May 29, 2025 • 44 mins
We are talking with the Honrable Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee Mayor Paul Young on The Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Memphis probably presents the BEB Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say bathe me first, let me you say,
she's gone memphist of game.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
No matter of the problem, she can have me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So all the phone and the normans on your mind.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
She understand Jimmy d in the hair by chilling to
just keep the thing, went.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Around picking up the joting show bectuting game.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Happy you can hear every day. Indeed, I ain't my
bell got me a missed off.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
And gave.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome in to
wd I A the BEV Johnson Show. It is indeed
a pleasure to have you with us once again on
this Thursday, n twenty twenty five. Enjoy this fabulous day
to day. Get ready to put your ears on. As
we start off this day, I like to say with
(03:09):
the good news, we will be talking with the honorable
Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Mayor Paul Young will be here
to talk with us. And then second hour we'll tell
you about something exciting that's happening.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
For one of our high schools in Memphis. Stick for that.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
When it's your turn to talk, you know you can
nine zero one five three five nine three four two
eight hundred five zero three nine three four two eight
three three five three five nine.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Three four to two will get you in to me.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And if this day, this day, Thursday May twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five, is your birthday. Happy birthday to each
and every one of y'all out there who may be
celebrating a birthday on this day. You know what I say,
Go out and celebrate your life.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
You better, you better.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
When we come back, we'll talk to the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee,
Paul Young and me Bev Johnson on The BEV Johnson
Show only on Double d.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
I A.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Good morning and welcome back to w d i A
The Bev Johnson Show. It is Thursday, May twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five. Enjoyed this fabulous day today lit Bonie
James for you.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
Feel like making love a ROBERTA fly cover.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
But once again in the it's been a little while
since he's been here. I think I talked to him
the first hundred days, but it's been.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
More than that.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Now we want to welcome back to the BEV Johnson
Show in w d I A.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Mayor Paul Young, Hello, Hello, how are you? Good morning?
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Great good morning to you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Yeah, glad to be here. Sorry, sorry, it's been a
while since i've been here.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Yeah, I know you've been working.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
We've been working.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That's you sure you've been working? Oh yeah, oh yeah,
Well I'm glad to have you back me or Young.
And while i'm doing to give a I know she's listening.
A shout out to your mama.
Speaker 7 (05:47):
Oh yeah, out past the dying, Yeah, yeah, past the diyan.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
That's my that's my sister friend.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
Yes, indeed, she is definitely listening. I text her this
morning and told her I was coming on, so she
was excited.
Speaker 6 (05:59):
She said, all right, thank you.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well let's get rolling, Mayor Young. I was born in
this city, Memphis, Tennessee. It didn't grow up. Parts I
did and didn't. But I don't know what's happening to
my city, Memphis, Tennessee. Brother, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
It's a lot going on.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
It's a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
One of the things me or Young I'm concerned about
is the crime. Oh my goodness, I'm very concerned about that.
And I'm concerned about that for me and people who
are in my age grouply seniorship, but everybody, what is
going on and what is the city? Well before I
(06:41):
asked that there are other cities across the country that
are bigger, mayor young than Memphis, Tennessee. For example, I
just read an article on San Francisco, and I hope
you all you get your staffer. It's a newsweek and
they talk about and San Francisco is larger than Memphis,
(07:02):
how their crime is coming down, and what kinds of
things they are doing. And I'm gonna throw these out
to you. Maybe our city is doing some of this.
And in this newsweek article on San Francisco, because they
said they had a big crime problem, since crime is
going down, they're doing it by Miir Young a partnership.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
With the DA's office.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
They are holding courts accountable for these criminals they have
and they have increased their surveillance. They've increased license plate
scanners so they know these stolen cars. They have drones,
(07:52):
and they are lowering the crime rate. I mentioned some
things that San Francisco is doing. They say their crime
has come down.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Well, I'm glad you started it like that. Okay, things
that you just outlined the very specific things are the
exact same things that we're doing, and I want to reiterate.
I just saw just a little brief part of the
article that you were talking about as you were reading it,
and it said that the homicide rate went down by
thirty one percent in San Francisco. Well, here I was
(08:22):
went down by twenty nine percent. So twenty twenty three
was the highest number of homicides that we've had in
our city. I think it was three hundred and ninety eight.
In twenty twenty four, we brought that down to roughly
three hundred, so there were one hundred less homicides in
our community. And so there are things that are happening
(08:44):
every day through the Memphis Police Department, through partnerships that
we have with our street outreach teams where they're working
with these young people that are going in the wrong direction.
But the numbers are still too high, and so it's
hard to feel the safety because you still see incidents
taking place. But I want people to know that we
(09:06):
are working hard. We've installed over two hundred and twenty
eight new cameras in our intersections, and these aren't just
cameras that just catch speeding. These are cameras that have
artificial intelligence that allows us to be able to more
quickly apprehend criminals. I'll give you an example. There was
an incident that took place a couple of months ago,
(09:27):
and the individuals that did the shooting, that committed the homicide,
we were able to capture them on the cameras driving
up to the intersection. We then were able to track
their movement, We identified where the store was that they
bought the ski mask that they used in the shooting,
(09:48):
and we were able to apprehend those individuals. Those are
things that are happening every day. Our officers are.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Even though we don't hear about it the residents exactly.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
And so you may hear a news story that talks
about all of the investment that we're making in technology,
and I hear people say, well, cameras don't stop crime,
but cameras do help you catch criminals. And that's what
we're focused on doing, is making sure we're getting the
bad guys off the streets, and we have an intense
focus on it. When I came into office, I made
(10:19):
a commitment that our goal was to reduce overall crime
year over year by ten percent each year, and we
are on track to do that as crazy as a
month as we had in April. The numbers for homicides
are down. I look every morning, every morning I read,
I get a summary from the Police Department on incidents
(10:40):
that's taken place and the number of homicides that have
happened in our city. And we now have twenty nine
less than we had at this same time, this same
day last year. And so I'm tracking it day by day,
and I'm talking to our teams every day on all
of the strategies and things that we can do to
make sure we're making our community as safe as it
can be. We're gonna keep our foot on the gas.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
And saying that, And you said the crime is coming down.
So is that saying to me and other residents that
you still have confidence in our Memphis Police Department in
Chief CJ.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
Davis?
Speaker 7 (11:18):
Yeah, I do. I mean I stood by Chief Davis
when it was time for the appointment. And the reason
I stood by Chief Davis is because I talked to
every leader within the police department, and when talking to her,
it was very clear that she had a vision to
move the police department beyond where we are into a
space where we haven't been before where we have strong
(11:40):
relationships with the community, where we are aggressive on our
policing approaches and strategies, and we're making sure that we're
putting a strong emphasis on making sure we're getting bad
guys off the streets. I'll give you an example one
of the things that they came up with at the
end of last year, just so people know, the Sheriff's
Department has the response ability of executing warrants, okay, and
(12:02):
we have about twenty thousand unexecuted warrants in our community.
Twenty thousand, twenty thousand people that have warrants for their
arrest that have not been brought into custody, and so
the sheriff Department is overwhelmed. And some of those people
that have warrants have really bad things that they've done,
and they've been running around in the community for two, three,
(12:25):
four or five years without getting caught. And so what
our police department did is they put together a fugitive
task force for ninety days at the end of the
year last year. And over that ninety day period, they
took two people from each precinct and they made them
a part of this task force and they went out
and executed these warrants. They brought in the people that
(12:47):
had done these bad things in the community, and brought
in over one thousand people over a ninety day period.
Those are the kinds of things that her and her
team have been able to come up with and develop
to continue to make us safer. Our focus is get
the bad guys off the street. That's the number one
goal for our police department right now.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Okay, And.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Talking about the crime and you said it's going down
and hopefully it's going to get better and we will
see I know, as you just well, and.
