Mayor, keynote speaker urge Tempe to carry Dr. King’s legacy into local inclusion initiatives
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Summary
Mayor Corey Woods and keynote Michael D. Long used the Tempe MLK Diversity Awards to highlight municipal inclusion efforts — ADA upgrades, language-access pilots and strengthened hate-crime reporting — and to call for community action rooted in King’s nonviolent tradition.
Mayor Corey Woods and community leaders used Tempe’s 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Awards to highlight local inclusion initiatives and urge residents to translate King’s moral vision into everyday city policy.
Mayor Corey Woods said Tempe has moved into the third phase of its Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan and described recent accessibility work: ‘‘We are currently in not the first, not the second, but the third phase of Tempe's ADA transition plan,’’ he said, noting that the city improved 28 intersections with 129 new ramps and pedestrian features and has begun ADA renovations at Tempe City Hall. The mayor said the work also included upgraded playgrounds, restrooms and water bottle filling stations.
Woods announced a pilot program to test instant-translation devices in several public-facing city departments to help residents who do not speak English ‘‘fully participate in the governance process or even just pay their water bill.’’ He also described a redesigned hate-crime reporting web page, created with community partners to reduce barriers for those considering reporting incidents.
Woods recounted the Oct. 13 microburst that ‘‘damaged more than 1,000 homes and impacted more than 80 businesses’’ and praised volunteer response. He said the community-driven Tempe Needs You fundraising campaign raised more than $24,000 to aid recovery and highlighted Team Rubicon’s volunteer cleanup work.
The keynote, delivered by Michael D. Long, associate pastor at Dayspring United Methodist Church, tied those local efforts to King’s philosophy of disciplined, nonviolent action. ‘‘King did not believe nonviolent was a passive act,’’ Long said, describing nonviolence as ‘‘a powerful moral force, which makes for social transformation.’’ Reiterating the event theme, Long urged personal responsibility: ‘‘It starts with me,’’ he said.
City leaders framed the announcements as operational steps to make local government more accessible and responsive: adding youth seats to the Human Relations Commission, expanding ADA work and piloting language-access technology were presented as measures to give more residents a seat at the table.
Next steps described at the event included continued ADA transition work, formal evaluation of the translation-device pilot across select departments and outreach to encourage use of the new hate-crime reporting resources. Officials did not announce specific timelines for the translation pilot’s citywide rollout.
— Reporting by the Tempe Human Relations Commission event coverage; quotes and program details drawn from remarks at the awards program.
