by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 9th, 2010 12:15am CDT | 8 Comments
It’s a sign of the times, or at least a political sign of the times. As surely as elections follow campaigns, the newly elected officials see their names on government signs and photos in public buildings as the spoils of victory. It’s never been more obvious than in the past 10 months as a half [...]
by Brian Stephens (RSS) Uncategorized | June 8th, 2010 12:34am CDT | 5 Comments
I just spent a very nice weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. The town was alive with activity, people shopping and eating and truly enjoying themselves. On this short respite, I had the pleasure of driving the -country trip with two friends that have lived in Memphis their entire lives – one an African American who [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 8th, 2010 12:04am CDT | 22 Comments
When the topic of city-county government consolidation comes up, it’s hard to figure out if the small town mayors have more in common with Pavlov or Edgar Cayce. On one hand, like the dogs in the Russian scientist’s famous reflex action studies, the mayors immediately salivate, growling over territory and turf, personality and propaganda. On [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Memphis City Schools, Uncategorized | June 7th, 2010 12:50am CDT | 11 Comments
If man bites dog is the definition of news, a couple of stories lately were as predictable as a dog biting a man. Germantown Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy embellished the image of herself and her city as selfish in the extreme, and a group of ministers with an affinity toward the spotlight embellished their reputation as [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 5th, 2010 12:23am CDT | 2 Comments
Jeff Nesin, president of Memphis College of Art, like many of his generation, feels the pull of responsibility for his parents, and because of it, he will be returning to New York City next week. Memphis is the poorer for it. While we write often about the economic impact of 25-34 year-old talent, Mr. Nesin [...]
by Josh Whitehead (RSS) Uncategorized | June 4th, 2010 10:36am CDT | 2 Comments
In my last post, we looked at city council size of the core cities of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan regions. In this post, we will focus on those cities’ county legislative bodies. Perhaps more so than in the case of the cities, the function and complexion of county legislative bodies vary widely from state [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 4th, 2010 12:13am CDT | 1 Comment
It must have been an awkward moment for Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen while announcing the $22 million HOPE VI grant for Memphis that ostensibly pays tribute to the impressive success of the Herenton Administration in winning the competition for the federal funds. Only a handful of cities – including some many times larger than ours [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 3rd, 2010 12:32am CDT | 3 Comments
It’s not unusual at all to find Shelby County Commissioner Mike Carpenter on the right side of an issue, but this week, he’s two for two. On one issue, infant mortality, he is evidence supporting our Tuesday post by demonstrating the difference between mainstream Republicanism and the brand practiced in the suburbs of Memphis. On [...]
by Gene Pearson (RSS) Uncategorized | June 3rd, 2010 12:11am CDT | 3 Comments
At some point in the history of Memphis and Shelby County, local and state legislative leaders decided that “boards”, “commissions”, or “authorities” should take over some of the duties necessary to run our City and County. Some of these entities became advisory to our governments like the former Memphis & Shelby County Planning Commission (now [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Poverty, Uncategorized | June 2nd, 2010 12:17am CDT | 6 Comments
We are nothing if not schizophrenic about Memphis. A few weeks ago, we were outraged that Forbes had the audacity to call us a “miserable city,” but in a New York Times article this week, we seemed to do as much ourselves. In fact, miserable might be a benign word compared to what Memphians said [...]
by Leah Wells (RSS) Uncategorized | June 1st, 2010 3:23pm CDT | 5 Comments
The official Zombie Wrangler at the corner of Vance and Main repeated: “Undead! Stay off the sidewalk! Stay on the street until after the Green Beetle!” Keeping the undead in line was a bit like herding…zombies. Memphis’ 4th Zombie Massacre had its best turnout this year. Perhaps it’s the forward zombie momentum. Perhaps it was [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | June 1st, 2010 12:52am CDT | 12 Comments
It’s hard to think of anything that’s uglier about life in Memphis than the self-loathing that passes for normal daily activity. It shows up regularly in The Commercial Appeal in comments from readers who default unfathomably on any subject to race and hate about all things Memphis . It also shows up in the stereotypes [...]
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.