Speaker 7 (13:19):
I don't know how it's still too high. So to
me said, I don't want them to think I'm saying
it's not there anymore. Okay, we're not naive, we understand.
I just think it's important for people to know that
it's trending in a better direction. It's trending better than
it was. And people say, well, across the country crime
is trending now, so we're just following the national trends. Well,
we defied the national trends in twenty twenty three. Crime
(13:41):
started going down in twenty twenty two actually, and each
year twenty twenty two we went up twenty twenty three,
we went up twenty twenty four is when we started
going down, and we're continuing to go down lower than
we were last year. And that's my goal, is to
continue to reduce crime year over year. This is not
something that we can flip a switch and it's over
with and everybody knows. Is I talk about getting the
(14:03):
bad guys off the streets, those are people that have
committed crimes. We have to do both, and we have
to make sure we're getting the people off the streets
that have committed crimes, but that we're also finding ways
to invest in the things that prevent people from taking
on a life of crime. That we are talking to
the parents about how they can be accountable, how they
can make sure that when they're young, person walks out
the house and you see them walking around with backpacks
(14:24):
and they're not going to school, so they have the
potential of having long guns and them. We're seeing it
all across the community, like everybody has to be a
part of that, and we have to have that direct dialogue.
Me as mayor talking to the people of this community.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
One of the things that you said investment, and I
think about the city of Memphis and will people hear
about crime and people hear about the our educational system,
and you think about do businesses want to come to Memphis, Tennessee?
Speaker 6 (14:59):
How we look in that and in communities?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
How are we looking with businesses coming here to come
to Memphis and to offer people jobs.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
Yeah, I think things are looking up on the business front.
We've had some magnificent wins. Unfortunately I can't remember the
name of the company, but there's a five hundred million
dollar investment that's being made that was just announced literally yesterday.
There's aon which makes HVAC systems. There's Hotsong, which makes
these large transformers that just upgraded their facility and they're
(15:32):
going to be offering new jobs. I think it's important
for us to make sure that our young people are
prepared for those jobs, that we are aligning our training
and educational programs such that they are the jobs of
the future, the ones where they're going to be able
to earn a good living, and that there's going to
be a high quality opportunity waiting for them when they
(15:52):
get out. The worst thing we could do is start
training people for jobs. They go through the training and
then they get no job they finish. We have to
make sure that the training that we're offering is aligned
with where the jobs of the future are going.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
When we talk about the city and people talk about
the different areas and what areas are not booming and
what areas are and we look at one of the
things downtown Memphis, I think about what I go down there.
I'm surprised to see some of the things that are
going on as far as infrastructure and building. And one
(16:30):
of the things that we look at is tourism and
people coming here. And I'm concerned, Mere Young when we
talk about conventions coming to town and not living and
help me with this. The city of Memphis took over
the Sheraton. Correct, Correct, what are you all doing now?
Because when people come here for convention, they would love
(16:53):
somewhere to stay, and that's close to walk Cross Street.
In the past, Mayor Young Hotel is the pits. And
I'm saying it for I know because when my sorority
was here and they were complaining.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
So what's going on with that?
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Yeah, So it's been a lot of legal, behind the
scenes work that has been happening over the past couple
of months. I think we announced at the end of
last year that we were going to acquire and since
that time, literally today I got an email about finalizing
the transaction, so we're close to actually having the transaction
complete it. Once we take the property into our hands,
(17:30):
then the next step is for us to begin working
towards renovation. So we have to work with a design team.
They'll come up with a design and then we'll go
through the process of all of the transfer of the
property to a different entity, and then we'll issue bonds
and we'll get the property upgraded. This was an aggressive
step that we took because we know how important tourism
is to our community. The Sheridan Hotel is literally attached
(17:54):
to our convention center. It's literally physically attached to the
convention center, and we made a two hundred million dollar
investment in that convention center. And one of the things
that we hear is what you just said that that
hotel is not up to park. I went to talk
to Kojak before they made their decision, and you know,
I had a church full of them, and when I
(18:17):
spoke about our efforts to upgrade that hotel, there was
loud cheers because they felt the same and I firmly
believe that we'll be able to get Kojak back once
we're able to upgrade the facilities in this community, and
not just Kojak, but others you may have saw earlier
this year, I invited the presidents of all of the
(18:38):
Divine Nine to Memphis, and they came and they loved
it here, and they are now looking at opportunities to
host regional and national conferences here. But one of the
things they want is to make sure we have the
facilities that they need. And so our goal is to
make sure that we have a pipeline of events and
activities that allow our hotels, our small businesses that come
(19:00):
down and they cater to those individuals that come. We
want to make sure that we have that ecosystem in place,
and having the facilities is really really important for us
to be able to do that.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I'm glad to hear you say that. Good. Another thing, mer,
young boy, the city is catching hell.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I can say that, Okay, thank you talk, we're talking.
We're talking, and I'm glad you're here catching hell. And
the city leadership has has gotten a lot of flack
on this XA idea.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Yeah, yeah, what is happening? Yeah, I mean, it is
the city that greedy for money.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
I think that it's a complete misunderstanding. Well one, what
I really think is happening is people are upset about
things that are happening in DC, and the head of
the project is emblematic of what they don't like in DC.
And what I try to tell people is that for
me as mayor, we're looking at what's the business proposition
(19:59):
for the city of men. What do we get out
of this. It's not about him, He's gonna be rich
regardless no matter what. It's about what can we get
out of this? And so I think it's important that
people under the biggest pushback that I hear is around
the environmental concerns and what does it what is it
doing to our air quality? This is the first thing
(20:20):
that I talked to the team about when I met
them back in May of twenty twenty four. It's water
and power. Those are the two big things with regards
to water. We didn't want them pulling from our aquifer
and taking all of our precious water. We went to
them with a proposal to help us figure out a
path to get what we call a grey water facility.
(20:40):
What they all take wastewater from our wastewater treatment facility
which is literally adjacent to it, treat that water and
use that to cool and instead of pulling from our aquifer,
they agreed to build an eighty million dollar grey water
facility on their dime, which benefits us because it not
only does their water, but also TVA, which is across
the street, use a six and a half million gallons
(21:02):
of water from our aquifer every day. They are now
going to come off the aquifer and use that gray
water tremendous wind. The other issue that you hear about
is around the air quality. The turbines that are there
are temporary. They filed a permit for fifteen temporary. The
permit is for a permanent but when they're there, they
(21:24):
will only be back up power. What they're really doing
is tapping into our grid. But in order to tap
into the grid, they have to build these substations, and
these two substations, one of which is complete, the other
one will be complete by the end of the summer.
So they've been using this these turbines temporarily until they're
tapped in, and then the fifteen that remain will be
(21:45):
there if they come off the grid at any point
in time, because they agreed that during any times that
we have peak power. That means when they send you
an alert and say turn off your dishwashers because it's
too hot outside and too much powers being consumed, we
tell companies the same thing, to come off the grid.
They've agreed that they will reduce their power consumption to
(22:05):
zero during those moments, they will use battery packs, and
if they have to go longer, then they would use
those temporary turbines. And so I think that there has
been a lot of pushback related to who that person
is and not enough information given to the community around
what they get from it. Because once you get beyond environmental,
you start talking about okay, well what can we get
(22:27):
from this and what we have done? And I'll say
that I don't think I've talked about this in any
media outlet. One of the things that we're getting ready
to do is put forth an ordinance. This ordinance is
going to allow us to take of the twelve to
sixteen million dollars that's going to come to the city
of Memphis proper. That's not counting the county they get
another eighteen but of our twelve to sixteen we're going
(22:48):
to allocate twenty five percent to stay in the area
within a five to ten mile radius of the site.
