Local news media prompts more questions instead of hunting down answers

The hemorrhaging of strong writing continues in the traditional news media.

On the one hand, the Nashville Scene reports that the Tennessean just lost their best investigative journalist, which is sad since the Tennessean rarely bothers investigating much of anything any more. Tough questions are left to be asked by outsiders.

On the other hand, the Tennessean's business section has an intern running down stories and writing copy. Part of that copy regarding the AOL founder's recent visit to Nashville's Entrepreneur Center was "mistaken":

The startup locations Case toured — Bow Truss Building, Marathon Village and the Trolley Barns — were historical buildings left in disrepair for years and just recently renovated by the newly founded Nashville Entrepreneur Center.

To get government funding to renovate these buildings, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center raised funding from private sources and then asked the city to match this funding instead of asking for city funds first.

"(That made it) an easy yes for the mayor," Burcham said, "because there was no risk involved."

To their credit, the Center quickly responded when I tweeted about the intern's mischaracterization of the history of Nashville's historical buildings:

The Tennessean's business section editor came to the defense of his intern saying that the center did raise a lot of funds, which is not the same thing as getting millions in federal aid, a new office above the 2010 flood stage from Metro's own powerful real estate broker (MDHA) and a lot of help from the Mayor's Office. Government seems to have had as much to do with the renovations (not excusing them for their decades of inexcusable neglect of the trolley barns) as did the Entrepreneur Center itself. It seems like a seasoned reporter might have recognized that, and been less likely to leap to the conclusion that EC did it all (as well as Marathon Village renovations!)

Beyond the inaccuracies in the story, other questions prey:

• The original print media stories reported connections between the Entrepreneur Center getting grant money and the purpose of the grants being to support Tennessee flood recovery. The EC moved from its 105 Broadway offices (which flooded and which continue to be occupied by other tenants) to the trolley barns (which did not flood). I don't understand why a government grant dedicated to flood recovery would allow EC to move rather than to repair its Broadway location. The Tennessean editor responded to me yesterday that the EDA did not require flood damage to get the grant. So, why did the original reports link the grant and flood damage as if the latter were a rationale? And why were other businesses allowed to take up space in the Broadway offices that flooded after EC left rather than Metro condemning the property as flood plain?
• In the 2011 coverage of the grant award, the partnering organizations that joined EC in the trolley barn promised that in return for government funding, they would create 300 new jobs in 3 years in Nashville. It is 2014, and I can find no independent source proving that they have created 300 jobs. Did they? If they did, how many of those jobs stayed in Nashville? How many left before the 3 year timeline was used up? I followed up this morning with both the Tennessean business editor and the Nashville Business Journal asking whether EC partners followed through with promised job creation. Neither have responded. It seems to me that independent proof that the jobs were created is vital to taxpayers believing that public funds were appropriately spent on private enterprise. EC received a staggering amount of public financing. Have they paid us back for our investment in them?

It would be nice to find out about community meetings on important developments more than 24 hours in advance

Council member Erica Gilmore sent this MDHA announcement via email 22 hours ago:

As you might be aware, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) has recently started planning for the development of a multi-family residential community on historic Jefferson Street. MDHA is in the very early stages of planning this project and is holding a community meeting with neighbors and neighborhood partners to discuss this exciting new project and answer questions ....

What: A public meeting to discuss preliminary plans to build a multifamily residential community on Jefferson and 16th Street Who: Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA)

When: Thursday, August 1st at 5pm

Where: Matthew Walker Health Center Ingram Community Room 1035 14th Avenue North Nashville, Tennessee 37208

Does MDHA really want the community to attend their feedback events when they fail to give us enough time to put aside other plans in order to attend?

Because of a previously planned commitment this evening I cannot go, so let me know what happens if you do.

Deniable Dean?

Before Thanksgiving I posed the hypothesis that if Karl Dean did not know about the plan to send millions in non-hockey-event sales taxes away from Metro coffers and to the Nashville Predators hockey club then he is either inept of willfully ignorant. According to a late-breaking NewsChannel5 report last week, it looks like more of the latter:

But we've now discovered that they've actually pocketed almost $6 million, and there's another $4 million waiting for them to claim. It's all thanks to a lobbying effort on Tennessee's Capitol Hill.

"I just was a lobbyist, so I put the bill into the legislature," said Nashville attorney James Weaver.

