Author: Smart City Memphis

Sometimes, we’re so busy asking the wrong question that we never get to the real answer. For example, remember all the media coverage about unsafe day care vans. And yet, no reporter ever bothered to ask why we needed to be...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So is I-40 at the Midtown Interchange. Just take a look at the massive concrete walls being built as sound baffles for the historic neighborhood adjacent to the interstate.But...

The Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is one of those arcane groups that labor in the shadows of local government, but whose decisions fundamentally shape how our community grows.That’s because its...

From Otis White’s Urban Notebook:What is the deal with trolleys? Every city, it seems, is suddenly crazy about streetcars. On the surface, this makes no sense. They’re an antiquated form of transportation (most cities...

I am still puzzling over Monday’s top story in the New York Times by Edmund Andrews. Here goes:”At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last...

Why are these people smiling?While Memphis City Schools is developing a national reputation for innovative school reform, Shelby County Schools seemed mired in a business as usual approach to public education.This means that in...

McKinsey Quarterly reports on the “currents that will make the world of 2015 a very different place to do business from the world of today.” Among those are these four with particular relevance to urban...

Finally, the tail is not wagging the dog. For the first time in recent history, Memphis City Schools’ capital funding needs are center stage with Shelby County Schools moved to a supporting role. That’s as it should be, because...

In yesterday’s post, we questioned whether the needed changes in the PILOT program will ever get a fair hearing. We hope the same can’t be said about the proposal for a payroll tax.With about 88,000 people driving into Shelby...

The primary question these days about the consultants’ study about tax freezes isn’t what changes will ultimately be made in the program, but if the recommendations will ever get a fair hearing.Last week, there was the meeting...