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Archive for the ‘Aaron Shafer’ Category

A What’s-Right Eco-Asset Map

Aaron Shafer, Greenline, Grow Memphis, Live Where You Live, Project Green Fork, Shelby Farms Park, Skate Park, bicycling, city branding, parks, recycling

By Leah Wells RSS Twitter

March 1st, 2010 12:45am UTC

22 Comments

A Forbes rebuttal: Mapping the healthy trends in Memphis is also part of the regional story. There’s more going right than meets the eye.

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The Mondragon Model

Aaron Shafer, Mondragon

By Smart City Memphis RSS

December 22nd, 2009 1:09pm UTC

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Our friend Aaron Shafer is one of Memphis’s most imaginative thinkers, and lately, he’s thought a lot about how the Mondragon model could be applied to our city.  It is a provocative idea and its applicationsin Cleveland is featured in Time magazine.

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Memphis Art Park Speaks To Hope And Possibilities

Aaron Shafer, John Kirkscey, Margot McNeely, Memphis Art Park

By Smart City Memphis RSS

April 3rd, 2009 12:53pm UTC

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Memphis Art Park has a new website, and we hope you’ll visit it. This impressive, important project is continuing to take shape and needs our support. As you know from our earlier posts, we consider it one of the exciting ideas bubbling up from our creatives for ways to move Memphis ahead and create momentum [...]

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LocalEx – “Growing” The Memphis Local Food Economy

Aaron Shafer, consumer-supported agriculture

By Smart City Memphis RSS

December 19th, 2008 5:35pm UTC

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This guest post is by Aaron Shafer, research scientist and the creator of Skatelife Memphis, and an always entrepreneurial thinker about Memphis:  Smart City has long been advocating that a successful city builds on its existing assets and strengths. Fred Smith, our local founder for FedEx, recognized the geographic placement of Memphis as a potential [...]

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Moving Memphis From Pay Day Lending To Micro-Lending

Aaron Shafer, Bill Morrison, Church Health Center, Kiva.org, Memphis City Council, microcredit, payday lending

By Smart City Memphis RSS

December 7th, 2008 8:33pm UTC

No Comments

It seems more than passing strange that at a time when local government is considering a lawsuit against the predatory lending that contributed to Memphis’ foreclosure catastrophe, some members of Memphis City Council would try to defend the predatory lending that is the underbelly of our personal finance businesses – pay day loan companies, title [...]

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Memphis Wire

  • CEOs for Cities

    • Innovation Dublin 9.1.10 9:48pm
      From November 10-21, the city of Dublin will host the second Innovation Dublin festival where venues throughout the city region will open their doors to showcase and promote all facets of innovation in the city. The festival provides Dubliners, entrepreneurs, students, researchers, artists and large corporations with an opportunity to discuss, promote and ce...

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    • Using Technology to Inspire Community to Action 8.24.10 9:09pm
      These days, as people use Facebook to support Haiti, end hunger, and stand behind other causes, social networks have become the place to make a statement. Yet those clicks don’t necessarily turn into a movement to better communities. At least not yet. With the Knight Foundation’s focus on fostering informed and engaged communities, they started looking at wa...

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    • A Greener Welcome in Indianapolis 8.18.10 6:32pm
      By the time the sun sets on October 7, Indianapolis will have ten acres of new natural area. Even more amazing: it will happen in just eight hours. More than 9,000 Eli Lilly and Company volunteers will plant 72,000 native shrubs and perennials, and another 1,600 trees along a path traversed by 100,000 vehicles a day.The project, A Greener Welcome, will natur...

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    • A High Line for Harlem 8.3.10 9:48pm
      An innovative urban development project, spearheaded by the Harlem Community Development Corporation, could bring new energy and excitement to Harlem. Tentatively called La Marqueta Mile, the proposed mile-long, open air market under the Metro North tracks would span 22 blocks and house as many as 900 vendors, providing enormous opportunity to local entrepre...

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    • Redeveloping an Old City in the Right (And Thoughtful) Way 7.28.10 6:43pm
      Syracuse, N.Y. is “rightsizing the city” with the help of a partnership among Mayor Stephanie Miner, Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Vice President of Community Engagement Marilyn Higgins (both CEOs for Cities members), assorted neighborhood groups and business associations.  An inspiring article posted on citiwire.net says that slowly but su...

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    • The Accidental Giant of Higher Education 7.26.10 3:01pm
      "A woman with a plan" is the description the New York Times gives Dr. Nancy Zimpher, chancellor of the State University of New York.  In very short order, she has turned the "unloved colossus" into the best economic development hope for the state of New York.  "My belief is that to move an organization forward you have to have a comm...

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  • In The Bluff (Mary Cashiola)

    • More Federal Funds for Tennessee 9.2.10 3:09pm
      In the federal Race to the Top, Tennessee is surely a competitor. The state will share in a $170 million Race to the Top Assessment Program grant announced today by the U.s. Department of Education.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]...

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    • Zoo On Ice 9.1.10 9:07pm
      It won't just be penguins skating around the Memphis Zoo this winter. The Zoo announced today that it will build an outdoor ice-skating rink, to open in November.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]...

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    • Midnight Ride Hit and Run 8.30.10 6:33pm
      I've heard two accounts this morning of a hit-and-run during the middle of Saturday night's popular Midnight Classic Bike Tour. Apparently, around 12:30 a.m.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]...

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    • More With MCS Consultant Jeffrey Hernandez 8.26.10 1:45pm
      As part of this week's print extravaganza, I interviewed controversial Memphis City Schools (MCS) consultant Jeffrey Hernandez. His $1,500-a-day consulting fee, coupled with an intense animosity for him from some parents in Palm Beach County and his ties to superintendent Kriner Cash and deputy superintendent Irving Hamer, have caused questions about hi...

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    • Art Scene 8.24.10 8:55pm
      (Sorry posting has been so light thus far in the week. It's been crazy busy around here.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]...

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    • The Dance and Data of the Lemons 8.20.10 9:47pm
      Last week, the LA Times began an ambitious series focused on teacher effectiveness at the Los Angeles Unified School District. Using value-added data compiled from seven years of math and English test scores, the newspaper is exploring the (often, quite large) disparities between effective and ineffective teachers.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments ...

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  • About Smart City Memphis

    We are often blind to our own environment because of our assumptions, framed by media, insular thinking and our own prejudices. Smart City Consulting's blog – named one of the most intriguing in the U.S. by Pew Partnership for Civic Change – hopes to show how Memphis really is and could be through alternative questions, fresh approaches and new ideas. We hope to open your eyes - and your ears - to a new way of thinking about Memphis. Send ideas and emails to tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.

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