Great Parks Are Made And Great People Make Them
It’s about as easy for us to imagine Shelby Farms Park without its herd of buffaloes as it is to imagine it without Laura Wolff Morris. But sometime in the coming...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 13, 2016 | Livability, Parks and Greening
It’s about as easy for us to imagine Shelby Farms Park without its herd of buffaloes as it is to imagine it without Laura Wolff Morris. But sometime in the coming...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 11, 2016 | Economic Development
Shelby County continues to be the engine for the regional economy with almost 83,000 people commuting into Shelby County to work, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2009-2013. That compares to about...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 7, 2016 | City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Livability
The Right Trend Line on Enplanements Only eight months ago, Memphis International Airport inked a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies in an effort to...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
We are officially closing the books to 2015, a year in which we’ve written 152 blog posts and more than 180,000 words about Memphis and the issues relevant to it. We are grateful for the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jan 4, 2016 | Uncategorized
We are officially closing the books to 2015, a year in which we’ve written 152 blog posts and more than 180,000 words about Memphis and the issues relevant to it. We are grateful...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Dec 28, 2015 | Neighborhoods, Poverty
It goes without saying that the front lines for Memphis’ battle for economic success, prosperity, talent, and progress are found in its neighborhoods. They are the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Dec 23, 2015 | Uncategorized
I’m not sure where I was expecting to stumble across the meaning of Christmas, but I’m certain that I didn’t expect it to be a gas station in the hardscrabble part of Memphis at Macon Road and...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Dec 21, 2015 | Neighborhoods, Planning and Urban Design
It’s City Hall’s Greek chorus: We’ve got no money and financial times have never been tougher. And yet, in the midst of the mantra, there are approvals...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Dec 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
We’ve begun a new feature that flashes back to our blog posts 10 years ago. Here’s one from December 21, 2005, after a post-Katrina visit to New Orleans. It’s hard to visit New Orleans today and not be impressed...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Dec 11, 2015 | Poverty
One of the many things on Mayor-elect Jim Strickland’s desk when he takes the oath of office on New Year’s Day is the Blueprint for Prosperity. As part of that...
Read More
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.