by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 31st, 2005 1:17am CDT | Comments Off
This op-ed article by Carol Coletta is printed courtesy of www. planetizen.com where it was featured last week: Cities aren’t in decline. The way population change is “measured” by the Census Bureau leaves much to be desired, writes Carol Coletta in this week’s Op-Ed. But even if cities were in decline, a city’s population is [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 30th, 2005 1:11am CDT | Comments Off
It’s always good to listen to a billionaire’s opinions, especially when he’s Bill Gates, someone who has made his fortune by foretellling the future before any one else and whose foundations put his money where his mouth is. A couple of weeks ago, he made three points worth remembering. One, a well-educated workforce, not tax [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 29th, 2005 9:15pm CDT | Comments Off
Today’s Chicago Sun-Times editorial page declares, “Look at us now: Downtown’s rebirth has saved city’s soul.” Here’s what the editorial writers had to say: “Why is Chicago such a fabulous city? Because it has been run by visionaries who understood that the vibrancy of a city’s downtown is essential to its long-term health. From planner [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 26th, 2005 10:38pm CDT | Comments Off
John Branston’s Memphis Flyer column this week analyzed actual increases in attendance at the Zoo since the pandas’ arrival compared to estimates of what could be expected. Instead of the predicted 400,000 new visitors in the pandas’ first year, only 177,590 showed up. I was reading the column to my husband on our way home [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 26th, 2005 9:44pm CDT | Comments Off
Mary Cashiola got it just right in this week’s Flyer when she noted that being “overlooked” by chain stores and restaurants comes with its own virtues. “What we have is real,” she wrote. “It wasn’t testmarketed in four major cities then imported here. And that authenticity sets Memphis apart and can be used as a [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 26th, 2005 9:38pm CDT | Comments Off
Oregon was the only state in the nation where obesity did not increase, according to the study by Trust for America’s Health. Why? An AP story reports that Oregonians are more likely to engage in physical activity, like bike riding. Why? Mild temperatures help. But the real difference is that state’s attention to creating real [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 25th, 2005 1:40am CDT | Comments Off
New reports from the Trust for America’s Health grabbed headlines today. The headline in the Chicago Sun-Times read “South Will Rise Again — If It Can Get Off Couch.” It wasn’t a fun day to be from Tennessee, which ranked fifth on the list of “fattest states.” Why are we fat? Another report today noted [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 24th, 2005 6:55am CDT | Comments Off
So MATA plans to add hybrid buses to its fleet to save money on fuel and maintenance costs? Good move, Mr. Hudson. Now that you’ve taken the bold and progressive move of purchasing more environmentally-friendly buses, could we go back to the basics and apply the same common sense thinking? Motorists across the country are [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 23rd, 2005 1:12am CDT | Comments Off
With the prospects looming in coming weeks of a return to rhetoric in which the “c” word is hurled, it’s worth remembering the facts of consolidation, whatever your point of view. Despite the pervasive belief that Memphis is somehow different than most cities in the country with our two-headed local government, the truth is that [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 22nd, 2005 1:03am CDT | Comments Off
Even Germantown can’t match its rhetoric about the importance of design when developers need land. A couple of locations within the city limits are now sites for the clear cutting of trees. And this in the city that thinks it sets the standard for all the rest of the county when it comes to livability. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 19th, 2005 1:08am CDT | Comments Off
At a time when Memphis and Shelby County Governments are waiving more than $60 million in taxes every year to recruit new businesses, the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission — which has the greatest return on investment of any economic development agency in this city — continues to beg for peanuts. Increasingly, executive director [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 18th, 2005 1:30am CDT | Comments Off
Elvis Week has come and gone, and the thousands of tourists have returned home, having left their cash in the local economy and left with memories for life. Sadly, the beggars that greeted them downtown when they arrived didn’t leave with them. Instead, the man who’s been sleeping for days in the window casement on [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 17th, 2005 1:03am CDT | Comments Off
Success has many fathers, it is said, so before the delivery room is filled with proud parents, we need to take a moment to recognize the team that put together the proposal that lured the world headquarters of International Paper from Stamford, Connecticut, to Memphis. While VIPs made the announcement, it was their staff that [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 16th, 2005 1:16am CDT | Comments Off
There are times when the Religious Right would try the patience of Jesus Christ Himself. The growing battle over “intelligent design” is the latest evidence of the literalism that threatens the independence of school districts by imposing the religious beliefs of a few onto the education of the whole. We predict that any day now [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 15th, 2005 1:21am CDT | Comments Off
In response to Thursday’s blog on how Memphis and Shelby County lead Tennessee in the number and amount of tax freezes, we received several calls and emails. One reminded us that Agricenter International and all of the businesses leasing space and land there don’t pay property taxes, because they are on public land. It points [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 12th, 2005 1:01pm CDT | Comments Off
Reading Chicago Metropolis 2020 plan tonight, I ran across the following… “The sustaining force of this historic process of renewal is Chicago’s strongest spiritual asset: its swaggering self-confidence. This cannot be underestimated as a propellant of economic and civic revitalization. As historian David S. Landes writes in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, his important [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 12th, 2005 1:03am CDT | Comments Off
Every war seems to bring with it an unexpected aspect unforeseen by The Pentagon. The War in Iraq – whether being called by The White House the War on Terror or the Struggle Against Global Extremism, depending on which is testing best this week – is in truth our first digital war. The proliferation of [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 11th, 2005 1:06am CDT | Comments Off
If you haven’t read it, it’s still news. And in that vein, consider a study on the impact of tax abatements on education by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) that failed to cause even a ripple in the news pond after it was filed in February of last year. Continuing on our [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 10th, 2005 1:23am CDT | Comments Off
This week’s column by longtime urban commentator Neal Peirce has special meaning for our community, where the amount of taxes waived for businesses approaches $100 million a year. When tax freezes given by Memphis, Shelby County and the smaller municipalities are added together, our community gives more tax freezes than the other metropolitan areas of [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 9th, 2005 1:45am CDT | Comments Off
With the search for the next president of the Memphis Regional Chamber now down to five candidates, the decision looms as one of the most important that will be made in setting the course for the city’s future. It has not always been this way. Traditionally, there are few ripples in the community when a [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 8th, 2005 9:56am CDT | Comments Off
In recent years, Memphis has shown a welcome appreciation for doing things right – National Civil Rights Museum expansion, AutoZone Park, FedEx Forum and Stax Museum of American Soul Music. The cumulative effect of these signature projects should undermine once and for all the pervasive feelings that as Memphians, we just don’t deserve the best. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | August 6th, 2005 1:15am CDT | Comments Off
From the New York Times: By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN I’ve been thinking of running for high office on a one-issue platform: I promise, if elected, that within four years America will have cellphone service as good as Ghana’s. If re-elected, I promise that in eight years America will have cellphone service as good as Japan’s, [...]
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.
