 Hello Columbia and welcome to City View, where we give you an inside view of the City of Columbia. In our top story on City View, recently Mayor Daniel Rickerman, along with members of the Community and Economic Development Committee, hosted a press conference to announce the new business-friendly initiatives. Committee Chairperson Councilman Joe Taylor, who is also the former Secretary of Commerce, led the committee and also led the press conference to announce these new initiatives to make Columbia more business-friendly. I think this is a big day for small business. I think it's a good day for all business. And I want to thank our staff for working hard on these things. Frankly, these are some of the things, the reasons that I ran for City Council is to make our city as easy to operate in, as easy to start a business in as anywhere else I've seen. Thank you again to Mayor Daniel Rickerman and to the Community and Economic Development Task Force and Committee members, including Chairman Joe Taylor, our City Councilwoman Tina Herbert and City Councilman Will Brennan. Thank you for your work on the committee, along with our City Manager. For those who are seeking the business-friendly initiatives, please visit our website at ColumbiaSC.gov for a full list. Also what was happening in North Columbia, we segue from the business-friendly press conference to a new business that is now open and ready to serve those in North Columbia and throughout the city. It's another great day in Columbia. Here we are in the North Main Corridor opening and another business. It's very exciting. I want to thank you for your investment, your thoughts. As we were talking earlier, you know, one of the great things, I think the North Main Corridor is our new corridor where investment's coming. There are not many places that people can open up a small business, walk out on the street and point at the State House. There is nowhere in America that you have the ability to do that other than on this stretch. And I think that's an incredible thing. And we continue to be open for business and we move from North Columbia to the Vista, to the new opening of Silk. Having been in Columbia for a long time and understand, you know, what this space looked like before and the way it is transformed currently, it's really remarkable and I think everybody is going to be impressed by what you see when you get on the inside. You know, Duquan has spent time up in Charlotte where he's a successful business owner up there and I think he's really kind of tried to bring a new level of nightlife and excitement and entertainment here to Columbia. And as we continue our We Are Open tour for new businesses, we now roll into five points for the unveiling of a sign for a new business coming to the Five Points Village. You know, a lot of cities in the Southeast hang their hat, having a niche on being innovative in the technology and software world. Well, Columbia is about to get into it. We're about to chase the Ralees, the Chattanooga's, the Tampa's as the best place for innovative intact. We want to grow our little economy here to be unique. As we continue our Food Truck Fridays, we want to share with you some of the fun we had in June and also let you know you can continue to enjoy Food Truck Fridays during the month of July. All the trucks are very passionate about what they make, so you're not going to get anything that's bad. Everything is very from the heart. These guys work hard. You've been on a food truck or in the industry, you know how hard it is. So their passion is in their food. Come out and try it. You won't regret it. It's good stuff. Based on the food that was available during the month of June, I know you're looking forward to Food Truck Fridays for Fridays in July. Please continue to visit our website and follow us on social media, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out vendors for each Friday. The location is 2300 Bull Street at the corner of Bull and Colonial in the REI Co-op Parking Lot. The hours are 11am until 3pm every Friday during the month of July and also as we roll into August. And now we go from Food Truck Fridays to Block Parties. Block Parties are being held through a partnership with Serving Connect, the Columbia Police Department and the Parks and Recreation Department. These block parties are held in various parts of our community in order to engage our citizens, connect with police officers and make sure that our youth and seniors as well as adults have fun while also finding out who your neighbors are and meeting the police officers who serve our city. So today we're here for the Be Safe Block Party in partnership with Serving Connect, Parks and Recreation, Columbia Police Department and of course the City of Columbia. And I am really excited to share that today is also the kickoff of Lock It Up Columbia which is our initiative to help spread awareness about how important it is to lock up your firearms. And so we hope that people will come out today and take advantage of the amazing resources out here whether it's getting that lock for your firearm, learning about health insurance, understanding where there's places where you can get resources for you and your kids, enrolling in after school activities, anything that you need in order to support your family and to create a strong community. And as we wrap up City View, we wrap up with a sentimental story to say farewell and have a retirement to Ray Williams who's been working with the City of Columbia for 29 and a half years as the events coordinator for Parks and Recreation. Even though he's held multiple positions in Parks and Recreation, most of us know him from helping set up events, press conferences and other special activities around the City of Columbia. Ray has been presently engaged and has helped every department I believe within the City of Columbia and he is going to be truly, truly missed as a result of all those things that he's done and how he's done this out of a spirit of excellence. We are very thankful for your tenure and all the work that you have done for 29 and a half years and I say this on behalf of our City Manager Teresa Wilson and our entire Executive Management Team. We sincerely appreciate you and we're going to miss you. Again we wish Ray Williams well and happy retirement from the City of Columbia. We thank each of you for watching City View and if you have any information that you need regarding these programs or other programs, please contact Public Relations Media and Marketing. You can call us at 803-545-3020, send us an email at PIO at columbiasc.gov and make sure you connect with us on social media through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but don't forget about YouTube for on-demand programming from the City of Columbia. You can also visit our website 24 hours a day at columbiasc.gov and most of all remember we are Columbia.