National Civil Rights Museum’s Silver Anniversary
There are many special places and experiences unique to Memphis, but at the top of our list is the National Civil Rights Museum. I was present at the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 29, 2016 | City of Memphis Government, Civil Rights, Shelby County government
There are many special places and experiences unique to Memphis, but at the top of our list is the National Civil Rights Museum. I was present at the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 27, 2016 | Poverty
U.S. Census data showed decreases in the poverty rate for Memphis from 29.8% in 2013 to 26.2% in 2015, a decline of 12%. Meanwhile, the child poverty...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 22, 2016 | Poverty
The conclusion of the Blueprint for Poverty summary says: “It is possible to significantly reduce poverty in Memphis. Much can be accomplished by incremental...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 21, 2016 | Poverty
With all the talk and proposals about growing the economy in the presidential campaign, they face the reality that the U.S. is in an era of slow growth, and what’s yet to...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 19, 2016 | Civil Rights, Downtown Revitalization
It was 1986 and the betting on a proposed civil rights museum in Memphis was that it would never be built. It was caught in the snare of racial...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 15, 2016 | Economic Development, Poverty
This is the mantra: there is no economic prosperity in Memphis without poverty reduction. That was the closing sentence in our last post, which was the first part of this two-part...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 14, 2016 | Poverty, Transportation, Uncategorized
Thanks to Bennett Foster for sending: The Memphis Bus Riders Union and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713 are launching a new campaign with a petition to restore the 31 Crosstown, a historic bus route eliminated by...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 12, 2016 | Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Poverty
In recent years, we seem to have had a record number of really smart people making speeches and presentations and speaking to clusters of involved, dedicated...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 9, 2016 | Civil Rights, Politics and Government, Poverty, Uncategorized
The following article was written by a favorite Memphis economist of ours, David Ciscel, former Chair of the Economics Department,...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Sep 7, 2016 | Economic Development
The following is a post from September 20, 2006, about how to measure success in Memphis. This is the latest in our regular feature flashing back to blog posts from 10 years ago. Who knew we’d still be looking for an...
Read Moreby 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 →
Since 2005, this has been Smart City Consulting’s blog with the aim of connecting the dots and providing perspective on issues and policies shaping Memphis. Editor and primary author is Tom Jones, columnist, author of two books, and consultant on public policy. Smart City Memphis was called one of the most intriguing blogs in the U.S. by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change; The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal wrote that “Smart City Memphis provides some of the most well-thought-out thinking about Memphis’ past, present, and future you’ll find anywhere,” and the Memphis Flyer said: “This incredibly well-written blog sets out to solves the city’s ills – from the mayor to MATA – with out-of-the-box thinking, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ideas. If you have questions, submissions, or ideas for posts, please email Tom Jones, at tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.