by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 31st, 2011 12:11am CDT | 10 Comments
From StreetsBlog: How many times have you heard this line: Young people prefer urban living. Of course, everyone acknowledges, this isn’t a universal preference. But a clear generational shift away from suburban lifestyles is the phenomena on which many of our discussions about urbanism are premised. However, while young people may be a driving force [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 30th, 2011 12:09am CDT | Comments Off
It’s that time of the year: time for the annual political gamesmanship by Memphis City Schools directed at charter schools. They’re called charter schools because they have a signed contract with the school district. In exchange for greater autonomy, they agree to greater accountability. They also agree that the charter schools will get the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 30th, 2011 12:08am CDT | Comments Off
By Robert Reich Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” who in real life worked [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 29th, 2011 12:38am CDT | 6 Comments
If you need something to remind you that “we’re representing Memphis,” there’s nothing better than this one: “Don’t talk about my city.” A new song by local legend Booker T. Jones takes us on a musical stroll through some of our favorite places and best of all, shows little patience for complainers. Our friend Jeff [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 29th, 2011 12:04am CDT | Comments Off
By Sam Pizzigati at Campaign for America’s Future: Apologists for inequality have an all-purpose defense for our desperately unequal status quo. We live in an unequal society, they pronounce, because Americans don’t really care about inequality. They only care about opportunity, and we have in the United States today, inequality’s cheerleaders assert, opportunity aplenty. So [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 28th, 2011 12:49am CDT | Comments Off
Here’s one of the most important – and disturbing – statistics about Memphis. For every child in Early Head Start (or the city schools’ equivalent), there are 31 children who aren’t. In the wake of the valuable citywide discussion about the future of education that was triggered by the surrender of the Memphis City [...]
by Janet Boscarino (RSS) Uncategorized | March 27th, 2011 12:54am CDT | 12 Comments
By now you’ve seen the pictures or the video clips of a trash-clogged McKellar Lake. Your reactions probably included amazed disgust. Unfortunately, people like us, who engage in cleanup activities, are not at all surprised. Clean Memphis, Memphis City Beautiful, the Sierra Club and many other groups have performed numerous cleanup projects over the years [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 25th, 2011 12:56am CDT | 3 Comments
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Traffic engineers have called the shots for decades on the planning of public space in downtown Cleveland. Mayor Frank Jackson’s Group Plan Commission wants parity for pedestrians — if not the upper hand in certain spots. A series of recommendations from the commission, set for discussion at a meeting this morning at [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 24th, 2011 7:31pm CDT | 1 Comment
The most exciting things happening in Memphis these days aren’t in the halls of power or among the power brokers. Instead, they are produced by a burst of entrepreneurship unseen here in 30 years However, this time, the energy comes from a special breed of entrepreneurs – social entrepreneurs. It shouldn’t be surprising that [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 24th, 2011 12:45am CDT | Comments Off
From Web Urbanist: When more living space is needed in cramped urban conditions where every last square foot of land is spoken for, there’s literally nowhere to go but up. Luckily, flat city rooftops offer the ideal space for creative lofts, pods and unusual additions, whether temporary or permanent, prefabricated or carefully custom-designed to fit [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 23rd, 2011 12:40am CDT | 20 Comments
We do not have budget problems in this state and country because we spend too much on poor people. We do not have budget problems because we spend too much for teachers. We do not have budget problems because we spend too much on the middle class. We do not have budget problems because we [...]
by Doug Imig (RSS) Uncategorized | March 23rd, 2011 12:28am CDT | 1 Comment
There’s a billboard on Poplar that reminds us that Demographics are not Destiny. What a great idea! Too often, conversations about the future of our community’s children, focus on the risks to their development and well-being that are associated with their ethnicity or race, with the neighborhood in which they grow up, with the marital [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 21st, 2011 12:39am CDT | 7 Comments
Caught in a brutal vise of too many kids, too little density, the capital costs of sprawl, and a broken tax structure, the people who head up local government here may not need to be mayors, but alchemists. There are troubling trends taking place in Memphis, and they converge by necessity in the budget hearings of our [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 21st, 2011 12:27am CDT | 18 Comments
The following column is by longtime urban commentator Neal Peirce: The budget imbroglio seizing Congress (and most state legislatures) throws an ominous shadow over America’s cities and towns — and their people. It’s time for our local governments, which deal day-to-day with the impacts of rising needs and insufficient revenues, to roar back with indignation [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 20th, 2011 11:37am CDT | 1 Comment
This commentary was posted recently to a blog of Education Week: Teachers have long maintained that they can’t do their job if students don’t do theirs. But their complaint has largely fallen on deaf ears until recently. Now, thanks to Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, authors of Academically Adrift (University of Chicago Press, 2011), the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 20th, 2011 12:01am CDT | 21 Comments
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (March 16, 2011) – Gwyn R. Fisher, the Executive Director of MPACT Memphis, has been selected to participate in the Brussels Forum March 25-27, 2011 and to represent the British Council Transatlantic Network 2020 (TN2020) at the Young Professionals Summit in Brussels, Belgium on March 26, 2011 at the Conrad Hotel. The Young [...]
by Ray Brown (RSS) Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Planning and Urban Design | March 17th, 2011 9:43pm CDT | 11 Comments
As the City Council begins to debate the idea of investing in the infrastructure necessary to create a new neighborhood at the former Fairgrounds, it’s worth defining what “urban village” really means. It’s not a shopping strip, or a mall, or even the small town simulation known as a lifestyle center. Instead, an urban village [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Uncategorized | March 17th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
Anytime there is a choice in government between secrecy and transparency, it should be a no-brainer. That’s why we hope that the Shelby County Legislative Delegation opposes a proposal to close some public records so companies seeking incentives would be happier. The push by city, county, and chamber of commerce was cited in USA Today [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 16th, 2011 2:35pm CDT | 6 Comments
We can forgive taxpayers for their confusion about tax policy and tax uses when discussions at Memphis City Council do more to obfuscate than illuminate. Based on The Commercial Appeal’s Amos Maki reliably accurate reporting, we are told that Councilman Kemp Conrad said that Memphians would not support improvements to the Fairgrounds, demolition of the [...]
by Steve Bares (RSS) Uncategorized | March 16th, 2011 2:08pm CDT | Comments Off
With the national unemployment rate at 8.9 percent (U.S. Department of Labor, March 4, 2011) and the rates in our region hovering from 8 percent to more than 10 percent (Tennessee 9.4%, Arkansas 7.9%, Mississippi 10.2%), talking about job training and talent development may seem out of place to some. However, I believe now is [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | March 15th, 2011 12:33am CDT | 3 Comments
From Streetfilms: While we were out videotaping for another Streetfilm, Gary Toth the Director of Transportation Initiatives with Project for Public Spaces (his resume includes 34 years of management experience at NJDOT) took a moment to give a short explanation on what “floating parking” is, why using it is a very smart budgetary decision by [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | March 14th, 2011 10:52am CDT | Comments Off
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” It’s the punch line to a hoary joke, but it has special meaning to Memphians with ambitions for their city to become a film capital. Things seemed to be working well until state government decided to help out. It wasn’t too many years ago when [...]
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.
