Suburbanization is a failing development model in Tennessee

Charles Marohn describes how a city like Memphis got itself into a bind by relying on subsidized suburbanization as an answer to the ills of industrialization. Now with "soft defaults" (vs. hard defaults in Detroit) the chickens are coming home to roost:

Relying on the automobile to facilitate growth by horizontally expanding the city, Memphis shifted away from the traditional pattern of neighborhood development and played its part in building the American Dream of large yards, easy driving, and free parking.

Suburbanization, sold as a way to cure blight and promote prosperity, was radically new and untested. It was also irresistible. Driven by federal programs and financial incentives, Memphis – like most American cities – built highways through the middle of the city, annexed property and extended public utilities outward.

In the process, core neighborhoods were destroyed and residents relocated to neighborhoods built in the new, experimental style. Streetcars were abandoned and the economic activity at the old stops shifted to new commercial corridors. Old buildings were torn down to provide parking and millions of tax dollars were spent widening streets to accommodate the automobiles now necessary for daily life.

Eventually, the vitality of the city was inverted from its traditional historic pattern of a strong core surrounded by incrementally growing neighborhoods to one where most economic activity took place on the edge. While this shift left many people behind and devastated the historic neighborhoods of Memphis, the result was seen largely as a social problem, not an economic one. Easy growth on the periphery – where land is cheap, the development community is ready, and all the government incentives are in place – was then, and remains today, the community’s default strategy for economic improvement.

Somewhat unhindered by the levels of industrialization borne by Memphis, Nashville is no less exposed by its overreliance on exurban expansion and what Mayor Karl Dean embraces as "regionwide growth". Nashville recently depends on gimmicky baubles like the new Music City Center, a "We Are Nashville Promenade" and an east-west rapid transit connector ("The Amp") in order to spike short-term economic activity without reference to long-term viability in the city for its inhabitants.

Marohn warns of "new massive gambles" undertaken by sprawling metros to keep heads above water: convention centers and retail complexes driven by municipal debt and tax breaks for already wealthy corporations. Likewise these conditions also apply to Nashville, where it feels like we are mortgaging our future sometimes to fund huge new capital projects that enable the Dean brand more than aid Nashville proper. We are definitely sacrificing urban services, from which the Mayor perennially demands cuts, in order to bankroll the diversions.

In the end, an emphasis on regionwide growth seems like warmed-over, evangelical suburbanism. It constitutes a doubling down on failing economic policies that hurt both Memphis and Nashville in the long run. Once the smoke-and-mirrors floor show of the Dean administration ends, what will be left with?

Salemtown: now a neighborhood of service bays and easy interstate access

Technically, Salemtown extends into MetroCenter, since Dominican Drive (which runs past Starbucks to Rosa Parks Boulevard) is our recognized northern border. And we are getting a new car dealership as a neighbor, according to the Nashville Business Journal:

The 58,000-square-foot planned retail and service center is set on a 7.2-acre parcel. It will offer 61,540 square feet of outdoor display area, an 11,640-square-foot enclosed sales area and 42 service bays. The dealership will include a full line of new and pre-owned car sales as well as a Lexus service center and parts sales.

"Lexus bought this property about four years ago, and their development plans play perfectly into the major new interchange in the immediate MetroCenter area," said Todd Alexander, principal for Southeast Venture, which is the property owner. "It's a great location. You'll be able to see the dealership from the interstate, and MetroCenter's proximity to downtown and Interstates 65 and 40 will give potential buyers easy access into the new dealership."

Southeast Venture brokers Jimmy Pickle and Alexander and brokered the original deal.

"This is the first time that Lexus will have a retail and service center in Nashville's center, and we're very excited to bring Lexus sales inside Nashville's urban core," said J.R. Roper, general manager of Lexus of Nashville. "The finished dealership will provide 80 potential jobs to the area."

