We may talk a good game about talent, but it’s time that at the top of our leaders’ priorities is to make Memphis a city of choice for college students.
We may tend to lean on the ropes and take punch after punch from study after study, but it’s time to realize that we may no longer even be in the fight.
We may pretend that Atlanta and Nashville are our peer cities, but there are growing indications that it’s a civic exercise in wishful thinking.
These are conclusions from reports that should jolt all of us into action. It’s just no longer possible to pretend that somehow things aren’t dire and that we’re competing in today’s economy.
The Deficit
We’ve written often about Memphis’s talent deficit and how it dramatically limits our economic potential. At a time when about 60% of a city’s economic success is tied to the presence of college-educated people, we seem to be bleeding out when it comes to keeping young talent. We’re losing an average of five a day, which sets the bar even higher as we try to add 8,000 college graduates a year to achieve the “Memphis Talent Dividend,” the 1% increase in college-educated students that produces $1 billion in new economic impact. We’re lucky that Leadership Memphis has taken on this issue as its prime objective and is relentlessly moving this ahead.
In other words, when we talk about Memphis becoming a “city of choice,” it has to become the place where students with choice go to college. It won’t be easy, because we’re in a deep hole, and also, because we talk a much better game than we play. For example, we talk a lot about the need for more talent and childhood intervention, but when it’s time to prepare state and federal legislative agendas, they are overlooked.
It reflects a trait we’ve mastered. When new defining issues appear that are shaping the future of cities – from regionalism to the creative economy to tax breaks to talent – our leadership does a great job of learning the language and co-opting the vocabulary, but rarely do their behaviors change. As a result, while using the right words, we do little to change our strategies or to reward the groups that are innovatively dealing with them.
We’ll spend millions chasing traditional economic development ideas while programs outside of the mainstream to create entrepreneurs or to attract more talent languish for lack of a fraction of the money. We’ll send legislative agendas to Nashville year after year that chase tougher sentences and more prosecutors while ignoring interventions to remove juveniles from the criminal justice system that often sets the arc of their lives.
Bottom of the List
But to get back to the subject at hand, we need to have programs and investments that establish Memphis as a college destination city. We have a ways to go.
The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) publishes a yearly ranking of the best cities in which college students should live. Factors include student concentration per 1,000 residents; student diversity; research capacity, per cent of 25-34 year-olds with college degrees; cost of living; arts and leisure; commuting by foot, bike or public transit; presence of creative class; entrepreneurial activity, and brain gain/drain.
We’ve written often about most of these data points, so it should be no surprise that of the 31 mid-sized cities (1-2.5 million population), Memphis is ranked #30 as a college destination city. Only New Orleans is lower. In the three broad categories that create the overall rate, Memphis finishes next to last (#30) in academic environment, last (#31) in quality of life, and next to last (#30) in professional opportunity.
The top 10 rankings for mid-size metros in order are San Jose, Austin, Raleigh, Hartford, Portland OR, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Rochester, Buffalo, and Nashville.
More Density Needed
There’s no argument that the concentration of college-educated and highly-skilled workers is a key determinant in economic growth. It’s also well-accepted that density of talent matters.
The map above shows college degree holders per square kilometer, and it’s pretty easy to see the connection between higher density and economic success of cities. Interestingly, especially for the people who are always talking about how the tax rate here drives away jobs and why we need more tax freezes, many of the most successful cities have high taxes. It’s not so much how much someone has to pay in taxes, but whether those people feel that they receive value for them.
To complicate things, besides our low talent density that we have in Memphis, we also underperform for a city of our size.
It’s Not Comforting
Further insight comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its “Knowledge in Cities” report, since it looked beyond college degreed residents to think about the type of knowledge used in the workforce. The “clusters” range from Making Regions, characterized by knowledge about manufacturing, to Thinking Regions, noted for knowledge about the arts, humanities, information technology, and commerce.
The report said: “In addition these knowledge-based clusters help explain the types of regions that have levels of economic development that exceed, or fall short of, other places with similar amounts of college attainment. Regression results show that Engineering, Enterprising, and Building Regions are associated with higher levels of productivity and earnings per capita, while Teaching, Understanding, Working, and Comforting Regions have lower levels of economic development.”
