by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 31st, 2007 11:21pm CDT | Comments Off
Politics, like life, is all about timing. That’s why you would think that the proposal for county government to put $5-6 million into a proposed development on the “Highland Strip” would be problematic; however, it passed 7-2 in a committee of the board of commissioners yesterday. The vote comes less than a week after Mayor [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 30th, 2007 4:41pm CDT | Comments Off
The local controversy about the National Civil Rights Museum is now the equivalent of the Southern California wildfires – sometimes it only takes one person with a grievance to strike a match that ends up threatening what most of the rest of us consider important. That’s sure been the case here as what was essentially [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 30th, 2007 1:48pm CDT | Comments Off
Forbes posted an article yesterday about the most sedentary cities in the U.S., and unfortunately, Memphis is #1. When the reporter called last week about this, she asked us about the causes and the responses. Here’s the article.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 26th, 2007 3:20pm CDT | Comments Off
So, here’s our question for the county board of commissioners: Why would anyone send you a gift unless they are trying to influence your position or gain your political favor? Were any of these gift-givers sending you presents before you took the oaths of office as county legislators? If they weren’t, then you’re simply receiving [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 26th, 2007 12:08pm CDT | Comments Off
John Branston, in this week’s Flyer, proves again that he doesn’t miss anything and writes about the recent discussion here about Beale Street Landing. You can read it here.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 25th, 2007 10:10pm CDT | Comments Off
What happens to America as its largest generation ever gets older? Walker Smith says get ready, because Baby Boomers are not going home to retire. Instead, they will be out seeking their next new adventure. Walker is with us to tell us what he’s learned about aging Boomers and his new book, Generation Ageless. Walker [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 24th, 2007 9:39pm CDT | Comments Off
Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler’s landmark ruling on the Sunshine Law provides a thoughtful defense of the open meetings law and the rationale behind its importance to open government. It’s must reading for anyone interested in the Sunshine Law. To read it, click here.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 24th, 2007 2:04pm CDT | Comments Off
Giving more evidence of a general lack of sensitivity by some elected officials about the need to restore the public’s confidence in their governments, a committee of the Tennessee Legislature seems intent on gutting the Tennessee Public Meetings law. As we pointed out in yesterday’s post, violations of the law have become widespread and routine. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 23rd, 2007 3:58pm CDT | Comments Off
Finally. That was our immediate thought when we read that a Knoxville judge and jury threw out a dozen elected officials who were chosen in violation of the Tennessee Open Meetings Law. Of course, if violations of the Sunshine Law were the grist of Tennessee Waltz, almost every elected official in Tennessee would be involved [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 22nd, 2007 12:18pm CDT | Comments Off
With apologies to the Shelby County Historical Commission, we note that it too has gone on record in favor of Beale Street Landing. We inadvertently omitted them from the list of supporting organizations. Thanks for the reminder.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 21st, 2007 6:56pm CDT | Comments Off
I was thinking this morning about a magnificent cathedral in Northern France, the incredible Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and a myopic bureaucrat at Tennessee Historical Commission in Nashville. The thoughts were prompted by the bureaucrat’s opinion that the design of the $29 million Beale Street Landing “will adversely affect the historic property through [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 19th, 2007 11:04pm CDT | Comments Off
Society of Professional Journalists’ leaders are backing journalists at The Commercial Appeal including as Trevor Aaronson and Louis Graham who opposed “monetizing the content” plans. In a post to its website, the 98-year-old, 10,000-member organization said: “As news organizations develop creative ways to create new revenue streams in a time of lower circulation and ratings, [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 19th, 2007 11:33am CDT | Comments Off
Americans are demanding new choices about where and how they live. For the past 50 years drivable suburbanism has been the norm, coupled with decaying central cities. But that familiar pattern is reversing, in part, thanks to our two guests this week. John Talmage runs Social Compact, an organization that is uncovering the numbers that [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 18th, 2007 3:03pm CDT | Comments Off
For an update on this issue of sponsored news, visit website of Editor and Publisher: “Memphis Editor Admits FedEx Sponsorship A Mistake.” We appreciate his candor and for the explanation of his rationale to increase revenues of The Commercial Appeal.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 18th, 2007 11:46am CDT | Comments Off
There’s an old saying in the newspaper business that no one is worse at communicating than the ones in the business. That seems to be the case with the internal controversy at The Commercial Appeal about selling news sponsorships, or “monetizing the content,” in the unfortunate phrasing of management there. In the absence of any [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 16th, 2007 6:56pm CDT | Comments Off
As The Commercial Appeal gets ready for its star turn as location for the movie, “Nothing But the Truth,” the film’s name has special irony in light of the recent internal controversy at our daily newspaper about the sponsorship of news coverage. It’s created a tense atmosphere at The Commercial Appeal and given credence to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 16th, 2007 1:37pm CDT | Comments Off
Our friend and colleague surprised us today by posting today’s ongoing conversation about talent in Memphis on the influential blog of CEOs for Cities. She writes: We’ve invited our readers to check out the Smart City Memphis blog, written by our colleague and member Tom Jones. But today’s post deserves to be reprinted here in [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 15th, 2007 9:12pm CDT | Comments Off
In this age of instant gratification and short attention spans, we know that we test the patience of many of our readers with our posts. That said, this one is even longer than usual, but the conversation about the question of the week was so valuable and insightful, we’re posting the comments in their entirety [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 14th, 2007 9:21pm CDT | Comments Off
We’re as guilty as everyone else in taking for granted some special Memphis experiences that deserve more support and attention. This week ushers in one of them for its 10th anniversary – Indie Memphis Film Festival. Film festivals frequently show up as consultants’ recommendations for cities across the U.S., because they have so many benefits [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 12th, 2007 3:53pm CDT | Comments Off
There nothing more painful to us than the comments by young people who tell of their plans to relocate as soon as possible or by those who already have moved and urge others to join them. It’s painful to us for two reasons: 1) We prepare talent strategy recommendations for other major metros, and we [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 12th, 2007 3:28pm CDT | Comments Off
How do you cut through the status quo and imagine a different future? Our guests this week have successfully answered that question, one as mayor and one as civic entrepreneur. Stephen Goldsmith was the two-term mayor of Indianapolis where he built a national reputation as an innovator who re-thought how local government delivered public services. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | October 10th, 2007 4:55pm CDT | Comments Off
This post was previously published as Memphis magazine’s City Journal column: It’s hard to find a major U.S. city these days that isn’t experimenting with creative policies and programs that aren’t breathtaking in their scope. It’s within this environment that mayors have emerged as America’s most inventive elected leaders. They are becoming leaders for global [...]
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.
