Author: Smart City Memphis

We subscribe to a John Calipari theory of economic development – it’s all about talent – and a Fred Smith model of public investment – it’s all about entrepreneurship.Everything else is pretty much a distraction.Memphis...

Former County Commissioner Michael Hooks and former State Senator and county mayor’s aide Roscoe Dixon have now entered the Byzantine world of federal sentencing, and the different points of entry into that system – the former...

Memphis College of Art President Jeff Nesin, our dear friend, emailed the following advice, and we wanted to share it with you:As all of us are acutely aware, today marks the fifth anniversary of the September 11 hijackings and...

Do universities have hidden value to cities? We know about their role as employer, as purchaser of local goods and services, as producer of smart people, and as a source of research. But our guests today are mining their value...

It is a fundamental characteristic of government that it is reactive in nature. Nothing quite proves it as well as the recent rhetoric about Memphis’ crime rate, replete with press conferences about Operation Safe Community,...

Here’s the test. Check out these two photographs. One shows the construction site for Shelby County Schools.The other shows a construction site for Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development.Guess which is...

From The Nation blog:Congress is about to return to Washington this week after taking a long summer break for campaigning and before taking a long fall break for campaigning. During the brief period of governing that will be...

New Orleans has always been a dichotomy. There’s always been squalor existing alongside luxury, entrenched poverty intermingled with gaudy wealth, decaying shacks just blocks from Garden District palaces, the gentility of Creole...

Is the desire to become a creative city at risk of becoming the latest brand of wishful economic thinking by city leaders?Our guests this week are exploring the potential of creative industries as viable economic development...

From CEOs For Cities blog comes a proposed bill of rights that would be a welcome aspiration for Memphis:Berkeley resident Sharon Hudson has proposed an urban bill of rights for the city as a reaction to what she sees as...