Our friend, Chip Pankey, also an award-winning photographer with a great eye for his hometown, shared this photo of Abe Schwab Dry Goods Store on Beale Street.  There’s no question that it’s distinctly Memphis) as is Mr. Pankey’s talents).    His photography website is always worth a visit to see some fascinating images of our world. [...]

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              Apparently, there is no hunger more intense than being power hungry. It’s proven on a daily basis by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris and his sycophant, Tennessee Representative Curry Todd. Hardly a day goes by that an action of the Norris-Todd cabal doesn’t leave us wondering if [...]

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From Barry Chase, head of our local Planned Parenthood office: Attacks on Planned Parenthood patients in Tennessee have intensified.  I received notification on December 28 from the Director of the Tennessee Department of Health that although we had been informed that we would receive HIV prevention and Syphilis prevention funding to provide these services to [...]

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Our friends, Louise Mercuro and Maggie Conway, took this photograph at Park and Airways and it’s distinctly Memphis.  Their comment: “Don’t tell Memphis that it isn’t an innovative and creative city.” If you have any we can post, please email them to tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.

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Here’s an email that we got from a reader who always has sound insights into our airport: Another week goes by and yet another CA article about service cuts at Memphis International…. With theAmsterdam flight generating over two billion in economic impact since its inception, do you think Smart City could do a round robin [...]

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As with many industrial cities in America at the time, post-war St. Louis experienced a rapid decline of its inner city. Desperately seeking solutions before the decay could absorb downtown, local planners and politicians saw slum clearance as the best option. Decades later, the results are nothing to celebrate. An aggressive demolition policy failed to create a better neighborhood. [...]

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From Atlantic Cities: A month ago the Wire spotted an incredibly intricate rendering of American highways, drawn in the style of a subway map. The work was done by graphic designer Cameron Booth, a Sydney, Australia, native who moved to Portland in 2007. Booth says transit maps are “definitely a passion of mine.” In addition [...]

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From Rethinking Schools: “Every man in my family has been locked up. Most days I feel like it doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try – that’s my fate, too.” -11th-grade African American student, Berkeley, California This young man isn’t being cynical or melodramatic; he’s articulating a terrifying reality for many of the [...]

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From Sustainable Cities Collective: Washington, DC is finally getting a green waterfront development to be proud of.  A 42-acre redevelopment along the Anacostia River, The Yards will comprise some 1.8 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of retail and cultural spaces, 2,700 rental and for‐sale homes, and a significant riverfront park and [...]

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From Arts Journal: With government support for the arts on the wane in most places, here’s a city singing a different tune: “…The mayor has a plan. That plan has been to reestablish municipal support for the arts through the cultural office, and to enhance and expand city efforts that support artists and their organizations. [...]

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From Hartford Business. We’ve written before of our respect for Kip Bergstrom, and his philosophy of connecting arts funding to vibrant placemaking is another example of his acumen. Private cultural and arts programs in Connecticut must play a greater role in revitalizing communities and attracting new businesses to receive state funding under a pilot program. [...]

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Mitt Romney said last week he’ll kick funding for the arts and public broadcasting to the curb if he gets to be president. “We’re not going to kill Big Bird, but Big Bird is going to have advertisements,” Romney said, while speaking at Homer’s Deli in Clinton, Iowa. Like virtually every other conservative candidate, Romney [...]

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                This annual holiday in honor of America’s great nonviolent prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is always a timely occasion to read the inspiring words of a minister who understood that his faith called for him to stand up for those traditionally frozen out of public decision-making [...]

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From MPO: To ensure compliance with federal regulations concerning a public participation process that promotes continued public awareness and access to the decision-making process, the Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) presents the Direction 2040: Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) for public review and comment. The official review period begins Tuesday, January 17, 2012 [...]

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By Neal Peirce, Citiwire.net: What can high technology do to help cities confront their thorniest problems — from police strategies to water systems, traffic control to waste disposal? A group of high technology firms, led by IBM and Cisco, are plunging into the city management business. In varied forms, they offer super-efficient new-generation computerized information [...]

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          We know we imagined it, but we thought we heard much of Memphis say “amen” when they read Church Health Center founder and executive director Scott Morris’ January 2 op-ed column in The Commercial Appeal. Dr. Morris urged Memphians to emulate University of Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner in their [...]

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From PR Daily: My mother was from the East Coast, and she had a bevy of funny expressions. A short person was “two jam-pots high.” No one was ever just big; he or she was “great big huge.” But my favorite expression was, “Wouldn’t that just rot your socks?” It expressed good-humored annoyance with something [...]

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American Teacher When Rhena Jasey decided to become a public-school teacher, her friends were appalled: “You went to Harvard!” she recalls them saying. “You should be a doctor or a lawyer.” Jasey is one of four teachers profiled by director Vanessa Roth and coproducers Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari as they address the hottest question [...]

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                    The folks at the Family Action Council of Tennessee suggest that they stand like a rock on their principles.  That shouldn’t be particularly hard for them since it’s a rock that they’ve climbed out from under. Even in an era where we have all become [...]

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From Urban Land Institute: We dwell in an age of political corrosion, of ideological coarseness and crudity. But for the balloon-puncturing by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart it would be downright dispiriting. This extremism in the country’s political culture and language kicked into high gear three decades ago at the national level, [...]

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                District 1 Councilman Bill Morrison – school teacher and former HR professional – takes over as chairman of Memphis City Council, and his record as a calm consensus builder, bridge builder, and conscientious leader was on display with his comments at his swearing in for a new [...]

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