| MEMPHIS GOOD NEWS
Memphis is located atop 1 trillion gallons of the world's best artesian well
water.
Memphis is in the top 10 of the most mannerly cities in
America according to the etiquette book, "Common Sense Etiquette."
Memphis ranks 6th in the nation in the number of
properties on the National Register of Historic Places and has more historic
listings per capita than any city in America.
The city of Memphis was ranked the 4th most efficiently
operated city in a comprehensive national study of 44 major U.S. cities by
national think tank Reason Public Policy Institute.
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America put Memphis
at number ten on its Top Ten Hottest U.S. Markets for Mortgage Lenders hot
index list, which ranks markets by such loan-business generators as
household, or family, formations, population growth and employment levels.
Memphis ranks 17th among the largest metro
areas in the “Best Cities for Relocating Families” according to Primacy
Relocation, a corporate relocation firm.
According to the 2006 issue
of AARP magazine, Memphis ranks as one of the top five places to
retire in the country. The city also enjoys a number of other perks that
make it attractive for retirees, including no state income tax, a generally
favorable year-round climate, and a low overall cost of living.
Memphis moved up to 12th
in 2006 (we were 25th in 2005 and 23rd in 2004) in Economic Strength of all
369 U.S. Metros according to Policom Corporation, an independent economic
research firm which specializes in analyzing local and state economies.
Memphis was selected as one of " 150 Places to Live
Rich" in the U.S. The city appeared in the "Bohemian Bargains" (lively inner
cities) category. Forbes.com, November 1, 2005
Memphis was selected as one of the best places to start
and grow a company by Entrepreneur and the National Policy Research Council.
The Memphis metro area ranked #10 out of 50 large metro areas. Criteria:
Young Company (firms started four to 14 years ago that still employ at least
5 people); Rapid Growth (firms started four to 14 years ago that still
employ at least 5 people and experienced rapid growth over the last four
years). Entrepreneur/National Policy Research Council, "Hot Cities for
Entrepreneurs, " 2005
The Memphis metro area was selected as one of
"America's 50 Hottest Cities" for business relocations and expansions. The
area ranked #7. Criteria: more than 80 of the industry's most prominent site
selection consultants were asked to list their top city choices for
relocating and expanding manufacturing companies, taking into consideration
such factors as the business climate, work force quality, operating costs,
incentive programs, and the ease of working with local political and
economic development officials. Expansion Management, January-February 2006
Memphis was cited as a top metro area for European
expansion. The area ranked #13 out of 50, based on European-based company
expansions or relocations within the past two years that created at least 10
jobs and involved capital investment of at least $1 million. Expansion
Management, June 2004
The Memphis metro area was selected as one of the "Top
40 Real Estate Markets" for expanding or relocating businesses. The area
ranked #7 out of 40. Criteria: rental costs; purchase prices; and vacancy
rates of office and warehouse space. Expansion Management, August, 2005
Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranked 101 U.S. cities in
terms of their total tax burdens. Memphis ranked #6 (#1 had the lowest
overall tax burden). Criteria: state income tax; property tax; sales tax;
personal property tax; and gasoline tax. Kiplinger 's Personal Finance, July
2004
Men's Health ranked 101 U.S. cities in terms of the
quality of their tap water. Memphis received a grade of A. Criteria: levels
of bacteria, arsenic, lead, trihalomethanes, and haloacetic acids were
compared with the National Academy of Science's guidelines as well as with
the EPA's more stringent maximum contaminant level goals. Men's Health,
March 2004
Memphis appeared on Black Enterprise's list of the "Top
Ten Cities for African-Americans." The city was ranked #8, based on
responses from more than 4,000 online survey respondents who ranked over 20
quality-of-life factors. Black Enterprise, July 2004
The Memphis metro area was selected as one of the "Best
Cities for Relocating Families" by Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation.
