Author: Smart City Memphis

The most popular public official in Memphis isn’t on this year’s ballots. She’s running Memphis City Schools. So far, Superintendent Carol Johnson’s approval ratings haven’t translated into higher public confidence for the...

Over the years, we’ve had our complaints about some positions by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, but if there are any lingering doubts about who to vote for in this year’s Senate race, they should end with the most recent ad by the...

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:We’ve read that you have ordered Department of Justice officials to visit U.S. cities to find out why there is a spike in crime. To help you out, we Mapquest’ed the tour for you. It will tell you...

Mavericks are at work in our nation, and they are reinventing everything in their path.Bill Taylor is the maverick who co-founded Fast Company magazine and with co-author Polly LaBarre he has just written a new book on other...

It’s a tale of two cities, at least that’s the inescapable conclusion from watching TV news and then reading The Commercial Appeal.More and more, the daily newspaper seems to be officialdom’s view of Memphis while television...

From Otis White’s Urban Journal at governing.com:Dealing with the homeless is unpleasant and expensive, and, unfortunately, doesn’t get much easier even if you’re successful. But here are the choices: Do it right and at...

The headlines in The Commercial Appeal this week about funding by the City of Chattanooga pension fund in a Memphis investment firm raised the eyebrows of federal investigators because of its striking similarities to a pension...

New immigrants are changing America’s cities in many ways, but what is happening in immigrant neighborhoods is not always easily understood. Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Vikki Katz, both at the Annenberg School for...

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but I-69 was paved with partisan, hardball politics. Without U.S. Senator Trent Lott, “there probably would not be an I-69,” said Ken Murphree, former Tunica and Desoto County...

Shelby County Schools reports that it’s about to overhaul its schools’ attendance zones. As usual, in the parallel universe that is the county school district, the announcement was made by the political head of the system, David...