What that means is that for the first time ever,
we have a dedicated funding stream that comes from a
project that's located in that community, that can go towards
improving housing, go for towards improving roads, parks, infrastructure in
(23:10):
that community. And we're gonna do that up until they
we have invested one hundred million dollars in that community.
So those are the types of things that we're looking
at to be creative and make sure that the community
is the number one winner as a result of having
this project in our city.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
If you've just tuned in this morning, I am talking
with the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, Mayor Paul Young.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
He is here.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
He's not here all day long. You may have a
question or two for him this day. We invite you
to call five three five nine three four two eight
hundred five zero three nine three four two eight three
three five three five nine. The three four to two
will get you in to us. You're listening to the
(23:55):
Bab Johnson Show on w d I above.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Justial don't go away.
Speaker 9 (24:13):
The BEV Johnson Show returns after these messages.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You need.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
I'm telling him everyone see Beth coming talking.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
No everyone, No, Good.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Morning and welcome back to w d i A.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
My guest is Mayor Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee.
I'm going to our phone lines, loop fellows. Let me
tell you this.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
The mayor, he already told me. We knew when we
schedule this interview. He didn't have long.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
He has to leave in a few So if you
please be kind and you know, get your your one
question or whatever you have to say to him so
I can get all you all in before he gets
out of here.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
He has another engagement. I'm sorry. So I'm going to
our phone lines to talk with you.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Hi, West Fellos, how are you?
Speaker 6 (25:40):
I'm doing well today. How are you?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I am good, mister mayor? How are you good? I
won't hold on. Just a quick question, mister mayor. That
the twenty nine percent drop in murder rate, I think
that that would be only accept number if our murders
were acceptable. San Francisco's murder rate dropped thirty something percent,
(26:07):
and their murder rate was acceptable because their murders in
that year was fifty one and they dropped to thirty something.
Our murders were almost four hundred, and they dropped They
if they dropped ninety percent, they would have still been
more than San Francisco's if they dropped ninety percent, you know,
So having a murder rate of three hundred or two
(26:29):
hundred and something, I don't think that's anything to be
happy about.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
I'm definitely not happy. I want to be clear. I'm
not happy. I'm not happy. I'm I'm I'm just sharing
the data.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Following the tree, and it is acceptable when you're if
our murder rate had been half of a city that
has two hundred and fifty thousand more people than us,
that's not a tree. They had fifty one murders that
year and they dropped to thirty something. We had almost
four hundred.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Right, I mean, I want to be clear. It's not
acceptable at any level. So so I'm not saying that
it's acceptable. So I agree with you on that front.
But what I'm what I am articulating the fact is
that we are trending in a better direction than we were.
It didn't go up about twenty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Thank you, thank you, You're welcome, thank.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
You, thank you, sir, bye, Hi William, will.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Hello there, beautiful Beth.
Speaker 10 (27:22):
Thank you for taking my call. Uh, you're doing a
great job.
Speaker 7 (27:27):
Mayor, thank you.
Speaker 10 (27:27):
And you know Xile was thrown up on you. You
know what had happened before you got here. All you
can do is manage. The question I have is the
leader of XI and his friends have been known not
to keep agreements. So what is our recourse when if
they don't keep the agreement of not using the turbines,
(27:48):
not using our water, what is our recourse? Thank you, Mary,
you're doing a great job.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Thank you, William, thank you.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
Great question. So the recourse on the turbine. So with
the turbines, it cost them more to run the turbines
than it does for them to tap into the power grid.
That's why they are building at their costs. The substations
that they're tapped into. One of them is already built,
the second one is already being built. So I don't
(28:15):
think there's a threat of them using the turbines over
using the power that comes from the MLGW grid. With
regards to the water, you know, they're they're building this
on their dime, but they have already started buying all
of the materials to start the construction. I saw on myself.
I saw the materials on the site. So there isn't
(28:38):
a record. They don't have to build it. This is
something that they are opting to do. They were not
required to build a gray water facility. It was something
we asked them to do and that they are doing.
And so the money that I talked about with regards
to the funding, those are tax dollars that come to
the city and we're calling that ordinance a community benefit ordinance.
So those are dollars that we are going to get
(29:01):
and we are taking those dollars and applying them in
a way where we are uplifting the community as a
result of the investment that comes there.
Speaker 11 (29:10):
Hi Marcus, Yes, they're greetings and greetings to the Maya.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Greta.
Speaker 11 (29:17):
You're doing an excellent job here, you're doing an excellent job. Hey,
you're fixed park coving you you know, Hey, keep on
doing what they're doing. Miss Ameya. You're an engineer and
electrical engineer by profession.
Speaker 12 (29:31):
Our engineers do.
Speaker 11 (29:33):
Engineers solve problems. That's what engineers do. So you're a
scientist like my sal Aa, and I want to tell
this this. You see the crime. A lot of these
people that's committing crime they know each other maya. So
there is something wrong with these people that's committing the crime.
It's that stranger. Look at what they did the other year,
(29:55):
like Jasline that was people who know each other. That's Stranjiz.
So we have a problem with ourselves as black people
who are put that malaly in this community.
Speaker 12 (30:08):
Five more years for your miss Ama, That's what I say.
Speaker 11 (30:11):
You are doing. Great job, thank you.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
Thank you, thank you. So just to comment on what
he said, I am in election engineer, but the point
that he made around people knowing each other, I do
think that is an important point because I was talking
to Chief Davis literally just last week, and we go
over all of the homicides that have take place weekly,
and she was pointing out that there were four or five,
(30:35):
and there were five, and of the five that happened,
four of them were domestic domestic incidents that were taking place,
so eighty percent during that time period that she was quoting,
And I think it's really important that we started thinking
about how we get more support into the home. There's
nothing the police can do about a domestic incident. It
happened while they were in the house with each other,
(30:57):
and we need to have some more coping skills. The
work that my mom does through the suicide and the
Black Church conference where they're working on mental health, those
are resources and things that we can and should be
investing in that are going to help us reduce crime
in our community.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
And one thing I always say me or young is
that police do they What they do is.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Arrest the criminals once it go in the systems, and
that's another story, but right they catch them in our
rest them.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
That's what they're here to do.
Speaker 7 (31:30):
They react to the crime, and they're doing a good
job of it. But we need to be thinking about
other ways for and not just the police to do it,
but all of us to play a role in mitigating
what's happening in our city. I want an all out
effort where it's all hands on deck, where every resident
in our community is vigilant around making sure that nobody
(31:52):
in their household is committing a crime, because that's the
way that we're going to stop it.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
W D I a high Clyde.
Speaker 12 (32:00):
What's going on Johnson?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You know he's an alumna.
Speaker 12 (32:07):
Steve, he's hide he's high and now yeah, he's I
want alum man who he's at.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Let's go Mustang all right now, mar I want I
want you to tell the people knows bye Elon Musky
number coming here.
Speaker 12 (32:21):
That's gonna make a lot of more places moves than
Memphis because members is a prime bug for other companies.
Because we got water, we got the airplane, we got
the train, we got the eighteen one.
Speaker 11 (32:35):
So I believe a lot.
Speaker 12 (32:36):
More company is going to show up here yet, because
I just want to hear your opinion on that.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
Yeah, I think you're already. You're already seeing the impact
with Google just announcing to go to West Memphis just
the other day and they're going to spend you know,
a couple of billion on investments there. You have Blue
Oval City that happened before x AI, that's fifty miles
from downtown Memphis. The companies that I named earlier, Whost
(33:03):
Song and these are there's something happening. And one of
the really cool things that happened as a result of XAI,
we had a meeting with representatives from the company with
a group called Cold Crew. Cold Crew does training of
young people on how to code, and it was an
amazing meeting where we were talking about how we can
use cold Crew to go into the schools and begin
(33:25):
training on artificial intelligence and leveraging the fact that we
have this the world's largest supercomputer literally in our city,
and so schools like Westwood and Fairly and Mitchell that
are in close proximity can now have programming where they're
being trained on artificial intelligence, which literally is a global phenomenon.
