The State of the City Parks Movement
One of our favorite park advocates is Peter Harnik, who retired last year as director of the Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence. We can think...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 17, 2017 | Livability, Parks and Greening
One of our favorite park advocates is Peter Harnik, who retired last year as director of the Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence. We can think...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 15, 2017 | Criminal Justice
Our community often seems to do the same things and expect different results. For decades, when it comes to economic development, we believe that waiving more and more taxes is...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 13, 2017 | City of Memphis Government, Criminal Justice
Maybe it’s time for the Memphis Police Association to put up or shut up. Once again, they have spent union dues to put up billboards trafficking in fear and undermining the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 10, 2017 | Livability, Neighborhoods
About a year ago, Tim Bolding’s 91-year-old mother died, which put her 61-year-old son into a reflective mood about his priority for the next chapter of his life....
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 8, 2017 | Leadership, Parks and Greening
We were lucky enough to know Art Wolff and consider him a friend. He dedicated his lifetime to fighting for causes he believed in, and Shelby Farms Park was...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 7, 2017 | Livability
A few weeks ago, we got a telephone call from a reporter based in New York who was asking for an update about Memphis. Here’s what we sent him: Memphis is the kind of city...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 6, 2017 | City of Memphis Government, Planning and Urban Design
It’s really not a negotiation when one side has a gun pointed at its head. That’s the situation City of Memphis found itself in as it considered if it was willing to shrink the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Feb 1, 2017 | City of Memphis Government, Parks and Greening, Planning and Urban Design
In light of the announcement of another planning process for the riverfront, we are reposting this commentary from March, 2013, when Jeff Speck issued recommendations following his review and distillation of 19 previous...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 30, 2017 | City of Memphis Government, Parks and Greening
We cannot remember an interview process by the City of Memphis like the one Friday for the three teams vying for a contract to implement the zoo...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 26, 2017 | City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Education, Livability, Neighborhoods, Poverty, Shelby County government
The City of Memphis is in the throes of a budget process that will produce a proposed budget by the Strickland Administration in about 10 weeks, and just when...
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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.