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Memphis must reinvest to grow, Strickland says in address

Commercial Appeal - 1/18/2018

Jan. 17--Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced Wednesday an expansion of the police gang unit and new youth-oriented parks programming as part of his State of the City address.

Entering the second half of his first term, Strickland rolled out the initiatives as he emphasized that Memphis was at a "critical juncture" heading into its third century in 2019. After recounting the city's history of growth-by-annexation, Strickland said the key to growth now is to reinvest in the city's core -- and its core services -- to capitalize on the more than $11 billion in projects in the metro's economic development pipeline.

"Here's what guides our administration's vision of our third century: We will build up, not out," Strickland said to a crowd of more than 100 at the Kiwanis Club of Memphis.

The mayor covered the successes of his administration in the past year, which included removing Memphis' Confederate statues in December, doubling paving, and meeting the national standard of answering 95 percent of 911 calls within 20 seconds for the first time in November. And Thursday, for the first time in seven years, Strickland expects the city to hire more police officers than it loses within a trailing 12-month period.

Crime is still the No. 1 challenge facing the city, Strickland said -- a comment that drew a mild rebuke during the question-and-answer portion of the event, when one of the attendees suggested that poverty was a more fundamental problem. Strickland responded that city government cannot solve the problem alone, but needed more volunteers in the community, better literacy programs and universal prekindergarten.

Speaking of public safety, Strickland unveiled to applause a plan to add eight more officers to the Police Department's gang unit.

"We know that gangs are a major driver of violence that affects our city," Strickland said.

Strickland also said that in the upcoming months, he will roll out more summer programming in parks, noting that the city hasn't invested as much as it should have in the past. He said the programming will resemble the programs of the "Parks Commission of old, but with a 21st-century twist."

In other words, parks staff will lead games and sports, and lend city equipment, to make parks "real destinations" for neighborhoods.

"Please hear me: We are a city that can accomplish the impossible," Strickland said, ending his prepared remarks. "We're Memphis."

Reinvesting in the city also means stopping sewer connections for new development in unincorporated Shelby County, Strickland said. The city abruptly ended sewer connections last year to the surprise of county officials, angering county commissioners who are now considering spending millions of dollars creating a county sewer system.

Earlier Wednesday morning, commission chairwoman Heidi Shafer said the county may even try to block the city's legislative priorities, holding legislation hostage as a "bargaining chip" in negotiations with the city to restore sewer connection services.

But, according to Strickland, the city had subsidized its own population loss for too long.

Strickland took two questions following his speech, one concerning poverty and another about a woman who died overnight on a bench at Main and Adams near City Hall. Strickland, correcting the citizen who asked the question, said the woman wasn't homeless. She had left a home -- either a private home or another type of home, he wasn't sure -- because of a dispute, he said.

Answering her broader question about the city's response to crime, Strickland said the jail at 201 Poplar "should not be a revolving door." Instead, he said, citizens should focus on making Memphis a city of opportunity, and he ordained the crowd to be "evangelists" and "spread the good news" about Memphis.

"Local government cannot do it all," he said as the Q&A ended.

Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.

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(c)2018 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)

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