NCDC: Eminent Domain Will Not Be Used for River Redevelopment

This morning's Tennessean has responses from Riverfront businesses, which all seem valid. The only one I want to take a swipe at is saving the East Bank for acres of surface parking lots--which sit unused for a major chunk of each year--in the name of guarding the sanctity of the Titans "tailgating experience." I have been all over the Downtown area on game days, and I have watched Titans fans create pleasant tailgating experiences wherever they park. The tailgating experience is not restricted to the East Bank, and redevelopment will not kill that experience. The businesses that could locate in the proposed mixed-use areas would obviously attract a number of game-day fans with lots of cash to spend. The money spent around LP would just flow in different ways. And you cannot convince me that Titans' executives have not thought about the possibilities of promoting block parties in the proposed neighborhoods that would sit around LP Field. The proposed mass transit loop would take care of getting remote tailgaters in more efficiently than the current bus arrangement. The "tailgating experience" is not sacred and it would simply adapt accordingly. What makes the tailgating experience is the party, not the proximity.

It should be a positive signal to businesses from the Nashville Civic Design Center Director that eminent domain will not be used to force property sales for redevelopment.