photograph courtesy natureheart / dreamstime
Regionalism is the cicada, genus Magicicada, of Memphis and Shelby County public policy. It emerges periodically, makes a lot of noise, and then disappears just as quickly.
It has surfaced again. Mayor Paul Young is talking about it. So is the Greater Memphis Chamber, and even EDGE, which is a Memphis and Shelby County agency, but the best reason for optimism is the rebirth of a traditionally weak agency into the Mid-South Development District (MDD).
We have, of course, been here before. The most significant missed opportunity took place three decades ago when the first major push for regionalism was made by Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout. He recruited the governors of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas to head up the Governors Alliance for Regional Excellence and their involvement attracted participation of the region’s elected officials.
It was based on a deceptively simple concept. Instead of cities and counties competing against each other for jobs and investment, regions should organize themselves to compete nationally and globally. After all, economic development, workforce training, transportation planning, and innovation ecosystems should not be municipal functions but regional ones.
For as long as most of us can remember, Memphis has lived in tension with its own geography. On paper, Memphis is the economic engine for a metro stretching across three states and bound together by highways, freight rail, and the Mississippi River. And yet, Memphis often behaved like a city sealed off at its borders.
The Chamber of Commerce spent $250,000 on the initiative and to hire consultant Michael Gallis. His 2001 report, The Memphis Sourcebook, was eye-catching, its conclusions compelling, and its long-term impact negligible.
In 2006, there was Memphis Tomorrow’s Memphis Fast Forward, a complex, multi-layered plan that involved dozens and dozens of organizations and funders. The recommendations to increase economic prosperity and quality of life in Greater Memphis were voluminous, the results were mixed, and there was limited measurable change in major indicators.
By 2014, there was A Roadmap for Transforming the Metro Memphis Economy. It was pushed by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. after being pitched by the Brookings Metropolitan Program. Its report’s graphs made the case that Memphis was lagging in employment, output per worker, and median household. Recommendations neatly fit into the priorities of the Washington, D.C., think tank.
In 2019, RegionSmart began annual meetings where leaders of the Memphis region discussed issues of mutual interest. The premium is on provocative conversations and presentations.
Today, it’s about the Mid-South Development District (MDD), a quasi-government organization of six counties and 38 municipalities from West Tennessee, East Arkansas, and North Mississippi. It’s designated by the federal government as a Federal Economic Development District. For decades, as MATCOG (Mississippi Arkansas Tennessee Council of Governments) and MAAG (Memphis Area Association of Governments), the organization was moribund, releasing without causing a ripple the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy required by the federal government. The requirement that it sign letters of endorsement for federal funding seemed its only reason to exist.
That changed in October 2023, when Anna McQuiston, who was executive director of RegionSmart, was named to head the reborn agency. She brought a strong context about the region to the job, a network of support, and an impulse for action. At MDD, she has the impact and influence to drive change to achieve its tagline, “Building One Regional Team for Collaboration.” It’s ambitious, but MDD brings the structure and the authority that give it the best odds for success.
The back story of regionalism failures speaks to our political culture, but the present movement holds more potential for progress than the past would suggest. For as long as most of us can remember, Memphis has lived in tension with its own geography. On paper, Memphis is the economic engine for a metro stretching across three states and bound together by highways, freight rail, and the Mississippi River. And yet, Memphis often behaved like a city sealed off at its borders.
In truth, perhaps the greatest barrier to sustained regionalism has been psychological as much as structural. Memphis’ narrative has long oscillated between pride and defensiveness. Suburbs have guarded their autonomy. Cross-state partners have navigated different tax systems and political realities. Old grievances have lingered, ignoring the fact that regions are the unit of competitiveness in the global economy.
But a generational shift is underway. Younger business leaders and nonprofit executives tend to live, work, and socialize across traditional boundaries. For them, the region is not an abstraction. Rather, they see cities and counties as part of an ecosystem rather than islands of special interests. Recognizing this reality, MDD is focused on infrastructure built for the future, fluid regional transportation, quality and affordable housing, and coordinated workforce development.
Nowhere is regional thinking more urgent than in workforce development. Employers could not care less about which side of a state or county line a worker lives but they certainly do care about whether they possess the right skills.
A logistics firm expanding in Southaven depends on training institutions in Shelby County. A medical device manufacturer in Bartlett draws talent from across the metro area. When regional workforce initiatives coordinate with community colleges, universities, and employers, the benefits ripple outward. When they do not, mismatches persist.
From March 2019 to March 2025, Shelby County lost 26,012 jobs “and is the only county containing a large metro area to experience job loss during this period,” according to An Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee 2026. MDD’s State of the Region report concluded that if the current jobs growth rate continues, it will produce only 35,000 net gain jobs by 2035. Moderate growth of 1.1 percent will produce 70,500 jobs, and high growth of 1.5 percent would produce 100,000 jobs.
It underscores the stakes of regional collaboration and a sense that we’re all in this together. If we’ve learned anything from past efforts, it is that the name of the game is follow-through. The Memphis region may be in three states but it’s only one economy, and internal competition does nothing except produce external competition that holds back the region.
Tom Jones is the principal of Smart City Consulting, which specializes in strategic communications, public policy development, and strategic planning. He tends the 20-year-old Smart City Memphis blog and is an author with experience in local government. He can be reached at tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.
