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 Smart City Memphis (RSS) Civil Rights, Economic Development | May 14th, 2013 12:01am CDT | 1 Comment
Research being done at Ohio State University is particularly relevant to Memphis, particularly when you think about the white vs black economic segregation, the wealth gap, and the disparity between white/black small business receipts in Memphis. Also, it begins to offer some documented insight into attitudes of some whites in Memphis who are against a [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Planning and Urban Design | May 8th, 2013 3:06pm CDT | No Comments
From Better Cities and Towns: By Robert Steuteville Recently I criticized the design of a supposedly nonpolluting, “net zero” Walgreens in Evanston, Illinois. Aside from the raft of solar panels on the roof, the store looks like it could be located by any Interstate interchange. The store is, in fact, in a walkable neighborhood, one [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Livability | May 1st, 2013 3:19pm CDT | No Comments
From CEOs for Cities: We wrote yesterday about the wake-up call that Memphis economic development officials should be getting from recent rankings that show Memphis struggling a long way from upside of economic indicators. Today’s post by CEOs for Cities on its blog should be another alarm for us to hear. Here it is: Photo [...]
by SCM (RSS) Downtown Revitalization, Economic Development | April 30th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From Atlantic Cities: It’s ridiculously easy to think about the benefits of historic preservation in immensely walkable Providence, Rhode Island. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better collection of downtown historic architecture this side of New Orleans. Elsewhere there are fine smaller historic downtowns, of course, such as in Annapolis, and wonderful urban historic districts [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development | April 30th, 2013 12:09am CDT | 6 Comments
We are all excited about the progress that’s being seen in pockets around our community, and while we should take the time to celebrate them, we should be clear-eyed about the challenges ahead of us and double down in our ambitions and our efforts. Despite new momentum and some modest milestones of progress, we have [...]
by Crosstown Collaborative (RSS) Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Planning and Urban Design | April 26th, 2013 9:00am CDT | 1 Comment
“Memphis must focus more on redeveloping the city’s core through ‘infill’ projects, rather than pursuing annexation. A report completed for the city last year goes further: It said stretching the city’s boundaries has had ‘disastrous’ results for Memphis …” – Commercial Appeal, April 14, 2013 As Tom Charlier articulated in this article, over the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Livability, Planning and Urban Design | April 25th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From SustainableCitiesCollective: Ever wish there was a single graphic that effectively summarized the benefits of buying local? Well, scroll down below, because this is what you were waiting for, thanks to the folks at CustomMade. You can download the full size image or embed it into your site by visiting Why Buying Local is Worth Every [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | April 11th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
Amid Nashville’s busiest stretch ever in delivering tax breaks to corporations, Mayor Karl Dean’s administration and members of the Metro Council have finalized a plan designed to let small businesses cash in as well. Legislation sponsored by two at-large council members — working in tandem with the mayor’s office — would create a new incentive [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | April 9th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | No Comments
From NPR’s All Things Considered: Electrolux’s new plant in Memphis, Tenn., is the Swedish appliance company’s most modern and high-tech facility. The factory will open this summer while an Electrolux plant in Quebec, Canada, is being shuttered. The United States lost close to 6 million manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2009. Now, slowly, some of [...]
by SCM (RSS) Downtown Revitalization, Economic Development | March 29th, 2013 2:18pm CDT | 1 Comment
From CitiWire.net: Once again, the City of Atlanta is defying its relatively small population base and its own economic challenges to invest in Georgia’s future – a new, state-owned stadium for the Atlanta Falcons football team. The agreement between the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Falcons holds great significance – far beyond the building [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | March 28th, 2013 12:35am CDT | 2 Comments
From Memphis magazine: At a time when more than 60 percent of a city’s economic success is linked to its percentage of college-educated workers, Memphis has to step up its pace in the race for talent if it is to jump start a stronger economy. Few topics have been discussed as much in the past [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Taxation | March 27th, 2013 12:01am CDT | 1 Comment
For the first time in the 25-year history of PILOTs in this community, the process has been doused with a healthy dose of transparency. For this, we can all thank the city-county economic development board EDGE, which is in the process of posting on its website all the records associated with every tax freeze, and [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Taxation | March 25th, 2013 12:31am CDT | 1 Comment
EDGE has taken roughly a year and a quarter to get organized and bring coherency to the incentives doled out to businesses, but so far, it feels a lot like business as usual. More than anything, EDGE reliably churns out approvals of tax freezes under the PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) program, and it has even managed to [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Education, Talent | March 18th, 2013 12:20am CDT | Comments Off
Memphis has to do a lot right at the same time if it is to succeed in an economy where winners and losers are often determined by talent and connectivity. It’s the obstacle to connectivity caused by high airfares that led us to create the Facebook group, Delta Does Memphis, as a way to give [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Poverty | March 11th, 2013 12:01am CDT | Comments Off
Suburban conventional wisdom about Memphis is that it is full of poor people, but the times, they are a-changin’. It’s the suburbs’ poverty rates that produce headlines like, “Memphis #1 in poverty.” Actually, Memphis isn’t topping the list. It’s not even in the top 10. Among large cities, it’s #14, and among all cities, it’s [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | March 5th, 2013 3:13pm CDT | Comments Off
From London Guardian: We are, you might like to know, probably doomed. At least those of us who live in Britain are. This is because, in the 21st century, efficient, large, well-connected airports matter to prosperity above everything else. “The fastest, best-connected places will win”, and the future belongs to the “city that can see [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Talent, Taxation | February 25th, 2013 12:55am CDT | 1 Comment
We’ve written often about the dangers of Memphis blindly pursuing cheapness as our chief competitive strategy for the future. We’ve seen it play out in our economic development behavior for two decades as we watched cities boom that invested in quality. Meanwhile, the chase here for cheapness produced almost $100 million in city and county [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development | February 20th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Salon: Contemporary American politics cannot be understood apart from the North-South divide in the U.S., as I and others have argued. Neither can contemporary American economic debates. The real choice facing America in the 21st century is the same one that faced it in the 19th and 20th centuries — Northernomics or Southernomics? Northernomics [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | February 20th, 2013 12:44am CDT | 1 Comment
All cities are working hard to answer challenges that face them, but the trick is to make sure the right questions are asked in the first place. Last month, People First, the human capital development campaign of the Memphis Fast Forward initiative and the Early Success Coalition co-sponsored a symposium. The first featured speaker was Robin [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Shelby County government | February 15th, 2013 12:17am CDT | 11 Comments
So why do multi-national corporations taking in tens of billions of dollars a year in revenues demand incentives that shift their tax burdens over to homeowners? Because they can. That’s being proven out yet again as International Paper asks for $56.9 million in tax breaks over the next 15 years. Just think about it this [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Taxation, Uncategorized | February 12th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Burgh Diaspora: People move from high-tax states to low-tax states is a popular theory. This hypothesis is rational. Lower taxes spur economic activity which attracts prospective workers. Job opportunity drives migration. Without much rigorous analysis, the theory is an excepted fact of life. The conclusions reached are what Daniel Kahneman terms “System 1″ thinking: SPIEGEL: [...]
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.