Weaver is the man who went to Capitol Hill to get more of your money.

He's a longtime supporter of Mayor Karl Dean and a former lobbyist for the Nashville Predators.

After the team signed a lucrative new contract with the city in 2008, Weaver now admits he got state lawmakers to send them even more taxpayer money.

"We found out after the legislation had passed," Dean told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

But his longtime ally had a different suggestion.

"It was a public process," Weaver insisted. "Again, the bill was debated in the House, debated in the Senate, passed by both by large margins and signed by the governor."

Does Mayor Dean really expect us to believe--given general claims that mayors possess specialized knowledge of the ins and outs of financial dealings that we are not privy to--that he had no knowledge of a public process of state legislation that redistributed tax dollars to private enterprise? Karl Dean is a lawyer, for crying out loud.

Reporter Phil Williams also found that former Nashville Mayor, former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen inserted language into two different state bills that made the transfer of millions to the Preds possible. Dean worked for Bredesen when the latter was mayor, and a slew of Bredesenistas came to work for the Dean administration--at significant cost to taxpayers--after Bredesen's gubernatorial run ended.

The symbiosis between Dean and Bredesen (both of whom are Davidson Co. Democrats to boot) suggests to me that Dean would have had to have known that the fix was in on these bills. He cannot reasonably claim any deniability unless he simply kept himself willfully ignorant.

The part of this investigation where Dean's ineptness may slouch through is NewsChannel5's finding that MDHA hocked a sweetheart real estate deal to a local business in the convention center footprint that also had personal and influential connections at the Convention Center Authority. If the Mayor's Office prompted special assistance for one business it would be corrupt enough, but the very act of putting MDHA back in charge--after their mishandling of the Music City Center publicity deal with Dean ally, PR firm McNeely, Pigott, and Fox--is stupid and incredible.

Company the Mayor's economic development director called "great" for Nashville mass-fires Canadian workers, may be bankrupt

Karl Dean's man for growth, Matt Wiltshire, called unanimous council support for subsidies for the relocation of technology business IQT, "evidence that it's a great deal for the city." According to published reports from the Great White North, IQT has not been a good deal for Canadian workers. IQT laid off a thousand workers in Quebec and Ontario immediately on payday even though Canadian law requires employers to give two weeks notice and severance pay.

Some reports allege that IQT's actions are retribution for worker attempts to unionize. That would be ironic, given that Mayor Dean considers IQT's relocation a feather in his cap and that the Mayor has been endorsed by labor groups, which themselves may not actually be welcome at IQT headquarters on 2nd Avenue. If the move was made because Tennessee is a right-to-work state, then that might effectively make the workers hired here scabs. 900 Nashville workers forced to take whatever they can scrounge are cheaper than 1,200 Canadians with a higher standard of living.

Doesn't the Tennessean owe us more?

The only recent news from the Tennessean on the Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency (MDHA) has nothing to do with questions raised by the Washington Post about what happened to millions of federal dollars sent to Nashville to develop a North Nashville neighborhood. Instead, their latest offering is the softest-hitting echo piece they could supply MDHA communications manager Julie Oaks, who naturally is a former journo herself once with WKRN.

We learn the momentous news via reporter Stephanie Toone that MDHA will be working in the alley beside Whiskey Kitchen to install a new drive ramp. Further proof that mad journalism skillz will never get in the way of pandering PR at the Tennessean.

Who the hell cares about the black hole for HUD money MDHA seems to be? Nothing to see in North Nashville if the Tennessean has anything to say about it.

Why does the Nashville news media largely give MDHA a pass instead of investigating stories of their waste?

It seems like the only local news media interested in investigating Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency is NewsChannel5. As I recall they were the ones who broke the story on MDHA's mishandling of the budget to pay a local PR firm to sell the Mayor's plan for a new convention center. The Tennessean certainly was slow to touch that story, and I can understand why given that they donated thousands of dollars to the Mayor's cause.

It has been a month since the Washington Post broke a story on money wasted at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sent millions to MDHA for a North Nashville development yet to be developed. After I found the story and blogged on it, my post got some hits from NewsChannel5 traffic, so I figured a broader local audience would finally see the story. This is Ben Hall's May 31 report:

MDHA and its embarrassing mention in a WaPo story on dereliction at HUD

Little wonder that I crack open a Washington Post story--on how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington has squandered millions on plodding projects and failed to hold accountable local developers and housing authorities--and I find Nashville's Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) mentioned in connection with the dereliction.

