Author: Smart City Memphis

It’s hard to remember when we’ve seen two more hopeful headlines:One yesterday said: “Shelby County Commission rejects Wal-Mart Supercenter.”A day earlier, there was another: “Riverfront plaza to replace lot.”Is it possible that...

We asked recently how deep the hole can get before Memphis can’t climb out of it, and we thought of this seminal question again this week when the electrifying young mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, came to town. Newark is...

We have two answers to that question on this week’s show. First we’ll speak with Dan Biederman. He’s the co-founder of the Bryant Park Corporation in New York, a private organization that transformed Bryant...

The most exciting things happening in Memphis these days are found at the grassroots level.There’s no lack of new ideas, new programs and new vision that are springing from the imagination and creativity that we find when we get...

Some county commissioners are like the guy who doesn’t kiss his wife for 20 years, but gets mad when somebody else tries to.That’s a relatively accurate version of how Memphis City Councilman Jack Sammons summed up some county...

Nothing contributes more to success with the public sector than timing, persistence, and positioning.There’s no better proof than Shelby Farms Park. Considered DOA six years ago by Shelby County Government, it has risen from the...

Barack Obama’s candidacy has raised a host of issues surrounding race in America. To help address some of those issues we have Dr. Camille Charles on the show this week. Camille is the Director of the Center for Africana...

The grand experiment that began 32 years ago to reinvent Shelby County Government as an urban government is coming to a close. It began with such promise on a clear, unseasonably warm New Year’s Day in 1976 when Shelby...

Consolidation is equal parts fact and fiction. More than 35 years of spasmodic attention has done little to increase understanding of consolidation in Memphis and Shelby County. As the discussion continues, here’s a...

Cities with consolidated governments are the exception, not the rule. Of the 3,141 counties and 20,000 municipalities in the U.S., a grand total of 35 are consolidated, or 1.1 percent of counties.Referenda on consolidation are...