Criteria: tax rates; average home costs and home appreciation; ability to
qualify for in-state tuition; service levels of local utilities;
volunteerism; auto taxes; and climate. Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation,
"Best Cities for Relocating Families 2005"
Memphis was chosen as one of America's "100 Best
Communities for Young People." The winners were selected based upon detailed
information provided about each community's efforts to fulfill five
essential promises critical to the well-being of young people: caring adults
who are actively involved in their lives; safe places in which to learn and
grow; a healthy start toward adulthood; an effective education that builds
marketable skills; and opportunities to help others. America's Promise, "100
Best Communities for Young People, " September 26, 2005
The Memphis metro area appeared on The Sporting News
list of the "Best Sports Cities 2005". The area ranked #26 out of 388 cities
in North America. To be included in the rankings, a city must have at least
one of the following: NCAA Division I basketball team; Class A minor league
baseball team; training camp for a major league or NFL team; NASCAR Nextel
Cup race; NCAA Division I-A bowl game: PGA Tour tournament; Triple Crown
horse race. Once a city qualifies. a 12-month snapshot is taken of the
sports atmosphere, putting a heavy premium on regular-season records;
playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids; championships;
applicable power ratings; quality of competition; overall fan fervor; sports
atmosphere and fan knowledge; abundance of teams (quality over quantity);
stadium/arena quality; ticket availability and prices; franchise ownership;
and the marquee appeal of athletes. The Sporting News Online, "Best Sports
Cities 2005"
The Memphis metro area was selected by Cranium as one
of the "Top 50 Fun Cities" in America. The area ranked #35. Criteria
includes: number of sports teams, restaurants, and dance performances;
number of toy stores; city budget spent on recreation. Cranium, November 4,
2003
The Memphis metro area was selected as one of the "Best
Cities for Relocating Singles" by Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation. The
area ranked #13 out of the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. Criteria
include: gender population balance; climate analysis keyed to utility costs:
fee and occupancy rates for temporary housing and mini-storage; collegiate
and professional sporting events and fun, fan-friendly venues. Worldwide ERC
and Primacy Relocation, October 3, 2005
Sperling's BestPlaces in partnership with Pep Boys
ranked 77 metro areas and identified "America's Most Drivable Cities." The
Memphis metro area ranked #9. Criteria: climate; road roughness; urban
mobility; gas prices. Pep Boys, "America's Most Drivable Cities," April 9,
2003
Memphis was selected as one of "America's Top 25 Arts
Destinations." The city ranked #22 in the large city (population 500,000 and
over) category. Criteria: readers' top choices for arts travel destinations
based on the richness and variety of visual arts sites, activities and
events. American Style, Summer 2005
Economic Development Successes:
Site Selection magazine ranked the Memphis metro area 5th
for new and expanded facilities in 2002 behind Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati,
and New York. The same issue of Site Selection ranked Memphis 6th
in investment behind Chicago, New York Detroit, Washington DC, and
Cincinnati. Source: Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant Database, Site Selection
magazine, January, 2003.
The Memphis metro ranked 13th
in Expansion Management’s 2004 list of the “Top 50 U.S. Cities for
European Expansion”. Rankings are based on a survey of consultants who help
businesses find locations for large new facilities. In the rankings,
Memphis led such high-performing cities as Dallas, Austin, San Diego,
Boston, and Denver.
Transportation:
For the 12th
consecutive year, Geneva-based Airports Council International ranked
Memphis International Airport the number one cargo airport in the world.
Memphis International handled 3.4 million metric tons of cargo in 2003 and
was also ranked the word’s 21st busiest airport for takeoffs and
landings by the same source.
Memphis became the world’s
largest mail processing center in 2002, with FedEx carrying most USPS
Express mail, as well as much of its Priority mail. The US Postal Service
already operated one of its large bulk mail processing centers in Memphis.
Memphis ranked highest in
the percentage of logistics employees among eleven cities known as major
distribution centers in a study by InteLog International.
Real Estate:
The Memphis market was ranked
lowest for warehouse rental prices by National Real Estate Index in
the fourth quarter of 2001.
Memphis ranked among
“America’s Top 40 Real Estate Markets for Business” for the fourth
consecutive year according to Expansion Management magazine. Memphis
had the fourth lowest industrial/warehouse rents in the survey and the fifth
lowest CBD office rents.
Shelby County new home sales
in 2003 rose by 20.8 percent over 2002 according to Chandler Reports LLC.
The Memphis Area Association of Realtors reports that total sales volume of
all homes in 2003 increased by 10.5%.
Existing single-family home
sales last year of 14,865 homes were up 5.4 percent from 14,108 in 2001.
Entrepreneurial
Climate:
Memphis scored tenth on the
list of entrepreneurial hot spots among major metropolitan areas by
Cognetics Inc., a Waltham, Mass., research firm that evaluates cities on
their success in retaining and growing young businesses.
In 2003, the Memphis metro
area appeared on Entrepreneur magazine’s list of the “Best Cities for
Entrepreneurship”. The area ranked #35 in the large city category.
Criteria: entrepreneurial activity; small-business growth; economic growth;
and risk.
Quality of Life:
Money Magazine named
the Memphis suburb Collierville one of the top 10 best places to live among
cities under 100,000 in population in the eastern section of the country.
The ACCRA national cost of
living survey reported the Memphis cost of living index at 88.8, or 11.2%
below the 309 metros surveyed. The cost of living in Memphis is less than
cities like Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis,
Jacksonville, or Louisville. In fact, a person moving from Atlanta to
Memphis could withstand an 8.8% reduction in pay and still maintain her
present lifestyle.
The July 2004 issue of
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine looked at the tax rates of 101
cities throughout the United States and ranked Memphis as the fourth-lowest
city for state and local taxes in the country.
Partners
for Livable Communities – a Washington,
D.C.-based nonprofit leadership organization working to improve the
livability of communities by promoting quality of life, economic development
and social equity – selected Memphis and Shelby County in 2004 as one of
America’s best places to live, work, and play. “The downtown is thriving,
and the region has set records for job growth. In the last decade, Memphis
has experienced a phenomenal rebound…Acknowledged as the "soul of the global
economy," the Memphis region is home and inspiration to the American
entrepreneurial spirit” (http://www.mostlivable.org/cities/memphis/home.html).
"Rural Oasis in Heart of
City: Memphians don’t have to drive two or three hours to escape the urban
lifestyle. In the middle of Shelby County, near two interstates and two
major thoroughfares and surrounded by neighborhoods, shopping centers and
restaurants, sits Shelby Farms – nearly 4,500 acres of pristine undeveloped
land that has been set aside by the county government for public enjoyment.
Shelby Farms as a whole consists of a park; Agricenter International, an
agricultural research center; and the Shelby County Showplace Arena. The
park alone is approximately 3,500 acres – larger than the combined total
acreage of New York’s Central Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Chicago’s Lincoln Park (a
total of 3,064 acres). The terrain includes hardwood and pine forests,
lakes, pastoral fields, rolling hills, natural springs and flatlands” (SOURCE:
THE MEMPHIS NEWS BUREAU).
Memphis ranked fifth among
the 50 largest metro areas in the percentage of discretionary income given
to charity according to Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Memphis was the fourth
kindest U.S. city in a study published in American Scientist by
Fresno State social psychologist Robert Levine.
Hate waiting in traffic?
According to the latest (2004) Urban Mobility Study by the Texas
Transportation Institute, Memphis commuters waste fewer hours and less fuel
on traffic delays than their counterparts in cities like Atlanta, Austin,
Charlotte, Denver and Louisville.
