Memphis Mayor Strickland has been lucky and good
In politics, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. And that would seem to apply in some respects to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.
Not that Strickland has not been a good mayor. He absolutely has. He has a string of impressive accomplishments that he can easily rattle off to any audience — from increasing police staffing to forging economic development in the core city and even outsmarting backward-thinking state lawmakers in order to dismantle offensive Confederate monuments.
He projects strength and a clear command of the issues facing Memphis, and he has sensible — although sometimes generalized — ideas about how to tackle those challenges.
But it’s also true that Strickland is benefiting from fortuity as he moves through the third year of his first term in office. Being the mayor this year during the 50th anniversary observances of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination allowed Strickland and his administration to present to the nation and the world a city that
has changed tremendously for the better — while making certain not to gloss over its problems.
From my vantage point, the mayor succeeded. Yes, there was the unnecessary dustup with CNN political analyst Angela Rye who, at a MLK50 event honoring the 1968 striking sanitation workers, harshly criticized Strickland’s administration for a lack of progress on poverty, education and criminal justice.
“We can’t substantially honor progress that doesn’t exist,” Rye said. To which Strickland responded by saying Rye was wrong. “Fact is, it’s easy to criticize the challenges we faced for decades. It’s harder to actually do something.”
That momentary tempest aside, Strickland has gotten mostly high marks for how the city and its many partners tastefully commemorated the history-altering event.
More recently, the mayor has been sparring with Elvis Presley Enterprises over tax dollars for a massive private development plan around Graceland Mansion in Whitehaven. It’s unclear at the moment who’s winning the public relations battle over that one.
And next year, which happens to be a city election year, Strickland will help guide Memphis through its bicentennial celebration with all the pomp, pageantry and programming the city can muster.
Add the fact that Gov. Bill Haslam has been noticeably generous to Memphis with infrastructure money to assist the St. Jude expansion and efforts to make higher education easier to access, and Strickland’s tenure as mayor could not have come at a better time in the city’s history.
But what now? How does this affable mayor, with a laugh that can be heard clear across any room, continue to take advantage of his moment in time?
In his long-delayed state of the city address to the Memphis Rotary Club Tuesday, Strickland as expected painted a positive picture of the city. He then talked mostly in general terms about not just slowing the city’s population loss, but reversing it through better public transportation and investments in the core city.
He also addressed the urgency of improving black economic conditions in Memphis, but the comments offered a mixed message. At one point, Strickland cited recent reports by Fast Company and Black Enterprise magazine naming Memphis the top place for black entrepreneurs to launch small businesses.
But almost in the same breath, Strickland pointed out that AfricanAmericans make up 63 percent of the city’s population, but receive just one percent of total business receipts. “That is wrong and unacceptable,” he said.
Indeed it is. As Art Gilliam, owner of Gilliam Communications, told me, “Memphis could be in a solid place for black businesses, but whatever it is, it’s a pittance.”
Still, Strickland’s Rotary Club appearance showed a man who is clearly comfortable in his job. He is determined not to get sidetracked by “the partisan politics of the day and the shouting.”
In essence, he is enjoying the moments, both the historic and the routine. Because who knows what a 2019 campaign will bring. But Strickland insists he’s not idly waiting for the next election.
“Memphis,” he said, “doesn’t have time to wait.”
Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@memphis.edu. Follow him on Twitter @otissanford and watch his commentaries on WATN Local 24 News.