Push is coming to shove in the public outrage stemming from the shooting death last week of MPD Officer Joseph McKinney. And the shoving, on behalf of stouter crackdowns on local crime, is coming from more sources than ever before.
Mayor Paul Young, who has arguably been somewhat slow on the draw in fleshing out his crime program, cruising along with an interim police chief and nobody yet to fill his ballyhooed position of public safety director, is suddenly all cries and alarms.
Sounding almost like some of the more active Republican critics of Memphis crime in the legislature, Young released a statement including these words: “Together, let’s petition our judges and the DA for stronger, swifter sentencing for violent offenses. If you are part of the judicial system, hear my voice first. We need to work together to do better for our community.”
DA Steve Mulroy himself expressed anger that a $150,000 bond that he’d previously set for previous crimes committed by the youth suspected in the death of Officer McKinney had been somehow amended by a judicial commissioner to allow the youth back on the streets through his own recognizance.
And Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright, a leading critic of the current crime wave, was warning, on behalf of his commission mates, “We are not finished. … You’re going to see some judges get exited stage left if I have anything to say about it.”
It was a definite irony that, scarcely a week after the MPD had announced the 100th homicide in Memphis this year, Young scheduled this week’s public celebration of his first 100 days in office at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church.
Perhaps the mayor will use that occasion to outline further his and the city council’s plan for a new nonprofit organization to reverse the crime trend.
• Former Shelby County Democratic chair Gabby Salinas, who in recent years ran two close races against established Republican office-holders, has a different situation on her hands this year.
She’s running for the state House District 96 seat being vacated by Democratic incumbent Dwayne Thompson. Not a Republican contestant in sight so far, but Salinas has four Democratic rivals — Eric Dunn, Telisa Franklin, Orrden Williams Jr., and David Winston. She remains the favorite.
• As mentioned in this space of late, Democrats are seriously contesting the state House District 97 seat now held by Republican John Gillespie. Mindful of the potential perils of procrastination, they brought out some heavy artillery last week.
At a fundraiser for party candidate Jesse Huseth at the home of attorney Robert Donati last week, an important attendee was 9th District U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the county’s senior Democratic office-holder, who formally bestowed his endorsement on Huseth and was critical of Gillespie for legislative actions intended to shift various aspects of law-enforcement authority from the city to the state.
Cohen noted that the 97th, which was redistricted by the legislature last year, would now seem to be tilted demographically to Democrats in this election year — “up three points for Huseth and up five points for Biden.”
As Huseth himself put it, the East Memphis-based district had lost “four solid-red precincts and picked up two light-blue precincts and two light-red precincts.”
The point of the redistricting, which was carried out by the General Assembly’s GOP supermajority, remains something of a mystery, although it is said that Gillespie signed off on it, thinking it gave him more potential access to‚ and opportunity to serve, the business community.
• No doubt emboldened by the local unpopularity of Governor Bill Lee’s school-voucher program, which was formally opposed by the Memphis-Shelby County School Board and by the boards of the six municipal school districts as well, Democrats are taking another crack at the state House District 83 seat held by Mark White, House education chair and a champion of vouchers.
At least one Democrat is: political newcomer Noah Nordstrom, an MSCS Spanish teacher.
More than 20 mayors and representatives will meet with Memphis Mayor Paul Young this week to launch an initiative to address crime through the power of Black leadership.
Young has partnered with the African American Mayors Association (AAMA) to announce the Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime (BMCC.) Officials say this coalition will consist of Black mayors and “their proxies” from 12 states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, California, and others, who will collaborate to address crime across the nation.
“The time is now for us to speak with one voice to call for national and local policy change and funding, and to share our collective learnings to create the meaningful change that will reduce crime in all of our communities,” Young said in a statement.
The announcement of the coalition comes at a time that Young has called “unprecedented,” as Black mayors such as Eric Adams (New York) and Karen Bass (Los Angeles) have taken office. Young said that he and the other mayors represent communities “most affected by crime,” which allows them to have a distinct perspective.
Adams has voiced his support for Young, and said that every city shares the need for public safety, because it is a “prerequisite for prosperity.”
“I applaud Mayor Young for convening the Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime to have an honest conversation around protecting our cities and delivering peace of mind at a time when our communities need it most,” Adams said in a statement.
Officials said Young will lead the initiative. According to the mayor’s office, the two-day event will be hosted by Russell Wigginton, president of the National Civil Rights Museum, with a keynote from the Council on Criminal Justice.
The BMCC will also look at crime-fighting tactics that have been effective in other cities, such as the Operation SCARLET (Stolen Car and Recovery Law Enforcement Team) of Charlotte, North Carolina and Operation Good from Jackson, Mississippi.
