Author: Smart City Memphis

Memphis Magazine, in its 30th anniversary issue in April, began a new monthly column, City Journal. Here’s the inaugural installment by our colleague Tom Jones:City JournalIt was 1976, and the decline of Memphis had ended....

When we try to “Imagine” a better future, our ambitions are much more down-to-earth than John Lennon’s. We could be content with a world where Tennessee taxpayers are as powerful as roadbuilders.Over the years, no special...

Memphis Councilman Tom Marshall’s comments about changes in the PILOT program elicited an immediate response here: “Amen.”Like only a few members of our local legislative bodies, he has seemed to understood...

I went to another Bob Dylan concert last night, this time, in Memphis at the Orpheum Theatre. It’s been 40 years since the first one – February 10, 1966 at the old Ellis Auditorium on the other end of downtown – when I took my...

The interests that oppose any serious reform to local policies on tax freezes are positioned to win. At this point, all they may need to do is run out the clock. That’s because, as one of them said in his normal, matter-of-fact...

There are times when it just seems that Memphis can’t get its economic development strategies into the 21st century. It’s as if we just don’t want to compete in a knowledge economy in a global marketplace. Our economic...

Several unique Memphis assets received coverage in national magazines that hit the stands this week. The National Ornamental Metal Museum gets the attention that it deserves in Smithsonian, while Three 6 Mafia – called...

While we’re on the subject of tax freezes (as we were yesterday), it sure looks like most of the candidates in the races for county commissioners are using the real estate developers’ talking points.One of the questions put to...

City Councilman Scott McCormick, during the recent questioning about the proposed eight-year, $2.6 million tax break for Harrah’s Entertainment, was quoted by the Memphis Flyer as saying: “They might have $7 billion in revenues...

If there’s ever been a justification to create another TIF (tax increment financing) district in Memphis, we need wait no more. The Broad Avenue Corridor Planning Initiative gives us a powerful reason to act. This seems...