MDHA has its own documented dubiosity in recent years, including:

• allegations in an independent financial analysis that MDHA was either hoarding money, ripping off HUD, or underpaying its own workforce
• the housing authority allowed a public relations firm to overtax the convention center marketing budget in order to sell the concept to taxpayers
• hiring a Florida construction company for the new convention center with a record of being "most unproductive" and for generating an "inefficient mess" and an "uncoordinated nightmare"
• dragging a streetscape out longer than the projected timeline by generally not staying on top of contractors, but entertaining shortcuts, and ignoring community input on lingering problems
• regular inattentiveness to care and upkeep of Section 8 housing

So, reading that Nashville is among the communities that have black-hole housing developments and authorities that swallow up federal dollars while returning little for the millions concerned prompted no surprise. Here is MDHA's section of the infamous WaPo story:

$1.7 million in funding (2001)

Monticello St., Nashville, Tenn.

Since 2001, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency of Nashville invested $1.7 million in this delayed project, meant to provide about 40 homes for low-income families. Federal money was spent to buy land and put in roads and utilities, but there is no money to start construction. "We essentially kind of moth-balled it for the moment," said Joe Cain, director of development. "We are holding it."

It's bad enough that the federal government does not oversee, regulate, or track the money it sends these local agencies, but MDHA is a bad seed and probably should not be the agency HUD relies on to manage its money in Nashville.

MDHA neglect of Section 8 property mars Salemtown streetscape

A perennial recurrence in Salemtown since I moved here 6 years ago is the failure of Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency to properly care for its Section 8 housing properties. Once again this year MDHA, which manages Housing and Urban Development-subsidized housing, is allowing some of the grass on its properties to rise to a codes-violating height.

The irony in this instance is that the offending 7th Avenue North and Garfield Street property adjoins streetscape elements--crosswalks, period street ID signs, traffic bulb flora, lamppost--that were funded by a HUD block grant. The construction of those elements, which are intended to enhance rather than obstruct neighborhood quality of life, were also managed by MDHA. What QOL MDHA might giveth it also taketh.

Yesterday a band of us went around weeding and cleaning up the traffic bulbs, which in some cases are overwhelmed by the curb-side thickets on 7th Avenue. Today I reported MDHA to Metro Codes for keeping tall grass and the garbage that gets caught there. If you would like to report MDHA for violating Metro Codes, you can do so online after the jump.

MDHA is tourism industry's, Mayor Karl Dean's pocket ace for winning tax revenues where there are none

As you watch Metro Council start discussing (with little debating) Mayor Karl Dean's proposal to bankroll a private hotel chain, Omni Hotels, to lend more credence to the Music City Center, keep in mind some important information that Tennessean reporter Michael Cass passed along today:

Mayor Karl Dean wants to use property taxes from as many as two dozen downtown developments to repay $25 million the city would borrow to buy land for a convention center hotel ....

Some council members and citizens are questioning this particular use of the tool, known as tax-increment financing [TIF], saying it uses money that might otherwise be spent improving streets and other urban infrastructure.

Usually in tax-increment financing, new tax revenue from the development being funded is used to pay back the city. But in this case, because the city has already offered Omni Hotels a substantial discount on its property taxes, there is little left to reap, so the city proposes to turn to taxes from other properties to pay for the land.

Unlike the tourism taxes, which the state requires Metro to spend on a new convention center, these property taxes are a windfall that could be spent on any public infrastructure that might serve the broadest common good. Instead, the $25 million is going to subsidize a hotel which will serve the hotel first, the local restaurant and entertainment industry next, and the business special interests in general next. Any service that might be provided to the public by these property taxes comes in a distant last.

Dedicating our tax dollars to the Omni corporation even serves Karl Dean personally before it serves Nashvillians. By maximizing corporate dollars with property taxes, Mayor Dean is keeping campaign promises he made to wealthy donors to build the Music City Center. Likewise, he is maximizing his chances of getting more campaign donations for his re-election. Leveraging $25 million from MDHA serves Karl Dean's own political career. The return to his war chest will likely be abundant. Outside of short-term construction jobs, common Nashvillians outside of business interests will not see much in the way of improvements in their communities as time goes by.

