Rather than selling themselves at a discount — cheap land and cheap labor and tax giveaways – most highly successful cities are investing in better workers, high-quality universities, quality of life and efficient public...
Read MoreThis seems to be the moment in time when we finally are faced squarely with making a fundamental choice: whether we are content for Memphis to become the Southern version of Cleveland or whether we have the courage to throw...
Read MoreThe verdict is out on EDGE. The new Memphis and Shelby County economic development umbrella agency has been in the organizational phase for the past year, so maybe it’s too soon to get a complete sense of its ultimate...
Read MoreOn the N20 outside Rathduff, Ireland, there is this sign: “Business As Usual.” It’s the sort of slogan that doesn’t invoke positive impressions in this country, but it’s a sign that would have been just as much at home on the...
Read MoreCity of Memphis budget deliberations have become déjà vu all over again. Because of declining revenues and climbing public safety costs, the tug-of-war more and more becomes an exercise in accounting rather than a discussion...
Read MoreAn executive with the Memphis Area Transit Authority says that the public transit agency is moving from the Pony Express to the Space Age. His comments were of course hyperbole, but only barely. After years of serving as...
Read MoreIt’s been said that when the economy sneezes, poor people catch pneumonia. It’s the same diagnosis for a city with a high poverty rate. Memphis may be doing its best to cope with a bad case of walking pneumonia but the...
Read MoreMemphis Mayor A C Wharton recently talked to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam about toxic stress, brain development, and epigenetics. The mayor may not have used those actual words, but in asking for the state’s help...
Read MoreThe timing is right for Memphis and Shelby County to determine what tools it needs in its toolkit if we are to compete in economic development. Then again, we should more often use some tools that we already have — Tax Increment...
Read MoreIf the new plan to be undertaken by EDGE does not include the University of Memphis as a centerpiece, it is not really an economic development plan. The university is the chief source of talent – college-educated workers...
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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 →