Author: Smart City Memphis

It is understandable that African-Americans frequently feel more like prisoners of history than participants in it.After all, for more than a century, they were denied a voice – not to mention a vote – in public decisions that...

Our colleague Carol Coletta – now president of Chicago-based CEOs for Cities – recently spoke in Pittsburgh about the importance of young workers, a subject frequently explored here. There’s no one who...

Memphians aren’t really asking all that much.They aren’t looking to their mayor to paint grand visions or even act as a source of civic inspiration. These days, we’d be glad to settle for just getting the basics right.Instead,...

Are we on the verge of a second renaissance? Patricia Martin thinks so. In her new book, Ren Gen, she writes that cultural consumers are at the heart of this new generation and that a surprising group of cities will emerge as...

WWJD?Apparently, in the minds of the Memphis Ministerial Association, He would scream, threaten and bully.In fact, if we’ve ever seen the antithesis of Christ-like behavior, it was in the reception that the preachers gave their...

The new Democratic majority on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners is still showing growing pains, and based on yesterday’s performance, it clearly seems to be stuck in adolescence.First, it questioned the impeccably run...

Former Tennessee Senator John Ford was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Court Daniel Breen.In our post of April 30, 2007, we calculated the federal sentencing guidelines and predicted a sentence of...

The Shelby County School Board – the local political equivalent of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight – has done it again.This time, it’s in playing the role that it seems to relish most – Big Brother – as its members ignore...

Our friends at Coalition for Livable Communities are conducting an online survey on the livability of our neighborhoods. The Coalition supports healthy, vibrant and economically sound communities in Shelby County. To do it, the...

Just when you think you know what makes cities tick, something changes – population, the economy, technology. So the question, what makes cities work, never gets old. And it’s never been more important.Ken Corey and...