Author: Smart City Memphis
Peggy Edmiston: the Real Meaning of Christmas
Previously posted December 24, 2009: This time of the year, it’s impossible for us to not think about Peggy Edmiston, who died seven years ago. It wasn’t the glittery Christmas sweaters, complete with blinking ornaments, that...
Read MoreCounty Schools Flunks Test in Logic
The cast of characters in suburban politics would flunk a remedial course in elementary logic. Here’s the syllogism they offer up: One, Shelby County Schools are superior to Memphis City Schools and the paragon of exceptional...
Read MoreA Modest Proposal: Tax Freeze Transparency
Previously posted July 12, 2006: It’s time for a modest proposal regarding the controversial city-county PILOT program waiving $50 million in property taxes this year. “Modest” being the operative word, since it seems obvious at...
Read MoreGardening for 21st Century Jobs
There are times when it seems that Memphis can’t get its economic development strategies into the 21st century. It’s as if we just don’t want to compete in a knowledge economy in a global marketplace. Our economic development...
Read MoreMCS Board Should Go For It
The Flyer’s John Branston weighs in on tonight’s vote on the surrender of the Memphis City Schools charter, and decides that “For better for worse, MCS and Shelby County schools should get married.” He...
Read MoreA School Vote of Biblical Proportions
They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. That’s Hosea 8:7 and it’s a verse familiar to the small group of African-American ministers who this week sang Kumbaya with leaders of a county school district who have repeatedly made...
Read MoreAn MPO to Speak the Truth
The job of the executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for our community is vacant, and we are dreaming of how nice it would be if we had someone like the one in Nashville. He actually feels that his job is...
Read MoreThe US Initiative Gets Us Focused on What’s Important
CEOs for Cities launched the US Initiative for one reason: We continue to build too many of our communities – physically, economically, and socially – on an outdated set of beliefs. This is expensive, wasteful and puts us way...
Read MoreGive A Minute: Coming to a City Near You
Give a Minute is no less than an ambitious attempt to reinvent public participation in America. Starting in Chicago over the past few weeks and then moving on to San Jose, Memphis, New York and other cities next year, the...
Read MoreLatest Bill Day Cartoon
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 →