Author: Smart City Memphis

On the surface, it looks like a battle between Ophelia Ford and Terry Roland. In truth, it’s a battle about the credibility of the Shelby County Election Commission.The Senate hearing on the complaint filed by Roland is the sort...

We receive regular responses to our blog posts from a reader who always contributes to the quality of the discussion, as proven by this post to the commentary about the riverfront. We pull it from its buried position to give it...

If Memphis is anything, it is ever a tale of two cities, as we were reminded from three recent studies on the core city. The reports – one by the Brookings Institution and the other two by the U. S. Economic Development...

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...