Reflections on last weekend's Germantown Oktoberfest (and Germantown Street Fest)

Munich's Paulaner friar now a relic of Oktoberfests past

Having just passed my 9th straight year of attending Oktoberfest celebrations a few blocks down from my home I have a few reflections on the 2013 version just past:

• The split of the two festivals from one Germantown Oktoberfest into the Oktoberfest and the Germantown Street Festival gets more regrettable each year. In their interactions with me over the years Historic Germantown leaders have tended to play their motives for breaking with the churches over the community-congregation fundraiser close to the vest. They would not share their reasons even when they expressed dissatisfaction with mine as a local blogger on the subject. (There has been drama, too).
• The split continues to strike me as lacking any détente. This year Oktoberfest leaders but up an inflatable arch between the street fest and their celebration with a banner that read: "Nashville's Original German Festival". When entertainer Lari White posted on Twitter that she would be appearing at Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest tweeted back confusion about her appearance. Ms. White was actually slated to appear at Germantown Street Fest. Do the two sides appear to have any diplomatic relations at this point?
• There are profound cultural and class differences that could be a wedge between these two festivals. Oktoberfest continues to be a homecoming for former Germantown residents. It tends to showcase German folk and country music. Germantown Street Fest has little "German" and a lot of "street fest". It inclines to popular music as well as more high-brow jazz (to go with that glass of wine). One Oktoberfest leader told me of personal concerns that there is an exclusive demographic moving into Germantown with less diverse tastes and less interested in preserving the community's history and character: young childless adults who likely will not lay down roots here and likewise are not concerned about the roots from whence Germantown sprang.



Funds preserve historic churches

• The decision by Oktoberfest organizers to start their celebration on Friday evening (5p-9p) is a winner. If they do it again next year, I'll be back. The turnout was better than I expected for the limited offerings they had (mostly biergarten fare and polka music), but it had the feel of being more for the locals than Saturday's blitzkrieg of festival goers. If Germantown Street Fest organizers want to keep up, they might consider kicking off on Friday night as well. I can see the Friday Oktoberfest pre-party becoming its own thing.
• How can they hold an authentic German Oktoberfest and not have authentic German beer on draft? The sponsor for Oktoberfest was American brewer Sam Adams. The sponsor of the Germantown Street Festival was local brewing company Yazoo Brew. I am not an opponent of either buying American or buying local, but I was disappointed that my only choice at a German festival was between Sam and Yazoo. One Germantown Street Fest beer puller offered the information that they did put the beer in Spaten cups (left over from last year?). Great. A veneer for my beer. When I bought my Paulaner stein filled with Paulaner beer here years ago I was told that Germany's festival sponsor shipped unused steins directly from Munich's Oktoberfest, which ended the week before Germantown's celebration. I always thought that was cool. I'm not demanding Reinheitsgebot, and I acknowledge that beers made in the German style make this a slippery question, but come on; no German beers offered at these German festivals? Really?

I usually record past impressions of Oktoberfest in photos, jump to see them.

"Legal loan shark" to occupy prominent North Nashville intersection

I was disappointed to read that a development going in at the corner of Jefferson Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard is Advance Financial, a payday loan business that profits on working-class desperation and houses itself in tedious buildings:

“We’re trying to rebrand and reinvigorate a community,” Kwame Lillard, a community activist and owner of property off Jefferson Street, said. “That’s a sign of regression.”

There’s not much critics can do because the Advance Financial site was already zoned for commercial use and the storefront will meet requirements under the historic district overlay for that area. [CEO Mike] Hodges hopes to eventually win over hearts and minds with the design of the planned building — which includes a glass-and-brick structure with 15 teller windows and a drive-through window ....

“Part of that is a perception issue — our industry has done a very poor job of curbside appeal,” Hodges said. “You’ve got a historically underserved Jefferson Street and we just think it’s a great location. We do well where you have high-traffic intersections.”

Some of their "high-traffic" intersections do not exactly have what I would consider "curbside appeal" (images via Google Maps):

Clarksville Hwy

Tusculum Road

Gallatin Avenue

The concept of a "glass-and-brick structure" does not sound attractive when I see pictures of Advance Financial structures of the same materials elsewhere. Bad enough, they are located on parking lots at odds with walkability but their strip-mall styling is out of character with high density urban character.

Contrast Advance Financial's status quo with the development scenario for Jefferson Street near Rosa Parks Boulevard laid out by the 2010 North Nashville community plan that many of us here helped formulate:

In this development scenario buildings are shown with shallow setbacks sitting close to Jefferson Street with parking placed behind the building. Parking is also located beside the building, and in some cases off-site in other parts of  the Community Center to facilitate shared parking between businesses. New buildings along Jefferson Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard should be among the tallest and most urban in the area. As a transition between mixed use development the existing residential development, new residential building types such as townhomes and multifamily are located on the edges of the Community Center.