Thankfully, the interstate, itself a monument to automobile culture, sits between what remains of the mostly residential bulk of Salemtown and the increasingly commercialized northern section now dedicated to the great American love affair with cars.

Full disclosure: the Salemtown neighborhood association voted to approve the move of a resident's house several years ago to make way for the Lexus dealership. The homeowner requested the move and so we voted to support the request.

Society of Self-Indulging Slugs

In his review of David Owen's "Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability" Jonathan Yardley explains why the Greatest Generation is in no danger of being supplanted by any of us who came afterward:

on both sides of the political aisle there is virtually nothing except pandering to our love of cars and placating the various industries and special interests that profit from them, which means just about every industry and special interest in the country. Six decades ago, as the United States headed into World War II, Americans had been steeled by the Depression and were prepared for the sacrifices the war demanded. Now, by contrast, they have been made complacent and selfish by a half century of self-indulgence at an unprecedented level of extravagance. There is no reason to believe they are ready to change the way they live, even as the world grows ever closer to the day when the oil binge ends.

Could Pro Football Even Exist without Car Culture and Sprawl Growth?

A NY Times reporter is not so marveled by the architecture of the new home of the Dallas Cowboys:

Cowboys Stadium suffers from its own form of nostalgia: its enormous retractable roof, acres of parking and cavernous interiors are straight out of Eisenhower’s America, with its embrace of car culture and a grandiose, bigger-is-better mentality. The result is a somewhat crude reworking of old ideas, one that looks especially unoriginal when compared with the sophisticated and often dazzling stadiums that have been built in Europe and the Far East over the last few years. Worse for fans, its lounges and concourses are so sprawling that I suspect more than a few spectators will get lost and miss the second-half kickoff.

West Nashville Council Member Objects to Harm May Town Center Would Have on His Neighborhood

From the Nashville Post:

District 24 Councilman Jason Holleman, whose West Nashville district would be impacted by increased traffic from May Town Center, said the RPM analysis confirmed his concerns about the project.

Holleman added that he was impressed with the components of the May Town Center plans that encourage pedestrian and bicycle traffic. But the side effects of the development would call for road widenings along the Charlotte Avenue corridor, which defeat the purpose.

“I have concerns that the marketing of this project is about green pedestrian-oriented development,” Holleman said. “But the recommendations in this study and in the [original] May Town study are for road widenings on Charlotte Avenue and turn lanes on 51st, which harms the pedestrian access in my neighborhood.”

Texas Populist Takes Swings at "The Corker"

Jim Hightower takes Tennessee's Senator Bob Corker to task over GM:

He's discovered that – whoops! – there's a unionized General Motors plant in his own state, and his attacks on the union make him less popular there than a tornado in a trailer park. "We're deeply disappointed." in Corker, said a union official at the GM factory, adding: "That's the official [union] statement, but actually my members want to choke him."

So, guess who is now demanding that any restructuring of GM by Obama's car bailout czar must spare the Tennessee plant from cuts or closure? Right, The Corker. Suddenly, the guy who tried to mandate wage cuts for Detroit auto workers is at the barricades in his state, plaintively singing "Solidarity Forever."

Corker's shameless hypocrisy is so glaring it can be seen from the space station with the naked eye.

The appearance of trying to influence the value of stocks?

Republican Bob Corker was Mayor of Chattanooga where they landed the new Volkswagen plant currently under construction.  He is also one of the most powerful Senators on the Hill. Is calling a Volkswagen competitor "toast" ethical for such an influential leader with ties to VW? Could it be or appear to be an attempt to influence the value of stocks of both Chrysler and VW? Shouldn't a U.S. Senator be more circumspect and thoughtful in his comments about financial conditions of industry?

Corker's Vaunted Volkwagen Failing to Sell Cars without Union Costs

Rough at VW, just like everywhere else.

And was it really the lack of union costs that kept VW afloat, or was it Porshe revealing last summer that it owned 74% of VW's overpriced stock?

