Author: Smart City Memphis

We’re trying not to overreact to Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton’s annual New Year’s bombshell, this time saying that his priority for 2007 is, of all things, a football stadium. After all, if history repeats itself, by the...

The way we live is influenced by factors we are often only barely aware of. Take land use, for instance. Few of us think about us. Fewer still understand how it works and how it is influenced.But that’s not the case with...

In light of all the media and political pundits’ speculation about Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton’s plans (or non-plans) to run for another term, we post this commentary about great mayors. The U.S. is in an era of...

In the current issue, USA Today reports on an encouraging trend in some cities who don’t see population decline as reasons for panic, and instead, treat it as a chance to redefine themselves. As we’ve mentioned,...

Can the very thing that plagues a city also be the solution to its problems? Steven Johnson may have that answer. He is the author of the new book The Ghost Map that details the mystery of the Broad Street cholera outbreak in...

It was encouraging to see that the Memphis Regional Chamber held a meeting last week that spotlighted Memphis’ potential as an aerotropolis. It’s a topic that deserves serious attention here for a variety of reasons....

It’s a tale of two cities, and only a short drive is needed to come face-to-face with the telling.In Nashville, the drive takes you to Williamson County, the 11th wealthiest county in the U.S. with a median family income that’s...

‘Tis the season to be jolly and to cherish our children.However, some Democratic county commissioners and some Republican Shelby County school board members seem intent on using children during this holiday season in ways that...

The Memphis Charter Commission shouldn’t draw up the ethics laws for city government that its members have been discussing.That’s because it needs to be done by Memphis City Council. The Council owes it to its citizens,...

The recent news conference by Attorney General Bill Gibbons featured his now familiar political bump and grind in announcing that he is cracking down on the nonpolitical version found in Memphis’ “anything goes” strip...