by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 30th, 2008 10:56pm CST | Comments Off
Nobody was hoping more for a successful launch of the Kriner Cash era at Memphis City Schools than we were; however, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he’s stumbled out of the gate. The greatest evidence of this is that at a time when the message should be about philosophy and priorities, it is [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 29th, 2008 6:17pm CST | Comments Off
Here’s the conclusion from a state think tank’s report that will be no surprise to anyone here: Memphians’ taxes are high and inequitable. It’s the unequivocable conclusion from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations’ report, “Who Pays More: Local Tax Burdens on Tennessee Households by County.” The report analyzed the tax burden of people [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 28th, 2008 11:18pm CST | Comments Off
We’re getting more and more suspicious that Marsha Blackburn qualifies as our first Stepford Congresswoman. These days, she sounds like a mindlessly robotic candidate programmed to spew more wedge issues per second than Karl Rove. She can rattle off a litany about the enemies of her district – people supporting a woman’s right to choose, [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 28th, 2008 12:11am CST | Comments Off
Some things never change. At Memphis City Schools, the games began again, and at Shelby County Schools, they never seem to stop. First, the city district. It appears that despite 1,100 students in the Countrywood and Berryhill annexation areas needing a new K-8 school, the facility support and facility construction offices let the bids expire [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 28th, 2008 12:09am CST | Comments Off
With The Pyramid, there’s no reason for city and county governments to treat it like a fire sale. Or a fire and brimstone sale. Perhaps, the worst idea that’s been floated yet for the future of the city’s most iconic structure is to sell it to Cummings Street Missionary Baptist Church for $12 million, which [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 25th, 2008 6:24pm CST | Comments Off
Our friend, Richard Thompson, at Mediaverse has an interesting post about a rebuttal from some well-known urban housing experts to the Atlantic magazine article linking Hope VI and Section 8 housing to Memphis’ crime problem. In a sentence, they said it’s not about housing, but about too many poor young people. As a result, the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 24th, 2008 8:47pm CST | Comments Off
New Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash has hit the ground running, and one of his primary purposes these days is getting as much advice and hearing as many opinions as he can about our city school district. If his new organization chart is any indication, he could be the much-needed agent for change that [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 23rd, 2008 10:21pm CST | Comments Off
No one in elected or appointed office in Memphis has ever had as many people pulling for his success as new Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash. That’s why we know that he’s giving serious thought to how he’s introducing himself to the community. After all, you only have one chance to introduce yourself and [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 22nd, 2008 9:18pm CST | Comments Off
Maybe we need to be putting in a call to Isaac Tigrett to see if he’ll put his crystal skull back in The Pyramid. On February 10, we wrote about the crystal skull that was discovered in the apex of The Pyramid and removed in the early days of the iconic building. That post was [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 21st, 2008 6:13pm CST | Comments Off
Sometimes, it’s awfully hard to tell that there isn’t supposed to be traffic on Main Street Mall, but tomorrow night, the first steps might be taken to making it official. At 5 p.m. tomorrow (July 22), the Memphis Center City Commission is holding a meeting to receive questions and opinions from the public about returning [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 20th, 2008 10:24pm CST | Comments Off
The disagreement about school funding between Memphis City Council and Memphis City Schools is a crucial policy question that deserves the kind of careful judicial review that is taking place in Chancery Court. Even if there had been a compromise to resolve the political dispute, there would still be the need for a definitive legal [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 19th, 2008 6:41pm CST | Comments Off
We’ve written often about the value of seeing ourselves as others see us. Here’s a recent email we got from Brian DuLong, a visitor from Tampa: I read your post with great interest having just returned from Memphis as a “tourist” from Tampa. I’m writing to you of my experience only to help you in [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 19th, 2008 11:34am CST | Comments Off
From Chuck Porter: As part of the WEVL family, I can’t begin to express the sadness and pain from the loss of our dear friend, Dee “Cap’n Pete” Henderson. Cap’n Pete and I had a common love for the genre of music we call blues; however, there was more to our friendship than that. We [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 19th, 2008 10:37am CST | Comments Off
A guest post by Kevin D. Balkwill, Chair of Memphis Bar Association Access to Justice Committee: “Free? “Nothing’s for free!” It’s the only line of William Mastrosimone’s The Wool Gatherer that I remember from a lengthy monologue I was required to perform for an acting class I took some years back at The University of [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 18th, 2008 8:24pm CST | Comments Off
Brian Schultz was a teacher in Chicago’s public school system. His unconventional approach to teaching gave his students a new way to learn, and an opportunity to change their school for the better. He’s written a book about his experience called “Spectacular Things Happen Along The Way.” And we’ll speak with Steve Barlow. He’s the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 18th, 2008 10:38am CST | Comments Off
This month’s Metro Grade in Men’s Health seems an appropriate bookend to our post yesterday about Memphis’ meager score as a walkable city. This month’s ranking in Men’s Health of America’s largest 100 cities addressed the question: “Where our cars are killing us.” The subtitle asks: “green drivers or fossil fuels?” Memphis ranked #80. This [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 17th, 2008 5:31pm CST | Comments Off
The New York Times this week highlighted Dickson Despommier’s idea for “vertical farms” and one of the images looked awfully familiar. The professor of public health at Columbia University, working with his students, coined the concept about a decade ago, but it’s being taken up recently by several imaginative architects. It’s been estimated that a [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 17th, 2008 5:22pm CST | Comments Off
Well, it looks like Midtown deserves its bragging rights. It’s the most walkable neighborhood in Memphis , according to Walk Score, winning the designation over the expected winner, downtown. However, at this point, we’re putting an asterick by the winner, but we’ll get back to that shortly. We’ve written previously about Walk Score and the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 16th, 2008 11:14pm CST | Comments Off
Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash is about to make the most important decision in his new job – how to best invest the capital that he has during his honeymoon period. The reality of public life in these high-profile jobs is that you are never as popular as the first weeks after your election [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 16th, 2008 12:01am CST | Comments Off
We were a little surprised this week to see a poster in the window of the UrbanArt Commission for the advocacy film, “Two Million Minutes,” a film that purports to demonstrate how far behind American students are when compared to their peers in India and China. The general premise of the film is that the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 14th, 2008 11:53pm CST | Comments Off
Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton this week unveiled his Sustainable Shelby agenda, replete with 52 top-rated priorities and detailed recommendations in seven key areas. Doug Farr, green architect and author of Sustainable Urbanism, urged the 350 people attending the announcement at Memphis Botanic Garden to resist traditional silos in implementing the agenda and moving ahead. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | July 13th, 2008 11:26pm CST | Comments Off
Perhaps, the journey to better public education in Memphis and Shelby County begins with a good, old-fashioned act of civil disobedience. After all, it is in the instances of such acts that state government has overriding responsibility for restoring order. Maybe we could make the same principle apply to public education. It’s because of the [...]
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
Memphian Amie Vanderford is a photographer for peace and justice. Her portfolio includes photographs from Peru, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Indian, and her hometown.