North Carolina television affiliate WSOC-TV reported as of September 2023, Operation SCARLET had seized over 130 cars from several states. Law enforcement in the state has also made several arrests related to these incidents.
Jackson’s Operation Good seeks to “stop recidivism, clean up the environment in which the impoverished live, reduce violent incidents, introduce alternative solutions to gun violence and robbery, mentor the high risk population,” and more. During its first year of operation, the organization reported 286 days without “a gun-related death.”
While BMCC includes Black mayors, Young said that the coalition will “be open to anyone who can contribute to solving the issue.”
“My hope is that this will be the start of a broad, ongoing national effort to find real solutions to this very complex issue. I believe we can leverage our collective platforms to create change in the policies, laws, and resources needed to reverse the trend and heal our communities,” said Young.
The original “One Memphis” logo on a vintage souvenir umbrella from an A C Wharton mayoral campaign. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Talk about déjà vu!
When Memphis Mayor Paul Young — still, some 50-odd days into his new administration, working on organizational matters — brought forth his latest innovation, involving the slogan “One Memphis” to denote a series of community meetings to come, echoes were generated in the minds and memories of numerous Memphians.
After all, it was only 15 years ago that A C Wharton used the identical phrase “One Memphis” as a campaign slogan in the 2009 special election that first landed Wharton in the mayor’s office to succeed the retiring Willie Herenton.
“There is absolutely nothing we cannot overcome if we work toward that goal as One Memphis,” Wharton would intone in his speeches, reinforcing the idea in an ad campaign that would sign off with the initials “A C” (familiar to his audiences then and later as the preferred shorthand for his uniquely accessible persona), followed by the words “One Memphis.”
It was Wharton’s way of distinguishing himself from the more volatile and divisive 16-year tenure of his predecessor.
No doubt Paul Young means something similarly comforting, coupling the two-word slogan with the phrase “Empowering Voices/Building Bridges” in a published logo announcing his forthcoming “One Memphis Tour,” which was to have its inaugural session at Whitehaven High School this week.
Another new venture by Young was embodied in his recent announcement of his intent to appoint someone to a newly created office, that of public safety director, which would have hierarchical dibs over that of police chief.
Overall, the idea was greeted with a positive public reaction, particularly in those circles where there is a desire to locate the duties of law enforcement within a larger, more holistic context of social reform.
That would seem to be Young’s purpose, though this is one of those cases where the devil (the angel, rather?) will be in the details.
Young, who has experienced some difficulty in getting off the mark, might have fared even better, reception-wise, had he been able to make the announcement of the new office in January, when his cabinet was first being assembled, and better still if he could have had the appointment in hand of some credibly credentialed appointee.
That might well have obviated the awkwardness and still unresolved discord which arose from his reappointment of C.J. Davis as police chief (as of now an interim position). Her continuation in office as a clear subordinate would have raised fewer hackles, if any at all, with the city council and with the general public.
Better late than never, even if the sequence seems a bit backwards.
• Gale Jones Carson, a longtime presence in the community as spokesperson for MLGW, was named last week as interim CEO of the local chapter of Urban League.
Carson’s successor as MLGW’S vice president of corporate communications, Ursula Madden Lund, meanwhile is having to wait for a reluctant city council to approve her $200,000 salary. The matter is up for discussion again next week.
• A proposed measure to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to veterans of at least two city council terms took an abrupt nosedive last week, being rejected on third reading virtually unanimously by the new city council after the previous council had approved it without a dissenting vote.
As various MAGA spokespersons made clear, the partisans of former president Donald Trump have nursed dark suspicions that the highly public romance between songstress Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is but a cover for coming propaganda in favor of Democratic president Joe Biden, whom Swift is reliably known to favor.
Those conspiracy-mongers should have been at a local Super Bowl party hosted by Criminal Court clerk aide Barry Ford, a Democrat, and attended by several other prominent Democrats, including DA Steve Mulroy, Shelby County diversity official Shep Wilbun (a veritable encyclopedia of NFL history), and state Representative Joe Towns.
Ford, a diehard fan of the San Francisco 49ers, had decked out his house with 49er paraphernalia and, joined by several others present, arguably a majority, made his 49er partisanship obvious.
Alternatingly, he kept up a running lament that Biden, whom he enthusiastically supports, hasn’t been making enough public appearances to maximize his reelection chances.
For Ford, anyhow, what Biden does clearly loomed larger than whether Swift and Kelce say “I do” or don’t.
And, like most Americans, he has no trouble keeping his politics and his sports fandom separate.
Perhaps, too, those concerned Trump partisans should just have some patience. Taylor Swift’s song litany largely consists of spirited “gotcha last” rebukes of her erstwhile and subsequently discarded boyfriends.