Memphis is a “comforting region” and that’s bad news. We’re with a group of places we’d rather not be in company with: Abilene, Atlantic City, Buffalo, Columbus GA, Lubbock, Fayetteville, El Paso, Hattiesburg, Monroe, Shreveport, Spokane, Syracuse, Topeka, and Waco.
None of the cities that we regularly name as our peers are in this “comforting region.” Most of them are in “enterprising regions,” including Atlanta, Birmingham, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Tampa, Richmond, and Minneapolis. Enterprising regions have high knowledge about commerce and IT while comforting regions like ours have lower engineering and production knowledge and high mental health knowledge.
Cold Water Facts
There’s nothing comforting in being called a “comforting region.” More to the point, “comforting regions” like ours have lower economic growth than the “enterprising regions” that we like to say we’re competing with.
All of this data should be the equivalent of a jolt of cold water on those who engage in happy talk about our city, who act as if we can just limp along with no ill effect until Superman rescues us and who try to convince us that it’s more important for them to be in power than for us to do something to turn things around.
We have to change the trajectory of Memphis. There’s no denying it any longer. Is there really any need for a wake-up call more convincing that the reality that our peer group is now Shreveport and Lubbock?
I’ve never thought of Memphis, for years since perhaps 1982 was any more than like an overgrown Shreveport/Bossier…in the 1990s my perception didn’t change either, but people in Memphis were ‘busy’ suggesting than Memphis was even on a better trajectory than places like Raleigh or even Nashville…Nashvillians would bristle being spoke of in the same breath as Memphis (nationally). If you’ve been to places like Shreveport/Bossier/-Monroe you’d agree with the comparison and grouping, but for some unknown reason Memphians actually “see themselves” as something no body else in the nation “sees”, and that’s pretty dangerous if you’re actually serious about attracting great minds. Memphis will not be a city of choice or destination for these groups of educsated people and a bunch of other types when they logically compare it to other dynamic cities within the south and in the southwest…well not for many years. Memphis has abdicated its direction and lost its competitiveness about 25 years ago, and other cities are rocketing by at star speed.
I am all for raising the education attainment level but I also want to know where are all Memphis college graduates are going? What percentage are finding good paying jobs locally, what percent are at home working a fast food job? How many have found better opportunities in other cities? What percentage are unemployed? How many grads found jobs from internships? Where do we need more infrastructures to absorb more graduates into their respective fields of training/education?
Are we creating a 21st century workforce for the rest of the U.S? I don’t know but if I am doing economic development work these are the questions that come immediately to my mind. Imagine if a perspective freshman student had these types of stats available in his/her “welcome” or recruiting packet. Those numbers just might be helpful in deciding on a major.
Hopefully, U of M is working hand in hand with our economic development strategists and major corporations to start answering these questions.
first of all Memphis State, aka Univ of Memphis, aka Tiger High for years and years, is not that great of a school in the first place, that’s WHY it was called Tiger High for decades..
I’ve interviewed graduates from UM for positions for many years,, and I have never found most of their skills particularly compettive ..nor did I find them very proficient in a host of academic areas.
I’ve interviewed better candidates from Univ of MS, UALR, MS State even, Vanderbilt, Rhodes, Emory, UAB, UNC, Sewanee, Univ of AL Huntsville, Auburn, Univ of AL (by a longshot), even party schools like UF, UT Knoxville,, and a ton of other midwestern and southwestern college graduates.
That’s my experience…and for the most part, I’ve never been blown away, with the exception of one graduate, who decided to continue grad school at Univ of Chicago because hiw ‘wanted out of Memphis’. Most others were unremarkable, very average to below average…some of whom I was trying to figure out how they graduated in the first place.
I would bet that a lot of the local posters even on this site, didn’t attend Tiger High either.
I didn’t, nor would I send my kid there either…never…..i.e. given other viable choices inside the state and outside of TN….thank god
I do believe that a strategy involving ALL of the regional Universities is good idea. Ole Miss, Arkansas State and others near by ought to be of as much interest as the U of M, CBU and Rhodes. Our base of educated prospects may be much larger than many realize.
A) Like Aaron asked, what are they (the schools) producing? Are we chasing or trying to create industries that fit?
B) What are they researching? Do their studies and discoveries match what we are creating and chasing?
C) How are they engaged? Are we actively making them players in our community as students on many, many different levels so the graduates feel like they can slide right into Memphis opportunities?
