that needs to be investigated” and ask to see the editor. The receptionist would call me and say “There’s a gentleman here to see you about a story.” If I wasn’t particularly busy, I’d go up to the front desk and take the visitor into our conference room.

Ninety-nine percent of the time they were harmless. Many folks wanted us to investigate their awful employer, who’d just fired them “for no reason.” Others were just fascinating nuts, like the guy who said he was growing pot just across the river and that “black helicopters” were hovering over his land and that “government agents” were following him around Midtown. Once, the visitor was a Frenchman who was sailing around the world. I actually got a story out of that visit.

With most of these folks, I’d listen for a while and then say, “We’ll look into it.” Then I’d shake their hand and firmly escort them out of the building. But eventually it got to be a problem. A couple of folks showed up who were a little scary, so we installed a lock with a buzzer and intercom. Call it our version of “vetting.” We even have a couple of folks who are not allowed in. I guess that’s our “list.”

Which, unsurprisingly, I suppose, brings me to the city of Memphis’ list of folks whom the MPD have decided need an escort when they come to City Hall. The problem is that there seems to have been no cohesive protocol for putting people on the list.

I get why you’d put disgruntled former employees on it. And I get why Mayor Strickland would want to sign an authorization of agency against the people who staged a “die-in” on his lawn. If I looked out my window and saw 20 people demonstrating in my yard and looking in my windows, I’d call 911 and grab a shotgun. And if they ever showed up again, I’d want them arrested, pronto.

But those folks, and others, were added to a larger list that includes a lot of people who are absolutely no threat, including former Tiger basketball player Detric Golden, who works with disadvantaged youth, and the Rev. Elaine Blanchard, who was once the subject of a Flyer cover story for her inspirational work with women in prison.

Others appear to have been added to the list for no reason other than they are community activists who may or may not have participated in protests. Many on the list have committed no crimes.

This vetting stuff can be tricky. Just ask President Trump, whose recently overturned immigration ban sought to exclude all citizens from seven countries, even though 99 percent of the people coming from those nations are fleeing persecution and violence or have legitimate business here. That isn’t “extreme vetting.” It’s xenophobia. It’s casting a wide net when only a lasso is needed.

Memphis needs to take a cue and fine-tune its list. We need to encourage community activism and free speech, not demonize it.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Memphis’ De-Annexation Deal

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

It is not quite a year after Memphis was able to extricate itself from what had seemed an inescapable fate, the Carter-Watson bill in the Tennessee General Assembly. It seemed to come out of nowhere, passing the House in a jet-propelled jiffy and seemingly destined, on the strength of rural members’ and suburbanites’ resolve, to sail through the state Senate, saddling the city with what looked to many like a death sentence.

The bill’s authors, both from the outskirts of Chattanooga, had already succeeded in passing a measure that abolished the former prerogatives of Tennessee cities to annex new territories at will, giving the residents of the state’s unincorporated areas what amounted to a veto over their possible annexation by adjacent municipalities. In the process, they had rendered virtually null and void a compromise agreement of 1998, which had provided significant brakes on the cities’ ambitions for growth but had acknowledged their right to certain areas as potential annexation reserves.

The measure proposed by the Hamilton County duo last year was designed not just to stall or hamper or regulate the growth pattern of cities. It was clearly and plainly meant to cut the cities down to size — literally — and Memphis had been a fairly blatant offender by the standards of the two sponsors, whose bill would have allowed any area annexed since that pivotal year of 1998 to escape its encompassing municipality with a petition signed by 10 percent of its residents, followed by a majority vote in a referendum.

It was only by the most heroic exertions by Mayor Jim Strickland and other city officials, in emergency collaboration with the local Chamber of Commerce and sympathetic allies in other Tennessee municipalities, that the bill was blocked in a state Senate committee and remanded off to summer study. The “study,” such as it was, is over, and, with the General Assembly back in session, the word is that Carter and Watson could bring their bill up again, as Draconian as ever.

An implicit condition of the bill’s tabling last year was a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts: The city of Memphis, which had from time to time considered the principle of de-annexation as a useful option and a means of conserving its resources, might submit an alternative proposal. Last week, a city/county task force presented a plan that would divest the city of several relatively uninhabited areas that are expensive to service, as well as two recently annexed areas — Southwind/Windyke and South Cordova — that have been champing at the bit to be de-annexed. According to the report’s authors, the bill would shrink the city’s population by only 1.2 percent and its annual operating revenue by a mere 1.1 percent, while allowing a “right-sizing” that would benefit the city now and in its future planning.

