Author: Smart City Memphis

The power of art to change people and communities can be breathtaking. This week we talk with Johann Zietsman who has orchestrated powerful art experiences internationally from South Africa to Mesa, Arizona. Johann is executive...

Government efficiency studies are all the rage. Across the U.S., cities, counties and states are paying for studies ostensibly aimed at increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. In our community alone, more than $1.2 million...

Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton reminds me of an absurdist friend who told his wife that he was having an affair, but he wasn’t sure where it was headed, and he might be back to her in the end.Her response: “What makes you...

Here’s what we learned from the recent controversy regarding Barack Obama’s minister: too few white Americans have close black friends.Otherwise, they would have heard it all before. And more. Even if they don’t rachet up to the...

We got the following email from Eric Matthews updating us on the campaign to bring Startup Weekend to Memphis:Thanks for your coverage of the vote (about Startup Weekend). We got it . For three days in late spring, approximately...

Majora Carter surprised everyone when she founded Sustainable South Bronx as a way to reclaim that community’s quality of life. She has grown that into a movement, Green for All, that is using the green economy to move...

The signs that Mayor Willie W. Herenton was going to be a short-timer began almost immediately after his reelection.At his swearing in, he seemed almost detached and the ceremony certainly lacked the fire in the belly passion...

It was only a few swearing-in ceremonies ago that Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton proclaimed that he was ushering in the era of the neighborhood.Today, with many Memphis neighborhoods hanging by a thread, he often is the man...

Paul Krutko is our kind of economic development director.A cornerstone of his program to sell San Jose: cultural development.In fact, his hometown in the heart of Silicon Valley is so serious about the connection between culture...

It’s our prediction that Memphis Area Transit Authority can give away rides on excessive ozone pollution days – rather than the 25 cents special fares it’s proposing – and it’s still not going to lure anyone aboard our city...