tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12509286.post3583705249168565475..comments2024-03-01T07:43:16.529-06:00Comments on Smart City Memphis: Super Regions Bring Super-sized Challenges For MemphisUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12509286.post-1699325181328009672007-10-03T19:38:00.000-05:002007-10-03T19:38:00.000-05:00I will feature this link in the October 3, 2007 is...I will feature this link in the October 3, 2007 issue of Regional Community Development News. It can be found at http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/Tom Christoffelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05033420479508477845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12509286.post-60278790102761877192007-10-02T14:42:00.000-05:002007-10-02T14:42:00.000-05:00The related problem of exit as voice is that we're...The related problem of exit as voice is that we're not only losing people to the outlying communities, what's much worse is that we're losing educated people with means to other cities in other regions altogether. As well as not being able to get people to move here in the first place b/c they take a look at the situation in Memphis and just take a pass.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12509286.post-63219985114435853772007-10-02T11:16:00.000-05:002007-10-02T11:16:00.000-05:00well it's about the future that we choose and the ...well it's about the future that we choose and the future that we can allow to happen. if we wan more of the same, we can continue to do the same thing. if we make different choices - investing in what we know works - we can affect the future of memphis. <BR/><BR/>albert hirschman wrote a book called "exit, voice and loyalty" - and all of us do all three things all the time, making choices about things that affect us. in memphis, exit has been the polite form of voice. there has been a mass middle-class exodus from the city of memphis to the surrounding areas - the memphis MSA - making the disparities between the city and the suburbs abundantly clear. <BR/><BR/>exit can be seen quite clearly in terms of education, but also in terms of where people live. we have a thriving private school system and a confusing public school system (confusing in that it's difficult to know what to make of its success, given the discrepancies in testing results...)<BR/><BR/>the growing MSA is evidence of exit. those who stay in the city limits - loyalty - might just be stuck somewhere. but they're getting moved around as well, as public housing is demolished and rebuilt as mixed-income housing, distributing the problem of poverty throughout the city - and breaking up communities and networks and social systems.<BR/><BR/>the people who move out of the city are the middle class, those with the resources to get out. it's partly crime, but it's other things as well - like trash. i was struck this past weekend at the cleanliness of birmingham, alabama. it's a comparable city to memphis - but cleaner. there are small things that make the quality of city life different there - like bike lanes. and concerted trash pick-up.<BR/><BR/>there is so much discussion about how to retain the "knowledge economy" workers (a euphemism for middle-class?)... the question is how do we address exit as the default option for people? if you have the resources to get out, why not invest those resources in the community and STAY?<BR/><BR/>and if exit functions as voice in memphis, then what is true voice? voice can be heard in terms of voting, participation in schools and communities, civic organizations, issue-oriented and generalized participation...<BR/><BR/>back to the initial point about the future that we choose - can we envision a city that looks different from today? in twenty years, kids who are very young today will likely be parents. what kind of skills, assets and opportunities will await them? what kind of community will they live in and raise their children in?<BR/><BR/>if we want to make a change for the better in memphis, it matters what we do now. things that work - like the chicago child-parent centers, like the home visitation programs (see david olds et al), like quality early experiences for children (see meaningful differences, hart & risley) - are what we should invest in now. <BR/><BR/>if we want to make a change for the better in memphis, we have to have better public transportation. it's rather ironic that we're america's distribution center and yet people - especially those in areas of concentrated poverty - are geographically isolated and have few reliable transportation options. <BR/><BR/>we have to connect the dots: education is connected to income; income is connected to employment; employment is connected to transportation; transportation is connected to neighborhoods; neighborhoods are connected to children; children are connected to schools; schools are connected to futures...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com