One of the problems, from my perspective as a Master’s level graduate from UM, is that the administration has lowered the bar for undergraduates purely based on economics. UM makes money both by enrolling and matriculating students. They justify lowering the bar for entrance as part of their “urban mission.” Then they realize that students are not performing at a college level. The logical- I mean financial- next step is to lower the academic standards as well.
This drives instructors and professors wild. If we were to look at the retention rate of UM profs. I bet the same pattern would become evident- they leave for a better job. Young ambitious professors want to teach eager minds, not correct spelling errors and teach proper sentence syntax to their students.
I can’t even begin to put down in type my experience with student teaching at UM. I can sum it up by saying that it taught me a new phrase “functionally literate.”
I totally agree John. I was just particularly interested U of M since a high percentage of our MCS grads will likely go there.
Tiger High? Someone is living in a time warp. Do you still refer to African Americans as Negroes or coloreds? And are you looking for U of M to be a vocational school training its graduates to meet your particular business needs?
Further, when faculty move on to “better” jobs, it is usually the case that another institution recognized that a scholar of some reputation was undoubtedly underpaid by ten or fifteen thousand dollars because Tennessee is is not very supportive of higher education. For the level at which the state funds the U of M, the school is much better than it should be. The “Tiger High” days of forty-some years ago are distant memories for most, but some just can’t let go of them.
Jacobus, some are mainly interested in making gratuitous insults rather than having meaningful discussions about how to improve our city and region.
LOL btw what are “African Americans” ? they are Negroes, certainly not Caucasions for heaven’s sake.
Martin King used the nomenclature : “Negroes”. There is nothing in this earth “wrong” with using the anthrological term referring to “negroid”…or “mongoloid”..or “caucasoid”.
What the devil is wrong with you people ??
University of Memphis in fact has lowered their admission standards and their standards in the classroom. Ask any professor that sticks around long enough to share his/her experiences.
Any fool knows that education is a business. Just look at University of Florida, and the University of Alabama in their respective sports “franchises”.
We need to make sure the education of all “our” Negroes and Negresses are up to the level of all Caucasians and Chinamen too. As well as our Hebrew friends and the Jewesses.
and the checks and the poles, and the tajiks and the whigs.
and do not forget the Klingons.
they will not forget.
…and yet in another post, just now, beach refers to the marvelous diversity found in Miami. I wonder if they refer to African Americans as “Negroes” in person or just hide it as an anonymous poster on the web?
They probably call them nigras.
sure, that’s what we call them in Memphis all the time, if the truth be told, but few like to talk about it
I think the next part of the discussion should be: What does a “new trajectory” look like? It’s not enough to convince people that change is necessary. We need to provide a clear picture of what that change looks like and how we can achieve it. For some, that change will need to be presented in hard numbers and charts (think $1B increase in personal income as a result of achieving the Talent Dividend). For others, the “new trajectory” must be presented visually, something that can be touched and experienced.
The revitalization of Broad Avenue provides this strong, visual case for implementing the change so many of us seek. Pedestrians, cyclists, and even drivers can move through the neighborhood along common routes. Businesses, restaurants, and retailers have experienced a significant increase in foot traffic (translated to more sales). Crime is down in the area as more citizens connect with each other and take ownership of their community. Public art is on its way in the form of a mural. All of these changes can be touched and experienced.
If numbers motivate you to help Memphis achieve a new trajectory, SCM and I can provide mountains of studies, rankings, and reports. For those who are moved to change by seeing the future, come on down to Broad. See what happens when urban planners, artists, businesses, farmers,community groups, and citizens come together. (This is the “collective collaboration” we’ve previously discussed.) See how profound change can be created by repainting street lines. Greater access to food (one of the greatest struggles for our children) can be achieved in an old gas station. Property values increased by adding a few restaurants & bars.
Getting folks to buy into the vocabulary of modern social innovation and economic development is a good start. The next step is to show them what it actually looks like. I and many others are more than happy to give the tour. I think you will be amazed at what Memphians can and have accomplished. It is my hope that we can convince leaders of how much more remains, the plans we have created to achieve this, the resources we need, and how they can be a help instead of a hindrance.
It’s not enough to talk the talk. I know a bird that can do that very well. It’s time to walk the talk. It’s ok if you don’t know the steps yet. There are scores of us ready, willing, and excited to show the way.