• Meanwhile, two matters dealt with in this space last week drew clarifying responses. First was a pair of statements from City Hall regarding our disclosure of prospects that Memphis native Maura Black Sullivan might be in line to become the city’s chief operating officer. (These responses arrived in time to be posted in the online version of our report but not in time for the print edition.)
“I can confirm that we had early talks with Maura Sullivan about a different position with the Young administration, not the COO/CAO position. We have a strong leader currently acting in the COO role who has my full faith and confidence.” — Mayor Paul Young
“The role we initially discussed was a high level position on the Mayor’s cabinet. And while talks about that position haven’t continued, we do have an ongoing dialogue with her and many others who we consider allies in the work of creating a stronger Memphis.” — Chief Communications Officer Penelope Huston.
One is left to wonder: What other “high level” position has been the subject of discussions with Sullivan, who is currently employed as COO of Metro Nashville Public Schools and who had previously served as COO for Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and, before that, as deputy COO for former Memphis Mayor AC Wharton?
But so be it. It is certainly to be hoped that Mayor Young, who has had his problems so far squaring things with the city council, ultimately succeeds in getting the staff he wants.
• Also in our mailbag this week is the following clarifying statement from DA Steve Mulroy concerning the County Commission’s passage, reported here last week, of a measure desired by the DA that equalizes the pay scale for county and state employees on his staff.
“I’m a state employee, so I’ve always been at the top. So parity was never a concern for me.
“Using county dollars, the county gave a salary supplement to supervisors of all stripes, even state employees who were supervisors. I took those supplements away from the state supervisors, on the rationale that county money shouldn’t be going to state employees who were already getting paid way more than comparably experienced county counterparts.
“Out of fairness, I included myself in that, and took away my county-funded supplement, forswearing all county funds, and relying only on my state salary.
“A TV reporter the other day asked me if I was going to restore that supplement to myself, now that the County Commission has acted. I said, no, my pay cut stands.”
Maura Black Sullivan (Photo: Courtesy Maura Black Sullivan)
The Memphis Flyer has confirmed that Mayor Paul Young and a veteran public official now serving in Nashville are in continuing conversations about her possible employment here. This would be Maura Black Sullivan, a native Memphian who now holds the position of chief operating officer of Nashville Public Schools.
Sullivan, who previously served as COO for former Memphis Mayor AC Wharton and later for former Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, confirmed that conversations with Young are ongoing for the position of his chief administrative officer.
On Tuesday of this week, the city council was prepared to deal with some unfinished business — including a controversial healthcare allowance for council members of two terms’ service or more, and a decision on yet another mayoral appointment — this one of public works director Robert Knecht.
A vote on Knecht, whom Mayor Paul Young submitted for renomination week before last, was deferred after council chairman JB Smiley publicly criticized Knecht for “attitude” issues and asked for the deferral.
Several of Young’s cabinet choices were viewed negatively by Smiley and other council members — notably Police Chief CJ Davis, whose reappointment the council narrowly rejected via a 7-6 vote. (She was later given an interim appointment by Young, pending a later reexamination by the council.)
Another issue with several council members has been unease at the mayor’s inability so far to complete his team with credentialed new appointees in other positions. He has not yet named permanent appointees for the key positions of chief operating officer and chief financial officer, for example.
That circumstance could change soon. Sullivan is frank to say that she has not been in a job search, enjoys her present circumstances in Nashville, and has made no decision to leave them, but acknowledges that a possible return to Memphis would be attractive as well.
Sullivan is the daughter of the late Dave Black, a featured radio broadcaster of many years in Memphis, and the late Kay Pittman Black, who was a well-known journalist and government employee here.
• With Governor Bill Lee’s appointment this week of Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the state’s high court continues with an unmistakably red hue politically.
As a judicial candidate in her two elections as a Circuit Court judge in Shelby County, Wagner campaigned without ideological inflection and enjoyed relatively diverse support, and there was no hint of political bias in her judgments. But her background was that of a Republican activist, and she both was a member of the right-leaning Federalist Society and served a term as chair of the Shelby County Republican Party.
In appointing Wagner, Lee said, “Her understanding and respect for the rule of law and commitment to the conservative principles of judicial restraint make her well-suited for the state’s highest court, and I am proud to appoint her to this position.”
Technically, Wagner is a justice-designate. The justice she was named to succeed, Roger Page,will keep his position for some months.
• District Attorney Steve Mulroy was in a celebratory mood last Monday evening after the Shelby County Commission voted unanimously — except for three abstentions — to pass an ordinance imposing guidelines ensuring that all members of his office, whether their technical employment is by the county or by the state, are paid according to the same pay scale.
