by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 31st, 2009 12:00am CST | 2 Comments
With a new year before us and so much to be done, we share with you a video sent to us by contributor and friend Ray Brown:
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 29th, 2009 9:58pm CST | 6 Comments
Jack Sammons was right. In his first directors’ meeting as the newly-minted Memphis Chief Administration Officer for interim Mayor Myron Lowery, he told his subordinates around the conference table to quit saying no. It was a modest proposal with huge ramifications. Just imagine what the possibilities are for a government whose officials begin with a [...]
by Elizabeth Alley (RSS) Uncategorized | December 29th, 2009 1:16pm CST | 1 Comment
I’m Elizabeth Alley and I make lists. I’m also Director of Public Art at UrbanArt and an artist, so I thought I’d start here with part 1 of a series of lists about public art and why it is important. Public art helps to heighten the awareness of our city’s rich cultural heritage. 1. Tom [...]
by Margot McNeeley (RSS) Uncategorized | December 27th, 2009 10:16pm CST | 2 Comments
It’s Friday, trash pick-up day on my street and I’m watching. I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m thinking that maybe today is the day. Will they? Will this be the week that our across the street neighbors (family of five), changes their ways? Nope, it happens again. Same as last week and the week before [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Transportation | December 27th, 2009 7:29pm CST | 4 Comments
There is such value in government for the elected official who’s willing to ask the impertinent question. That’s because so often, the shared, unspoken understandings and accommodations prescribe silence and going along to get along. In Shelby County Government, it’s obvious that no one is more willing to ask the impertinent question than Commissioner [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 25th, 2009 8:45pm CST | Comments Off
Today on the show we’re kick starting the holiday season with a program about celebrating the holidays in an urban environment. We’ll speak with Cindy Gatziolas of the Chicago Mayor’s office of special events. She’ll tell us about the city’s plans for the holidays and how a city works with private organizations to make the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 24th, 2009 11:56am CST | Comments Off
24 December 2009 Melbourne, Australia “Maybe, he thought, there aren’t any such things as good friends or bad friends – maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you’re hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they’re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 24th, 2009 10:35am CST | Comments Off
7 Comments This time of the year, it’s impossible for us to not think about Peggy Edmiston. It wasn’t the glittery Christmas sweaters that no one else had the courage to wear. It wasn’t the permanent collection of Christmas decorations and miniature villages that exuded a festive feeling at all times in her house. It [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 23rd, 2009 7:15pm CST | Comments Off
Memphis City Watch is a blog being written by graduate students in urban planning at University of Memphis. The project is an outgrowth of the class on urban revitalization taught by Professor Emeritus Gene Pearson. By the way, if you didn’t read Dr. Pearson’s recent Smart City Memphis post, you need to check it out. [...]
by John Lawrence (RSS) Downtown Revitalization | December 22nd, 2009 6:45pm CST | 2 Comments
Sometimes we don’t need expensive consultants or years of study or the latest technology. Sometimes we may need to try to get more out of the resources we have. Sometimes all we need are good leaders to set some enthusiastic beginners off down a path. In the summer of 1994, Robert Lipscomb and Don Campbell [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 22nd, 2009 3:06pm CST | 3 Comments
A wise, long-time observer of the local government scene tells us how the Shelby County Board of Commissioners put themselves in position to appoint a new county mayor by changing the county charter last year. With rumors of then-Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton’s interest in running for Memphis mayor and the inevitability of that [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 22nd, 2009 2:37pm CST | Comments Off
Toledo, Ohio, got a special holiday gift this year when David Kushma was named editor of The Blade. Mr. Kushma was former editorial page editor for The Commercial Appeal and assumes his new duties January 1, and 2007. After running his own communications company in the Detroit area, he’s returned to his first love – [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 22nd, 2009 1:09pm CST | Comments Off
Our friend Aaron Shafer is one of Memphis’s most imaginative thinkers, and lately, he’s thought a lot about how the Mondragon model could be applied to our city. It is a provocative idea and its applicationsin Cleveland is featured in Time magazine.
by Doug Imig (RSS) Memphis City Schools | December 21st, 2009 8:11pm CST | Comments Off
MCS Superintendent Cash recently told the Commercial Appeal that one of the reasons the Gates Foundation was interested In Memphis was that the district was able to link students’ test score data directly to their teachers through the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS). This capacity enables the system to look not simply at school [...]
by Tommy Pacello (RSS) Uncategorized | December 20th, 2009 8:34pm CST | 3 Comments
“Wow, you moved here from Memphis?” “There was this BBQ shop in an old white garage with bright yellow slaw…” “What’s the name of the juke joint with the burgers outside of downtown?” “We went there for a wedding and on Tuesday we were still there…” —– Memphis generates great stories, the kind of stories [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 19th, 2009 4:37pm CST | Comments Off
This week on Smart City, we’re talking about big ideas and big change. First we’ll talk with Tim Brown, CEO of the design firm IDEO. His new book, Change By Design, shows how the techniques and strategies of design are valuable in most any endeavor. Tim will tell us how to use “Design Thinking” to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 18th, 2009 9:33pm CST | Comments Off
Thankfully, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park maintain their vigilance over City of Memphis Engineering’s plans that promise change and deliver more bad ideas for its detention basin in the midst of our city’s most beloved park. We thought you’d find this post worth informative.
by Rev. Steve Montgomery (RSS) Uncategorized | December 17th, 2009 5:34pm CST | 3 Comments
Being one of the most-churched cities in the country is a mixed bag. Certainly many of us are grateful for the comfort that faith communities can bring in times of personal distress, such as illness and death, and personal joys, such as weddings. There are times, however, when I wish that the faith communities could [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development | December 17th, 2009 5:23pm CST | 2 Comments
To continue with yesterday’s theme of human capital and entrepreneurship, we’ll follow up with some comments made to Leadership Memphis last week by Portland economist Joe Cortright. “What you tend to see in economic development is that it is very much faddish,” he said. “Every one wants to be a Silicon Valley. Then e-commerce. Now [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | December 17th, 2009 12:00pm CST | 4 Comments
The following are the recent Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Board’s tax waivers and the companies’ revenues: Smith & Nephew: Taxes Waived – $6.2 million over 15 years Annual Revenues – $3.8 billion ServiceMaster: Taxes Waived – $1.2 million over 10 years Annual Revenues – $3.4 billion McKesson Corp.: Taxes waived – $32.6 million over [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development | December 16th, 2009 9:48pm CST | Comments Off
It’s not tax incentives. It’s not 50-priority plans. It’s not massive infrastructure investments. It’s not recruitment strategies for big businesses. In the end, economic success is only about one thing – human capital. It seems so obvious, but nonetheless the human fuel that drives our economy is often overlooked and undersold in the pursuit of [...]
by Leah Wells (RSS) Economic Development | December 16th, 2009 8:28pm CST | 6 Comments
Buy here now and pay it forward. For every $100 spent locally, $68 comes back to the community.
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.