Bob Corker Returns White House Union-Busting Kindness with Posturing Hypocrisy

Tennessee GOP Senator Bob Corker must be jealous that the President is horning in at his anti-union whipping post, because he's telling the Tennessean that Obama's handling of GM is a power grab. That takes some nerve as Gail Kerr's favorite Senator has been attempting to oversee the makeover of General Motors for the last several months by helping the auto industry weasel out of union contracts.

I can't see anything but empty symbolism in Corker's overblown protest. His moves against unions and his protectionist advocacy of non-union shops (some of which are lined up for bailouts in their countries of origin; Corker's own beloved Volkswagen was the first German car maker to tap bailout Euros) make him look more like a kindred spirit to Obama's auto industry headhunter than an opponent.

Peers of the Realm

Josh Marshall hazards some guesses on why the White House might terminate an automobile CEO while entertaining finance CEOs.

Good Question

David Sirota wants to know why Barack Obama fired an automobile CEO, but invites bank CEOs to the White House for photo ops.

And the government shall be upon his shoulders

While Senator Bob Corker thinks it was plain common sense for auto workers to vote to eighty-six their bonuses, AIG executives giving up their bonuses seem to look to the Tennessee Republican more ethically gray, hazy and dependent on nuanced factors. If Sen. Corker is demanding sacrifice from the people who do most of the working in the market, why can't he demand that those at the top of the power pyramid agree to sacrifice their bonuses with the same lack of regard for conditions that he showed auto workers?

UPDATE:  More on Bob Corker's brand of hypocrisy, Gail Kerr notwithstanding, at TPM:

Have Richard Shelby and Bob Corker held their press event demanding that AIG break their contracts with their overpaid Financial Products workers for their shoddy work?

Is General Motors Cutting Costs That Count?

GM is cutting its sponsorship ties with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.  The company has also reached an agreement with the Canadian union that if approved by the membership will freeze base pay, limit health care plans, and delay bonuses and COLAs. That should free GM up for billions in bailout from the Canadian government.

But is GM still keeping their $10 million naming rights on the Smithsonian's revisionist history at the "General Motors Hall of Transportation"? They don't need to be spending money trying to bury the perception that they brought mass public transportation to its knees or the fact that they helped mobilize the Nazis. They could also save $844,000 per year through 2015 by dropping their naming rights to General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. There is absolutely no good reason for bailed out corporations to be paying to name sports and entertainment venues, when they should be cutting their luxurious expenses back.

Placating Corker

Cornell faculty says if GM sheds upstate New York powertrain assembly jobs "to placate Tennessee's Bob Corker," tens of thousands of other jobs would also be hit.

Between TVA's Christmas spillage and Corker's bailout rampage, red-state Tennessee cannot be getting much love around the country.

Is Volkswagen the Nashville Housing Market of Automakers?

Senator Bob Corker's favorite automaker, Volkswagen, is getting a slice of the positive press in today's Tennessean that it has been enjoying in the Chattanooga Times Free Press for months. Supporters of non-union automaking shops argue that their favorite manufacturers make a product substantially better than that which comes from Detroit's "Big 3," even as foreign car makers increasingly fall on hard times. Someone has to be the last to fall, the last to die for a mistake. Just like the Nashville housing market has been slow to follow the trend of depressed real estate elsewhere, maybe Volkswagen is among the last to fall or maybe they just did not go on the obscene spending sprees of other manufacturers. But arguing that their product is profoundly different than that of other manufacturers is like arguing that there is a drastic difference between Democrats and Republicans in red-state Tennessee.

Full disclosure: I've been the satisfied owner of three Volkswagens in the past.

Speaking of Bob, an automaker more to his liking is in trouble

I will be surprised if Bob Corker doesn't drop the demonizing of Detroit's Big 3 Axis of Evil and instead start calling for a foreign automaker bailout given Toyota's latest reductions. Guess they simply do not make better cars than the Big 3 anymore like they did way back before Christmas.