As a county official, Mulroy had recently trimmed his own pay according to the lower county rate. He has now restored the voluntary pay cut.
Update: After our print deadline, Mayor Young clarified to the Flyer: “I can confirm that we had early talks with Maura Sullivan about a different position with the Young administration, not the COO/CAO position. We have a strong leader currently acting in the COO role who has my full faith and confidence.”
The mayor’s spokesperson/CCO, Penelope Huston, added: “The role we initially discussed was a high level position on the Mayor’s cabinet. And while talks about that position haven’t continued, we do have an ongoing dialogue with her and many others who we consider allies in the work of creating a stronger Memphis.”
When Judge Jayne Chandler (r) swore in Councilman Jeff Warren in early January, host and witness for the special ceremony was the iconic late former school board member Sara Lewis. It was her final official act. (Photo: Courtesy Jeff Warren)
The forced reaction of Mayor Paul Young in his interim appointment of Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis, coupled with the city council’s action this past Tuesday to defer action on reappointing Public Works Director Robert Knecht, suggests an emergent balkanization of power in the affairs of the newly installed city government.
Council chair JB Smiley has made it clear that he intends to position the council — and himself — as a counterbalance to mayoral authority. Smiley, who had taken the lead in the first deferral of action on Davis three weeks ago, reinforced his assertiveness last Tuesday in dressing down Knecht for “attitude” and alleged insularity and leading the council to postpone a vote on Knecht’s reappointment for two more weeks.
“Make sure you respond when we come calling on you,” was the thrust of Smiley’s message to Knecht. The contrast between Smiley’s firmness and Knecht’s docility was instructive.
And individual council members have their own axes to grind.
Councilman Jeff Warren, sponsor of the imminent council resolution that Young had to preempt and emulate in his interim appointment of Davis, has affirmed his position at the nexus of authority. Newcomer Jerri Green’s strong questioning of Davis underscored her determination to be a voice to reckon with.
Another new council member, previously seen as an unknown quantity, is Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, who has made a point of her intention to base her votes on her own independent researches. Yet another first-termed, Pearl Eva Walker, has to be regarded as a potential exponent of an abundant number of activist causes, including a reexamination of Memphis’ issues with TVA.
And so forth and so on. As the old saw goes: All have won, and all must have prizes. Young, who has yet to get his legs fully down, will be hard put to maintain the strong-mayor authority the city charter entitles him to — especially given a belated air of pushback against the relatively free hand enjoyed by former mayor Jim Strickland.
Not to be ignored, either, is the likely enhancement of self-interested power groups in the community. A key moment in the (temporary) resolution of the Davis matter was a come-to-Jesus meeting between Mayor Young and members of the Memphis Police Association on the Monday before the last council session.
The gathered police folk made it clear that they wanted more attention to their concerns that they had been used to in law-enforcement matters.
The bottom line is that rosy rhetoric does not apply to Davis’ case. Nor to her boss’. One noted pundit has hailed the interim appointment as a salvific opportunity for all the sides to get together in constructive kumbaya. The fact is, to employ the right existential terminology, Davis is in a form of purgatory and has, at best, an opportunity to expurgate herself. Meanwhile, she has to bear the ill-defined stigmata of public doubt. And so, sadly, must the mayor, as he still struggles to launch his mayoralty.
Some are already suggesting that Chief Davis might make her best contribution to the city’s welfare — and to her boss’ and to her own — by arranging for a graceful, voluntary withdrawal.
It isn’t necessarily momentous that Mayor Paul Young will face a delay in having his newly announced appointments approved by the city council. But it isn’t incidental or meaningless, either.
As the week began, it had become common knowledge that, upon their formal presentation to the council last Tuesday, the courtesy of “same-night minutes” was likely to be denied to some — if not all — of the appointees.
“Same-night minutes” is the shorthand for a parliamentary process whereby actions taken by the council in a given session are approved by an immediate second vote by the council to become instantly effective and to avoid follow-up action at the group’s next regular meeting, when the minutes of the preceding meeting would normally get formal approval. It’s a “hurry-up” process, as a means of hastening the effective date of a council action, making it, in effect, instantaneous. It is employed when the avoidance of any delay is considered a paramount factor.
The process is also invoked, as previously suggested, as a courtesy of sorts — as in the case of most mayoral appointments.
CJ Davis (Photo: City of Memphis)
As it happens, the Young appointees were to be presented to the council almost a year to the day from that awful moment in January 2023 when Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by an out-of-control unit of the SCORPION task force, which had been created by Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis as a would-be elite enforcement element of the Memphis Police Department.
That fact, along with the well-known circumstance of an increased rate of violent crime in Memphis during the last year and the MPD’s status under a Department of Justice investigation, is enough to have flagged Davis’ reappointment for special attention.
