Combatting Cordova’s out-of-control crime has become the platform for Todd Payne, the Republican nominee for Shelby County Commission District 5.
District 5 includes Cordova along with several precincts in North East Memphis.The community has become the latest hot spot of the crime wave washing over the City of Memphis and is wreaking havoc on its economy.
“Commerce is only as good as people feel safe to do commerce,” Payne told “Wake Up Memphis” Monday.
The Republican hopeful said Cordovans aren’t shopping at the businesses on Germantown Parkway, which is the second highest revenue area in the entire county. Instead, residents are driving to suburbs like Germantown and Collierville to shop because they don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods.“If this area fails, then Shelby County will fail. And this is what I’ve told people for a decade or more. So as goes Cordova, so go Shelby County. Cordova is a mirror image of Shelby County,” Payne told morning show host Tim Van Horn.
Payne faces off against Democrat Shante Avant, the vice president for the Women’s Foundation for Greater Memphis. The current District 5 commissioner Michael Whaley is running in District 13 due to redistricting.
Election day is Thursday, August 4.Listen to the full conversation with Payne below:
