Knoxville-Knox County Planning and the Knoxville chapter of the Urban Land Institute hosted a Zoom talk by Tom Murphy titled “Intentionality: Nimble, Curious, and an Appetite for Risk”. Tom spoke about the need for thinking strategically, developing public-private partnerships and an entrepreneurial spirit of funding, along with design excellence. The talk is available at https://youtu.be/dc9lzvnOMSc?t=233

Tom’s opinion is that cities that will succeed:

• Think strategically

• Dynamic leadership

• Strong partnerships

• Entrepreneurial spirit for funding

• Smart staff

• Design excellence

One of Knox County’s most acute needs is housing, and Tom pointed out to successful housing projects that have redeveloped blighted areas with a public-private partnership. They preserved as much of the historic fabric and buildings as possible, and developed areas where affordable and low-income housing was built and offered next to market-rate housing, as identical units, just owned and operated differently and overseen by a housing authority board.