by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 30th, 2011 2:04pm CDT | Comments Off
This outstanding column was written by Marcus Pohlman and published last week in The Commercial Appeal: The average child in America will spend less than 10 percent of his or her life in school through the 12th grade. If we are serious about education reform, we need to understand what’s happening to our students the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 30th, 2011 12:15am CDT | 2 Comments
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water…here comes yet another stupid idea from a member of the majority of the Tennessee Legislature. Building on the thinking that brought us guns in parks and restaurants, barriers to legal voting, anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric, anti-scientific teaching in science classrooms, and state [...]
by John Lawrence (RSS) Uncategorized | November 28th, 2011 1:50pm CDT | 7 Comments
Memphis is filled with fools… there, I said it! When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 28th, 2011 12:23am CDT | 2 Comments
The decision by the unified Shelby County School Board to reject 17 charter applications as a group is a troubling indication that the group can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. The threadbare reasons given by Superintendents Kriner Cash and John Aitken were recycled justifications given by lifers more interested in protecting turf [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 23rd, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Off the Charts Blog: Note: With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the Center thought this was a good time to look at the latest figures on various indicators of hardship. This is the first in a series of posts on this subject that CBPP will do this week. Poverty rates rose in 2010 under a [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 22nd, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
According to the latest results from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll, some news sources make us less likely to know what’s going on in the world. In the most recent study, the poll asked New Jerseyans about current events at home and abroad, and from what sources – if any – they get their information. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 22nd, 2011 12:34am CDT | Comments Off
Lt. John Pike, who pepper sprayed peaceful demonstrators at University of California-Davis, is also featured in a variety of artwork doing what he does best. You can see them here.
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 21st, 2011 12:05am CDT | 2 Comments
There are frequent conversations in Memphis about what our city brand should be. Some people suggest that it should be about transportation, other say logistics, and some say our river heritage. Those are important assets of Memphis, but they are things. They don’t really speak directly to our community values and who we are [...]
by Steve Bares (RSS) Uncategorized | November 18th, 2011 11:10am CDT | Comments Off
By Dr. Steve Bares and Dr. Steve Schwab This is Global Entrepreneurship Week. In celebration of the rising level of entrepreneurship in our community, Dr. Steve Schwab, chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, and I submitted a guest editorial to the Commercial Appeal. As my submission to Smart City this [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Uncategorized | November 18th, 2011 12:42am CDT | 13 Comments
We thought of Cosmo Castorini in Moonstruck as City Council talked about the proposal to build a publicly-funded garage in Overton Square: “It costs money because it saves money.” City government may appear to be saving money if it turns down the $6 million garage, but in the long-run, the decision will cost much more [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 17th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | 2 Comments
From This Big City: These are some tough economic times we’re in. Governments across the globe are trying all kinds of tricks to keep things ticking over, with varying degrees of success (or varying degrees of failure, depending on how upbeat you’re feeling). But could bicycle networks benefit cities, providing a relatively inexpensive way to [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 16th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN New Yorkers should love bicycling. We’re control freaks. We want to get from here to there in a New York minute and moan about the subways and the buses, about lunatic taxi drivers and the gridlock that slows us down. The other day I jumped on my bicycle and rode downtown to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development | November 16th, 2011 12:07am CDT | 5 Comments
The timing is right for Memphis and Shelby County to determine what tools it needs in its toolkit if we are to compete in economic development. Then again, we should more often use some tools that we already have — Tax Increment Financing, Business Improvement Districts, and other state-authorized incentives created to attract investment and [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 15th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | 2 Comments
From The Dirt: This was just one of many provocative questions asked by San Francisco Chronicle design critic John King, Hon. ASLA, at the 2011 ASLA annual meeting general session. For the two master landscape architects on the panel, Martha Schwartz, FASLA, and Laurie Olin, FASLA; Charles Waldheim, Affiliate ASLA, the godfather of landscape urbanism and chair of [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 14th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
Street artist Moose Benjamin Curtis was having some difficulty with the police. The officers had just arrested him for creating designs on a wall in South London. But it was complicated — as things often are when Moose is involved. You see, Moose doesn’t use spray paint or wallpaper paste — the usual tools of [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 14th, 2011 12:23am CDT | 8 Comments
When $50 million is put on the table, there are always a lot of competing interests for it. That was certainly the case with the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant in Memphis. The funds come from the Obama Administration’s stimulus plan, and despite varying interests and intense lobbying, the City of Memphis called [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 11th, 2011 2:17pm CDT | Comments Off
by Braden Goyette, ProPublica The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently released a much-discussed study showing that over the past three decades the income of the highest-paid Americans has soared while the income of others has grown much more modestly. Here’s a rundown of some statistics illustrating the growing income gap. But first, some context. These [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 11th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Education Week: By Ken Kay Last summer, as I was winding down eight years as president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I went around the country and met with 30 district superintendents. I asked each one a simple question: What could I do to help support their efforts to lead 21st-century districts? [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | November 11th, 2011 12:01am CDT | 6 Comments
Only 4% of Memphis City Schools seniors are ready for college, based on their scores on the ACT, the college entrance exam taken by district seniors. In other words, of 6,774 seniors, only 271 are college ready. It’s a disturbing statistic that speaks to why closing the achievement gap should be a priority for Memphis [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 9th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Harvard Business blogs: Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. This myth is based on the assumption that human beings are capable of doing two cognitive tasks at the same time. We’re not. Instead, we learn to move rapidly between tasks. When we’re doing one, we’re actually not even aware [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Poverty, Uncategorized | November 9th, 2011 12:09am CDT | 29 Comments
The Brookings Institution, in a new report on the growth of extreme poverty in the U.S., wrote what we already know full well in the Memphis MSA: we’re at the top of the rankings. What’s more interesting is that it’s the trends in the suburbs that propel us there. If there’s any wake-up call for [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | November 8th, 2011 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
By Libby Sander Washington—Athletic programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision spent on athletes at a rate that far outpaced academic spending per student during a recent five-year period, according to new research reported by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Spending per athlete grew by 50 percent in the FBS during the five-year period, while [...]
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.