And so I think that we are poised for more
(33:48):
opportunity for our young people, more economic development in our city.
Is up to us to take advantage of it.
Speaker 6 (33:56):
Wdia and Hi David.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Good morning, my most beautiful African Violet. How are you
doing to there, my sister.
Speaker 6 (34:03):
I'm doing fabulous. David, how are you?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I'm doing well, so appreciate thank you for asking. Good morning, mister.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
Math, good morning.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
First and foremost, let me say this about x Ai.
I actually didn't call about that, But let me say
this about Xai and the chain of commerce. They didn't
come here by themselves. There was somebody who knew it,
likely the chain of a commerce, and I just I
think the same analogy that that I saw on the
Bill Cosby show. You know, if you bring me up
(34:34):
to lay me young on the top of a garbage lid.
I'm not going to be reaching for the steak sauce
if I need steak sauce or to lat me young.
And I think the way you start is the way
it began and it continues. So I think they didn't
have respect for you because, as far as I know,
you didn't know they were they were here either right.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Or did you know?
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Well? I found out as they were recruiting the company here.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Okay, so you knew it, so you hit no earlier.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Yeah, that's and that's why I made the point around
when my first conversation with them was around the same
environmental issues that people are concerned about, and as someone
who is an electric engineer in city planner, those are
the things that we put controls in place for. So
did the city council though they knew I think in June,
(35:22):
they found out in June. I think this My meeting
with them was in May. All of this happened relatively.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Quickly though, Okay, so they didn't know immediately in regards
to when they were coming. Okay, correct, So that's pretty
much all I gonna said. I had some other questions
asking people online in regards to one, what percentage of
the water once they do build this, how long it's
going to be to build how much are they still
(35:50):
going to have to tap the aqua for all those things?
But that's not really why I called. I called about this.
I had a conversation this morning with a businessman and
we were talking about the chiefs and I said, you know,
I don't think if you bought Jesus Christ in here,
they're gonna be able to solve the crime problem in
for eight years. So I'm good. I mean, hopefully the
mayor and the chiefs can get together and do some
(36:11):
great things. And as you remember when you first were elected,
I called on stand show and I said, I hope
you're successful. I didn't vote for you, but I hope
you're successful because I'm gonna mention and I do want
you to be successful and make message great.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But here's my thing.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I also spoke to him and complaints when Oda Sanford
was in the big chair for BEIL that you know,
I shouldn't have to call three one one to pick
up my freaking recycle. Black folks in the Urban Center
like to recycle too, And as I was talking to
the business man. He said, you know what, David, it's
been more than two two weeks. It's been two months
for me, and I just decided when they entered my
(36:48):
garbage this time, I'm just gonna put it in the
regular gobbage and be through with it. And I have
called three one one so much, mister man, that now
they put me on hold. They'd all have I know
they got called ID the supervisor didn't return the call.
They're tired, and I'm not angry at them because I
know this is what I know, and I be out
(37:09):
of here. I do have a finance degree, but you
don't have to be having a financial degree to know
there are signs that this city is not in fiscal
good health. Be it the bus service, be it your
inability to offer core services timely. We're paying at least
forty dollars a month, you know, to have our garbage
(37:31):
picked up only once a week. It used to be
twice a week. When doctor Harrington was in office, he
cut it to once a week.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
I say that to say this.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
At some point, mister mayor, I'm still supporter. I still
want to be successful, but you're gonna have to be
honest about the fiscal health of this city, the shrinking
tax base, and what that means to the people who
don't want to move to Mississippi or Arkansas. And to
that extent that if I see, and I see continuously
that you're not gonna be honest about the physical health
(38:02):
of this city, IM have to jump off the bandwagon myself.
Speaker 12 (38:06):
Yeah, well, thank.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
You for your calling. Just to respond. I don't know
if you've been watching city council or budget hearings for
the last two years, but or last two cycles, but
that's exactly what I've been talking about every time I
go to city council, is the fact that right now
we must stabilize our financial condition. We went twelve years
without increasing taxes, and it's not like the city was
(38:28):
growing such that we were adding more money to the
tax space. So that's why I had to propose last
year a tax increase for the first time in twelve years.
The amount that I requested to be at it didn't
get approved. We ended up with forty nine cents and
increase in the wheel tax, not the seventy five cents
that I'd asked for. And even this year, I've asked
(38:49):
the council to hold the line. Let's not if we're
not going to increase taxes, let's hold the line and
not increase salaries just for this year. But they've proved another,
you know, eighteen to thirty nine million dollars worth of
salary increases. So we're working and we're gonna find a
way to get things done. But the mayor is always
(39:11):
gonna be upfront around the financial condition that we're in.
And that's something I pride my cell phone. And I
just asked my man to keep watching and keep listening.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, and I know you got to go, Mayor Young,
And I just said, and I was thinking about what
David said. And I've had a lot of people who
have talked to me. Me or Young says, they keep
calling for you on one A nothing, So what's happening
with that?
Speaker 7 (39:34):
Yeah, So the system gets overloaded at certain times because
of how many calls that they receive, and they have
to ask some of the people to call the they'll
call them back, and I guess some things are getting dropped.
And I've been talking to the team over the last
two weeks around how we can do a better job.
(39:54):
It's top of mind for me because when I go
out in the community. That's what I'm asking residents to
do is when you have these complaints, put them into
three one one because that's our database. That's how we
track everything that happens. So it is important to not
give up and keep calling. And when you have bigger issues,
I would ask that you email our team use the
(40:17):
mayored Memphis TN dot gov if you have to, we can.
We will make sure that we're doing everything we can
to make sure we're getting things answered.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Okay, I appreciate you being here. I hope the next
time you come you can stay a little longer.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Oh yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 6 (40:31):
And I agree with.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
David said, Lord, I don't have some stuff on my
folks aint picked it up yet.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
But anyway, yeah, well we go.
Speaker 7 (40:40):
Please use that three one one system because there are
there are tens of thousands of residents and so we
want to make sure that we are getting to all
of the households. And I apologize when we miss it.
But the only way we know that we miss is
if you if you ping us on three one one.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Any other last words you'd like to say to our listener.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
Well, I just want to say thank you for allowing
me to be here. I always love having an opportunity
to talk directly to the people of our city and
answer the questions directly, because I think we you only
get so much in the in the news articles, and
we don't get the nuanced in context. And then I
just asked our city to continue to speak life entire community,
because our young people need it, our city needs it.
(41:19):
I think that sometimes we get so down on ourselves
and the problems overwhelm our psyche that we forget the
good that exists in our community. And we are still
an amazing city with great people, and I think we
need to remind ourselves of that every once in a
while and not be so down on ourselves.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
I agree, may Or Paul Young, thank you for coming,
Thank you, thank you time come say lo.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
I will most definitely hold me to it.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I will, I will when we come back. Lord chitchat
with me. Bab Johnson right here on w d i
A The.
Speaker 8 (41:52):
Bath Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Over there. It's the.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Basis.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Have ever cover fas.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
You got something to say?
Speaker 9 (43:15):
Say it next with Tennessee Radio Hall of Famer BEV
Johnson on w d i A.
Speaker 6 (43:27):
We're going to the other side of the Bev Johnson
Show right here on w d i A The Bev J.
Speaker 8 (43:36):
Justson Show, whether you're.
