Paul Young kicks off inauguration weekend with parade at Tiger Lane
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In just two days, the city of Memphis will officially have a new mayor.
Mayor-elect Paul Young will be sworn in on New Year’s Day, but he is already celebrating with an inauguration weekend surrounded by his family and hundreds of supporters. He says he’s ready to get to work.
Starting with a parade followed by a block party at Tiger Lane, supporters salute the man who will soon be the 65th mayor of Memphis.
Mayor-Elect Paul Young announces new administration appointments
“Our last mayor was fantastic. I hope our new mayor is as good or better, and I hope to see even better things for Memphis,” said Nathan Hayes, a Memphis resident.
“I think we needed Paul. I think that if everybody gives him a little time, I think that you’re going to see a lot of positive things happening, a lot of positive changes happening,” said Henry Sanders, an event attendee.
We spoke to Young, who says he is ready to hit the ground running come January 1.
“The number one thing is to bring the parties to the table. You’ll see that very, very early in the administration, us starting the process of bringing that pandemic-level response and getting the right people in the room so that we’re sharing strategies and solutions and communicating on how we can do things better,” said Paul Young.
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Young says he knows public safety is a number one priority for many Memphians, and his goal is to unify the community to find solutions.
“MPD is an important part of public safety, but it’s the criminal justice system, it’s the nonprofit sector, it’s the parks and community centers, it’s the way that we engage our young people, our school system,” he said. “I know that we can tackle the problems that we have in our community together, and I want to be a voice that helps bind us.”
Young still has many other events planned for this weekend leading up to his swearing-in ceremony, which will be held at 11 a.m. at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts on Jan. 1.
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