What happens at Music Fest in Memphis feels like a frantic cash-grab to break even on the massive production costs of creating a miniature city at Tom Lee Park every May. New Orleans’ Jazz Fest and Austin’s South by Southwest do a better job of dispersing throughout the city cores, which boosts businesses while drawing tourists.
'I intentionally moved my family to Uptown to give my children an experience of the best of both worlds; a safe, decent and affordable neighborhood with access to a vibrant downtown and beautiful riverfront.'
'The truth for me is I love struggling through long work hours. I love making tough decisions about which one of multiple priorities to focus on today. I love pushing the limits of my body and mind.'
What happens with a reliance on the market to revive neighborhoods? We will see more of the haves in neighborhoods. But we will also see more of the have-nots.
After nearly 20 years as senior pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Dr. Steve Montgomery leads his last service before retiring on Sunday, May 5. The Daily Memphian asked him to summarize his thoughts as he steps away from the pulpit. He replied with a list of "12 things I have learned in the ministry."
There are two reasons low-income families are over-burdened by energy costs: First, much of our housing stock is in poor condition. And second, residents are not well-informed about keeping energy costs down. Heating to 85 degrees in winter while cooling to 68 in the summer is a recipe for bankruptcy.
Let’s not lose valuable green space to concrete structures before determining this is what citizens want, as well as the impact on tourism, traffic flow and celebrations.
As the opioid epidemic continues to rage nationwide, the human faces behind it demand we keep looking for answers.
It's a privilege to host the very best professional golfers in the world in our city, but the PGA Tour’s mission has always been to show that we are more than just a sports league.
More than 40 years ago, as the Memphis in May International Festival was getting off the ground, the organization's first president was told that he could “tank MIM” and “nobody would care.”
"You’re wondering how I can lead at full capacity battling such a persistent mental challenge. Three things: medication, unwavering purpose and a rigorous schedule."
Angel investing is our way of helping Memphis (and ourselves) continue to prosper. It is incredibly risky, yes, but it is incredibly rewarding in ways that don’t show up on a monthly statement.
The students we most want to help are often the ones most intimidated by this federal form. The former president of Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis said he believes that he lost 1,500 students each semester because the complicated FAFSA discouraged students and their families from applying.
The parole board was blown away when a woman who had spent 25 years behind bars, and who was a member of the great books group at West Tennessee State Penitentiary, quoted Herodotus in answer to a question about how she now defined success.
Memphis 3.0 is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and for very good reason. Communities across Memphis are unique places with their own assets that are vital to support future prosperity.
Unlike Atlanta, we live in a city with a mayor who offered police a 3% raise, and when we told him that wasn’t enough, he said that was all he had to give.
In police and prison culture, vulnerability has a bad rap. Not only are you not allowed to express your feelings (except anger), you are not allowed to even have feelings. But isn’t the capacity for tenderness what makes us human?
Unlike other programs, the Leadership Memphis FastTrack program challenges young professionals and up-and-coming leaders to think outside of their normal scope, giving them a greater appreciation for diversity in culture, background, economics, community, industry and more.
Peel back the fancy ribbon-cutting ceremonies and press conferences for new jobs and all you’re left with is handouts to big, connected companies and higher taxes for the rest of us.
Companies want to locate in communities that will work with them long after the ribbon-cutting and headlines are done. We know that our local firms are constantly being courted by other communities looking to grow their economies.
There’s something wonderful about musical collaborations, both the totally unexpected and the so-perfect-together-they’re-completely-obvious.
In the late 1960s, African-American students at Memphis State would not settle for second-class citizenship, especially when they paid tuition like their white counterparts, and their parents’ tax dollars supported the institution like the parents of their white counterparts. So they organized.
'My insight on diversity had come from experience as the diverse candidate or double minority. My experience had come as a benefactor of diverse hiring initiatives that opened doors that would have otherwise been closed to someone like me.'
A plan does not gentrify neighborhoods and displace existing residents. In fact, it seeks to provide the framework to avoid exactly that happening and to guide and coordinate investment so that it has broad-based benefit.