by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Downtown Revitalization | May 17th, 2013 12:08am CDT | No Comments
In June, 2006, we posted a commentary about the FedEx Forum as the controversy about its construction and financing continued even after the new arena opened. It’s hard now, almost seven years later, as the city basks in the victories of the Memphis Grizzlies, to remember the depth of the controversy back then over almost [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 15th, 2013 9:24pm CDT | 5 Comments
John Willingham died a few hours ago at the beginning of what was the equivalent of barbecue’s holy week in downtown Memphis. It seemed like an appropriate to bid farewell to a man as unique and authentic as the city he passionately loved. Adding to the irony, Corky’s founder Don Pelts also died yesterday. It [...]
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by SCM (RSS) Trends and Issues | May 16th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
The Geography of Hate is part of a larger project by Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University (HSU) identifying the geographic origins of online hate speech. Undergraduate students Amelia Egle, Matthew Eiben and Miles Ross, worked to produce the data and this map as part of Dr. Stephens’ Advanced Cartography course at Humboldt State [...]
by SCM (RSS) Education | May 15th, 2013 3:14pm CDT | No Comments
From Washington Post: Finland’s Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?” In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis that American school reformers put on “teacher effectiveness” is really the best [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | May 14th, 2013 3:20pm CDT | No Comments
From citiwire.net: Is there such a thing as a “right business climate” to draw offices, industries, jobs – and in their wake, prosperity – to a state? Judging by the number of organizations that add up and then score and compare taxes, regulations and labor costs for each of the states, one would have to [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability | May 13th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
We’re approaching the third annual Bikesploitation – yes, it’s all about bikes – that will take place May 24-26. It’s one of Memphis’ most unique events and best of all, it’s free. This year it’s at Crosstown Arts at 422 and 430 N. Cleveland Avenue. Add it to your calendars because you won’t want to [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | May 10th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Inc.: Exceptional leaders differentiate themselves by doing a few things better. Here are six things you can learn from them. What makes an exceptional leader exceptional? This was the topic I had the fortunate opportunity to discuss recently with a class of graduating university seniors. Many of the students believed that future business leaders [...]
by SCM (RSS) Transportation | May 9th, 2013 3:17pm CDT | 1 Comment
From Planetizen: by Todd Litman In Washington State there is a proposal to tax bicycles so that bicyclists help pay for the roads they use. On the other hand, there is considerable political resistence to increasing fuel taxes to offset inflation, or to charging road tolls or parking fees to cover facility costs. These are part [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Planning and Urban Design | May 8th, 2013 3:06pm CDT | No Comments
From Better Cities and Towns: By Robert Steuteville Recently I criticized the design of a supposedly nonpolluting, “net zero” Walgreens in Evanston, Illinois. Aside from the raft of solar panels on the roof, the store looks like it could be located by any Interstate interchange. The store is, in fact, in a walkable neighborhood, one [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | May 7th, 2013 3:06pm CDT | No Comments
From Atlantic Cities: The early history of the Christian church is primarily an urban history, and this makes sense: Want to spread the word of a new religion? Your best chances likely lie in those places where would-be believers already densely congregate together. The Apostle Paul made this strategic decision in the First Century A.D., [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | May 6th, 2013 3:01pm CDT | No Comments
From Governing: A couple of months ago, the city of San Mateo, Calif., finished a small experiment. Planning to renovate the playground at one of its most popular community parks, it put a set of proposed designs online for a month and invited public comments. Some 130 people from around the city batted ideas back [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | May 3rd, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Governing: The top 25 programs among this year’s applicants for Innovations in American Government Awards were announced today, and among them are many that are embracing the kinds of technology-enabled creativity that our new Harvard Kennedy School initiative, Data-Smart City Solutions, stands behind. Crowdsourcing, data collection and analytics, and smart infrastructure, in particular, cropped [...]
by SCM (RSS) Education | May 2nd, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Washington Post: A new report looks at the results of school reform in three major cities and finds that reformers’ claims about success don’t exactly match reality. Here’s a piece on it by Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education. This appeared on The Nation’s website. By Elaine Weiss [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Livability | May 1st, 2013 3:19pm CDT | No Comments
From CEOs for Cities: We wrote yesterday about the wake-up call that Memphis economic development officials should be getting from recent rankings that show Memphis struggling a long way from upside of economic indicators. Today’s post by CEOs for Cities on its blog should be another alarm for us to hear. Here it is: Photo [...]
