Author: Smart City Memphis

In one of the most unusual shout-outs in local politics lately, Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton last week praised former Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham for his proposal to tax the 80,000 commuters coming into this...

From Otis White’s Urban Journal at governing.com. Otis is a regular guest on Smart City each week:The Fading Urban Marketplace of IdeasIf you look back on the novels written about cities since the 18th century, one theme...

It didn’t take long for the Memphis Fire Department to challenge the notion that it should manage the Shelby County Fire Department. As we mentioned in Friday’s post, fire officials have proven adept at blowing up...

Sometimes truly historic breakthroughs pass for wonkish public contracts. That’s certainly the case with the prospects of an intergovernmental agreement for fire protection between Shelby County and City of Memphis.For 20 years,...

The city is a reflection of its people — their beliefs, their skills, their relationships. Our guests today are working in very different ways to improve the city by improving the lives of the people who live there.Dr....

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...