Author: Smart City Memphis

MLGW President and CEO Joseph Lee has been in government long enough to recognize the signs. He’s been set adrift on a raft, and he’s now officially on his own. He also knows that it’s rare for one of these sagas to end without...

Suzanne Morse, President of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, regularly comments on effective strategies, new initiatives, funding opportunities, and nationwide events that are affecting communities at her fine Smart...

Anyone who has visited Chicago’s Loop has probably seen the famous Picasso sculpture in Daley plaza. But when it was unveiled on August 15, 1967, it was compared to everything from a dodo bird to a giant cheese slicer. Kim...

There’s a head-on crash coming on Kirby-Whitten Road in Shelby Farms Park – as Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton’s proposed road design runs headlong into Memphis City Engineer Wain Gaskins’ continued push for bigger, wider...

If The Pyramid stands as a symbol of anything these days, it is as a reminder that the promise of innovative ways to pay for public buildings often dies quietly when it comes to the reality of making it happen.This comes to mind...

You’ve got to admire Paducah. While the spotlight most often falls on large cities grappling with ways to strengthen their arts scene, there’s much to be learned from the small Kentucky rivertown. Few cities, regardless of size,...

This week our guests are from Fayetteville, Arkansas and the City of New York – two very different communities in many ways. But they are both seeking better solutions for land use and transportation.Dan Coody is Mayor of...

In the midst of our concerns about Memphis’ future, we said in a meeting this week that we need to remember there are model programs here setting national standards. Someone immediately challenged us to name just three. They...

There’s an axiom that government staff members live by. When an elected official gets emotional or strident about an issue, it’s not political. It’s personal.These are always the worse kind of issues for employees and other...

Sometimes, it just seems that Memphis is too timid for its own good. Too often, the people we expect to articulate and fight for a defining principle or a critical issue seem to go along to get along.We thought of this in light...