It’s Time To Assess County Government’s Anti-School Moves
This post is written by Jimmie Covington, veteran Memphis reporter with lengthy experience covering governmental, school, and demographic issues. He is a...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 17, 2018 | Education, Memphis City Schools, Shelby County government
This post is written by Jimmie Covington, veteran Memphis reporter with lengthy experience covering governmental, school, and demographic issues. He is a...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
In support of the 350 newspapers who today are editorializing about the importance of the First Amendment at a time that freedom of the press is under withering attack from the White House.
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 15, 2018 | Economic Development
This post is wrtten by Joe B. Kent, local researcher, who has a BBA with a Major in Finance from the University of Memphis and Masters of Science in Instructional...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 13, 2018 | City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Shelby County government
It is Memphis’ catch-22. We are told that Memphis tax rates are too high so it has to give away taxes to attract new companies and stimulate growth, but if those companies...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 10, 2018 | Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Shelby County government
In our last post, we began our list of 10 decisions that made us into who we are today. In that post, we listed three factors (these 10 are in no particular order): * Shelby County Encourages Middle Income Families to Leave...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 8, 2018 | Politics and Government, Shelby County government
We have repeated one of our favorite quotations often: every system is perfectly designed to produce the results that it does. So, what exactly were the decisions made here...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 6, 2018 | Criminal Justice, Economic Development, Education, Memphis City Schools, Shelby County government, Taxation
It took about three county elections longer than expected, but when it came last Thursday, it was no blue wave. Rather, it was a tsunami. It swept over every Republican...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 1, 2018 | Economic Development, Uncategorized
This post is written by David Ciscel, economist emeritus at University of Memphis Fogelman School of Business. By David Ciscel Let’s play a thought game. We spend a lot of time...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jul 30, 2018 | Economic Development
With all the high fives on the South Lawn of the White House following the announcement of quarterly economic growth at more than four percent,...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jul 27, 2018 | Data Points
In the wake of the City of Germantown turning down a large-scale apartment complex, there were comments that it was motivated by the city’s lack of...
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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 →
Since 2005, this has been Smart City Consulting’s blog with the aim of connecting the dots and providing perspective on issues and policies shaping Memphis. Editor and primary author is Tom Jones, City Journal columnist at Memphis magazine, author of two books and a museum exhibition, and consultant on public policy and strategic planning. He has written articles for MLK50, The Commercial Appeal, and USA Today. The blog was called one of the most intriguing blogs in the U.S. by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change; The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal said it “provides some of the most well-thought-out thinking about Memphis’ past, present, and future you’ll find anywhere,” and the Memphis Flyer said: “This incredibly well-written blog sets out to solve the city’s ills – from the mayor to MATA – with out-of-the-box thinking, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ideas.” If you have questions, submissions, or ideas for posts, please email Tom Jones, at tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.