A New City Rating System
By Michael Lewyn: After reading Rand McNally and numerous other “livable city” ratings, I decided to create my own. But this is a livable city guide with a difference: one that answers the simple question...
Read MoreMonth: August 2011
Swearing Off The Detroit Putdowns
It seems like a good time to swear off the Memphis-Detroit comparisons once and for all. They are a staple of online comments and the ultimate self-loathing putdowns. Although Memphis has always had more in common with...
Read MoreTransportation as a Civil Rights Issue
From Autopia: Many things come to mind when you think about transportation: Traffic, congestion, mass transit and the cost of fuel, to name a few. You might also think about the economy, urban planning and the environment. Yet...
Read MoreLithuanian Mayor Tanks Bike Lane Violators
We’re sure it’s staged, but it’s still fun…...
Read MoreGiving the Community an EDGE
We wrote last week about our hope that the newly-created EDGE organization will bring some new thinking to Memphis and Shelby County’s over-reliance on tax giveaways as the only arrow in our quiver, but we also hope they...
Read MoreMake No Big Plans
From The Guardian: Urban acupuncture favours a localised and community approach to urban renewal projects. Photograph: Jon Feingersh/Getty Images/Blend Images RR Around the world, mass migration from the countryside to cities...
Read MoreBad Apples Shouldn’t Spoil Farmers Market
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a highly popular book in the early 1980s entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Perhaps a more appropriate title for a follow-up volume for this decade is When Good People Happen to Do...
Read MoreBike Parking in Sao Paulo
From the City Fix: São Paulo makes it convenient for people to park their bikes and transfer to rail. Photo via ASCOBIKE. In 2001 Adilson Alcantara, manager of the Mauá CPTM (Companhia Paulista de Trens...
Read MoreTime to Start Over on Schools
There’s now little question that when it comes to our school systems, we need to push the restart button and start over. Now, we can only hope that U.S. District Judge Hardy Mays makes it happen. It may seem like the nuclear...
Read MoreLatest Bill Day Cartoon
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 →