In the coming days, The Daily Memphian will be previewing each of the City Council races on the Oct. 5 ballot. The stories are being made available to all readers. 

A redistricting proposal could have changed City Council District 1 to Cordova-only. But the plan failed to move forward in June, meaning the district remains a combination of Cordova, Raleigh and Frayser.

Rhonda Logan is running for re-election in District 1 against challenger Kymberly Kelley.

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Logan, in a recent interview with The Daily Memphian, said: “Initially, I was on the fence … but when I went to meetings with people in Cordova, they saw value in having their own district. And I got it and advocated for one district.”

For now, though, District 1 remains as it has been. And like every other quarter of the city, the focus ahead of the Oct. 5 city elections, which includes the race for mayor, is on crime.

“Public safety and security are top of mind with everybody, everywhere I go,” said Logan, who formerly lived in Cordova and now is a Raleigh resident.

Kelley, a Cordova resident, grew up in the Raleigh-Frayser area, earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee, and a graduate degree from Union University.

Responding to questions from The Daily Memphian via LinkedIn, Kelley said that “housing affordability and youth/public safety” were the key issues in the district.

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“The residual of the pandemic priced some potential buyers out of the housing market, while some communities experienced an influx of rental/investment properties coupled with a surge in rental costs,” Kelley said.

Meanwhile, Logan, who has served four years on the Council, says she does not believe the fear of crime has reached the point where people are just staying home behind locked doors, adding: “I still see people shopping and going out to eat.”

But she concedes that she is more careful, such as not stopping at gas stations or in parking lots to look up something on her phone.

Logan, who earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Memphis, has an Master of Science in clinical mental health counseling and is director of operations at Breath of Life Christian Center. Before her position on the Council, she served as the executive director of the Raleigh Community Development Corporation.

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As critical as public safety is, she says her constituents have long-term concerns that go beyond the city’s crime problem.

“People are just as adamant about opportunity and economic development in their community,” Logan said. “So, that’s important, too.”