VW Could Not Afford to Buy This Kind of PR

Positive puff piece after positive puff piece, the Chattanooga Times Free Press gives Volkswagen its own business page of free promotion. Shouldn't the German automaker be bankrolling some of those reporters' salaries in exchange for all that cushy writing?

Get Tough on Tennessee, Too

Brentin Mock points out that the federal government needs to level the same automotive reforms on Mercedes, Honda, and Hyundai that are being required of bailed out GM, Ford, and Chrysler:

But while Alabama and Tennessee have been outpacing Michigan and Ohio in jobs, sales, and market share, they have not been creating better cars. For this reason, Congress should be as tough on the new Big Three from the South as it is on the old Big Three in the North when it comes to new environmental standards.

If Unions are the Cause of the Big 3's Decline, Then Why Are Companies without Unions in Tighter Financial Straits?

Think Progress tells the truth that the union-haters like to deny:

Financial firms AIG, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns did not have unionized workers but still suffered economic collapses. Frozen credit markets and a spiraling recession were major contributors to Detroit’s current state.

UPDATE: Anemic percolation.

Inciting Class Warfare is So Easy for Those with Ulterior Motives

Once again some look at the economic crisis and blame those at the bottom of the corporate pecking order rather than those at the top. Unions aren't perfect, but they should not be scapegoated for corporate mistakes, including top heavy CEO salaries and stupid, short-sighted decisions to buy foreign car companies instead of investing in hybrid and green technologies during the 1990s.  It's not even that GM is simply making cars that people don't want to buy.  GM has consistently held the largest market share (source) of all auto makers, and in 2008 their market share has grown.  People are choosing GM cars more than others.  The argument that they are not is a red herring.

If you read this simplistic post and graph (based on spin from the momentously wing-nut editorial voice of the Wall Street Journal) without digging any deeper, you may miss the facts that the big 3 employees make more because their unions have leveraged profit-sharing bonuses, decent health care packages in an extremely expensive health care market and 30-year pensions. So what's the alternative? Give CEO's decent health care and pension packages but not lower level employees? By the same token, in 2006, employees in 2 of the big 3 shops did not receive bonuses because of lack luster sales, even at a time where Toyota (which is listed on the graph) was catching the big 3 in base pay in order to be more competitive with union shops!  Even non-union workers should be thankful that unions set the bar high for all auto line workers.  Honda and Nissan are not far behind UAW shops in base salary.  If it were left up to the executives and the apologists for deregulation, the bar would be in the dirt.

Foreign auto makers like Honda can pay their employees less because they accept sunbelt incentives (a.k.a., corporate welfare) from non-union, exurban hinterlands in Ohio and Alabama where employment and wages are depressed and residents feel lucky just to get a job with a salary higher than the meager prospects offered locally.  One of the ways Honda boasts that its record on lay-offs is better than the big 3, is to utilize sub-contracted temp workers who have no benefits in place of full-time hires.  That depresses the salary of Honda employees and generates the illusion that Honda does more with less.  Honda decides to pay for work related surgery rather than design for workplace safety, which further drives up the price of medical care.  There is so much detail that matters, but which is left out of graphs and scapegoating commentary.

But in the end, why complain when the standard auto assembly line worker needs no health care, pensions, or remedial lessons on sexual harassment in the workplace?

The way some object, you would think that the Chrysler assembly line still looked like this (but with pensions, health care, and profit sharing):

I am by no means arguing that any of the big 3 auto makers deserve a bailout (unless it is a harsh loan with exacting regulations bent toward consumers and the environment). In fact, bankruptcy may be a viable option. GM doesn't deserve a leg up for the mistakes it made when it was raking in profits unless, as Ashton Kutcher argued on Bill Maher last night, the oil industry wants to bail them out. But blaming the unions for those mistakes is raptorial and reprehensible.