Author: Smart City Memphis

This post was previously published in Memphis Business Quarterly in its winter issue:They were outsiders.Poor, unsophisticated, and living on the margins, they created music that carved out a mythic reputation for Memphis around...

It appears that the Task Force For Quality Education is about to unveil its final report, and it’s all beginning to sound like an old conversation.Champions for Memphis City Schools are expecting the worst, suspecting that the...

If the Greening Greater Memphis movement needed any extra boost, it’s come in the form of Memphis’ scores on the Urban Environment Report by the Earth Day Network.In rating 72 cities on more than 200 environmental health...

Some people say the recent behavior of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is crazy. To many of his supporters, he’s crazy as a fox.Those who currently underestimate him do so at their peril, because they don’t understand how...

The Joseph Lee fiasco has become political theater, but at the end of what is now destined to be a three-act play, the ending will be the same. Mr. Lee will exit stage right.The die is cast, and while Memphis Mayor Willie W....

Authenticity is one of those qualities that is hard to define, but you know it when you see it – or feel it. We’re going to explore its meaning and its application to places this week with James Gilmore and Scott...

It is inevitable.It comes in every meeting talking about the future of Memphis or in every committee discussing solutions to current problems. It’s the “consolidation moment,” the time when someone holds up the merger of city...

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...