Tennessean journo links body to rezoning issue

Reporter Juanita Cousins chose last week not to lead with the commercial potential of industrialization of residential 43rd Avenue in West Nashville. Instead she simply repeated the talking point of local developers and CM Buddy Baker that crime is the reason they are seeking a road and alley closure.

After getting interview responses from abandonment critics on crime, she linked the rezoning proposal to the disturbing find not on 43rd itself, but a block away in CM Edith Langster's district.

"Problems could be solved through neighborhood watch and better coordination with Metro Police. If they can successfully coordinate with police department, then they can make this a safer area, but closing the alley will not solve this."

A school bus driver found the dead body of Montgomery Bell Academy custodian Malith Wiek, 33, propped against a fence near 42nd Avenue North and Indiana Avenue on April 21. He had been shot multiple times.

There is no indication that CM Langster is trying to close down 42nd in response to this crime, so why is CM Baker using it as pretext to help a campaign donor consolidate his commercial real estate? Because this really has less to do with crime and more to do with investment opportunity.

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It is not too much to expect reporter Cousins to be more neutral and to avoid adding to the spin that CM Baker has already put on abandonment.