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.