by SCM (RSS) Education | January 31st, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 2 Comments
By Mark Sturgis Memphis Director of Stand for Children First, I would like to thank the tireless, hard-working, and often overlooked teachers in our districts, who meet our students where they are and bring them their best. As a classroom teacher for five years in MCS, I know very well the significant demands – mental, [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | January 30th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 11 Comments
Apparently, there is no hunger more intense than being power hungry. It’s proven on a daily basis by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris and his sycophant, Tennessee Representative Curry Todd. Hardly a day goes by that an action of the Norris-Todd cabal doesn’t leave us wondering if [...]
by SCM (RSS) Politics and Government, Uncategorized | January 27th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Barry Chase, head of our local Planned Parenthood office: Attacks on Planned Parenthood patients in Tennessee have intensified. I received notification on December 28 from the Director of the Tennessee Department of Health that although we had been informed that we would receive HIV prevention and Syphilis prevention funding to provide these services to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | January 27th, 2012 12:12am CDT | Comments Off
Our friends, Louise Mercuro and Maggie Conway, took this photograph at Park and Airways and it’s distinctly Memphis. Their comment: “Don’t tell Memphis that it isn’t an innovative and creative city.” If you have any we can post, please email them to tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.
by SCM (RSS) Criminal Justice | January 26th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 1 Comment
From Governing: During his five years at the helm of New Jersey’s largest city, Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s work could provide fodder for months of columns on energetic, innovative and responsive government. For starters, he has overseen a stunning reduction in violent crime. In March 2010, Newark had its first month in over 44 years [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | January 26th, 2012 12:44am CDT | 2 Comments
Here’s an email that we got from a reader who always has sound insights into our airport: Another week goes by and yet another CA article about service cuts at Memphis International…. With theAmsterdam flight generating over two billion in economic impact since its inception, do you think Smart City could do a round robin [...]
by SCM (RSS) Downtown Revitalization | January 25th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Baltimore Sun: The vision for the “greening” of downtown Baltimore is taking shape after city leaders proposed ambitious steps to keep and attract businesses and residents by making public areas more inviting. An open-space plan unveiled last February by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore calls for a network of spaces that link neighborhoods to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Leadership | January 25th, 2012 12:15am CDT | 3 Comments
Posted June 1, 2011, and unfortunately, even more relevant today as Tennessee Representative interferes in local affairs yet again to serve a narrow – and narrow-minded – special interest group: It’s hard to think of anything that’s uglier about life in Memphis than the self-loathing that passes for normal [...]
by SCM (RSS) City of Memphis Government | January 24th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 5 Comments
The ingredients for a successful startup and a successful city are remarkably similar. You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract quality talent. You have to have enough capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability. And you need to create a world-class culture that not only attracts [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 23rd, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 9 Comments
As with many industrial cities in America at the time, post-war St. Louis experienced a rapid decline of its inner city. Desperately seeking solutions before the decay could absorb downtown, local planners and politicians saw slum clearance as the best option. Decades later, the results are nothing to celebrate. An aggressive demolition policy failed to create a better neighborhood. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development | January 23rd, 2012 12:41am CDT | 3 Comments
There was little time for a celebration following the Greater Memphis Chamber’s announcement about $1.2 billion in private investment and 14,000 new jobs. The day after the Chamber announcement, Brookings Institution ranked us as one of the worst-performing metropolitan economies in the world — #171 of the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 20th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 1 Comment
From Atlantic Cities: A month ago the Wire spotted an incredibly intricate rendering of American highways, drawn in the style of a subway map. The work was done by graphic designer Cameron Booth, a Sydney, Australia, native who moved to Portland in 2007. Booth says transit maps are “definitely a passion of mine.” In addition [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Education | January 20th, 2012 12:55am CDT | 13 Comments
So, let’s take Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner at his word. His obsession with a municipal school district for his town is not “separatism,” he said, although it does seem Freudian that he picked that word. Then again, there’s another “ism” that does fuel the rush to judgment [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 19th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | 4 Comments
From Rethinking Schools: “Every man in my family has been locked up. Most days I feel like it doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try – that’s my fate, too.” -11th-grade African American student, Berkeley, California This young man isn’t being cynical or melodramatic; he’s articulating a terrifying reality for many of the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 19th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Sustainable Cities Collective: Washington, DC is finally getting a green waterfront development to be proud of. A 42-acre redevelopment along the Anacostia River, The Yards will comprise some 1.8 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of retail and cultural spaces, 2,700 rental and for‐sale homes, and a significant riverfront park and [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 18th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Arts Journal: With government support for the arts on the wane in most places, here’s a city singing a different tune: “…The mayor has a plan. That plan has been to reestablish municipal support for the arts through the cultural office, and to enhance and expand city efforts that support artists and their organizations. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Parks and Greening | January 18th, 2012 12:57am CDT | 7 Comments
We wrote yesterday about what Tom Lee Park could be…a magnet for recreation and leisure…as opposed to what it is today…forlorn and bleak. We got an email asking for some ideas of what could be done, and we suggest that anyone interested in possibilities should visit the website [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 17th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Hartford Business. We’ve written before of our respect for Kip Bergstrom, and his philosophy of connecting arts funding to vibrant placemaking is another example of his acumen. Private cultural and arts programs in Connecticut must play a greater role in revitalizing communities and attracting new businesses to receive state funding under a pilot program. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Parks and Greening | January 17th, 2012 12:44am CDT | 17 Comments
Tom Lee Park is a room with a view. It’s a magnificent view but the room is empty. That’s because Tom Lee Park is essentially a field without any activity beyond the month of May or anything to make it more than a spectacular backdrop for joggers or more [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 16th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
Mitt Romney said last week he’ll kick funding for the arts and public broadcasting to the curb if he gets to be president. “We’re not going to kill Big Bird, but Big Bird is going to have advertisements,” Romney said, while speaking at Homer’s Deli in Clinton, Iowa. Like virtually every other conservative candidate, Romney [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Uncategorized | January 16th, 2012 12:14am CDT | Comments Off
This annual holiday in honor of America’s great nonviolent prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is always a timely occasion to read the inspiring words of a minister who understood that his faith called for him to stand up for those traditionally frozen out of public decision-making [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | January 14th, 2012 2:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From MPO: To ensure compliance with federal regulations concerning a public participation process that promotes continued public awareness and access to the decision-making process, the Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) presents the Direction 2040: Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) for public review and comment. The official review period begins Tuesday, January 17, 2012 [...]
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.