”Within the next decade, two
new interstate highways will be helping speed both commercial and private
vehicle traffic through the metropolitan Memphis area. One of the two
federally funded superhighways will be I-69, the 2,600-mile U.S. portion of
the NAFTA highway linking Monterey, N.L., Mexico, with Montreal, Que.,
Canada. Memphis is roughly the half-way point. The other interstate will be
designated I-22, linking Memphis with Atlanta via Birmingham” (SOURCE:
THE MEMPHIS NEWS BUREAU).
Rhodes College was named one
of the 12 hottest colleges in the country, according to the Kaplan/Newsweek
annual How to Get Into College guide and one of the top 50 liberal
arts schools in U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges
2004.
Christian Brothers University
ranked highly - tied for 28th - in U.S. News & World Report's category for
Southern universities offering master's degrees.
Christian Brothers University
and Crichton College were recognized for their student diversity and ranked
in the top 20 of their category in U.S. News and World Report's 2004 survey
of about 1,400 colleges and universities nationwide.
MIT of the South: “The FedEx Institute of
Technology, a collaboration between FedEx and the University of Memphis,
opened in November of 2003. It is designed to help students, faculty and
business leaders advance world-class interdisciplinary research. The
Institute will include several centers of research: spatial analysis,
multimedia arts, life sciences, "next-generation" transportation, emerging
technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber-security and supply chain
management, to name a few” (SOURCE: THE MEMPHIS NEWS BUREAU).
A new study by the
University of Wisconsin ranks Memphis the 5th least segregated
city in the nation.
Child magazine ranked
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as one of the nation's top five
children's cancer hospitals.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was on
U.S. News & World Report’s list of America’s Best Hospitals in 2003 for
Pediatrics.
University of Tennessee Medical Center, Memphis
and Baptist Memorial Hospital made the
U.S. News & World Report’s list of America’s Best Hospitals in 2003 for
Orthopedics.
For the sixth time,
Modern Healthcare magazine named Baptist Memorial Health Care among the
top 100 integrated health care networks in the nation. Baptist placed 32nd
out of nearly 600 integrated health care networks, including some of the
most prestigious health care systems in the country.
In 2004, Memphis again
made Black Enterprise magazine's "Top 10 Cities for African
Americans" to live, work and play.
Corporate Successes:
In 2004, Fortune
Magazine Ranked:
·
Memphis-based FedEx and AutoZone in
the “Fortune 500”
·
FedEx in the top 10 on its list of
America’s most admired companies for the third consecutive year
·
International Paper and
ServiceMaster, both with world operations headquarters in Memphis, in the “Fortune
500”
·
First Tennessee, Thomas & Betts and
Union Planters on the “Fortune 1000”
·
Accredo Health for the second time
among the “100 Fastest-Growing Companies “
·
Both First Tennessee and FedEx for
the seventh consecutive year among the “100 Best Companies To Work For”
·
FedEx among the “Global 500” and in
the top ten of the “Global Most Admired” for the third consecutive year
In 2003, Fortune
listed FedEx as one of the best companies for minorities
Forbes
500 Rankings included (last
ranked in 2002):
·
FedEx
·
International Paper (with world
operations headquarters in Memphis)
·
Union Planters Bank
·
First Tennessee National Bank
·
National Commerce Bank Corporation
·
AutoZone
·
Concord EFS
In 2003 both AutoZone and
Smith & Nephew (with division headquarters in Memphis) made the Forbes
A-List of the “finest large corporations in the word.”
The Inc. 500
Fastest Growing Companies included:
·
Data Co.
·
Bluff City Steel
·
Accuship
International
Paper, with its worldwide operations headquarters in Memphis, was ranked the
most admired company in the Forest and Paper Products industry by Fortune
Magazine.
Three
Tennessee companies are among the
nation's leading African-American-owned businesses, according to Black
Enterprise magazine. Two of those three are Lexus of Memphis and Tri State
Bank of Memphis.
Fred Smith, chairman,
president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation, was recently
named "2004 CEO of the Year" by Chief Executive Magazine.
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