It was clear when Davis spoke to the Rotary Club in November that she — and her mayoral sponsor — wanted to regard her appointment as a certainty. She prescribed a year’s worth of policy points with the air of one who could speak to their achievement. Yet there was something vague, tentative, and not quite jelled about her presentation — as there was when she recapped her intentions again last week at a crime summit called by Young.
Meanwhile, there was head-scratching at City Hall as to Young’s inability — or indecision — regarding his naming of a COO and a CFO, though he had reportedly scoured the city governments of Nashville and Chattanooga for prospects.
The resultant highlighting of Davis’ appointment against a backdrop of Strickland-era retainees left his cabinet-level choices looking somehow incomplete and provisional.
JB Smiley (Photo: City of Memphis)
Pointedly, council chairman JB Smiley, determined, it would seem, to assert council prerogatives, began running a poll on X to gauge public acceptability of Davis’ appointment, and no council members have seemed anything but resolute when sounding out on the issue.
None of this augurs well for a new administration which is still seen — at best — as enveloped with an aura of the unknown and untested.
It remains to be seen whether the situation reflects more of a sense of unreadiness on the part of the new regime or an aroused determination on the council’s part to assert its own authority.
Either way, it certainly amounts to a rough start.
Steve Mulroy (Photo: Shelby County District Attorney)
Unsurprisingly, Paul Young evoked two parallel concepts in his inaugural address as mayor. He spoke of the specter of crime and its continuing threat to the community. And he spoke of that community’s crying need for a restoration of unity. More surprisingly, he rooted that unity in a memory of an almost forgotten Memphis, of a city that once was officially celebrated not only as one of the nation’s safest places but, formally, several times, as the nation’s cleanest city.
“We all feel it, the city feels like it is in a crisis. The chaos has taken a toll on our collective psyche; it threatens to derail all of the progress of what Memphis can be, we are Memphis, and the future depends on what we do right now. … Together, we can make history, we can make America’s largest majority minority city … America’s safest city. We can make that America’s cleanest city, we can make that America’s city with the fastest growing economy … it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it will happen.”
And this is a man who asked us to remember that he entered the mainstream of life as an engineering student, who converted that aspect of his being into a knack for social and civic engineering, and who has spent many of his professional years in city and county jobs that called for the re-engineering of housing and neighborhoods — and, indeed, of urban attitudes.
Let us hope that he is thereby ideally equipped to help us remake ourselves as a people.
Another member of what we might consider a new breed of public officials is District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. The DA, too, in a year-end piece written for Tom Jones’ Smart City blog, took note of the times:
“2023 was a challenging year for us. At year’s beginning, we became global news with the Tyre Nichols tragedy. Though nothing can undo the trauma of that event, we can derive some consolation from the fact that we — all of us — handled the case swiftly, fairly, transparently, and peacefully. Memphis didn’t burn, and neither did any of the other major cities with large protests following the release of the video.
“I’m praying that we learn some lessons about reform from this tragedy. We’re generally not good at nuance, but we need to understand both that the vast majority of police are persons of good faith, and also that there are issues of culture and process crying out for systemic reform. The crime issue has eclipsed this issue in the minds of many, but we can’t forget that Tyre Nichols isn’t an isolated incident. The problem isn’t fixed, and there’s work still to do.”
The DA expressed hope “that local leaders stop pointing fingers and start joining hands to make us safer … that our public discourse stops obsessing on sentence lengths and bail amounts (which will not make us safer) and instead focuses on how to increase our crime solve rate and our recidivism rate (which will).”
At his annual holiday gathering last year, an event which attracts people of many different minds, Mulroy at evening’s end presented, instead of his accustomed finishing limerick, a song, one which addressed the community’s prevailing air of controversy and divide. To the tune of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” his verses ended with the refrain of “Let it go, let it go, let it go.”
One of the attendees at that party was Mulroy’s longtime friend Brian Stephens, founder and president of the public strategy group Caissa Public Strategy, well-known for espousing the hopes of conservative-minded groups and political candidates.
Asked about the gap between his own political views and those of his liberal host, Stephens texted back: “Lots of people trying to do their best. Different approaches. Different ways. But it’s all the same goal. Steve is a good man. I hope he feels the same for me.”
And that’s yet another way of saying unity, isn’t it?
Paul Young took the city’s top job last week in an uplifting inauguration ceremony.
“The past doesn’t matter,” Young said after he was sworn in. “The future is all we’re thinking about right now. Partisanship doesn’t matter. The future of our young babies is all we’re thinking about right now.”