Speaker 9 (43:42):
In Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram,
thank you for listening to The Bev Johnson Show on
dou w d i A Memphis.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
For the terror.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
In the
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Part is perfect
Memphis probably presents the BEB Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say bathe me first, let me you say,
she's gone memphist of game.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
No matter of the problem, she can have me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So all the phone and the normans on your mind.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
She understand Jimmy d in the hair by chilling to
just keep the thing, went.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Around picking up the joting show bectuting game.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Happy you can hear every day. Indeed, I ain't my
bell got me a missed off.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
And gave.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome in to
wd I A the BEV Johnson Show. It is indeed
a pleasure to have you with us once again on
this Thursday, n twenty twenty five. Enjoy this fabulous day
to day. Get ready to put your ears on. As
we start off this day, I like to say with
(03:09):
the good news, we will be talking with the honorable
Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Mayor Paul Young will be here
to talk with us. And then second hour we'll tell
you about something exciting that's happening.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
For one of our high schools in Memphis. Stick for that.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
When it's your turn to talk, you know you can
nine zero one five three five nine three four two
eight hundred five zero three nine three four two eight
three three five three five nine.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Three four to two will get you in to me.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
And if this day, this day, Thursday May twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five, is your birthday. Happy birthday to each
and every one of y'all out there who may be
celebrating a birthday on this day. You know what I say,
Go out and celebrate your life.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
You better, you better.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
When we come back, we'll talk to the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee,
Paul Young and me Bev Johnson on The BEV Johnson
Show only on Double d.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
I A.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Good morning and welcome back to w d i A
The Bev Johnson Show. It is Thursday, May twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five. Enjoyed this fabulous day today lit Bonie
James for you.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
Feel like making love a ROBERTA fly cover.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
But once again in the it's been a little while
since he's been here. I think I talked to him
the first hundred days, but it's been.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
More than that.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Now we want to welcome back to the BEV Johnson
Show in w d I A.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Mayor Paul Young, Hello, Hello, how are you? Good morning?
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Great good morning to you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Yeah, glad to be here. Sorry, sorry, it's been a
while since i've been here.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Yeah, I know you've been working.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
We've been working.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That's you sure you've been working? Oh yeah, oh yeah,
Well I'm glad to have you back me or Young.
And while i'm doing to give a I know she's listening.
A shout out to your mama.
Speaker 7 (05:47):
Oh yeah, out past the dying, Yeah, yeah, past the diyan.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
That's my that's my sister friend.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
Yes, indeed, she is definitely listening. I text her this
morning and told her I was coming on, so she
was excited.
Speaker 6 (05:59):
She said, all right, thank you.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well let's get rolling, Mayor Young. I was born in
this city, Memphis, Tennessee. It didn't grow up. Parts I
did and didn't. But I don't know what's happening to
my city, Memphis, Tennessee. Brother, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
It's a lot going on.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
It's a lot going on.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
One of the things me or Young I'm concerned about
is the crime. Oh my goodness, I'm very concerned about that.
And I'm concerned about that for me and people who
are in my age grouply seniorship, but everybody, what is
going on and what is the city? Well before I
(06:41):
asked that there are other cities across the country that
are bigger, mayor young than Memphis, Tennessee. For example, I
just read an article on San Francisco, and I hope
you all you get your staffer. It's a newsweek and
they talk about and San Francisco is larger than Memphis,
(07:02):
how their crime is coming down, and what kinds of
things they are doing. And I'm gonna throw these out
to you. Maybe our city is doing some of this.
And in this newsweek article on San Francisco, because they
said they had a big crime problem, since crime is
going down, they're doing it by Miir Young a partnership.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
With the DA's office.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
They are holding courts accountable for these criminals they have
and they have increased their surveillance. They've increased license plate
scanners so they know these stolen cars. They have drones,
(07:52):
and they are lowering the crime rate. I mentioned some
things that San Francisco is doing. They say their crime
has come down.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Well, I'm glad you started it like that. Okay, things
that you just outlined the very specific things are the
exact same things that we're doing, and I want to reiterate.
I just saw just a little brief part of the
article that you were talking about as you were reading it,
and it said that the homicide rate went down by
thirty one percent in San Francisco. Well, here I was
(08:22):
went down by twenty nine percent. So twenty twenty three
was the highest number of homicides that we've had in
our city. I think it was three hundred and ninety eight.
In twenty twenty four, we brought that down to roughly
three hundred, so there were one hundred less homicides in
our community. And so there are things that are happening
(08:44):
every day through the Memphis Police Department, through partnerships that
we have with our street outreach teams where they're working
with these young people that are going in the wrong direction.
But the numbers are still too high, and so it's
hard to feel the safety because you still see incidents
taking place. But I want people to know that we
(09:06):
are working hard. We've installed over two hundred and twenty
eight new cameras in our intersections, and these aren't just
cameras that just catch speeding. These are cameras that have
artificial intelligence that allows us to be able to more
quickly apprehend criminals. I'll give you an example. There was
an incident that took place a couple of months ago,
(09:27):
and the individuals that did the shooting, that committed the homicide,
we were able to capture them on the cameras driving
up to the intersection. We then were able to track
their movement, We identified where the store was that they
bought the ski mask that they used in the shooting,
(09:48):
and we were able to apprehend those individuals. Those are
things that are happening every day. Our officers are.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Even though we don't hear about it the residents exactly.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
And so you may hear a news story that talks
about all of the investment that we're making in technology,
and I hear people say, well, cameras don't stop crime,
but cameras do help you catch criminals. And that's what
we're focused on doing, is making sure we're getting the
bad guys off the streets, and we have an intense
focus on it. When I came into office, I made
(10:19):
a commitment that our goal was to reduce overall crime
year over year by ten percent each year, and we
are on track to do that as crazy as a
month as we had in April. The numbers for homicides
are down. I look every morning, every morning I read,
I get a summary from the Police Department on incidents
(10:40):
that's taken place and the number of homicides that have
happened in our city. And we now have twenty nine
less than we had at this same time, this same
day last year. And so I'm tracking it day by day,
and I'm talking to our teams every day on all
of the strategies and things that we can do to
make sure we're making our community as safe as it
can be. We're gonna keep our foot on the gas.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
And saying that, And you said the crime is coming down.
So is that saying to me and other residents that
you still have confidence in our Memphis Police Department in
Chief CJ.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
Davis?
Speaker 7 (11:18):
Yeah, I do. I mean I stood by Chief Davis
when it was time for the appointment. And the reason
I stood by Chief Davis is because I talked to
every leader within the police department, and when talking to her,
it was very clear that she had a vision to
move the police department beyond where we are into a
space where we haven't been before where we have strong
(11:40):
relationships with the community, where we are aggressive on our
policing approaches and strategies, and we're making sure that we're
putting a strong emphasis on making sure we're getting bad
guys off the streets. I'll give you an example one
of the things that they came up with at the
end of last year, just so people know, the Sheriff's
Department has the response ability of executing warrants, okay, and
(12:02):
we have about twenty thousand unexecuted warrants in our community.
Twenty thousand, twenty thousand people that have warrants for their
arrest that have not been brought into custody, and so
the sheriff Department is overwhelmed. And some of those people
that have warrants have really bad things that they've done,
and they've been running around in the community for two, three,
(12:25):
four or five years without getting caught. And so what
our police department did is they put together a fugitive
task force for ninety days at the end of the
year last year. And over that ninety day period, they
took two people from each precinct and they made them
a part of this task force and they went out
and executed these warrants. They brought in the people that
(12:47):
had done these bad things in the community, and brought
in over one thousand people over a ninety day period.
Those are the kinds of things that her and her
team have been able to come up with and develop
to continue to make us safer. Our focus is get
the bad guys off the street. That's the number one
goal for our police department right now.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Okay, And.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Talking about the crime and you said it's going down
and hopefully it's going to get better and we will
see I know, as you just well, and.
Speaker 7 (13:19):
I don't know how it's still too high. So to
me said, I don't want them to think I'm saying
it's not there anymore. Okay, we're not naive, we understand.
