by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | June 18th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | 1 Comment
From The Atlantic: By Ta-Nehisi Coates I’ve spent the last couple of months looking at the roots of white supremacists’ policy, and the limits of color-blind policy in addressing its damage. A few weeks back, while debating Andrew over IQ differentials, I cautioned againstcomparisons between blacks and whites which claim to control for income and even [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | June 17th, 2013 3:37pm CDT | No Comments
From The BIG Slice: It is time to blow the whistle on newspaper editors who claim that they rid themselves of their editorial cartoonist for ‘budgetary’ reasons. It is a dishonest, disingenuous, and duplicitous assault on the truth. That is not to say that there are not budgetary problems facing newspapers across America, just that [...]
by SCM (RSS) Talent | June 14th, 2013 3:07pm CDT | No Comments
From Sustainable Cities Collective by Jim Russell: Attract talent or die. That’s the one imperative of the zero-sum Creative Class game. Another run at Cool Cities in Michigan: David Egner, president of the Hudson-Webber Foundation and executive director of the of the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, said the suburbs will benefit from a [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | June 14th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Governing: Jobs emphasizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills have long conjured up images of research universities and corporate offices. Many such STEM-heavy jobs require a bachelor’s or advanced degree. But what’s often not talked about is the roughly equal number of STEM jobs found on factory floor shops, construction sites and other [...]
by SCM (RSS) Poverty | June 13th, 2013 3:09pm CDT | No Comments
From Atlantic Cities: Note: The report said that 22.1% of the Shelby County residents are food insecure, which exceeds the state average of 17.6%. The study finds that many food insecure individuals do not qualify for federal nutrition programs and must rely on charitable food assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food-insecure homes as [...]
From onlinecolleges.net by Celine James: It’s a good thing that few entering academia expect to earn huge salaries and become incredibly wealthy because professorial jobs don’t usually come with rock star pay and benefits. Yet most newly graduated academics, after often spending nearly a decade in college, have the much more reasonable expectation of being [...]
by SCM (RSS) Uncategorized | June 11th, 2013 3:36pm CDT | No Comments
From Creative Loafing Atlanta: Deep in a wooded ravine on a vacant parcel in Peoplestown sits a mountain of old tires. There’s no telling how long they’ve been sitting there collecting water, breeding mosquitoes, and sullying the property. Or how many there are. “That’s hundreds. At least 200, maybe more,” said longtime community activist Columbus [...]
by SCM (RSS) City of Memphis Government | June 10th, 2013 3:22pm CDT | 1 Comment
From citiwire: It’s as bold a move as one could imagine. The Rockefeller Foundation, celebrating its 100th anniversary, is launching a “100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge.” It will invest $100 million in 100 cities across the world that come up with the best and broadest plans to cope with massive natural and man-made shocks of [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Education | June 7th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
Governor Cuomo Seeks to Turn SUNY Campuses Into Tax-Free Zones The 64 campuses of the State University of New York system would become tax-free zones under an economic-development plan announced on Wednesday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. According to the governor’s office, the “Tax Free NY” program would seek to lure technology companies and other [...]
by SCM (RSS) Parks and Greening | June 6th, 2013 3:37pm CDT | No Comments
From USA Today, and here’s the link to the study: Minneapolis, where 94% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, has the U.S.’ best park system, according to new rankings by a national non-profit conservation group. New York improved from third in last year’s ranking to second; San Francisco dropped from [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability | June 5th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Green Lane Project: Former New York mayor Ed Koch envisioned bicycles as vehicles for the future, and in 1980 created experimental bike lanes on 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan where riders were protected from speeding traffic by asphalt barriers. It was unlike anything most Americans had ever seen–and some people roared their disapproval. [...]
by SCM (RSS) Transportation | June 3rd, 2013 3:24pm CDT | 1 Comment
Here’s an email we received from reader Kimble Johnson (we welcome your submissions): I’ve only recently discovered your blog, but am really enjoying the variety of topics and perspectives on issues the cities, and particularly those Memphis faces. I’d love to read your thoughts on the I-240 corridor between Jackson Ave and South Parkway. I’ve catalogued the exits [...]
by SCM (RSS) Planning and Urban Design, Taxation | May 31st, 2013 3:00pm CDT | 1 Comment
From Atlantic Cities: About 1.5 million people live in Manhattan, an imposing number that’s larger than the entire populations of Phoenix, Dallas and San Francisco. More impressive, though, is what happens on the island by day: So many commuters come in (and so few residents commute out for work) that Manhattan’s population nearly doubles in [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Taxation | May 30th, 2013 12:30pm CDT | No Comments
Regardless of how you feel about tax freezes or the volume given out in Memphis and Shelby County, it’s worth celebrating the fact that EDGE has brought more transparency to the process in one year than local government had in the previous 20. In a report today by a leading critic of “job subsidies,” Memphis and Shelby County [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability | May 29th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
Here’s a great idea that Jeff Speck sent as a solution for under I-40 on Main Street. From Architizer: Chandeliers Made Of Recycled Bicycle Parts Illuminate A Dreary Cement Underpass A dreary piece of infrastructure in San Antonio, Texas recently became a pop-up cultural destination when artists Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock installed a series of six, [...]
by SCM (RSS) Trends and Issues | May 24th, 2013 12:39am CDT | No Comments
From Governing: Census estimates released today signal many of the nation’s larger cities continue to see populations climb, including some that could be experiencing their first growth in years. Much of the fastest-growing cities can be found in Texas and parts of the western United States, fueled in large part by strong local economies and [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability | May 23rd, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
We’re approaching the third annual Bikesploitation – yes, it’s all about bikes – that will take place May 24-26. It’s one of Memphis’ most unique events and best of all, it’s free. This year it’s at Crosstown Arts at 422 and 430 N. Cleveland Avenue. Add it to your calendars because you won’t want to [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | May 22nd, 2013 3:20pm CDT | No Comments
A movement is growing across the United States as we recognize that economic growth and job creation are driven by entrepreneurship. A study by The Kauffman Foundation found that the majority of net new jobs are generated by companies under five years old. It further shows that young companies – startups – are responsible for [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability, Neighborhoods | May 21st, 2013 1:13pm CDT | No Comments
Congratulations to Binghampton Development Corporation and Historic Broad Business Association, which has received a $350,000 grant from ArtPlace for the Broad Avenue Water Tower Depot. It’s an exciting testament to the power of guerilla creative placemaking. According to ArtPlace, “Binghampton Development Corporation and Historic Broad Business Association will transform an active warehouse loading dock on [...]
by SCM (RSS) Livability | May 20th, 2013 3:16pm CDT | 1 Comment
From MinnPost: “Stop talking about your weather. People get that it’s cold here.” The command came from Katherine Loflin, a placemaking expert. Her audience, a batch of business leaders gathered together by the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Hennepin Theatre Trust, giggled uncomfortably. The lousy weather, after all, has been the main topic [...]
by SCM (RSS) Trends and Issues | May 16th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
The Geography of Hate is part of a larger project by Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University (HSU) identifying the geographic origins of online hate speech. Undergraduate students Amelia Egle, Matthew Eiben and Miles Ross, worked to produce the data and this map as part of Dr. Stephens’ Advanced Cartography course at Humboldt State [...]
by SCM (RSS) Education | May 15th, 2013 3:14pm CDT | No Comments
From Washington Post: Finland’s Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?” In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis that American school reformers put on “teacher effectiveness” is really the best [...]
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.
