Strickland: ‘Give Memphis a look’
NASHVILLE — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland visited Music City on Monday to spread news about his hometown’s momentum and encourage Nashville to take a closer look at the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll’s recent accomplishments.
“You’ve taken note of what’s going on in Memphis,” Strickland said as he addressed about 200 members of the Nashville Rotary Club at the Wildhorse Saloon in downtown Nashville. “Memphis has momentum.” Here’s why, he said: Some $15 billion in recent, current, and future development dots the Memphis landscape, and most of that development is within city limits.
“It’s been a long time since a mayor could say that,” said Strickland, sworn in as mayor of the city in 2016.
The mayor also touched on several big businesses recently deciding to stay or expand: ServiceMaster, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and FedEx.
ServiceMaster, one of our great Fortune 1000 corporate citizens, he said, was thinking about leaving Memphis two years ago but decided to stay once the city convinced the company’s leaders it could get the workforce it needs for its future. It now occupies a former mall downtown, he said.
St. Jude, gearing up to expand by more than 1,000 jobs, also decided it wanted to be part of the city’s momentum, he said.
He also touched on the city’s growing
downtown skyline: Major plans on the drawing board include a brand-new 27story luxury Loews hotel to “complement” the city’s convention center.
The convention center is undergoing a $175 million renovation, he said, and when complete will elevate the city’s game in attracting meetings.
“It use to be Memphis only made the list for bad things but now we’re turning heads and for good reasons,” Strickland said.
Strickland also touched on the city’s long-standing violent crime problem and said the violent crime rate “is down year to date from last year.”
“Public safety is my number one priority,” he said. “From rebuilding our police department, from offering much more for our youth to do and from providing training for people throughout the community.”
He also mentioned he’d noticed Nashville’s diversity study had been released, which “shows some of the same challenges Memphis had two years ago.”
Strickland encouraged the crowd to get behind Nashville Mayor David Briley regarding related diversity plans.
“I’m asking Nashville to give Memphis a look,” Strickland said. “Nashville will be stronger for (it).”