When reporting on economic development, the media often emphasizes tax breaks while downplaying the net new taxes generated. This leads many people to simply misunderstand how incentives work and can have serious repercussions for a community, as can be seen in New York with Amazon.

The bold new design for Tom Lee Park aspires to create one of the country's great waterfronts while sending a message that Memphis is a place that embraces its past but isn't defined by it. 

From the St. Jude expansion to the reinvigorated Edge District, Memphis has much to celebrate. But some people have questions and concerns about the Memphis River Parks Partnership's proposal for Tom Lee Park. The concerns and questions should be addressed.

Cities evolve or die. Look at places like Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta and even Louisville and Austin. Compare those to Little Rock and Jackson, Mississippi. Which do we want to be more like?

Too many people are engaging in dangerous rhetoric that encourages people to “resist” all forms of authority, including law enforcement. This slander must stop – and it must stop right now.

Infrastructure is key to continued growth in Tennessee’s economy. In Memphis, we must continue to invest in world-class transportation systems and we must look to new solutions to fund these investments.

We have an obligation to the next generation to provide them with every opportunity to be successful. That success begins with an educational system that is nimble and inclusive of a variety of options from which parents can choose.

As our country continues to debate over how we secure our borders, whether or not to build a wall to keep people out of our country, we might consider taking a closer look at those who are born within it. Hate is killing our country.

Jamie Woodson is stepping down as CEO of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) after eight years. Woodson says there’s still much more to do for students in Tennessee.

People talk about school choice. But school choice doesn’t truly exist if parents don’t have access to good schools. There is a solution that can help: unified enrollment.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris calls on the University of Memphis and Shelby County Schools to lead the way on higher minimum wages. 

Who exactly is driving the opaque process by which the Office of Planning and Development amends the UDC, and what does it mean for a city struggling to attract and retain people and businesses?

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee reflects on the significance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Mentors can have powerful and lasting positive effects on children, showing them what hope looks like before they turn to a life of violent crime.

First, let me say I’m pretty much all for development, especially in the Memphis city core, but I think the massive Union Row project demonstrates an inequity in the development process that we need to examine. The beauty of this problem, however, is the solution would have a positive impact, helping create new small “infill” development across Memphis in neighborhoods that might otherwise be ignored.

Memphis has plans: Plans for development, redevelopment and revitalization, from Downtown to the neighborhoods surrounding the central city.

Ocie Cleveland “O.C.” Pleasant Jr. always offered a quip and a smile upon an encounter. When expressing the standard Southern inquiry as to his well-being, he would simply reply, “I’m pleasant.”

With a shared private and public goal to increase population density as a mechanism to become more efficient and successful as a city, the expansion of Memphis and Shelby County’s Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) payment in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT) incentive to include Midtown has been welcomed by multifamily developers in our community.

 “Confirmation bias” refers to the tendency to only credit information which reinforces your own view.

At Phil Trenary’s funeral, I spoke about those things that I felt he would want to see happen that would move Memphis forward.

I recently heard a retired judge tell a gathering that he started his legal career as a prosecutor.

The tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump’s administration are prompting supply-chain disruptions from coast to coast. 

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday of the Thanksgiving holiday, I was standing in my kitchen and heard four pops from a gun near McLean and North Parkway. News coverage the next morning indicated shots were fired in traffic congestion as people were taking their children to see the annual display of holiday lights at the Memphis Zoo.

Downtown development is booming, with new announcements occurring, it seems, almost daily. 

Soon after I arrived in Knoxville to lead the Institute of Agriculture in 2006, I fell in love with the University of Tennessee. It is a special place because of the people and their commitment to the students and citizens all across the state of Tennessee. There is something about the spirit found within this university. It is real. It is sincere. It is palpable. It is authentic.