Among other things, the task force’s plan is a reminder of reality, a rebuff to escapism, a dose of brass tacks. It may, in fact, be the best option facing Memphis at the moment. It is, in any case, worth careful study by the city council, which can adopt and enact it this spring — perhaps pre-empting the legislature in the process.

Sometimes victory can be gained — and loss forestalled — through a judicious compromise.

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Politics Politics Feature

Herenton and Cohen: Still at It

Neither current Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen nor former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton have any intention of hanging it up. 

Those two realities, each with significant bearing on the coming year and beyond, were made evident on the last day of calendar year 2016 when the two familiar public figures each addressed separate public prayer breakfasts. Both made some possible waves with their remarks.

Herenton was the guest key-noter at the first New Year’s prayer breakfast held by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland at the Guest House at Graceland. Though his speech conformed in general to the theme of citizen volunteerism enunciated by Strickland at the event, the former mayor’s most widely noted statements had to do with what he saw as the imperative of the city’s African-American community to improve its circumstances, not by appealing for help from others but through action of its own.

Or, as Herenton, who served from 1992 to 2009 as the city’s first elected black chief executive, put it: “No one can help us if we don’t help ourselves. It’s up to us, to protect us from us.” That was his preamble to a series of statements about urban crime that were bound to be received either as a provocation or as a challenge, depending on the attitude of the listener.

With the fact of a dramatic rise in the Memphis homicide rate serving as the background of his remarks, Herenton made a point of focusing on “black male youth” and “black-on-black crime” and laid a major portion of the burden for addressing the problem on the affected population itself. 

“The people who are shooting, they aren’t riding deep in Germantown and Collierville,” he said. “They’re riding in Orange Mound. They are riding in Binghamton. They are riding in Frayser.”

The public entities normally charged with dealing with crime were “floundering,” said Herenton, who, without mentioning names, cited the offices of the sheriff and the Juvenile Court judge, as well as the Memphis/Shelby County Crime Commission. He went on: “I’ve had some people tell me the answer to this city’s problems would be if we had an African-American mayor. The critics used to say the same things about me. I was the first black mayor, and people would say we need a white mayor. I don’t care what color the mayor is. All I want is a good mayor.”

To the end of enabling Strickland to become just that, Herenton called for 10,000 African-American men to volunteer as mentors for black youth. “They need to help this mayor with blight, tutoring, after-school programs, the Boy Scouts — all kinds of things.” Herenton referred to such a collective effort as constituting a “new path,” a term he also uses to describe his ongoing proposal for model charter-school dormitories in Shelby County for youthful offenders.

• Cohen’s remarks, made some miles away at the Holiday Inn Select on Democrat Road, were the highlight of former City Councilman Myron Lowery‘s annual prayer breakfast.

An advance news release from the Congressman’s office had served as a teaser for the event, promising “a major announcement … regarding his future in the United States Congress.” 

That both addressed existing reports of Cohen’s possible exit from public life and gave them further fuel, but toward the end of his remarks at the breakfast, the Congressman decisively dismissed the prospect.

“There have been some rumors around that I was going to retire,” Cohen said. These, he said, waggishly, citing statesman/financier Bernard Baruch as the author of remarks normally attributed to Mark Twain, had been “greatly exaggerated.” 

Cohen declared categorically: “We’ll be here in 2018, and we’ll be here in 2020. I plan to run for reelection.” He declared he was a better Congressional server today than ever before and said, “I’ll do it as long as you want me to do it.”

The Congressman disclaimed yet another rumor, that he intended a future run for the Senate. “It’s cool to be in the United States Senate,” he said, “[but] this state is red.” Noting his first abortive race for Congress in 1996, when he was defeated by Harold Ford Jr., as well as one for Governor in 1994, Cohen said, “I’ve tilted at windmills before. … I’m not running for another office the rest of my life that I can’t win.”

Vowing always to “speak truth to power,” Cohen warned of imminent dangers to the Affordable Care Act, public education, and the environment resulting from the combination of a Donald Trump presidency and a GOP-dominated Congress.