I just think it's important for people to know that
it's trending in a better direction. It's trending better than
it was. And people say, well, across the country crime
is trending now, so we're just following the national trends. Well,
we defied the national trends in twenty twenty three. Crime
(13:41):
started going down in twenty twenty two actually, and each
year twenty twenty two we went up twenty twenty three,
we went up twenty twenty four is when we started
going down, and we're continuing to go down lower than
we were last year. And that's my goal, is to
continue to reduce crime year over year. This is not
something that we can flip a switch and it's over
with and everybody knows. Is I talk about getting the
(14:03):
bad guys off the streets, those are people that have
committed crimes. We have to do both, and we have
to make sure we're getting the people off the streets
that have committed crimes, but that we're also finding ways
to invest in the things that prevent people from taking
on a life of crime. That we are talking to
the parents about how they can be accountable, how they
can make sure that when they're young, person walks out
the house and you see them walking around with backpacks
(14:24):
and they're not going to school, so they have the
potential of having long guns and them. We're seeing it
all across the community, like everybody has to be a
part of that, and we have to have that direct dialogue.
Me as mayor talking to the people of this community.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
One of the things that you said investment, and I
think about the city of Memphis and will people hear
about crime and people hear about the our educational system,
and you think about do businesses want to come to Memphis, Tennessee?
Speaker 6 (14:59):
How we look in that and in communities?
Speaker 4 (15:02):
How are we looking with businesses coming here to come
to Memphis and to offer people jobs.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
Yeah, I think things are looking up on the business front.
We've had some magnificent wins. Unfortunately I can't remember the
name of the company, but there's a five hundred million
dollar investment that's being made that was just announced literally yesterday.
There's aon which makes HVAC systems. There's Hotsong, which makes
these large transformers that just upgraded their facility and they're
(15:32):
going to be offering new jobs. I think it's important
for us to make sure that our young people are
prepared for those jobs, that we are aligning our training
and educational programs such that they are the jobs of
the future, the ones where they're going to be able
to earn a good living, and that there's going to
be a high quality opportunity waiting for them when they
(15:52):
get out. The worst thing we could do is start
training people for jobs. They go through the training and
then they get no job they finish. We have to
make sure that the training that we're offering is aligned
with where the jobs of the future are going.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
When we talk about the city and people talk about
the different areas and what areas are not booming and
what areas are and we look at one of the
things downtown Memphis, I think about what I go down there.
I'm surprised to see some of the things that are
going on as far as infrastructure and building. And one
(16:30):
of the things that we look at is tourism and
people coming here. And I'm concerned, Mere Young when we
talk about conventions coming to town and not living and
help me with this. The city of Memphis took over
the Sheraton. Correct, Correct, what are you all doing now?
Because when people come here for convention, they would love
(16:53):
somewhere to stay, and that's close to walk Cross Street.
In the past, Mayor Young Hotel is the pits. And
I'm saying it for I know because when my sorority
was here and they were complaining.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
So what's going on with that?
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Yeah, So it's been a lot of legal, behind the
scenes work that has been happening over the past couple
of months. I think we announced at the end of
last year that we were going to acquire and since
that time, literally today I got an email about finalizing
the transaction, so we're close to actually having the transaction
complete it. Once we take the property into our hands,
(17:30):
then the next step is for us to begin working
towards renovation. So we have to work with a design team.
They'll come up with a design and then we'll go
through the process of all of the transfer of the
property to a different entity, and then we'll issue bonds
and we'll get the property upgraded. This was an aggressive
step that we took because we know how important tourism
is to our community. The Sheridan Hotel is literally attached
(17:54):
to our convention center. It's literally physically attached to the
convention center, and we made a two hundred million dollar
investment in that convention center. And one of the things
that we hear is what you just said that that
hotel is not up to park. I went to talk
to Kojak before they made their decision, and you know,
I had a church full of them, and when I
(18:17):
spoke about our efforts to upgrade that hotel, there was
loud cheers because they felt the same and I firmly
believe that we'll be able to get Kojak back once
we're able to upgrade the facilities in this community, and
not just Kojak, but others you may have saw earlier
this year, I invited the presidents of all of the
(18:38):
Divine Nine to Memphis, and they came and they loved
it here, and they are now looking at opportunities to
host regional and national conferences here. But one of the
things they want is to make sure we have the
facilities that they need. And so our goal is to
make sure that we have a pipeline of events and
activities that allow our hotels, our small businesses that come
(19:00):
down and they cater to those individuals that come. We
want to make sure that we have that ecosystem in place,
and having the facilities is really really important for us
to be able to do that.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I'm glad to hear you say that. Good. Another thing, mer,
young boy, the city is catching hell.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I can say that, Okay, thank you talk, we're talking.
We're talking, and I'm glad you're here catching hell. And
the city leadership has has gotten a lot of flack
on this XA idea.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Yeah, yeah, what is happening? Yeah, I mean, it is
the city that greedy for money.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
I think that it's a complete misunderstanding. Well one, what
I really think is happening is people are upset about
things that are happening in DC, and the head of
the project is emblematic of what they don't like in DC.
And what I try to tell people is that for
me as mayor, we're looking at what's the business proposition
(19:59):
for the city of men. What do we get out
of this. It's not about him, He's gonna be rich
regardless no matter what. It's about what can we get
out of this? And so I think it's important that
people under the biggest pushback that I hear is around
the environmental concerns and what does it what is it
doing to our air quality? This is the first thing
(20:20):
that I talked to the team about when I met
them back in May of twenty twenty four. It's water
and power. Those are the two big things with regards
to water. We didn't want them pulling from our aquifer
and taking all of our precious water. We went to
them with a proposal to help us figure out a
path to get what we call a grey water facility.
(20:40):
What they all take wastewater from our wastewater treatment facility
which is literally adjacent to it, treat that water and
use that to cool and instead of pulling from our aquifer,
they agreed to build an eighty million dollar grey water
facility on their dime, which benefits us because it not
only does their water, but also TVA, which is across
the street, use a six and a half million gallons
(21:02):
of water from our aquifer every day. They are now
going to come off the aquifer and use that gray
water tremendous wind. The other issue that you hear about
is around the air quality. The turbines that are there
are temporary. They filed a permit for fifteen temporary. The
permit is for a permanent but when they're there, they
(21:24):
will only be back up power. What they're really doing
is tapping into our grid. But in order to tap
into the grid, they have to build these substations, and
these two substations, one of which is complete, the other
one will be complete by the end of the summer.
So they've been using this these turbines temporarily until they're
tapped in, and then the fifteen that remain will be
(21:45):
there if they come off the grid at any point
in time, because they agreed that during any times that
we have peak power. That means when they send you
an alert and say turn off your dishwashers because it's
too hot outside and too much powers being consumed, we
tell companies the same thing, to come off the grid.
They've agreed that they will reduce their power consumption to
(22:05):
zero during those moments, they will use battery packs, and
if they have to go longer, then they would use
those temporary turbines. And so I think that there has
been a lot of pushback related to who that person
is and not enough information given to the community around
what they get from it. Because once you get beyond environmental,
you start talking about okay, well what can we get
(22:27):
from this and what we have done? And I'll say
that I don't think I've talked about this in any
media outlet. One of the things that we're getting ready
to do is put forth an ordinance. This ordinance is
going to allow us to take of the twelve to
sixteen million dollars that's going to come to the city
of Memphis proper. That's not counting the county they get
another eighteen but of our twelve to sixteen we're going
(22:48):
to allocate twenty five percent to stay in the area
within a five to ten mile radius of the site.
What that means is that for the first time ever,
we have a dedicated funding stream that comes from a
project that's located in that community, that can go towards
improving housing, go for towards improving roads, parks, infrastructure in
(23:10):
that community. And we're gonna do that up until they
we have invested one hundred million dollars in that community.
