BARNES: Welcome to the Behind the Headlines Radio Roundtable on WKNO-FM. I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian, joined today by Memphis Mayor Paul Young. There was obviously a protest across the country, the No Kings rallies, many, many cities and communities across the country last weekend. In Memphis, at the end of it, there was pepper spray. I think four officers, MPD officers, are now on administrative leave as what happened is being investigated. What can you tell us about what happened, what went wrong, or why there was what was a peaceful protest turned aggressive?
YOUNG: Well, the initial permit was filed for the individuals to have 250 people in the park for an event. That went off without a hitch. At the end of the event, there was a group that went to do a march. MPD allowed that march because it was taking place on Beale Street, which was closed anyway, and they were supposed to turn around. But, instead of turning around, they made a left at second, and they went down into oncoming traffic. And that's when things, I think, got a little bit dicey. MPD was trying to get those individuals to be on the sidewalks for safety. And I do think it's important to note that we've seen protests in other places where you've had people that may have ill intent that drive through the middle and people are injured and hurt. So this is for the safety of the protesters as well as the general public. And so the incident took place at the end as they were trying to get people out of the street. And there will be an internal investigation, and that will run its course. But I think we should look at all of the mitigating factors that led to this happening.
BARNES: Let me bring in Bill Dries from the Daily Memphian.
DRIES: Mayor, it's almost budget season. Of course, budget season never really seems to end from your vantage point. It looks like, I mean, expenses go up but the revenue remains the same. How tight is it going to be this year?
YOUNG: It's going to be a tight budget, but every year we have to make tough decisions. We always want to try to do something for our employees when we can, so we have to think about how we can factor in any raises and things of that nature. We have to look at our revenues and where there may be limits to that revenue, so there's potential state legislation that may reduce some of the state funds, and so we're working that from the legislative side. Thankfully, we do have a boost from xAI with it bringing in about $54 million, 26 of which will go to the city of Memphis. And so we're going to make some decisions, and it'll be a tough season, but we'll get through it.
DRIES: How do you feel that your operating strategy has worked, where if you have money in the budget for one project and it's not moving for whatever reason, but you've got another project that is moving but doesn't necessarily have the money, you switch that. How do you feel like that's worked out?
YOUNG: I mean, I think it works out well. I mean, when you are doing your capital budget, you are anticipating which projects you're going to be able to get off the ground, but there's always unforeseen challenges. There are market issues and other pressures, and so we make decisions that are best for moving each project forward, and sometimes some are stalled. You redirect those dollars to the projects that are moving to make sure that the public can continue to feel the momentum and energy that we need to advance our city.
BARNES: One of those things that I think your predecessor, Jim Strickland, would always talk about, you know, everywhere he went, no matter what, it was about potholes in the streets. So let's talk downtown. We had Chandell Ryan. Downtown Memphis Commission, your old job, she was on recently. I mean, the streets downtown are just objectively pretty messy in the core of downtown. Where is that on the list of priorities?
YOUNG: It's definitely a priority. I mean, I don't know the whole paving schedule, so I couldn't tell you specific streets. Some of the streets are state routes. Each one has its own path, but we are definitely paying attention to what the conditions of roads look like, not just in downtown, but really all throughout our city.
BARNES: You had an unveiling or an event this week. Work is starting on the, I guess, cruise ships down in what, up in Greenbelt Park. There'll be a more formal landing there. What is going on at Beale Street Landing, though? Is it being renovated? Is that what's happening right now? It's being renovated?
YOUNG: Yeah. There's some construction on the ramp for Beale Street Landing, so the boats have not been able to dock there for some time. By the end of the year, they will be back there, and we'll have the secondary docking station at Greenbelt Park, which will be a great thing for the tour ships that come through our city.
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