Big (But Fun) Typo
Posted to Facebook by Mighty Lights
Mighty Lights was busy this holiday season with tributes to Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, police officers, and more. Its year-end message was to read “HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024.” Deadrick DeShoun Moring Sr. posted a video showing it read 2023 instead of 2024. We’re like same same.
Tsunami
Posted to Facebook by Ben Smith
Tsunami owner Ben Smith toasted Kevin Sullivan’s last shift at the Cooper-Young restaurant this week. Sullivan started as a dishwasher at Tsunami in 2002 and worked his way up to head chef. He’s leaving the restaurant to start his own restaurant, Ki Kitchen, in the Edge District.
New year 2024 concept, beginning of success. Text 2024 written on asphalt road and male runner preparing for the new year. Concept of challenge or career path and change.
What do you mean it’s almost January? If you’re anything like us, the encroaching new year has really seemed to have come out of left field. The churning news cycle means that we’ve had our heads down covering the arts, a mayoral race, the Tennessee legislature, and everything in between. But despite a packed 2023, there are plenty more stories on the horizon. With 2024 just around the corner, our writers take a look at what we can expect in Memphis news next year.
Breaking News
Paul Young
Paul Young taking the mayor’s seat will be the Memphis news story to watch in 2024.
Memphis hasn’t had a new mayor for eight years; hasn’t done things differently for eight years — for good or bad. So, Memphians can expect new ideas, fresh faces, and new approaches to the city’s same-old problems (but maybe some new opportunities, too).
Paul Young (Photo: Paul Young for Memphis)
Some could argue too much emphasis is put on the mayor’s office, much like the president’s office. But that office is where the city’s business is done daily, from police and fire to trash collection and paving. Yes, these ideas are later shaped by the Memphis City Council and, yes, the mayor is expected to carry out rules formed entirely by the council. But all of that is executed (executive branch, get it?) by the mayor and his team.
Young has already named a few key staffers. Tannera Gibson will be his city attorney and Penelope Huston will be head of communications, according to The Daily Memphian. Young told the Memphian, too, that he’ll keep the controversial Cerelyn Davis as chief of the Memphis Police Department.
Memphis in May
This next year could be make or break for the Memphis in May International Festival (MIM).
It ended 2023 with a whimper. The nonprofit organization posted a record loss of $3.4 million and record-low attendance for Beale Street Music Festival. Also, its longtime leader Jim Holt announced his retirement.
MIM leaders put Music Fest on hiatus for 2024. It also moved the Championship Barbecue Cooking Competition to Liberty Park.
Meanwhile Forward Momentum and the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) announced a new three-day music festival at Tom Lee Park (called River Beat) and a new barbecue contest, both in May.
It’s unknown if these new events could supplant MIM. Speculation, though, has the future of the nonprofit in question. It’ll be worth watching.
Tennessee General Assembly
State lawmakers are hard to predict.
Last year, for example, one GOP member spent countless hours persuading his colleagues to add firing squads to the list of options for the state’s death row inmates. Another wanted to add “hanging by a tree” to that list.
However, one can easily predict Republicans will seek to make life harder for the LGBTQ community. One bill paused last year, for example, would allow county clerks to deny marriage rites to anyone they choose (wink, wink).
The little-known but hard-working Tennessee Medical Marijuana Commission may approach lawmakers next year with a plan to get a state system off the ground. Dead medical cannabis bills have become too many to count over the years. But the hope is that the group’s expertise after years of study may help tip the scales.
Easy bets are also on bills that mention “abortion” or “trans.” — Toby Sells
Politics
Oddly enough, the city’s incoming chief executive, Paul Young, remains something of an unknown despite his extensive exposure (and his consistently adept campaigning) during the long and trying mayoral race that concluded in October. Nor will the aggressive ballyhoo of his preliminary activities — parade, concert, and inaugural ball, no less! — have shed much light on his intentions in office, though his inaugural address will be highly anticipated in that regard.
Major changes may be in the offing, though so far the shape of them is not obvious. Young’s announced reappointment of police director C.J. Davis at year’s end may be an indication that, in the personnel sense, anyhow, there may well be a continuum of sorts with the administration of outgoing Mayor Strickland.
C.J. Davis (Photo: Memphis Police Department)
The newly elected council, meanwhile, is expected to be measurably more progressive-minded on various issues as a result of the election than was its predecessor.
A city task force already launched — GVIP (Group Violence Intervention Program), which involves an active interchange of sorts between governmental players and gang members (“intervenors,” as they are designated) in an effort to curb violence on the streets. It will be picking up steam as the year begins.
And follow-up readings will still be required in 2024 on an initiative sponsored by outgoing Councilman Martavius Jones and passed by the council conferring lifelong healthcare benefits on council members elected since 2015, upon their having completed two terms.
