by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 30th, 2008 6:54pm CDT | Comments Off
We began a conversation Wednesday to develop a list of priorities for Memphis. We hope you will join in and add your comments. To catch up, here’s the original post, “Building An Agenda For Economic Growth,” and the follow up comments.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 30th, 2008 6:48pm CDT | Comments Off
America is no longer a nation of red states and blue states. We are a nation of red neighborhoods and blue neighborhoods. That’s because of The Big Sort described by Bill Bishop in his new book of the same name. Bill says we are dangerously sorting ourselves according to our values, beliefs and lifestyles and [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 29th, 2008 11:08pm CDT | Comments Off
Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners deserves credit for doing what was right – conducting a national search to find a new superintendent – but it’s becoming obvious that soon, they will be forced to admit that they cannot ignore the person who wants the job more than anyone else – Memphis Mayor Willie W. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 29th, 2008 4:51pm CDT | Comments Off
We began a conversation yesterday to come up with a list of priorities that we need if Memphis is to compete in the knowledge economy. We hope you will join in. Here’s what fieldguidetomemphis would add to our list: Investment in Universities: This is a no-brainer. The budget cuts that will affect higher education are [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 28th, 2008 9:50pm CDT | Comments Off
Rather than selling themselves at a discount — cheap land and cheap labor – cities that are succeeding are investing in better workers, high-quality universities, quality of life and efficient public services. So, what would should we start doing right now to get ahead? • Investments in Universities. Universities are seedbeds for the Knowledge Economy. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 28th, 2008 9:23pm CDT | Comments Off
My nephew was in town from Hollywood for Memorial Day. He’s working in the movie business — recent credits include Indiana Jones movie and G.I. Joe – on the financial side of the house. It just proves that there are other avenues into the industry that don’t begin with a casting call. My nephew made [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 27th, 2008 9:11pm CDT | Comments Off
While we’re spotlighting some special comments by our readers, we don’t want to overlook the following which was posted by our fellow blogger fieldguidetomemphis in response to our post about the search for a superintendent of Memphis City Schools: The future superintendent will have his/her hands full in dealing with the myriad interconnected problems facing [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 27th, 2008 4:25pm CDT | Comments Off
Sidney Shlenker’s daughter posted this comment to a blog post of ours from last summer, and we wanted to highlight it here: First, I would just like to thank all of you for your truly brilliant analysis of my fathers hard work; he would have been riveted. Secondly, to the columnist, I am deeply touched [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 27th, 2008 4:17pm CDT | Comments Off
Aaron always offers special insight into the issues of Memphis, and it’s particularly instructive since he’s one of those highly coveted young professionals who has moved to our city. We thought his comments to our post yesterday deserved to be highlighted here: It takes time to reverse the momentum that has dragged Memphis in the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 26th, 2008 10:00pm CDT | Comments Off
Memphis manages somehow to hold two countervailing attitudes. On one hand, a lack of self-worth leads to a tendency to accept any big idea that rides into town claiming to be the magic answer to turning things around. On the other hand, there’s the widespread notion that our seriously deficient economic indicators are largely caused [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 23rd, 2008 6:05pm CDT | Comments Off
Seeing the world through new eyes can uncover a whole new set of possibilities. In his new books on London and New York, Fred Dust attempts to teach his readers how to look at the world with “eyes open” by showing them the intimacies of those cities that can easy to miss. Fred is partner [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 23rd, 2008 1:14am CDT | Comments Off
We were standing in an anteroom in the Hart Senate Office Building some years back when Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy walked in. Instantly, there was a surge of energy in the room, and although the room was filled with Republican senators waiting for the start of a hearing in the adjacent committee room, all [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 21st, 2008 10:18pm CDT | Comments Off
The 15th incarnation of the Memphis Poll came out a few days ago, and although it always seems to have something for everyone, it just left us worried. The percentage of the public satisfied with Memphis’ quality of life has dropped to 66%. That’s down 12% since 2005. The percentage of citizens satisfied with city [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 20th, 2008 6:38pm CDT | Comments Off
Interim Superintendent Dan Ward was right. It was just hard to hear him over the “don’t confuse me with the facts” approach of Bill O’Reilly. Mr. Ward said on Mr. O’Reilly’s cable network program that the Mitchell High School students who were caught on tape simulating rape as part of a dance should not become [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 18th, 2008 10:12pm CDT | Comments Off
And then there were three. Would the last person standing please run Memphis City Schools for us? If superintendent-wannabe Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton had written a script to move him toward the helm of the district, he couldn’t have done it any better. All of a sudden, it seems a real possibility. The Factors [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 17th, 2008 12:15pm CDT | Comments Off
Why is it that we typically separate planning for highways, transit, and trains in the U.S.? Worse, why do we plan for transportation and land use as if they don’t relate to one another? Those are subjects we’ll explore this week with Shelley Porticia, president and CEO of Reconnecting America. She’s working to integrate transportation [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 15th, 2008 11:19pm CDT | Comments Off
It seems the perfect time to revisit two ideas about downtown streets that deserve new life. One deals with Fourth Street from Union to Beale and the second is Main Street, which is neither main nor a street. During the design of FedEx Forum, it was suggested by Looney Ricks Kiss – probably our most [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 14th, 2008 6:23pm CDT | Comments Off
What do you do with a gritty city lagging in economic growth and with a decades-old music heritage as its main claim to fame? No, not that one. We’re talking about Liverpool, England. If we were in charge of putting together a delegation to visit cities with important lessons for Memphis, that’s a place we’d [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 13th, 2008 7:05pm CDT | Comments Off
Poor Dan Ward. Surely the suggestion that the interim Memphis City Schools superintendent should appear on Bill O’Reilly’s national cable show was groupthink gone terribly awry. Surely, nobody in the Memphis City Schools communications office or on its leadership team really thought this was a chance for the district to shine. After all, the subject [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 13th, 2008 11:51am CDT | Comments Off
State Rep. Ulysses Jones must have been frightened by sunshine while he was in his crib. Only a childhood trauma could have given him such an obsession in eroding the transparency and openness of government with his amendments to weaken Tennessee’s open meetings (Sunshine Law) and public records laws. Every Tennessean should be up in [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 11th, 2008 10:40pm CDT | Comments Off
It’s always interesting compare the hyperbole about Beale Street with the reality of Beale Street. In a recent article in The Commercial Appeal about new security on the street, this statement jumped off the page. It was made by the head of the private company that manages the legendary music street as he talked about [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | May 11th, 2008 10:24pm CDT | Comments Off
In time, we suspect that the controversy over the growing payroll in City Hall will be tempest in a teapot. A week ago, Memphis City Council members cross-examined Memphis Chief Administrative Officer Keith McGee about a budget document that showed that the number of employees growing from 5,162 in 2006 to a requested payroll 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.