How the community plan envisions Jeff St at Rosa Parks

Here's hoping that Advance Financial will not follow its standard practice of showcasing parking lots, especially on a corner dominated by a drug store and gas station with parking in front. However, the 2010 plan also recommends innovative building types compatible with existing residential patterns and increasing neighborhood density. I do not see Advance Financial offering much in the way of innovation given their low-profile, cookie-cutter, convenience-store layout with screaming signs disproportionately mondo to the modest size of their buildings.

In fairness, I have not seen any drawings of the new building, but the current Advance Financial holdings do not offer me much hope that it will fit the community plan or the character of the North End as it has developed. And frankly the existing outlets look trashy and unkempt. The last thing Jeff St needs is the scruffy and dirty look of what passes for "curbside appeal" on Tusculum or Gallatin.

Furthermore, council member Erica Gilmore's comments to journalists do not give me much faith that Advance Financial will bring the quality of life of our community up to what we expected in participating in the planning process: “You don’t want it to be predatory or whatever, but if other banks or businesses aren’t coming in, you have to have something at the end of the day. They’re not going to set up anywhere where people have adequate banking needs.” That's not exactly a ringing endorsement or assurance that the development is going to amount to what the major, historic intersection deserves. (Will the National Museum of African American Music ever be built so that its patrons can stop across the intersection and pick up an Advance Financial loan first for admission and souvenirs?) The fact that CM Gilmore cannot at least throw us a bone to discourage us from feeling like we are a leeward dumping ground for industries that prey on systemic poverty and community hardship is astonishing (Advance Financial will have a bail bonds business as a neighbor).

I do not know whether Advance Financial greased the skids for this deal by donating $7,000 a few months ago to Historic Germantown, Inc. for their October street festival, but I have not heard complaints coming from their affluent end of the community. I did receive a forwarded email exchange in which one festival organizer defended the donation to a critic who called the loan company a "legal loan shark". The festival organizer called the critic "assuming" and offered to send him an invoice next year with their expenses to see how much he could finance before they start soliciting other donations. Hence, I am not expecting bold opposition from Germantown leadership on this question, which means they may get the ugly that they deserve for $7,000. Some living there already complain about their Autozone.

The rest of us free from the Advance Financial dole deserve better, and by better, I mean something along the lines of the community plan that caters to people's everyday lives instead of scoring on their lowest moments.

Scenes from yesterday's Germantown Street Festival

Photos the Germantown Street Festival include shots of Mighty Clouds of Joy and The Long Players:

Salemtown meeting tonight to discuss attracting and retaining families in the neighborhood

From Freddie O'Connell via the Salemtown e-list:

We'll be returning to Morgan Park Community Center for this evenings Salemtown Neighbors meeting, which will start at 6pm.

Tonight, the Executive Board will propose an important series of discussions likely to take several months but critical to how our association considers and hopes to have an impact on our neighborhood. We'll be exploring ways to ensure that families of all types can feel comfortable living in Salemtown without feeling pressured to leave because of the neighborhood lacking an important resource. For families with children, these typically include safety, schools, and social outlets. For families without children, it might be as simple as ensuring that SNNA remains affirming of a diverse community, from twentysomethings to retirees. I don't think anyone on our board has expressed a desire to be exclusive, but I and others have heard concerns expressed about motivating factors for neighbors to leave Salemtown, and we'd like to begin to address these actively to the best of our ability. We hope you'll come participate in a discussion about whether this is a discussion and whether there are actions that it is appropriate for our association to become more deeply involved in.

We'll also get an update from our CAC about the community development block grant, and the Social Committee will make a recommendation about our participation in the Germantown Street Festival, among other items.

Pictures of the Germantown Street Festival: 5K Bier Run

I did some volunteer work this morning for Historic Germantown's 5K Bier Run. I was stationed at Morgan Park near the Magdeburg Connector on the Cumberland River Greenway for the 5K.

And I'll Be Nigel Incubator-Jones

My neighbor Hutch suggested to me this morning that we should have put a banner up on the Salemtown end of 5th for today's Oktoberfest/Germantown Street Festival that reads "Neighborhood of the Fucking Morons." And I replied that something like this could be our kick-off event:

Unpack This

According to one HGI organizer:

[T]the neighborhood is changing with new development and with new residents .... We wanted the [Germantown Street] festival to reflect the diversity that is now defining the area, and we wanted focus on the businesses and professionals that are contributing to the economics of our neighborhood.

Historic Germantown, Inc. Officer Calls Salemtowners "Morons"

Here we are on the eve of separate, but equal neighborhood celebrations ("Germantown Street Festival" and "Oktoberfest"), which were once under one wildly popular banner, "Germantown Oktoberfest," and G-town association officers seem to have lost their composure over a blog post I wrote last week criticizing the planning of a race to include the streets of Salemtown without much more than an inconsiderate, last minute "head's up." Trouble is, they did not direct their rage directly at me but at two innocent bystanders, one of whom is SNNA President and generally irreproachable Freddie O'Connell.

