Absence of genuine leadership: Mayor did not prepare Nashville for his Fairgrounds' future

A commenter over at the City Paper tells it exactly like it is:

Well, of course people wanting to keep the fairgrounds are upset. They went from patrons of the fairground site to obstructionist knuckle-draggers simply because the mayor proposed an abrupt change in land use, making their positions relatively obstructive. It's not the advocates of keeping the fairgrounds who have changed anything. It's the mayor who wants change and it's the mayor who needs to sell that change.

He should have begun with a fresh piece of land to develop in a better location, showing pictures and video of a proposed new fairgrounds. He should have sold us cool rides, farmer's markets and happy people. He should have then unveiled plans for a huge water park, or office complex, or movie studio, something we could not do without on the old fairgrounds.

But he did none of that because he had none of that.

Without vision the plan perished.