(News of that move prompted an astounded Facebook post from former Councilman Shea Flinn, who served back when first responders’ benefits had to be cut and a controversial pension for city employees with 12 years’ or more service was rescinded. Said Flinn: “Do I have this correct? Because I don’t want to be gassing up a flamethrower for nothing!”)
The Shelby County Commission, having worked in tandem with Mayor Lee Harris in the past year to secure serious funding for a new Regional One Health hospital, continues to be ambitious, hoping to acquire subpoena power from the state for the county’s recently created Civilian Law Enforcement Review Committee and to proceed with the construction of a long-contemplated Mental Health, Safety, and Justice Center.
The commission is also seeking guidance from the DA’s office on the long-festering matter of removing County Clerk Wanda Halbert from office.
At the state level, almost all attention during the early legislative session will be fixed on Republican Governor Bill Lee’s decision to push for statewide application of the school-voucher program that barely squeaked through the General Assembly in 2019 as a “pilot” program for Shelby and Davidson counties. (Hamilton County was later added.) The program was finally allowed by the state Supreme Court after being nixed at lower levels on constitutional grounds. Democrats are universally opposed to its expansion, as, for the record, are the school boards in Shelby County’s seven school districts. Prospects for passage may depend on how many GOP legislators (a seriously divided group in 2019) are inclined this time to let the governor have his way.
Also on tap will be a series of bills aimed at stiffening crime/control procedures, some of which may also try to roll back recent changes in Shelby County’s bail/bond practices.
Oh, and there will be both a presidential primary vote and an election for General Sessions Court clerk in March. — Jackson Baker
Music
No sooner does yuletide appear than it’s gone again in a wink, as we turn to face a new notch on life’s yardstick. Yet even before 2024 dawns, Memphis has great music brewing on this year’s penultimate day, December 30th, from the solo seasoned jug band repertoire of David Evans (Lamplighter Lounge) to the revved-up R&B-surf-crime jazz-rock of Impala (Bar DKDC) to Louder Than Bombs’ take on The Smiths (B-Side).
Ironically, DJ Devin Steele’s Kickback show at the Hi-Tone is keeping live music on the menu with a six-piece band alongside the wheels of Steele. Down on Beale Street, bass giant Leroy “Flic” Hodges and band will be at B.B. King’s, and the Blues City Café will feature solid blues from Earl “The Pearl” Banks and Blind Mississippi Morris.
Susan Marshall (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
While New Year’s Eve seems particularly DJ-heavy this December 31st, there are still some places to ring in the new year with a live band. Perhaps the most remarkable will be when three of the city’s most moving women in music — Susan Marshall, Cyrena Wages, and Marcella Simien ringing in midnight — converge at the freshly re-energized Mollie Fontaine Lounge. A more up-close, swinging time will be found at the Beauty Shop’s meal extravaganza set to the music of Joyce Cobb. Orion Hill’s Mardi Gras Masquerade will feature Cooper Union (with Brennan Villines and Alexis Grace), and Blind Mississippi Morris will hold court again at Blues City as a gigantic disco ball rises up a 50-foot tower outside on Beale. For that Midtown live vibe, Lafayette’s Music Room’s elaborate festivities will feature the band Aquanet.
For many Memphians, the new year will begin with a look backward as a smorgasbord of bands — from Nancy Apple to Michael Graber to Oakwalker and beyond — gather at B-Side to honor the late Townes van Zandt on January 1st. The revival of the 1970 musical Company, opening at the Orpheum the next day, also honors an earlier era’s muse, but its five Tony Awards suggest that even today it “strikes like a lightning bolt” (Variety). And the historical appreciations continue: On January 14th, Crosstown Arts’ MLK Freedom Celebration will feature the Mahogany Chamber Music Series, curated by Dr. Artina McCain and spotlighting Black and other underrepresented composers and performers; and on January 20th GPAC will host jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and composer Jumaane Smith’s Louis! Louis! Louis!, blending his own compositions with those of Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Louis Jordan — three giants of the last century.
Who knows, maybe reflecting on all this past greatness will teach 2024 a thing or two? — Alex Greene
Coming Attractions in 2024
2023’s dual WGA and SAG strikes disrupted production, so 2024 should be an unpredictable year at the multiplex. Studios are currently engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken with the release calendar, so don’t take any of these dates as gospel. In January, an all-star apostle team led by LaKeith Stanfield and David Oyelowo tries to horn in on the messiah game in The Book of Clarence.
February has the endlessly promoted spy caper Argylle, a Charlie Kaufman-penned animated film Orion and the Dark, the intriguing-looking Lisa Frankenstein, and Bob Marley: One Love left over from 2023, as well as Ethan Coen’s lesbian road comedy Drive-Away Dolls.