In an e-mail sent to Freddie and published to the Salemtown e-mail list, the HGI Vice President writes:

Please let Enclave Mike know that the Germantown Street Festival, nor does the Breast Cancer Awareness Run or the Music City Marathon need anyone's consent to use the streets of this great city to raise awareness & funds. They only need to petition the local government & secure the proper permits. The last I heard Mike wasn't elected Mayor of Salemtown or anything. He's just a little man with a lot of criticism & NO ideas. Another blogger, just what the world needs less of. Don't bother replying, I have no interest in anything you or Mike have to say.
Bob Williams

I'm still combing Enclave trying to find where I criticized planning of the Breast Cancer Awareness Run or the Music City Marathon. To the contrary, I have promoted the marathon nicely the past couple of years, just like I did Germantown's Oktoberfest before this year. In fact, when HGI approached me in the past with requests to post their Oktoberfest banner ads (like this one), I embedded them without charge as a public service in support of a sister neighborhood.

I cannot exactly act all wounded and exclaim, "This is the thanks I get!" because I didn't directly get the brunt of the bitching about my 5K criticisms. Nor have I been subject to the even more shameful fallout. You see, when the targeted S-towners replied with rational appeals against misdirected anger, Bob Williams wrote back with all of his Germantown Street Festiveness, "You're both fucking morons!" I guess rational deeds don't get by HGI unpunished.

Happy Germantown Street Festival, everybody!

Germantown to Close Down Salemtown for Half the Morning on October 11, No Questions Asked

Live in Salemtown and need to drive out somewhere on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 11? Well, Germantown is closing down our streets half that morning, so you better rearrange your life to suit their tipsy raccoon 5K run. HGI President Stacy Mosley just announced it to us this week, saying that the organizers of the "Germantown Street Festival" (NOT "Germantown Oktoberfest") wanted to highlight our "charm" as they see it with or without our consent.

We'll try to suspend all of our frivolous suspicious person calls in honor of that day. We would like to invite Tennessean reporter and G-town resident Janell Ross to join us on the sidelines as we cheer the runners on along the charming streets of Salemtown before we restart plaguing police in our inimitable race-based ways once again.

Festival of the Tipsy Raccoon

The Historic Germantown, Inc. website makes it official, with what looks like an interesting mascot. There will be two street festivals in October, but only one will be called "Oktoberfest." One person's "changing dynamics and popular development of the area" is another's schism. It's the closing-one-door-opens-other-ones cliche (which looks like diluting a brand). Who's splitting hairs?

The Tipsy Raccoon Fest is slated to extend across the tracks right up to Salemtown's doorstep, Hume Street. No word on whether someone will don a raccoon mascot costume, scare the S-town kids out of Morgan Park, and assume the name "Tipsy the G-town Raccoon."

No More Germantown "Oktoberfest"

I'm hearing that Historic Germantown has severed ties this year with the two participating churches over where last year's Oktoberfest block party proceeds went. As a result their annual Oktoberfest "brand" is the casuality. There is still going to be an event the same weekend somewhere in G-town, but it sounds like they're giving up "brand" for bland by christening it the "Germantown Street Festival." Yawn.

Last year organizers saw a 50% increase in people attending Oktoberfest from the previous year (20,000 to 30,000). So, why fix a brand that ain't broken? Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?


UPDATE: I received the following e-mail from G-town's John Horton:

Please verify your information before publishing. For example, Church of the Assumption and Monroe Street United Methodist are preparing for Oktoberfest 2008 just as they did every year before HGN joined their partnership. Your statement as to why HGN withdrew from the partnership is incorrect and inflammatory. Please be more diligent and publish accurate information or clearly state the information is your opinion based upon rumor.

In my opinion, blogging is a way to verify information by publishing. If I say something at a community meeting that is not exactly correct, someone else can stand up and say, "That's not exactly correct. I have first hand information to the contrary." Writing information that I hear coming from Germantown is not that much different than speaking it. I'm communicating a perception of what is going on that exists. I'm not a journalist nor do I publish this blog under the auspices of professional (a.k.a., "salaried") news reporting. So, in essence most of what I write is interpretative and editorial (except for that publicity in the past that Oktoberfest leaders wrote and asked me to post on the blog, which I did with no fees and with no material gain for myself).

But by allowing comments and adapting my posts based on comments, Enclave is an expression of open social fact-checking, which is more than you'll get from the paid press. Writing here is not static but communicative, and hence, it is everchanging as various perceptions of the truth come in. It is intersubjective.

I was communicating my disappointment based on what I recently heard (which pretty much concedes subjectivity, which may or may not be the same as "rumor," depending on what is meant by "rumor"), open to the possibility that maybe there is a misperception out there. But now I throw it back to Germantown neighborhood and church leaders working on Oktoberfest and the Germantown Street Fest: if there are misperceptions of what is going on out there, then have you adequately communicated your products to the neighborhood?

So, now a Germantown leader gets his view published here because it serves communication. However, it is still clear to me that Oktoberfest looks divided and like a shadow of the strong thing that it was (or maybe I should write "that it seemed," since the perception of strength may have only been a rumor that I should have checked rather than communicated).