One of the purposes of TIF is progressive: to provide opportunities for investment and economic development in communities that are underserved and present riskier opportunities for growth. However, the progressive purpose is nowadays stripped away. In its place a trickle-down rationalization is attached suggesting that pouring tax revenues into already developed areas awash in assets and revenues provides jobs to workers who may not otherwise have employment. That is the best the Dean school of progressivism has to offer: a few indirect gains.

The selected So-Bro site is saturated with entertainment money proximate to Bridgestone Arena, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Symphony Hall and swank condos. The neighborhood is knee deep in money. Any one of the three other possible sites recommended by Nashvillians before the Dean Team selected So-Bro would have been a been a truer progressive justification for TIF because each one is more transitional than Lower Broad.

As CM Emily Evans tells Cass, Metro government is changing the public purpose of financing development with extra property taxes to fit the narrow interests. I would add that those are the interests of the party elites who drive politics in this city. We've shifted TIF from funding that assures that all boats rise to funding that protects the interests of a privileged few crumb chuckers. And the damage could be collateral in the Metro budget, as CM Jason Holleman warns Cass: Downtown streetscape improvements may have to be pulled out of the General Fund, which is supposed to be used for neighborhoods across Davidson County. There will be no trickle down for neighborhoods.

I have spent the last few years working with MDHA managers on streetscape issues. I am not surprised that MDHA intends to lavish money on Omni Hotel (like they did when the overspent their PR budget on McNeely Pigott & Fox) to the detriment of even a utilitarian approach that would commit the greatest amount of money to the greatest number of people. They become spendthrifts on matters involving streetscape development that makes a community better, because that community has little or no power to sway Courthouse politics.

The Omni Hotel episode should underscore to voters that we really have two local tax collecting agencies in Metro. One is the bona fide Tax Assessor's Office, which must operate transparently and be accountable to property owners. The other is the Metro Development and Housing Agency, which can collect and hoard taxes beneath the surface, and which can channel money in ways that do not serve the greatest good. As Metro Council discusses Mayor Dean's proposal to use MDHA to channel money to the Omni Hotel corporation I hope that you will think over contacting your council member. I hope you will consider asking them to hold the Mayor accountable for spending public tax money for the genuine public good.

Salemtown Neighbors steps up game, CM Gilmore asks MDHA for streetscape report by the end of the week

At last night's monthly business meeting I reported on MDHA's progress (and lack thereof) on the overextended Salemtown streetscape project (funded by a federal community block grant) from my vantage as a CAC rep over the life of the project. Salemtown Neighbors resolved to send MDHA a letter asking them to finish all of the elements that CAC reps had identified as broken or incomplete even though MDHA declared the project complete and many of the conditions addressed.

Also, CM Erica Gilmore followed up this morning on community criticism of MDHA by asking their project manager for a report with details of all of the completed items by Friday.

In related news, MDHA finally repaired the damaged traffic calming bulb this week. That curb bump out was perhaps oldest and most reported problem-in-need-of-a-solution.

MDHA fails to finish Salemtown streetscape project as promised

If there is any Metro government agency that validates every conservative critic of bumbling big government, it has to be the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.

In what seems to be a never-ending, half-decade, grit-ground crawl to the end, MDHA steadfastly refuses to bring effective closure to the Salemtown streetscape project. The project was supposed to be done 3 years ago. After helping MDHA formulate the concept for the project, which was federally funded by a community block grant, citizen advisors like myself documented and reported conditions needing MDHA attention over the past couple of years. Some of the conditions were addressed, especially when they had the potential to blow up into embarrassing dramas for the housing authority. However, MDHA left many other reported problems of the construction phase broken. These are all conditions that MDHA has promised from the beginning to fix because they happened during the construction phase.

As an elected streetscape advisor to MDHA myself, I reported a damaged traffic bulb at 5th Avenue North and Hume at a dozen meetings at least. The bulb had been damaged when first installed by a driver who likely was not accustomed to it. No problem, said our MDHA project leader. On numerous occasions she told me it would be repaired. I have yet to see it repaired, although she sent me an e-mail this asserting that private contractor, Sessions Paving, did repair it. Considering I pass by the damage several times a week, it appears to me to be a phantom patch.

Other conditions that I have been reporting for months (if not years) include elements like lampposts and signs that were built right into overhanging tree branches, some of which are not small, without any pruning being done. In my opinion the lamppost installers treated their craft with hasty heedlessness that suggested a blatant disregard for our neighborhood, transitional though it might be.