by SCM (RSS) Downtown Revitalization, Economic Development | April 30th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Atlantic Cities: It’s ridiculously easy to think about the benefits of historic preservation in immensely walkable Providence, Rhode Island. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better collection of downtown historic architecture this side of New Orleans. Elsewhere there are fine smaller historic downtowns, of course, such as in Annapolis, and wonderful urban historic districts [...]
by SCM (RSS) Politics and Government | April 29th, 2013 3:14pm CDT | No Comments
From governing.com: There’s recently been a flurry of discussion about how the expansion of unified party control and legislative supermajorities in the states has deepened the nation’s red-blue divide. Observers often point to moves by increasingly unfettered Democrats and Republicans to push the policy envelope in the states they control as evidence of this rift, [...]
by Crosstown Collaborative (RSS) Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Planning and Urban Design | April 26th, 2013 9:00am CDT | 1 Comment
“Memphis must focus more on redeveloping the city’s core through ‘infill’ projects, rather than pursuing annexation. A report completed for the city last year goes further: It said stretching the city’s boundaries has had ‘disastrous’ results for Memphis …” – Commercial Appeal, April 14, 2013 As Tom Charlier articulated in this article, over the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Livability, Planning and Urban Design | April 25th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From SustainableCitiesCollective: Ever wish there was a single graphic that effectively summarized the benefits of buying local? Well, scroll down below, because this is what you were waiting for, thanks to the folks at CustomMade. You can download the full size image or embed it into your site by visiting Why Buying Local is Worth Every [...]
by SCM (RSS) Neighborhoods | April 24th, 2013 3:18pm CDT | No Comments
Want to learn more about the resources it takes to run our city? Ever thought about how we can make budgeting more transparent and participatory? Discover where cities get their money and how they spend it. In this era of tight fiscal restraints, Funding the Places We Live follows closely on the heels of [...]
by SCM (RSS) Arts and Culture, Uncategorized | April 23rd, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From MemphisConnect.com: In a modern building on the edge of Cordova, Ballet Memphis‘ company of dancers prepares their performances for Memphis audiences, in quiet isolation as they tighten the screws on their art. When MemphisConnect visited last week, the company was hard at work in rehearsal for their April 20 and 21 performances [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | April 22nd, 2013 3:13pm CDT | No Comments
From Governing: A new tool gives administrators and policymakers crucial benchmarking data they need to make the voting process fair, accurate and convenient. President Obama and leaders in both parties, in calling for improving American elections, point to long lines at the polls last year as a significant problem that needs to be solved. And [...]
by SCM (RSS) Parks and Greening | April 19th, 2013 3:17pm CDT | No Comments
From Planetizen: A recent Smithsonian retrospective featured records from the 1970s Environmental Protection Agency. One of the more personally interesting ones is from 1972: A woman holding a placard is standing before a strip mall of shops protesting the protection of an ecologically sensitive area. Her placard reads, “We pay taxes; parks don’t.” According to [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | April 18th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
Look at the center of this map, at the little red dot that marks Kansas City. Technically, Kansas City is at the edge of Missouri, but here on this map it’s in the upper middle section of a bigger space with strong blue borders. We don’t have a name for this bigger space yet, but [...]
by SCM (RSS) Education | April 17th, 2013 3:17pm CDT | No Comments
From Chronicle of Higher Education: One need not look far these days to find people skeptical (at best) about the value of higher education. Most of these people particularly question the value of a liberal-arts education, which they view as outdated and elitist. Claiming economic pragmatism, they seek the curtailment or even outright elimination of [...]
by Bill Day. Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. Cartoons Archive →
Photograph by Amie Vanderford
This ongoing series of photographs is intended to show the daily lives of these single mothers in order to invoke recognition of their similarities to all mothers, along with understanding and empathy from the viewer of the strengths that these single mothers possess within the challenging situations they face. My hope is that newfound empathy with these mothers’ lives will give people some pause before they condemn single mothers when discussing issues such as welfare and other politically charged hot buttons.
