Author: Smart City Memphis

This is the latest in a series of posts this week on consolidation: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...

Consolidation is once again a hot topic in Memphis and Shelby County following Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton’s latest call for merging city and county governments.No community in the U.S. has talked more about consolidation...

Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton is right.The logic of consolidating Memphis and Shelby County Governments is painfully obvious. There is no city and county in the country where merging the governments makes as much sense.And...

Today, we drove down Winchester from FedEx World Headquarters to Lamar Avenue and drove by a former home in Hickory Hill. Later, we drove down Germantown Parkway from Germantown to Wolfchase.They were two depressing drives. With...

Memphis businesses have long complained to local government and the Chamber of Commerce that graduates of Memphis City Schools are unprepared to work for them.University of Memphis has long had special remedial classes for...

One thing about our questions of the week. They always spark an interesting discussion, and we thank you for it. This time around, the question was:What should Memphis do to put The Pyramid to its best use? What objective should...

Memphis is always tough on tolerance, but it’s been an especially bad year for a virtue that’s defining cities looking to succeed in the global economy.Even if you are uncomfortable talking about a city’s moral values, there’s...

Chip Conley is celebrating his 20th anniversary as founder and CEO of California’s largest boutique hotel company, Joie de Vivre Hospitality. But his is not a business story about uninterrupted success. Instead, at a low...

We’re continuing our discussion about the future of The Pyramid, which began last Thursday. We hope you’ll join in.Questions of the week:What should Memphis do to put The Pyramid to its best use? What objective should city...

We bet you never thought you’d hear us say this: Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks is right. Nonetheless, it is true, and in the current manufactured controversy about Kwanzaa, Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas is either...