Author: Smart City Memphis

There’s encouraging new momentum for a more rational approach to funding public education, and before it ends, we hope it won’t be déjà vu all over again.In our April 27 post, we said that the decision by Memphis City Council to...

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.It’s a quote attributed to a well-known economist, but it’s particularly timely for Memphis City Schools. Confronted with reduced public funding, a crisis in student performance and a...

What America’s cities need are more community organizers.In cities like ours, these special people are often the threads holding together inner city neighborhoods. They are often the social entrepreneurs creating new programs to...

There is a demographic inversion taking place in America, according to Alan Ehrenhalt. Alan is executive editor of Governing Magazine, and in an article last month for The New Republic, he contends that we are beginning to see a...

While Memphis City Council gets all the attention for its new policy on Memphis City Schools funding, Shelby County Board of Commissioners has also changed the budgetary playing field for public education.Apparently, financial...

More and more, we wonder how deep the hole can get before Memphis has no chance of getting out of it.It was a question we asked again in light of recent updates of Memphis demographic information by the U.S. Census Bureau. It...

Shelby County Commissioner Mike Carpenter’s six-week school funding conversation has reached consensus, and it’s pretty hard to argue with most of the conclusions.After a process that included meetings, online questions, letters...

Maybe Republican presidential candidate John McCain should have selected Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton as his running mate.After all, he has as many constituents and 14 more years of executive experience than Alaska Governor...

This week, Smart City will examine cities in history and how their past shapes their future.Ed Glaeser is the first guest, and he is always asking the question, “What makes cities work?” He is a prolific researcher...

There’s the widely-held belief in corporate American that in times of great financial stress, an effective manager can cut as much as 15 percent of the budget at any time without doing serious damage to the company.It’s hard to...