“We’ve secured $13.1 million in federal funding to overhaul one of the most dangerous intersections in our city — Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street.”
So begins an online notification from the office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, and it is accompanied by a photograph of the mayor with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
The notification goes on to boast that “[w]e’re not just fixing a dangerous intersection — we’re transforming it with clearer signals, safer crosswalks, and better pedestrian pathways” — all of it being “a huge step towards ensuring that every Memphian can navigate our streets with confidence and peace of mind.”
Sounds good all right. I remember that intersection from the days when, as a 14-year-old, I threw the old Memphis Press-Scimitar in that neighborhood. In vintage times, it was where the old streetcars did a turnaround, and it absolutely was hazardous to negotiate, especially on a bicycle.
And comes yet another online notification — this one from 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen: “I’m pleased to announce a new investment of $13.1 million [under the] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act … to completely redesign the dangerous intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street …”
The congressman, a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, notes further, “I strongly advocated for this project and for funding to improve our streets in hearings with Secretary Buttigieg and in letters of support to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and I’m proud we brought it home.”
Well, er, to whom goes the honor of having snagged this benefit from the feds? The mayor or the congressman?
Both, as it turns out. Asked about it, Cohen calls it a “cooperative joint effort” and says, in a text, “The mayor was a planner, and they’re his people. Politics and pitching by congressmen certainly helps. … Grants don’t just fall out of a coconut tree.”
And credit for the grant goes even further. Cohen points out that the grant, in its original form, was first proposed by former Mayor Jim Strickland and had been included as an earmark in legislation that, before being resurrected, was stalemated in a previous session of Congress.
All of which is to say that, yes, it does indeed take a village to get things done.
• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vote of the Shelby County Commission on Monday to support the City Council’s lawsuit against the Election Commission to restore a gun-safety referendum on the November ballot was passed on a party-line vote — nine Democrats aye, four Republicans no.
Speaking for the Republicans, Commissioner Mick Wright quoted Governor Bill Lee’s concerns, expressed earlier Monday in Memphis, that the city should find itself at odds “with the rest of the state.” Democratic Commissioner Henri Brooks countered that it was “time to stand up to bullies.” And other commissioners tended to follow their party’s line.
With its vote, the commission became an “amicus curiae” in support of the suit, which has caused various GOP state officials to talk ominously about withholding shared state funding from Memphis.
• Citing the prosecution in Georgia of a father who armed his son with an AR-15 used in a fatal school shooting, Democratic state Rep. Antonio Parkinson says he intends to re-introduce his measure to penalize “a person who illegally transfers a firearm to a minor” using it for criminal purposes. Parkinson’s bill was introduced in last summer’s special session on gun safety but was tabled by the majority Republicans.