Author: Smart City Memphis

Tennessee Commissioner of Economic and Community Development Matt Kisber acts these days like a new state law is the answer to the state’s dismal showing in the competition for the $1.3 billion Toyota plant earlier this...

Innovation is now viewed as America’s economic salvation. Every urban leader is trying to figure out how to get more of it. And they couldn’t find a better adviser than Richard Lester. As founding director of the...

If success is defined as the ability to know when to sell your stock at its highest value, Carol Johnson is public education’s version of Warren Buffett. Unquestionably, she’s making a change in her job at the exact moment when...

Where’s URS Corporation and NexGen Advisors when we really need them?Remember them. They were the consultants who produced the 97-page report on the city/county Payment-In-Lieu-of-Tax (PILOT) program that led to its much-needed...

We hope Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton read the front page of The New York Times yesterday, which bore a headline: “Call Snake Wranglers.”Apparently, based on the coverage of L.A.’s booming $125 a snake business, he isn’t the...

A new study from Americans for the Arts claims that each year in America the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166 billion in economic activity. Our guests this week are leading efforts to make sure their cities get...

It wasn’t exactly a “Man Bites Dog” news story. The lead and second graph in The Commercial Appeal said:“…improvements could cost up to $20 million and mean the loss of 10,000 seats at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium…the findings...

So, here’s the question of the week:What do you think the future of the Fairgrounds should be? What do you see as the greatest obstacles to it taking place.We asked the question in light of the movement toward a resolution of...

With a seemingly inexhaustible ability to be against things, Memphis City Council Member Carol Chumney recently added yet one more – city branding.It’s too bad, because the reality is this: Memphis has no brand. Yes, there’s an...

Religion has become a sort of battleground in America for some of the nation’s most divisive issues. Buzz Thomas is attempting to cool the heat and shed light on what keeps us at odds in his new book from St....