Tennessee

Memphis Launches First Comprehensive Planning Effort Since 1981
Though it's been 35 years since its last comprehensive plan, the city of Memphis hopes to start updating its comprehensive plan every five to ten years.

Gas Delivery Straight to Your Vehicle. What Could Go Wrong?
Cities and fire departments around the country are struggling with the sudden explosion of start-ups promising to make your life easier by delivering gasoline straight to your vehicle.
A Chronicle of Inequality—Starting with Memphis and Houston
Places Journal has launched a series titled "The Inequality Chronicles." Expect high-quality longform articles.
Nashville Leaves Room to Maneuver on Transit Planning Future
Nashville residents are being asked to choose their preference among a menu of transit planning options. The most expensive version of the plan would cost $5.4 billion, the least $800 million.
Bus Riders, Bus Drivers Unify in Memphis
The unions of two groups sometimes pitted against each other in seeking their agenda for the bus system in Memphis have joined together against a common foe: the management of the Memphis Area Transit Authority.

Memphis Tells Residents: If You Mow It You Can Own It
Residents who put in the effort of maintaining vacant property will have their hard work rewarded and will be offered the opportunity to purchase the property.
Memphis and the Origins of the Crosstown Concourse
In an interview with Crosstown Concourse's Todd Richardson, Thriving Cities explores the challenges of revitalizing and transforming Memphis' old Sears Roebuck Building.
The Urban Character of Nashville's Building Boom
Nashville has 100 new projects, worth more than $2 billion, underway or in the pipeline for the next year. What does the building boom mean for city's future.
Chattanooga's Unique Approach to Innovation Districts
Bruce Katz says something special is going on in Chattanooga—where a uniquely situated innovation district is setting an example for more traditional approaches to the concept.
Nashville Neighborhood Conducts Car-Free Experiment
A neighborhood in West Nashville is in the midst of a "Don't Car Campaign," concluding on September 25, to determine just how walkable and transit-friendly their homes can be.
Op-Ed: Nashville Should Coordinate Transit, Housing Plans
Urban planning is front in center in Nashville, with a general plan update underway and a mayoral election looming on August 6. One candidate took to the editorial pages of The Tennessean to lay out a housing and transit agenda.

Planners Across America: Josh Whitehead Helps Memphis Live Within Limits
Josh Whitehead, planning director of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning & Development (OPD), discusses competing with suburbs, implementing a new zoning code, and redeveloping, for a second time, historic streetcar corridors.
Report: Nashville's Transit Fit for a Smaller City
The Nashville Metro Transit Authority recently released a "State of the MTA" report, detailing the system's need for additional funding to improve in pace with the needs of a growing populace.
Lessons for a Career's Worth of Community Engagement
Community engagement on planning subjects is fraught with the potential for boredom and political conflict. The former mayor of Chattanooga recounts lessons gained while combating those possibilities over a 40-year career.
Memphis Residents Weigh in on Fairgrounds Redevelopment
Consultant teams collaborate to provide both in-person and online engagement opportunities, and the city sees an impressive response.
Nashville's Building Boom Sets Local Records
2014-15 was a banner fiscal year for development in the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee.

Turmoil on Memphis' Signature Street
Memphis' Beale Street is famous as a home of the blues and one of the city's biggest tourist attractions. Even so, been it's mismanaged and is often empty. With some conflicts settled, the city hopes to realize the street's value as a civic asset.
States Ally with Telecoms to Obstruct Municipal Broadband
Telecom companies don’t want to compete with local governments to provide Internet to residents, but a recent rule by the federal government allows them to do just that. Pushback has come from an unlikely source: state attorneys general.
Nashville Metro Council Rejects $100 Million Downtown Flood Control Project
Opponents of the capital investment plan rejected the plan on the basis that it focused too much on the downtown area.
Chattanooga Mayor: No Chance for High-Speed Rail to Atlanta
A proposed plan to connect Chattanooga and Atlanta via high-speed rail, 17 years in the making, appears to be dead in the water. Chattanooga will now turn its attentions to a possible light rail system.
Pagination
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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