So those are the types of things that we're looking
at to be creative and make sure that the community
is the number one winner as a result of having
this project in our city.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
If you've just tuned in this morning, I am talking
with the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, Mayor Paul Young.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
He is here.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
He's not here all day long. You may have a
question or two for him this day. We invite you
to call five three five nine three four two eight
hundred five zero three nine three four two eight three
three five three five nine. The three four to two
will get you in to us. You're listening to the
(23:55):
Bab Johnson Show on w d I above.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Justial don't go away.
Speaker 9 (24:13):
The BEV Johnson Show returns after these messages.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You need.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
I'm telling him everyone see Beth coming talking.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
No everyone, No, Good.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Morning and welcome back to w d i A.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
My guest is Mayor Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee.
I'm going to our phone lines, loop fellows. Let me
tell you this.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
The mayor, he already told me. We knew when we
schedule this interview. He didn't have long.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
He has to leave in a few So if you
please be kind and you know, get your your one
question or whatever you have to say to him so
I can get all you all in before he gets
out of here.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
He has another engagement. I'm sorry. So I'm going to
our phone lines to talk with you.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Hi, West Fellos, how are you?
Speaker 6 (25:40):
I'm doing well today. How are you?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I am good, mister mayor? How are you good? I
won't hold on. Just a quick question, mister mayor. That
the twenty nine percent drop in murder rate, I think
that that would be only accept number if our murders
were acceptable. San Francisco's murder rate dropped thirty something percent,
(26:07):
and their murder rate was acceptable because their murders in
that year was fifty one and they dropped to thirty something.
Our murders were almost four hundred, and they dropped They
if they dropped ninety percent, they would have still been
more than San Francisco's if they dropped ninety percent, you know,
So having a murder rate of three hundred or two
(26:29):
hundred and something, I don't think that's anything to be
happy about.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
I'm definitely not happy. I want to be clear. I'm
not happy. I'm not happy. I'm I'm I'm just sharing
the data.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Following the tree, and it is acceptable when you're if
our murder rate had been half of a city that
has two hundred and fifty thousand more people than us,
that's not a tree. They had fifty one murders that
year and they dropped to thirty something. We had almost
four hundred.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Right, I mean, I want to be clear. It's not
acceptable at any level. So so I'm not saying that
it's acceptable. So I agree with you on that front.
But what I'm what I am articulating the fact is
that we are trending in a better direction than we were.
It didn't go up about twenty nine percent.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Thank you, thank you, You're welcome, thank.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
You, thank you, sir, bye, Hi William, will.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Hello there, beautiful Beth.
Speaker 10 (27:22):
Thank you for taking my call. Uh, you're doing a
great job.
Speaker 7 (27:27):
Mayor, thank you.
Speaker 10 (27:27):
And you know Xile was thrown up on you. You
know what had happened before you got here. All you
can do is manage. The question I have is the
leader of XI and his friends have been known not
to keep agreements. So what is our recourse when if
they don't keep the agreement of not using the turbines,
(27:48):
not using our water, what is our recourse? Thank you, Mary,
you're doing a great job.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Thank you, William, thank you.
Speaker 7 (27:55):
Great question. So the recourse on the turbine. So with
the turbines, it cost them more to run the turbines
than it does for them to tap into the power grid.
That's why they are building at their costs. The substations
that they're tapped into. One of them is already built,
the second one is already being built. So I don't
(28:15):
think there's a threat of them using the turbines over
using the power that comes from the MLGW grid. With
regards to the water, you know, they're they're building this
on their dime, but they have already started buying all
of the materials to start the construction. I saw on myself.
I saw the materials on the site. So there isn't
(28:38):
a record. They don't have to build it. This is
something that they are opting to do. They were not
required to build a gray water facility. It was something
we asked them to do and that they are doing.
And so the money that I talked about with regards
to the funding, those are tax dollars that come to
the city and we're calling that ordinance a community benefit ordinance.
So those are dollars that we are going to get
(29:01):
and we are taking those dollars and applying them in
a way where we are uplifting the community as a
result of the investment that comes there.
Speaker 11 (29:10):
Hi Marcus, Yes, they're greetings and greetings to the Maya.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
Greta.
Speaker 11 (29:17):
You're doing an excellent job here, you're doing an excellent job. Hey,
you're fixed park coving you you know, Hey, keep on
doing what they're doing. Miss Ameya. You're an engineer and
electrical engineer by profession.
Speaker 12 (29:31):
Our engineers do.
Speaker 11 (29:33):
Engineers solve problems. That's what engineers do. So you're a
scientist like my sal Aa, and I want to tell
this this. You see the crime. A lot of these
people that's committing crime they know each other maya. So
there is something wrong with these people that's committing the crime.
It's that stranger. Look at what they did the other year,
(29:55):
like Jasline that was people who know each other. That's Stranjiz.
So we have a problem with ourselves as black people
who are put that malaly in this community.
Speaker 12 (30:08):
Five more years for your miss Ama, That's what I say.
Speaker 11 (30:11):
You are doing. Great job, thank you.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
Thank you, thank you. So just to comment on what
he said, I am in election engineer, but the point
that he made around people knowing each other, I do
think that is an important point because I was talking
to Chief Davis literally just last week, and we go
over all of the homicides that have take place weekly,
and she was pointing out that there were four or five,
(30:35):
and there were five, and of the five that happened,
four of them were domestic domestic incidents that were taking place,
so eighty percent during that time period that she was quoting,
And I think it's really important that we started thinking
about how we get more support into the home. There's
nothing the police can do about a domestic incident. It
happened while they were in the house with each other,
(30:57):
and we need to have some more coping skills. The
work that my mom does through the suicide and the
Black Church conference where they're working on mental health, those
are resources and things that we can and should be
investing in that are going to help us reduce crime
in our community.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
And one thing I always say me or young is
that police do they What they do is.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Arrest the criminals once it go in the systems, and
that's another story, but right they catch them in our
rest them.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
That's what they're here to do.
Speaker 7 (31:30):
They react to the crime, and they're doing a good
job of it. But we need to be thinking about
other ways for and not just the police to do it,
but all of us to play a role in mitigating
what's happening in our city. I want an all out
effort where it's all hands on deck, where every resident
in our community is vigilant around making sure that nobody
(31:52):
in their household is committing a crime, because that's the
way that we're going to stop it.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
W D I a high Clyde.
Speaker 12 (32:00):
What's going on Johnson?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You know he's an alumna.
Speaker 12 (32:07):
Steve, he's hide he's high and now yeah, he's I
want alum man who he's at.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Let's go Mustang all right now, mar I want I
want you to tell the people knows bye Elon Musky
number coming here.
Speaker 12 (32:21):
That's gonna make a lot of more places moves than
Memphis because members is a prime bug for other companies.
Because we got water, we got the airplane, we got
the train, we got the eighteen one.
Speaker 11 (32:35):
So I believe a lot.
Speaker 12 (32:36):
More company is going to show up here yet, because
I just want to hear your opinion on that.
Speaker 7 (32:42):
Yeah, I think you're already. You're already seeing the impact
with Google just announcing to go to West Memphis just
the other day and they're going to spend you know,
a couple of billion on investments there. You have Blue
Oval City that happened before x AI, that's fifty miles
from downtown Memphis. The companies that I named earlier, Whost
(33:03):
Song and these are there's something happening. And one of
the really cool things that happened as a result of XAI,
we had a meeting with representatives from the company with
a group called Cold Crew. Cold Crew does training of
young people on how to code, and it was an
amazing meeting where we were talking about how we can
use cold Crew to go into the schools and begin
(33:25):
training on artificial intelligence and leveraging the fact that we
have this the world's largest supercomputer literally in our city,
and so schools like Westwood and Fairly and Mitchell that
are in close proximity can now have programming where they're
being trained on artificial intelligence, which literally is a global phenomenon.
