Author: Smart City Memphis

In response to Thursday’s posting of Carol Coletta’s letter about the riverfront, we received a complaint from a regular reader. We publish his comment here, followed by Carol’s reply:LibertyLarry said…...

Did you ever notice how quickly those of us who are in the majority – this time, I’m thinking Christian – can advise the minority to quit being so sensitive and to be more tolerant about our religious intrusions into their...

This article from today’s Chicago Sun-Times reports on research that began as part of our work at Coletta & Company (now Smart City Consulting) with economist Joe Cortright for Philadelphia, Atlanta, Portland,...

The Commercial Appeal letter to the editor:If Memphians can’t make our riverfront a signature gathering place, what are we capable of doing? Your Dec. 5 editorial, “Land bridge going nowhere,” misses the fact...

Please, mayor, say it ain’t so.In the wake of the release of the most insightful, thorough report on tax incentives for business ever written, Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton calls for creation of a committee.It’s not...

The long-anticipated study of the city-county PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) program is finally finished and the conclusion couldn’t be more clear and unequivocal: the present system is broken and cannot be fixed. The 97-page...

From a Financial Times interview with Tom Friedman by Andrew Hill…”Sir John Rose of Rolls-Royce [said], “I think we’re going to move from developing, developed and under-developed countries to a category...

A book review from the Philadelphia Inquirer:The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight Wolfe, Thompson, Didionand the New Journalism Revolution By Marc WeingartenCrown. 325 pp. $25Long-form journalism keeps taking punches to...

From Nashville Tennessean:Lawmakers may have been in the dark, but Nissan North America’s consultant wasn’t when a new law came up for a vote last summer that would mean millions more taxpayer dollars for the car...

While we have questioned the ultimate usefulness of the Wharton-advocated development fees in correcting the fatally flawed tax structure that plagues our community, his proposal is not the devastating attack on the homebuilding...