by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 30th, 2007 5:02pm CDT | Comments Off
Memphis is always tough on tolerance, but it’s been an especially bad year for a virtue that’s defining cities looking to succeed in the global economy. Even if you are uncomfortable talking about a city’s moral values, there’s also a reason anchored in enlightened self-interest: Tolerance is a critical competitive advantage for cities today, particularly [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 28th, 2007 11:41am CDT | Comments Off
Chip Conley is celebrating his 20th anniversary as founder and CEO of California’s largest boutique hotel company, Joie de Vivre Hospitality. But his is not a business story about uninterrupted success. Instead, at a low point, Chip turned to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to guide him and he is sharing what he learned in his [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 26th, 2007 5:39pm CDT | Comments Off
We’re continuing our discussion about the future of The Pyramid, which began last Thursday. We hope you’ll join in. Questions of the week: What should Memphis do to put The Pyramid to its best use? What objective should city government have in mind as it considers options for the arena? If the choices are Bass [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 23rd, 2007 11:08pm CDT | Comments Off
We bet you never thought you’d hear us say this: Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks is right. Nonetheless, it is true, and in the current manufactured controversy about Kwanzaa, Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas is either being intentionally obtuse or being driven by the irresistible opportunity for political advantage that comes with his racially-veiled comments. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 20th, 2007 5:51pm CDT | Comments Off
O.K., you’ve heard from us once again about The Pyramid. Now it’s your turn. Questions of the week: What should Memphis do to put The Pyramid to its best use? What objective should city government have in mind as it considers options for the arena? If the choices are Bass Pro Shop and Pyramid Adventure, [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 19th, 2007 11:35pm CDT | Comments Off
Memphis’ biggest stocking – which has always promised more than it delivered – remains to be stuffed – The Pyramid. We’ve never been fans of the Bass Pro Shop proposal, a disdain made visceral with the prospects of a fish logo on the side of our signature building on the riverfront. But then again, even [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 19th, 2007 1:01am CDT | Comments Off
‘Tis the season of transitions, and three deserve special mention — Andy Dolich, Judith Drescher and Carissa Hussong. All are about to step down from their jobs, but they share more than the coincidence of their announced resignations. More to the point, they are all class acts, principled people who have shown unusual dedication to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 16th, 2007 8:02pm CDT | Comments Off
There are public agencies buried so deep in local government that they would make Tony Soprano envious, and their unassuming names give no hint of their impact. Poster child for these agencies is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the federally-mandated regional conduit for hundreds of millions of transportation dollars. On paper, the organization was created [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 14th, 2007 7:37pm CDT | Comments Off
New technologies are combining to change the way we influence our communities. In her book, Momentum, Allison Fine writes about these new technologies and how they are igniting social change in our connected age. Allison is a senior fellow on the Democracy Team at Demos: A Network for Change and Action in New York, and [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 13th, 2007 11:04pm CDT | Comments Off
There’s the axiom in the public sector that the organizational chart shouldn’t be based on personalities. There’s also an axiom that the fundamental principles of local government shouldn’t be abandoned in pursuit of political expediency. Of course, both of these rules at times succumb to the realities of city and county governments, but the zeal [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 12th, 2007 10:14pm CDT | Comments Off
While all institutions of higher education struggle with the problems of reaffirming their accreditation on a cyclical basis, the unique problems facing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) have been pernicious in recent years. The recent problems at Lemoyne Owen, while well known to those of us in Memphis, are not the only ones for [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 11th, 2007 11:42pm CDT | Comments Off
Now, here’s an interesting ranking for Memphis. It may surprise all those folks over on Beale Street, but Memphis is in the bottom 20 percent of the least dangerously drunk cities, according to Men’s Health. Leading the pack for the most dangerously drunk cities is Denver (all those brew pubs?) and Anchorage (what else is [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 11th, 2007 11:00pm CDT | Comments Off
Mike Ritz is fast becoming the Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Like the U.S. Supreme Court justice, Commissioner Ritz these days often delivers a decidedly minority opinion. Sometimes, even his friends appear concerned that he doesn’t pick his battles carefully enough and that he runs the risk of being marginalized [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 11th, 2007 10:59pm CDT | Comments Off
We know we are probably just being curmudgeonly, but it’s just hard to get excited about our alma mater’s upcoming date in the 2007 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. After all, it’s a battle between our #123 Tigers and the favored #86 Florida Atlantic, which oddmakers give a 2½ point edge. It just makes it [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 9th, 2007 11:16pm CDT | Comments Off
There are better ways to run urban school districts than by elected school boards. That’s an opinion that’s gaining traction in many large U.S. cities and given new energy by the success of buoyant, youthful Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty in taking over his city’s troubled school district. This year’s takeover of school operations by [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 7th, 2007 10:07pm CDT | Comments Off
This week’s classic Smart City is a repeat of a show that first aired on April 26, 2003. Brussels-based consultant Robert Palmer works on city change and cultural planning in more than 20 countries. He’s learned what it takes to transform cities all over the world from also-rans to stand-outs. He’ll share his lessons for [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 5th, 2007 10:52pm CDT | Comments Off
We always welcome guest posts on this blog, and recently, we asked Amie Vanderford, who notified us last week about the presentation, “Design for Sustainable Systems,” if she would expand on some points in her email. We are grateful that she agreed, and the following is her commentary, which is coincidentally complementary with the theme [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 4th, 2007 10:19pm CDT | Comments Off
Four years ago in early May, the Creative 100 – a group of creative thinkers nominated from across the U.S. and that swelled to 150 with the addition of Memphians – came together in Memphis to develop their call to action for cities wanting to attract and retain them. It was called the Memphis Manifesto. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 3rd, 2007 11:48pm CDT | Comments Off
On February 4, 2001, the first broadcast of Smart City featured a young Pittsburgh economist who was about to turn traditional economic development theory on its head. His name was Richard Florida, whose research on the so-called creative class, had attracted the attention of the radio program’s host/producer Carol Coletta, who’s always had an uncanny [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 2nd, 2007 10:12pm CDT | Comments Off
Richard Florida speaks again this week in Memphis about the importance of creative workers and the implications for cities like ours. It’s been six years since he first spoke to Memphians on this subject, five years since he helped with Memphis Talent Magnet Report and four years since he helped develop the Memphis Manifesto for [...]
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.
