Author: Smart City Memphis

We write often here about economic development, and in this vein, John Lawrence, a longtime friend and someone who understands the factors that make Memphis and Shelby County successful, is authoring nine posts for us in the...

We write often on this blog about economic development, our concern about our troubling economic indicators, and our suggested strategies for improving our trajectory.  John Lawrence, a longtime friend who has worked in the...

We write often here about economic development, our concern about our  languishing economic indicators, and possible strategies for improving our trends lines.  In this vein, John Lawrence, a longtime friend of ours and someone...

We were writing in our last post about how the tax waiver incentive program in Memphis and Shelby County is broken, but even more to the point, despite our largesse in doling out almost $100 million in tax waivers a year, our...

We are like the vast majority of people in Memphis and Shelby County when it comes to the liberal tax freeze policy here. Like most people, we are not suggesting that the PILOT (Payment-in-lieu-of taxes) program should be...

There are times when it’s hard to tell if Memphis and Shelby County know that they’re part of a global economy.  After all, we seem much more obsessed with competing with North Mississippi than with Europe or Asia, and when we...

The Commercial Appeal reports that Electrolux has hired its first 374 employees. Here’s the tale of the tape: $188 million — Local and state subsidies and tax freezes for new Memphis plant $1.2 billion – North America...