And so I think that we are poised for more
(33:48):
opportunity for our young people, more economic development in our city.
Is up to us to take advantage of it.
Speaker 6 (33:56):
Wdia and Hi David.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Good morning, my most beautiful African Violet. How are you
doing to there, my sister.
Speaker 6 (34:03):
I'm doing fabulous. David, how are you?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I'm doing well, so appreciate thank you for asking. Good morning, mister.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
Math, good morning.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
First and foremost, let me say this about x Ai.
I actually didn't call about that, But let me say
this about Xai and the chain of commerce. They didn't
come here by themselves. There was somebody who knew it,
likely the chain of a commerce, and I just I
think the same analogy that that I saw on the
Bill Cosby show. You know, if you bring me up
(34:34):
to lay me young on the top of a garbage lid.
I'm not going to be reaching for the steak sauce
if I need steak sauce or to lat me young.
And I think the way you start is the way
it began and it continues. So I think they didn't
have respect for you because, as far as I know,
you didn't know they were they were here either right.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Or did you know?
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Well? I found out as they were recruiting the company here.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
Okay, so you knew it, so you hit no earlier.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Yeah, that's and that's why I made the point around
when my first conversation with them was around the same
environmental issues that people are concerned about, and as someone
who is an electric engineer in city planner, those are
the things that we put controls in place for. So
did the city council though they knew I think in June,
(35:22):
they found out in June. I think this My meeting
with them was in May. All of this happened relatively.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Quickly though, Okay, so they didn't know immediately in regards
to when they were coming. Okay, correct, So that's pretty
much all I gonna said. I had some other questions
asking people online in regards to one, what percentage of
the water once they do build this, how long it's
going to be to build how much are they still
(35:50):
going to have to tap the aqua for all those things?
But that's not really why I called. I called about this.
I had a conversation this morning with a businessman and
we were talking about the chiefs and I said, you know,
I don't think if you bought Jesus Christ in here,
they're gonna be able to solve the crime problem in
for eight years. So I'm good. I mean, hopefully the
mayor and the chiefs can get together and do some
(36:11):
great things. And as you remember when you first were elected,
I called on stand show and I said, I hope
you're successful. I didn't vote for you, but I hope
you're successful because I'm gonna mention and I do want
you to be successful and make message great.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But here's my thing.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
I also spoke to him and complaints when Oda Sanford
was in the big chair for BEIL that you know,
I shouldn't have to call three one one to pick
up my freaking recycle. Black folks in the Urban Center
like to recycle too, And as I was talking to
the business man. He said, you know what, David, it's
been more than two two weeks. It's been two months
for me, and I just decided when they entered my
(36:48):
garbage this time, I'm just gonna put it in the
regular gobbage and be through with it. And I have
called three one one so much, mister man, that now
they put me on hold. They'd all have I know
they got called ID the supervisor didn't return the call.
They're tired, and I'm not angry at them because I
know this is what I know, and I be out
(37:09):
of here. I do have a finance degree, but you
don't have to be having a financial degree to know
there are signs that this city is not in fiscal
good health. Be it the bus service, be it your
inability to offer core services timely. We're paying at least
forty dollars a month, you know, to have our garbage
(37:31):
picked up only once a week. It used to be
twice a week. When doctor Harrington was in office, he
cut it to once a week.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
I say that to say this.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
At some point, mister mayor, I'm still supporter. I still
want to be successful, but you're gonna have to be
honest about the fiscal health of this city, the shrinking
tax base, and what that means to the people who
don't want to move to Mississippi or Arkansas. And to
that extent that if I see, and I see continuously
that you're not gonna be honest about the physical health
(38:02):
of this city, IM have to jump off the bandwagon myself.
Speaker 12 (38:06):
Yeah, well, thank.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
You for your calling. Just to respond. I don't know
if you've been watching city council or budget hearings for
the last two years, but or last two cycles, but
that's exactly what I've been talking about every time I
go to city council, is the fact that right now
we must stabilize our financial condition. We went twelve years
without increasing taxes, and it's not like the city was
(38:28):
growing such that we were adding more money to the
tax space. So that's why I had to propose last
year a tax increase for the first time in twelve years.
The amount that I requested to be at it didn't
get approved. We ended up with forty nine cents and
increase in the wheel tax, not the seventy five cents
that I'd asked for. And even this year, I've asked
(38:49):
the council to hold the line. Let's not if we're
not going to increase taxes, let's hold the line and
not increase salaries just for this year. But they've proved another,
you know, eighteen to thirty nine million dollars worth of
salary increases. So we're working and we're gonna find a
way to get things done. But the mayor is always
(39:11):
gonna be upfront around the financial condition that we're in.
And that's something I pride my cell phone. And I
just asked my man to keep watching and keep listening.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, and I know you got to go, Mayor Young,
And I just said, and I was thinking about what
David said. And I've had a lot of people who
have talked to me. Me or Young says, they keep
calling for you on one A nothing, So what's happening
with that?
Speaker 7 (39:34):
Yeah, So the system gets overloaded at certain times because
of how many calls that they receive, and they have
to ask some of the people to call the they'll
call them back, and I guess some things are getting dropped.
And I've been talking to the team over the last
two weeks around how we can do a better job.
(39:54):
It's top of mind for me because when I go
out in the community. That's what I'm asking residents to
do is when you have these complaints, put them into
three one one because that's our database. That's how we
track everything that happens. So it is important to not
give up and keep calling. And when you have bigger issues,
I would ask that you email our team use the
(40:17):
mayored Memphis TN dot gov if you have to, we can.
We will make sure that we're doing everything we can
to make sure we're getting things answered.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Okay, I appreciate you being here. I hope the next
time you come you can stay a little longer.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Oh yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 6 (40:31):
And I agree with.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
David said, Lord, I don't have some stuff on my
folks aint picked it up yet.
Speaker 6 (40:36):
But anyway, yeah, well we go.
Speaker 7 (40:40):
Please use that three one one system because there are
there are tens of thousands of residents and so we
want to make sure that we are getting to all
of the households. And I apologize when we miss it.
But the only way we know that we miss is
if you if you ping us on three one one.
Speaker 6 (40:56):
Any other last words you'd like to say to our listener.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
Well, I just want to say thank you for allowing
me to be here. I always love having an opportunity
to talk directly to the people of our city and
answer the questions directly, because I think we you only
get so much in the in the news articles, and
we don't get the nuanced in context. And then I
just asked our city to continue to speak life entire community,
because our young people need it, our city needs it.
(41:19):
I think that sometimes we get so down on ourselves
and the problems overwhelm our psyche that we forget the
good that exists in our community. And we are still
an amazing city with great people, and I think we
need to remind ourselves of that every once in a
while and not be so down on ourselves.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
I agree, may Or Paul Young, thank you for coming,
Thank you, thank you time come say lo.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
I will most definitely hold me to it.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I will, I will when we come back. Lord chitchat
with me. Bab Johnson right here on w d i
A The.
Speaker 8 (41:52):
Bath Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Over there. It's the.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Basis.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Have ever cover fas.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
You got something to say?
Speaker 9 (43:15):
Say it next with Tennessee Radio Hall of Famer BEV
Johnson on w d i A.
Speaker 6 (43:27):
We're going to the other side of the Bev Johnson
Show right here on w d i A The Bev J.
Speaker 8 (43:36):
Justson Show, whether you're.
Speaker 9 (43:42):
In Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram,
thank you for listening to The Bev Johnson Show on
dou w d i A Memphis.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
For the terror.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
In the
Speaker 6 (44:06):
Part is perfect
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