Author: Smart City Memphis

What happens when a dying town’s civic leaders decide they have to change the way their citizens think about the future? If you’re Linz, Austria, you create Ars Electronica. Its artistic director, Gerfried Stocker,...

Memphis doesn’t have to look outside its own city limits to find one of the nation’s leading economic development strategies. It’s taking shape at Union and Dudley in the form of the UT-Baptist Research Park, according to Kip...

Reform. It’s one of those words used so often by politicians that it’s almost lost all meaning. It’s right up there with world-class, state-of-the-art, public-private partnership, new paradigm, and summit. For once, reform is...

We appreciate the tendencies of people to defend the efforts of the Music Commission aka Music Foundation for the past few years, but let’s be honest, the results are meager at best. Today, The Commercial Appeal reported...

A commentary by Otis White – weekly regular on Smart City – for Governing magazine:You know hip when you see it in Coconut Grove in Miami, Buckhead in Atlanta or LoDo in Denver. But what does hip look like in...

Keith Bellows may have the best job in America. He’s editor in chief of National Geographic Traveler and this week he’ll tell us about the must see cities on his list of top destinations. And we’ll talk about...

Whether the president of the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission and its shadow group, the Memphis Music Foundation, has resigned or not seems to depend largely to whom you are talking. Then again, regardless of who’s at...

Shelby County Schools Board chairman David Pickler must have graduated from the George Bush school of self-awareness. He too has a formidable talent for leveling criticisms of others that so clearly apply to himself.It’s a...

We’ve never visited a city such a penchant for the electrical/mechanical “tombstones” that dot the landscape as Memphis. They mar Tom Lee Park, they clutter up downtown corners and they create a bit of visual pollution that...

Design is ascendant, and today we will celebrate it by talking with Dr. Larry Thompson, president of Ringling School of Art and Design. Larry is staging the Sarasota International Design Summit October 9-11. Prior to coming to...