March is stacked with Denis Villeneuve’s return to Arrakis, Dune: Part Two; Jack Black voicing Kung Fu Panda 4; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire; and Focus Features’ satire The American Society of Magical Negroes.
Monsters will collide in Godzilla x Kong.
April starts with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Alex Garland’s social sci-fi epic Civil War.
May features Ryan Gosling as The Fall Guy and Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black. On April 24th, we have a three-flick pile-up with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Garfield Movie (animated, thank God), and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. ALL HAIL IMPERATOR FURIOSA!
Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
June brings us Inside Out 2, which adds Maya Hawke as Anxiety to the Pixar classic’s cast of emotions. There’s another Bad Boys film on the schedule that nobody has bothered to title yet. Meanwhile, Kevin Costner goes too hard with punctuation with Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One. (Chapter Two drops in August.)
In July, there’s the horror of Despicable Me 4 and Twisters, a sequel to the ’90s tornado thriller that lacked the guts to call itself Twister$. Ryan Reynolds returns as the Merc with a Mouth in Deadpool 3, the first Marvel offering of the year.
In August, Eli Roth adapts the hit game Borderlands, which, if you think about it, could actually work. James McAvoy stars in the Blumhouse screamer Speak No Evil. Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez directs Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny in Alien: Romulus.
September is looking spare, but Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Winona Ryder are getting the band back together for Beetlejuice 2, so that could be fun.
October looks a tad more promising with Joker: Folie à Deux, a psychosexual (emphasis on the “psycho”) thriller with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. There’s also the cheerful Smile 2, evil clown porn Terrifier 3, and a Blumhouse production of Wolf Man.
November sees a remake of The Amateur, Barry Levinson’s mob thriller Alto Knights, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 with Denzel Washington, and Wicked: Part One, led by Tony Award-winner Cynthia Erivo.
Then, the year goes out strong with Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, an anime Tolkien adaptation from Kenji Kamiyama.
This time next year, we’ll be gushing over Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, Robert Eggers’ boundary-pushing Nosferatu remake, and an ultra-secret Jordan Peele joint. — Chris McCoy
Memphis Sports
Here’s a one-item wish list for Memphis sports in 2024: Ja Morant videos that are exclusively basketball highlights. The city’s preeminent athlete stole headlines this year with off-the-court drama that ultimately cost him the first 25 games of the Grizzlies’ 2023-24 season. Morant’s absence was more than the roster could take, particularly with center Steven Adams sidelined for the season with a knee injury. More than 10 games under .500 in mid-December, the Grizzlies must hope the star’s return can simply get them back to break-even basketball. If that happens — and with the rim-rattling displays that have made Ja a superstar — the new year will have brought new life to the Bluff City’s flagship sports franchise.
And how about a first regular-season American Athletic Conference championship for Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers? The AAC is a watered-down version of the league we knew a year ago (no more Houston, no more Cincinnati), with Florida Atlantic now the Tigers’ primary obstacle for a league crown. A controversial loss to FAU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last March created an instant rivalry, one that will take the floor at FedExForum on February 25th. David Jones is an early candidate for AAC Player of the Year and sidekick Jahvon Quinerly gives Hardaway the best collection of new-blood talent since “transfer portal” became a thing.
Seth Henigan (Photo: Wes Hale)
With Seth Henigan returning to quarterback the Tigers for a fourth season, Memphis football should also compete for an AAC title and an 11th consecutive bowl campaign. AutoZone Park will hum with Redbirds baseball and 901 FC soccer throughout the warm-weather months, and the PGA Tour will make Memphis home when the FedEx St. Jude Championship tees off on August 15th.
But let’s hope 2024, somehow, becomes the Year of Ja in this town. The heart of Memphis sports echoes the sound of a basketball dribble. And one player speeds that heartbeat like no other. — Frank Murtaugh
Oscar Jimenez will suit up for 901 FC next season. (Photo: Courtesy USL/Louisville City FC)
Meanwhile, 901 FC can look forward to welcoming some unfamiliar opponents to the confines of AutoZone Park next season. A restructured United Soccer League means Memphis will bid adieu to the Eastern Conference and kick off its 2024 season as part of the Western Conference. That means that 22 of 901 FC’s 34-match schedule will be against Western Conference opponents, starting with a March 9th home season opener against Las Vegas Lights FC. There’s a new COO in Jay Mims, while we can expect plenty of new players to suit up before Stephen Glass leads the team out for its first game.
One thing that soccer fans will not be looking forward to, however, is a new stadium, with plans for a soccer-specific Liberty Park arena scuppered after $350 million in state dollars earmarked for sporting renovations did not include any provisions for 901 FC. — Samuel X. Cicci