When I asked MDHA to follow once again to have the contractor trim the tree branches back to prevent damage, the project director told me that the final inspection had been done, the limbs were now considered "ongoing maintenance," and thus not MDHA's responsibility. She said an inspector had already been with a "punch list" and certified that all of the conditions (including the damaged traffic bulb!) had been met satisfactorily.

I found this response unacceptable, given that at our last meeting MDHA promised to communicate with us about solutions and we were left with the impression that inspectors would be coming around with CAC members to verify that things had been fixed. So this is where things stand now: MDHA is washing its hands of the laundry list of items that they asked Salemtown to generate for them before the end of the project. We have no paper work from them that authenticates claims that inspectors when through and made legitimate reports addressing each of the conditions they asked us to identify. Their project director is assuming the bureaucratic posture that the conditions are someone else's problem.

So, I feel it my obligation to bring someone else into it to try and persuade MDHA to live up to their responsibility to Salemtown. The day before yesterday I e-mailed CM Erica Gilmore thusly:

CM Gilmore:

MDHA is claiming that they have done a final inspection of the Salemtown streetscape project and are closing it. As an elected Citizen Advisory Committee member I did not find out about this from MDHA project manager Linda Howard until I e-mailed her directly this week letting her know that some problems that I and other CAC members had identified for months still had not received a solution. Linda responded that the project was over and the solutions had already been provided. It was our understanding that MDHA would make an effort to have CAC members at the final inspection. That did not happen. We were also told there would be a final ceremony at Morgan Park. That did not happen.

Despite MDHA's unannounced closure of the project, I believe that as a CAC member I have an obligation to look at all final reports including the punch list that Linda Howard used herself to certify that all the problems had received solutions. Please intercede with MDHA and ask them for copies of all documented conditions and proper documentation of contractor solutions to those conditions, including Linda Howard's punch list.

CM Gilmore responded that she has followed up with MDHA and that she will get back to me.

As their elected representative to this MDHA committee, I ask my fellow Salemtowners to back me up by contacting CM Gilmore (erica.gilmore@nashville.gov) and asking her to intervene and help bring MDHA back to finish the project that they have poorly managed. MDHA is dumping loads of their disposable income into the huge new Downtown convention center hotel project. With all of that money floating around it seems like they could come up with the pittance to solve the Salemtown problems they said they would address and finally close this project to everyone's satisfaction.

Karl Dean's Omni-potent hotel plan

Mayor Karl Dean has unveiled his new proposal for a hotel to go with the Music City Center and it includes our Metro government paying half the cost of the hotel while the Omni Hotel chain will be the sole owner. Sounds like a sweet take for Omni, including deferred property taxes. Heck, such largess has even got the adjacent Country Music Hall of Fame clamoring for some Metro hand outs to retire its debt. Mayor Dean seems to be putting our government in the business of corporate welfare à la Bredesen.

And the news about where revenues are going to come from looks even more interesting:

Metro will pay $25 million next year to cover the cost of the land....That money will come from the coffers of the Metro Development and Housing Agency, where city Finance Director Rich Riebeling says it’s been waiting for a project.

Metro will also pay another $103 million over the next 20 years. Riebeling says that money will come largely from tax revenue the project itself generates.

That is, if the project indeed generates that much money for the next 20 years. This Metro Finance Director is averse to "ifs" on capital projects. However, if it does not generate $103 million, then the General Fund used to pave roads, maintain libraries, and keep community center programming afloat will be raided to prop up the monument to the tourism industry. The Metro Council made sure that those revenues will be committed by approving the Mayor's plan without protecting the General Fund. And note that some General Funds will be obligated even with the $103 million, since the money will come "largely [but not only!]" from project revenue.

The other interesting Riebeling comment regards the $25 million that is just laying around over at MDHA waiting for a project. At a time when Metro departments are tightening their belts and cutting their budgets, at a time when we are losing services, MDHA has a pile of money laying around that was just waiting for a project like Omni? You remember MDHA from last August: they unapologetically, even arrogantly, overspent their public relations/media budget by $400,000. And now they have $25 million just laying around unused to hand out to corporate patrons of Metro government. Seems fairly convenient. I would like to know where those revenues came from. MDHA has a reputation for overcharging residents, hoarding from Uncle Sam, and underspending on housing maintenance. Their habits only seem to grow lavish when wealthy suitors come a'knockin. I would also like to know how those revenues might have been spent had the convention center proposal failed.

