 Hello, Columbia, and welcome to City View, where we bring you an inside view of the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Utsy. In our top story, Mayor Steve Benjamin was joined by City Council members, along with Congressman James E. Clyburn and members of the Clyburn family, for the recent street dedication and honor of Dr. Emily Clyburn. And nobody, or nothing, would take her away from this neighborhood, but, yeah, she was never going to leave. And now, Mr. Mayor, I know how much time I have left, but I know this. It would be one thing to move off of the University. I don't see myself ever moving off Emily, England, Clyburn way. Mayor Steve Benjamin recently was joined by community leaders for the official ceremonial signing of the Band the Box Ordinance. We know that a large number of formerly incarcerated individuals remain unemployed for years after the release, often times struggling to provide the most basic needs for themselves and for their families. Significant, powerful opportunity to dramatically change the trajectory of the American workforce and create opportunities for all of our citizens. And now some great news from the Columbia Police Department, where Steve Benjamin, Councilman Ed McDowell, City Manager Teresa Wilson, and also Police Chief William Skip Holbrook were recently joined by local and some federal law enforcement officials to announce a new grant for new initiatives for CPD. This is a significant opportunity to pull together a number of great agencies that work together pretty well right now, but a concentrated effort to focus on gun crimes and repeat offenders using data and also human intelligence. This is going to help us dramatically decrease the number of gun crimes in Columbia and it's a big step forward, very proud of our CPD leadership team and thankful for the wonderful partnership we've been able to enter into with state and federal agencies. The purpose is to break a shooting cycle, identify those prolific offenders that we know are, there's just a handful that we know they're committing a lot of our violent crime and this unit through the analysts and the technical assistance that we're being provided we think is going to further that endeavor on our goal to reduce violent crime in the city. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's also the month when Mayor Steve Benjamin's campaign against breast cancer goes into full force. The press conference was recently held to talk about this year's breakfast fundraiser as well as other fundraising initiatives. Our new breast cancer awareness t-shirts as we do each year all proceeds from the sales of these t-shirts to go to Prisma Health Midlands Foundation for the Bullism Buddies Fund. It's a local 501c3 that provides resources for recovery and emotional healing for women undergoing breast cancer treatment. And now for some more city business with the Office of Business Opportunities. They joined the U.S. Department of Transportation to sponsor a conference that was recently held at Benedict College. Our vision for Columbia has been simple for the last nine years. We want to be the most talented, educated and entrepreneurial city in America. That's it. In order to do that we have to make sure we create a platform for each and every one of our citizens to live up to their guide given potential. We have to make sure that every single citizen has a chance to participate. Participate fully in the economic prosperity of our city. We had to do that. I had to start by leading by example. The City of Columbia's annual Parking Day has become an annual tradition for some. A day filled with fun and creative ideas. This is Columbia's fifth year to participate in Parking Day. So basically we're just encouraging people to take advantage of the day. Kind of celebrate public open space and just sort of raise awareness that we need more of it in our cities and less space dedicated to cars. They are public space and oftentimes they're just used by one person at a time. And by kind of taking over and turning them into a park we get to have a lot more people use them and kind of reclaim that public space for a different purpose. We can have conversations about what it means to have public space and that might lead to bigger and better changes for our city that will ultimately make our city a better and more vibrant place. Well that wraps up this edition of CityView where we bring you an inside view of the City of Columbia. Thank you for watching and also if you need additional information about anything covered on this program contact the Department of Public Relations, Media and Marketing for the City of Columbia. You can call us at 545-3020, email us at pio at columbiasc.gov and you can definitely reach out to us on social media on our social media platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as checking out our website for our website calendar and all other information regarding the city. Hey there Mayor Steve Benjamin here, thanks for watching this video. Make sure you give it a like right below the video and don't forget to subscribe. Also while you're here be sure to check out one of our other videos or follow on our social media platforms. Thanks again and remember we are Columbia.