Cohen said the forthcoming Trump administration has sold out to “Exxon and Russia,” a fact presumably signaled both by Trump’s choice of the giant oil company’s CEO Rex W. Tillerson as secretary of state and by the president-elect’s non-stop flattery of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Noting the Russian government’s dependence on international oil sales, Cohen said, “All they want is to drill the Arctic.”

As for Trump, Cohen said he did not trust “this presidency not to use the IRS or the FBI” as tools against dissenting citizens, and he warned, “When an individual becomes the power and not the country — like Benito Mussolini — that’s fascism.”

In an apparent reference to Congressional Republicans’ intent to have the Constitution read aloud, Cohen said, “I hope when they read the impeachment clause, they understand it.”

Though most of his remarks concerned issues of domestic import, the Congressman made a point of stressing the importance of a “peaceful solution in the Middle East.” Referring to renewed controversy over Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank, Cohen said, “What the Israelis are doing now is wrong. … We need peace there. Israel needs peace.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Trumped Expectations

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. Consider: As the year began, the idea of Donald Trump‘s becoming the Republican nominee for president was still considered somewhat fanciful — not to mention what seemed the remote prospect of his actually winning the presidency. But that general impression would change — and fairly rapidly.

It may be largely forgotten now, but Trump actually lost the Iowa Republican caucuses, first trial vote of the year, to arch-conservative Texas Senator Ted Cruz. And when I made my quadrennial visit to New Hampshire to check out the candidates, both Democratic and Republican, I had my doubts about The Donald. In my first online report from New Hampshire, on February 8th, here’s part of what I said:

“But for all the polls that still have Trump way ahead of his GOP rivals — by something like 20 points, at last reckoning — I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up suffering another major embarrassment like that which befell him in his second-place finish to Ted Cruz in Iowa last week. 

“So far I’ve only seen him in action in Saturday night’s debate of the remaining Republican contenders in Bedford, and, in all honesty, it was difficult to see Trump as a major figure in that event, or, for that matter, retrospectively over the course of the debates and cattle-call forums to date.”

I began to be disabused of that foolish conclusion (“foolish” because I mistook Trump’s lack of attention to issues in a debate to be a disqualifier) when I traveled through a blizzard to see his magic with crowds — and his fundamental uniqueness — at an indoor mega-rally in the state capital of Manchester the very next night.

That was the night that Trump shattered all verbal precedent by referring to Cruz, at the time his major GOP opponent, as a “pussy.” Granted, he was just channeling what he’d heard a woman supporter call out from the crowd, but still …

My online take: “The battle lines are now clear on an issue, perhaps the defining one, of Trump’s campaign — that of political correctness. Oh, go ahead and heap some other adjectives on: Social correctness. Verbal correctness. Philosophical correctness. What you will. The man is come not to uphold the law but to abolish it. 

“In a campaign based on the most broad-brush attitude imaginable toward political issues, it is Trump’s fundamental iconoclasm that stands out. Be it ethnic groups, war heroes, disabled persons, gender equities, or linguistic norms, Trump is dismissive of all protocols.” 

Trump won New Hampshire, easily, and, from that point on, was basically on a roll. He had the obvious aura of a winner by the time he took his road show to Shelby County on February 28th, appearing before a crowd of thousands gathered at a Millington hangar.

From my report: “The crowd, which was plainly not the usual muster of political junkie-dom (though any number of local GOP regulars could be spotted here and there) was uproariously with him … chanting “Win! Win! Win!” [W]hen, as often happens at one of his rallies, a protester began to chant against him from inside the hangar, he calmly directed the crowd to ‘get him out’ but ‘don’t hurt him.’ And so the crowd did, with its counter-chant morphing from ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ to ‘Win! Win! Win!’ And finally to ‘U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!’

“Call it what else you will, but this is a movement.”

And a movement it would remain, all the way through Trump’s primary victories, a turbulent GOP convention in Cleveland, and a rancorous fall campaign against overconfident Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Finally, there was the astonishing moment of truth, agonizing for so many, galvanizing for so many others, that was summed up by the now famous Flyer cover of the November 10th issue, showing a victorious Trump in profile over a capitalized caption: “WTF?”

And those bare letters (understandably controversial at the time, though they merely used a common cyber-motif to express a shocked befuddlement that we suspect was experienced by Trump himself) continue to express our — and the world’s — uncertainty as we await the forthcoming reign of The Donald.

OTHER  ELECTIONS: Most local interest was focused on the hotly contested Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District seat vacated by U.S. Representative Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump. A large field competed, including several local politicians. In the end, former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff would come from behind and edge out runner-up George Flinn, the wealthy businessman/physician who had previously served on the Shelby County Commission. Kustoff easily defeated Democrat Rickey Hobson in November.

STATE POLITICS: The prevailing fact of life in state government in 2016 was the same-old, same-old domination of all affairs by a Republican super-majority in the legislature. The upset victory in November of Democrat Dwayne Thompson over GOP state Representative Steve McManus was one of the few circumstances to counter the trend.

An early excitement in Nashville was the deposing of sexual predator Jeremy Durham (R-Franklin), first, from his perch in the GOP leadership, then from his party’s caucus, and, finally, from the General Assembly itself through expulsion.

From Memphis’ point of view, the crowning moment of the legislature had to be the dramatic turnaround of  a stealth de-annexation bill that was on the very brink of detaching from Memphis every territory annexed by the city since 1998. A concerted last-ditch effort by a coalition of city interests turned the tide and diverted the measure to the limbo of summer study.

From my article on that outcome: “‘We really had no idea this was going to happen. But it was the best possible result, obviously. This is really a victory for the entire state,’ said Phil Trenary, the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce head who had been in Nashville last week and this week opposing the bill.”

The issue of de-annexation is not dead, however. It was the subject of serious examination by local governmental task forces, and it will almost certainly return to the legislative calendar in 2017.

CITY AND COUNTY POLITICS: The first day of the year saw the inauguration of a new mayor, former Councilman Strickland, and of six new council members. One sentence of Strickland’s well-received  inaugural address expressed a painful reality: “We are a city rife with inequality; it is our moral obligation, as children of God, to lift up the poorest among us.” Another acknowledged a problem that still remains: “We will focus on the goal of retaining and recruiting quality police officers and firefighters, knowing public safety is at the forefront of rebuilding our city.”

A new police director, Michael Rallings, was appointed from the department’s ranks, as the city confronted an alarming rise in homicides.
Late in the year, Strickland launched a “Memphis 3.0” initiative to devise a new long-range plan for the city via a series of neighborhood meetings.

The dominant motif of the Shelby County Commission’s year was a back-and-forth power struggle with Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, focused on such matters as control of fiscal policy and the commission’s desire to have its own attorney, distinct from the county attorney’s office. The matter was one of several still hanging fire at the end of the year, though Terry Roland, of Millington, commission chair for much of the year, led the way with Heidi Shafer in getting a referendum passed extending the commission’s advise-and-consent power to the firing as well as the hiring of a county attorney.

Roland made it clear that he intended to run for county mayor himself in 2018, with another likely entry being that of County Trustee David Lenoir. Meanwhile, Linda Phillips became the new county election administrator.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: The city council approved a measure to liberalize the penalties for marijuana possession. The Shelby County Commission failed to follow suit, and state Attorney General Herb Slatery’s opinion that state policy prohibited such local ordinances doused expectations, but reports were that medical marijuana might have new life in next year’s General Assembly. 

At year’s end, a major argument had erupted between local environmentalists and TVA over the authority’s intent to drill wells into the Memphis Sand aquifer in order to cool a forthcoming new power plant. Watch this space. 

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Strickland Pondering City Action on Aquifier Dispute

CREDIT: JB

JB

The Sierra Club ‘s Banbury and Mayor Strickland (seated) at recent Water Board hearing

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is researching local water-permit procedures with an eye toward giving the city some power of approval over future permits — and simultaneously to ascertain the city’s wherewithal under existing rules.

Strickland, an opponent of TVA’s plan to use water from the Memphis sand aquifer, source of the Memphis area’s drinking water, to cool a new power plant, had prepared to speak at the Shelby County Water Quality Control Board’s meeting two weeks ago in which the Sierra Club’s appeal of well-drilling permits for TVA was unanimously rejected. But he was informed the night before that the Board meeting, chaired by special presiding officer Bob McLean, was “not a public hearing” but a judicial one with strictly formalistic rules.

The Mayor was allowed to attend the hearing but only as a spectator, along with other members of the audience.

