Author: Smart City Memphis

While many local governments are working to solve the problem of the Internet’s “last mile,” Memphis and Shelby County Governments – despite spending about $25 million a year on computer technology – can’t seem to begin...

The world of pop culture was abuzz last week with Justin Timberlake’s overly candid comments about his drug use. We hope he was stone cold sober when he decided to resurrect the Stax label in Memphis, because with the dizzying...

To follow up Thursday’s post about Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Matt Kuhn’s low aim in trying to improve the local political environment, we forgot to mention another target — the race for the Juvenile Court...

From governing.com:Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, was having a problem with loiterers in a local park. So officials decided something must be done to drive them away.Their solution? Play songs by Barry Manilow and Doris Day....

From Otis White’s Urban Notebook at www.governing.com. He is featured weekly on our syndicated radio program Smart City:Not all things were better in the past, but one thing in cities was genuinely better 30 years ago:...

A few weeks ago, in response to our post about the contract with the Memphis Grizzlies to build the FedExForum, we had a spirited conversation with readers about whether the agreement was a victory for Memphis (we voted yes). As...

Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Matt Kuhn might have shot at the right target, but his aim is way too low. In the end, he and others in the leadership of our local political parties tend to gag on gnats while swallowing...

The topic this week on Smart City is growing our communities in ways that are economically and environmentally smart is today’s imperative. This week’s guests, which include the author of the Unified Development Code...

The Metropolitan Planning Organization, commonly known as the MPO, appears to be at the center of two federal reviews – one about the FedExForum garage and another about Homeland Security.Being asked in both cases is whether...

The ugly underbelly of Memphis politics was exposed this week after a whisper campaign against Tennessee Senator Steve Cohen by some African-American political leaders burst into the open.For weeks, some well-known...