Author: Smart City Memphis

It is an aphorism – though none the less true – that the most segregated hour in Memphis is at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.Surely it’s equally true that the most racially-corrosive time in Memphis is any time City Council...

Recently, we received information from a staff member of the Shelby County Finance Department about the costs of the county’s bond transactions, including new bond issues, bond refunding and swaps.The information was not...

The question of the week centers on the future of the Fairgrounds.Soon, a master plan for the Fairgrounds will be released. Already, we know this much:• Libertyland is history.• The Mid-South Fair needs to find a new home.• The...

What makes cities successful? It’s a question we ask every week here on Smart City. And this week we have two authorities from the University of Chicago to address that topic – one with a very local view and the...

Previously published in Memphis magazine’s City Journal column:Finally, Shelby County has the chance to have a “strong mayor” form of government.Through sheer force of personality, county mayors have created...

We live in a political time when legal traditions are regularly ignored in pursuit of political agendas, and each time, our system of government is diminished by it. That’s why we hope the Shelby County Board of Commissioners...

With 25-34 year-olds 30 percent more likely than other Americans to live in central cities, there’s a big opportunity for cities to capture new people and new money. But what happens when these young adults begin to couple...

While Memphis has never been categorized as an older industrial city, we’ve always thought that it had similarities – challenges, grittiness and demographics – that give us more in common with these cities than Sunbelt cities.We...

A few months ago, Melissa Anderson Sweazy emailed us with an interesting idea, which gave birth to the weekly “suggestion box” feature that we’ve added to our blog. It’s the weekly discussion topic and...

The great thing about our digital age is that we are able to create a community of interesting people who share our passions for new thinking and debate. We’ve been reminded of it this week with some emails from some citizens of...