The outcome of that hearing has not sat well with Strickland or with other local public officials, including state Senators Lee Harris, a Democrat, and Brian Kelsey, a Republican, who oppose the drilling and have announced plans for bipartisan action to hash out the matter publicly.

And a freshly incorporated Protect Our Aquifer organization, including the Sierra Club, whose members regard the TVA drilling as potentially contaminating to the Aquifier water supply and whose appeal had prompted the Water Board hearing, plans to challenge the board’s decision in Chancery Court.

Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club in Tennessee, plans also to suggest to the Shelby County Commission new and stricter rules for granting well permits, including more advance public notice regarding applications.

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News News Blog

Work Local Program To Provide Homeless With Employment, Support

Hospitality Hub, a local nonprofit homeless resource center, will soon lead an initiative that Associate Director Kelcey Johnson hopes will become a longterm solvent to the everyday obstacles facing homeless people and panhandlers.

Work Local — an answer to the Memphis City Council’s strengthened panhandling ban — is a partnership between the City of Memphis and the Hospitality Hub that will offer temporary cleanup work as a gateway to permanent housing and employment. Hospitality Hub will pick up 10 people on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s during the fall and pay them $9 an hour for five hours of work. They’ll also be provided lunch, a night’s housing at the Memphis Union Mission, and access to mental health services, addiction services, healthcare, and a jobs program, Johnson says. 

“The goal is that these people are going to be able to exit homelessness by entering this program,” Johnson said. “The idea is not that they will make enough money working for the program that they’ll be able to exit homelessness, but that they will be introduced to a network that will help and support them as they transition out of homelessness.”

Funding provided primarily by the city’s Division of Public Works totals $140,000 and will carry the pilot program this fall. The Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) donated a bus, according to Johnson. The Downtown Memphis Commission and the Memphis Commission & Visitor’s Bureau are also funding the initiative. First Presbyterian Church and Calvary Episcopal Church will assist Hospitality Hub with operating the program.

[pullquote-1]Work Local’s goals are trifold: Allowing those in need to earn more than they could panhandling, establishing a network that spurs stable employment, and eliminating blight from the streets of Memphis. Mayor Jim Strickland said this program brings to fruition an imperative aspect of his administration’s plans to bolster the city.

“In Memphis, we must do everything we can to make sure every single member of our community has the opportunity to lift themselves up from their circumstances in search of a better life,” Strickland said. 

The idea originated from Calvary’s Communities Ministries Coordinator Christine Todd, Johnson said. Todd discovered a similar program named There’s A Better Way operating in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a board member traveled to Albuquerque and spent the day with the Better Way program, a Memphis team formed to conceptualize Work Local. 

“Now it’s about to come to fruition,” Johnson said. “If you give a person a dollar, that really hasn’t helped them much. [The Program] is going to reduce blight in the city … you’re going to see a number of people exit homelessness, enter permanent housing, and get permanent jobs. And really, one person living outdoors is too many people living outdoors.”  

Categories
News News Blog

Lamar to Get $300M Upgrade

CREDIT: Google Maps

Google Maps

Lamar close to Holmes Road.

Lamar Avenue is set for projects totaling $300 million from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to help ease traffic on the congested road.

State and local officials are slated to announce the details of the projects in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

But TDOT said Monday that Lamar will be widened from four lanes to six from the border of Tennessee and Mississippi to the six-lane section at Getwell. Also, three interchanges will be will be upgraded to interchanges.

The following are set to speak at tomorrow’s news conference: TDOT Commissioner John Schroer, Sen. Mark Norris, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Greater Memphis Chamber president Phil Ternary.

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Memphis Gaydar News

Memphis LGBT Community and Supporters Gather in Cooper-Young

Crowd gathered on Cooper in front the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center.

In the wake of Sunday morning’s horrific mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, the Memphis LGBT community and its supporters gathered in front of the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center in Cooper-Young Sunday night. 

The vigil drew an estimated 300-400 people. Speakers included Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Congressman Steve Cohen, and Executive Director of the MGLCC, Will Batts.

Batts pointed out the historic significance of gay clubs as a sanctuary for the LGBT community. “They were a place where I could be who I was,” he said.

Strickland said, “I know there is more love than hatred in this world,” adding that he was comforted by seeing the crowd gathered in support.

Mayor Jim Strickland

Mayor Strickland speaks to crowd.