All in all, the Mayor's Omni Hotel plan looks up on economic development and down on community development. Sustainability and community are more like fractions than integers in this equation.

Greyhound terminal moves north on Wednesday; permanent location announced

Joey Garrison reports that the Music City Center's relocation of the Downtown Greyhound bus station to a point proximate to Hope Gardens is immanent. And they now have a permanent location elsewhere:

Come Wednesday, the company will operate its Nashville terminal at the former Hansen Chrysler location at 1022 Charlotte Ave. ....

Greyhound secured the temporary bus terminal site in May. The move stalled because Greyhound and Metro Development Agency officials had failed to land a permanent site for the company’s long-term relocation.

According to sources, an announcement for Greyhound’s eventual move to property at Lafayette Street and Fifth Avenue is expected in the coming weeks.

I suppose that those of us who were affected by clandestine moves that Metro took to spirit the blighted terminal out of Downtown and closer to residential neighborhoods in the north can breathe a sign of relief that it will not be permanent. Hopefully locals understand the lengths to which the Mayor's Office will go to accommodate the business interests Downtown. We also witnessed the limitations of our council member to speak up for us against the powers that be. Knowing what Ms. Gilmore cannot or will not do gives us a head start next time.

Where do Convention Center Authority minutes reflect the decision to relocate the Greyhound bus terminal northward to make way for Music City Center?

After pointing out that the Convention Center Authority meeting agendas do not clearly notify the community of action to move the Greyhound bus terminal to Charlotte and 11th, I went back and looked through all of the minutes to see if the official CCA records reflect authorization for a new lease with Greyhound (signed on May 5).

I cannot see any record of authorization in the minutes; in fact, I cannot find a single mention of Greyhound in any of the minutes of CCA going back to October 2009 or in those of CCA's Construction Committee going back to February 2010. The Tennessean provides an unofficial written record in an op-ed written by CCA's Marty Dickens and MDHA's Phil Ryan, who along with CM Erica Gilmore tried last Friday to tamp down North Nashville frustrations over the hushed and veiled signing of the relocation lease. Here is what they wrote:

All these factors were thoroughly discussed at a meeting of the Convention Center Authority’s construction committee, before a recommendation went to the full authority for approval of a 13-month lease, with the option to extend the lease for an additional three months.

Note that these Courthouse insiders had problems recalling dates themselves, and they obviously could not depend on the meeting minutes to get their timeline straight between them.

Other actions CCA took are specifically described:

• "Mark Arnold made a motion to approve the Commonwealth Development Group, Inc. and Bone McAliester Norton, PLLC contract amendments" (misspellings not corrected)
• "Leo Waters made a motion to approve the lease agreement between MDHA and the CCA memorializing the Convention Center Authority's right to be on MDHA's property"
• "Leo Waters made a motion authorizing the Authority to accept the guaranteed maximum price in an amount not to exceed $415 million"

It seems curious and strange to me that the minutes would reflect in copious detail the other actions of the CCA and its committees, and yet not refer specifically to the Greyhound decision. Can you find any specific reference in the minutes?

There are a number of vague transcriptions where I guess the relocation discussion could be hidden. Here is one passage that tells us next to nothing and looks like a waste of space:

Leo Waters, Chair of the Construction and Development Committee, was then asked by Mr. Dickens to report. Mr. Waters gave an overview of what the committee had discussed. Larry Atema was asked to give a project update. There was discussion about the project and land.

Unless the Greyhound bus terminal situation lies somewhere between "project and land," there is no official evidence in the Metro meeting minutes that relocation or a lease were authorized. If the authorization happened, why was the CCA so bashful about publicizing it before the media found it and the community dragged the details out in the May 27 meeting? Did the Music City Center honchos figure it was so toxic that any mention of it would draw undue and unfriendly attention to it?

