Equipped with “grit and grind”—but also with a whole lot of good data on the financial consequences of past development decisions—Memphis, Tennessee is taking smart steps toward a bottom-up renaissance. Just ask its Chief Operating Officer, Doug McGowen.
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The newer generation of public housing projects offer a superficially pleasant facsimile of a New Urbanist neighborhood. But these are places built all at once, to a finished state, and deeply dependent on fragile institutional arrangements.
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The allure of a silver-bullet economic development project is like that boat you buy for a low, low down payment. You know, the one that ended up sitting in your driveway under a tarp for years. Just ask Memphis.
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Untapped, a six-week pop-up beer garden in the landmark Tennessee Brewery in downtown Memphis, might well have been a goodbye party for the long-neglected building. Instead, it caught a local developer’s interest and led to a second life for the historic structure.
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Memphis is a shining example of how taking small, low-cost steps can lead to more permanent change that benefits a neighborhood and a city, without risking detrimental public backlash or precious money in the city budget.
Hospitals around the country are realizing that it is good policy and good business to take an interest in the welfare of the neighborhoods they are in.
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Sometimes the best thing that can come from a project is to have it be a warning beacon for others.
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While Memphis is home to many case studies on chaotic but smart development, it also has one of the poster childs for orderly but dumb, that of course being the Memphis pyramid.
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If you want your city to be wealthy and prosperous, stop obsessing about cars and start obsessing about your people, your wealth and the taxpayer's return-on-investment.
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Biking is transportation. Walking is transportation. If you want to empower your people, if you want to make your city financially strong and resilient, follow Memphis by making incremental investments to improving biking and walking throughout the core neighborhoods of your community.
Read MoreLast weekend we had a really important Strong Towns retreat. Not only did we finalize the agenda for the National Gathering – which is going to redefine all your expectations of what a conference should be – but we made some important progress on how Strong Towns, the organization, is evolving and adapting to grow this critical movement. I left excited and energized; we have some real visionaries working with this organization, as members and volunteers, and being with them is invigorating. Now we all switch to baby watch as our former board president – Faith Cable Kumon – and her husband, our Executive Director Jim Kumon, are expecting any day. August is going to be a great month.
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