Getting Our Focus Off North Mississippi And Onto What Matters
At a time when our community is hungry for well-articulated economic development policies to inspire us, most comments only make us wince. We were reminded of this again a...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 19, 2019 | Economic Development
At a time when our community is hungry for well-articulated economic development policies to inspire us, most comments only make us wince. We were reminded of this again a...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 15, 2019 | Downtown Revitalization, Parks and Greening
Note: There was a timely editorial in the New York Times a few days ago about the poisoning of our information system and the proliferation of conspiracies, false...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 12, 2019 | City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Poverty, Shelby County government
For all the sturm and drang earlier this year about PILOTs and EDGE, it was in retrospect more of a pantomime whose actors already knew the script. Despite the ersatz...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 9, 2019 | City of Memphis Government
As I See It— By Jimmie Covington With Memphis City Council elections coming up in October, it is a good time to call on candidates to pledge to drop the unfair practice of declaring that actions of the council are not final...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 8, 2019 | Civil Rights, Neighborhoods
Circle your calendar for a special August 14 policy briefing by Dr. Andre Perry, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. His...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 7, 2019 | Uncategorized
Eighty-eight year-old Nobel Prize winner and polymath Toni Morrison died yesterday. She was a writer of great wisdom and captivating prose. Some of her...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
The following is unfortunately an editorial for our times. It was published by the New York Times editorial board. Mass shootings like the one in El Paso should be condemned by America’s leaders as terror. If one of the...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Aug 1, 2019 | Politics and Government, Poverty
Six years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I wrote several posts about New Orleans, and one of them was about how it was possible to drive up and down St. Charles...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jul 29, 2019 | Arts and Culture, City of Memphis Government
The process to find the best reuses of Memphis College of Art’s Rust Hall and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, two landmark buildings in Overton Park that will be...
Read MorePosted by Smart City Memphis | Jul 26, 2019 | Data Points, Economic Development
Educational Requirements for Metro Area Jobs Less Than High School Degree 9.6 % – Austin MSA 10.1% – Atlanta MSA 10.3 % – Raleigh MSA 10.5 % – Birmingham...
Read Moreby Bill Day. Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. Cartoons Archive →
Since 2005, this has been Smart City Consulting’s blog with the aim of connecting the dots and providing perspective on issues and policies shaping Memphis. Editor and primary author is Tom Jones, columnist at Memphis magazine, author of two books and a museum exhibition, and consultant on public policy and strategic planning. Smart City Memphis was called one of the most intriguing blogs in the U.S. by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change; The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal wrote: “Smart City Memphis provides some of the most well-thought-out thinking about Memphis’ past, present, and future you’ll find anywhere,” and the Memphis Flyer said: “This incredibly well-written blog sets out to solves the city’s ills – from the mayor to MATA – with out-of-the-box thinking, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ideas.” If you have questions, submissions, or ideas for posts, please email Tom Jones, at tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.