CM Gilmore compares local Greyhound relocation critics to indecorous heckler, blames MDHA, MCCC for lack of transparency

In a Friday opinion column in the Tennessean, CM Erica Gilmore responded to those constituents who have been critical of the Greyhound bus terminal relocation and the seeming lack of transparency in zoning approval and in the lease signed with the Convention Center Authority. The first thing that leaps out at me about her self-defense is her comparison of the more expressive of her own constituents to Republican U.S. Congress member Joe "You Lie" Wilson:

“You lie” are the words that rang out in our nation’s capital this year as a member of the House of Representatives heckled the president during his address to Congress. Epithets were spit on several of our representatives and senators during the passing of the health-care reform bill. Need less to say, distrust is at an all-time high while civility is at an all-time low.

So in an environment where everyone is looking for someone to blame, about two weeks ago I received a barrage of calls and e-mails sharing every type of sentiment under the sun about the relocation of the Greyhound bus terminal.

CM Gilmore starts off with patent exaggerations about the blow back Metro is getting over this relocation. Everyone is not looking for someone to blame. Overgeneralizing about legitimate concerns, questions, and comments Ms. Gilmore should listen to as an elected official will not satisfy people who feel excluded from power moves affecting their community.

Ms. Gilmore herself has sent mixed messages to alarmed constituents on what she knew when. In a May 22 letter, Ms. Gilmore told neighbors that while there was some confusing back-and-forth over whether Greyhound was going to move to Charlotte and 11th, she did have prior knowledge. That letter seemed to be written with a air of reassurance rather than defensiveness.

However, in Friday's column she refers to her prior knowledge as based on something more fleeting and cursory, a "mention in passing." Results that were a "little unclear" to Ms. Gilmore on May 22 became "shocking" the day-before yesterday, and the opinion piece seems self-defensive. In spite of her own indictments of relocation critics as blamers, she herself points the finger of blame for the artful, finessed decision at other parties: "MDHA, Music City Center Coalition [Authority?], and Greyhound."

But Erica Gilmore was not delivering the State of the Union as the American President when she drew community ire for not doing more, and relocation critics are not indecorous hecklers like Joe Wilson shouting in public that she is a liar. As an elected official she should be held accountable when Metro seals deals in her district, under her watch. And she should not try to confuse public accountability with coarse incivility. Her opinion piece is ironically disparaging toward constituents at this point.

Finally, she falsely insists that the only challenge with Greyhound is whether they keep their word that the lease is only temporary. There are a host of challenges beyond that, but let us assume for a second that every challenge with relocating to Charlotte and 11th is met and dealt with satisfactorily. There still remains one more test to pass: if they used the Downtown Code once to relocate temporarily, will they use it again to relocate permanently, perhaps farther north on Jefferson Street, closer to neighborhoods like Germantown and Salemtown? CM Gilmore has a long way to go to convince us that she is on top of affairs like this surely and critically enough to appreciate the risks to our neighborhoods.

Sometimes late is not any better than never: now that Greyhound signed a lease to relocate, CM Erica Gilmore schedules a public meeting

Since the Convention Center Authority's bid to sneak the Downtown Greyhound bus terminal to Charlotte Avenue and 11th Avenue North on the Q.T., the District council member, Erica Gilmore, has issued ever more formal media advisories. Today's is consistent with CM Gilmore's recent pattern of communication:



The release calls the relocation a "proposal." This is misleading if we are to believe what we were told at the Hope Gardens-sponsored community meeting last week: that Greyhound has already signed a lease. The Greyhound move to the old Hansen Chrysler dealership is a done deal. In fact renovations have already started and parking stripes have already been painted.

The first question that needs to be asked is why are the Metro media flacks who crafted this advisory for CM Gilmore spinning and distorting this as a "proposal" when the parties have all signed on the dotted line? I cannot see our neighborhoods having any influence at all now that the deal is contractual.

Therefore, the ostensible purpose of next Monday's meeting is to try and influence community opinions that seem to be weighing against the relocation and to try to soften the shock over the growing perception that CM Gilmore knew about the terminal agreement and chose not inform her constituents until reporters discovered the story. If the purpose of the meeting is to allow public feedback and influence, the timing of the meeting could not be worse. It should have happened before the lease was signed.

As it is, it would be more honest not to have another public meeting about Charlotte and 11th at all outside of those to which Greyhound has agreed in order to work directly with neighborhood associations to keep crime and blight in check.

After missing last week's meeting, MDHA is sending their executive (the beleaguered housing agency still controls business relocations in the convention center project). Police Commander Huggins was kind enough to attend last week's meeting, and his input will be welcome on Monday. The Metro planner still needs to produce a valid explanation for how the Downtown Code allows special relocation privileges for the Convention Center Authority without any input from community "stake-holders" affected by cynical Courthouse power moves.

