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Archive for the ‘innovation’ Category

Getting Memphis Auto Inspections Off Auto Pilot

City of Memphis, innovation

By Smart City Memphis RSS

March 8th, 2010 12:05am UTC

9 Comments

Sometimes, something takes on so much symbolic power that it comes to define something much broader. For Memphis city government, that something is auto inspection. The unconscionable waste of the only thing that really matters – time – and the silliness of a system that has no data to justify the monumental inconvenience in the [...]

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Innovations in Job Creation

Church Health Center, change agent, charter schools, economic development, economic segregation, innovation, justice, living wage

By Aaron Shafer RSS

December 15th, 2009 2:07pm UTC

7 Comments

My next few blog posts will focus on a corporation that single-handedly transformed an entire region suffering from economic depression. The story behind this corporation celebrates the magnificent achievement of the human spirit seen in one man’s courage to rescue a community from the economic ruin brought on by a civil war. However, first allow me [...]

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Local Government As Performance Art

City Hall, government efficiency, innovation

By Smart City Memphis RSS

October 13th, 2009 9:37pm UTC

3 Comments

Caught in a brutal vise of too much poverty, shrinking density and a broken tax structure, the next person to head up City of Memphis Government may need to be an alchemist, not just a mayor. There are so many troubling trends taking place in Memphis, and they converge by necessity in the budget hearings [...]

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Can Memphis Have A Storied Mayor?

Kip Bergstrom, great mayors, innovation, regionalism

By Smart City Memphis RSS

July 16th, 2009 10:48pm UTC

No Comments

Kip Bergstrom, former executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council and now head of Stamford, Connecticut, Urban Redevelopment Commission, is one of the smartest people we know, and always bears listening to. But his words resonate especially in today’s politically charged environment. “Leadership is about telling stories,” he said. We were reminded of [...]

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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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