However, it is a mystery to me why the Director of Room in the Inn is attending, other than the offices are near the Music City Center site, too, and hence, subject to relocation. One rumor I heard--denied by an CCA spokesperson last week--had either or both the Campus for Human Development and the Men's Rescue Mission being considered for relocation to Jefferson Street near Germantown. Other than considering other possible moves within the urban core what will Father Strobel be there to do Monday? Vouch for the way Greyhound terminal enhanced the quality of life on the block?

Finally, note that the Mayor's Office has still not committed to attend (they were invited to last week's Hope Gardens event), but maybe someone there wonders as I do where they will be allowed to park at the Downtown TSU campus. I have no idea where I will be able to park or if I need to load my pockets full of change to feed meters or parking attendants. That has me wondering why the powers-that-be did not schedule this meeting in a church or a neighborhood center with plenty of parking that people do not have to vet before they go. Why did Metro leaders not provide a more user-friendly venue for this public meeting?

Probably because it will not amount to a hill of beans anyway.

CM Gilmore needs to work more diligently with the North End neighborhoods to come up with solutions for tightening the Downtown Code so that neighborhoods receive early warning and proper notice from a transparent government in future planning. Otherwise, Monday's meeting looks like window dressing to me.

IMPORTANT MEETING TONIGHT!! On Greyhound Bus terminal relocation northwest of Downtown

From this morning's Hope Gardens e-list:

Time: May 27, 2010 from 6pm to 7pm
Location: First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill 625 Rosa L Parks Boulevard
....

Hello all,

If you haven't heard, we are getting the greyhound bus terminal in our area. Many of us oppose this and have been working to get rid of the terminal. Supposedly the terminal will only be there for 15 months (too long in my opinion, but not permanent).

That said, we've learned our lesson about trusting the nashville government. Last year we were promised that our children would always have the option to go to the Hillwood cluster (good schools) over our zoned school district (bad schools). They lied to us. We do not have that option. So we need to make sure they keep their promise that this is only temporary.

We believe this is a very undesirable thing to have near us. Murfreesboro road residents felt the same way and defeated a relocation to their area last year.

John Shenk has scheduled a meeting tomorrow with the government agencies responsible for this secret move (no one was told / consulted about the relocation of the terminal. -- though Erica Gilmore knew she did not tell any of us). The media will be there. We need you there. We need as many people to come as possible to show strength & solidarity in our numbers.

On a related note, I've left a message with Joe Cain at MDHA to call me in order to request a copy of the lease between the Convention Center Authority and Greyhound. This lease should be public record. I'll keep calling Mr. Cain until I get a response, and I'll go over to MDHA later if I have to.

CM Erica Gilmore says she supports the community but she also supports controversial Greyhound relocation

With her own neighbors in Hope Gardens going ballistic and the nearby Salemtown association considering joining the opposition to the move of the Downtown Greyhound bus terminal to the northern Gulch area, District 19 council member Gilmore issues the following press release by e-mail a little over an hour ago (the emphasis on the Music City Center's part in this controversy is mine):

Gilmore Supports the Community More Safety and More Transparency

Council Lady Gilmore supports the community-Charlotte Pike should not be a final destination for Greyhound. In an e-mail released two days ago, Holly McCall, who represents the The Convention Center Authority, said "That the Convention Center Authority/MDHA recommended the lease for 13 months" for the Greyhound bus station. The Convention Center Authority is the governing body that made this decision assured Gilmore and constituents via e-mail that the lease is a gap-stop which means that it is a temporary location; and that Charlotte Pike is not the final destination.

The decision made by the Convention Center Authority was based on several factors: 1) it already fits into the allowed zoning for the commercial district,the fact that it already permits the zoning without needing any special variances or special use permits 2) As it was a car dealership, it proved economically efficient to retrofit for the terminal, and it is also close to interstate access, an important feature to Greyhound.

Gilmore believes as Nashville moves forward that transit is an integral part of the city's success and that businesses such as Greyhound should seize the opportunity to provide such a high quality service to citizens so that they can view the business as a part of the solution to the city's needed improvement for transit services, versus a safety hazard. "Unfortunately, because of citizen's perception of the business, they view it as a drain on the city when in fact if both the city and Greyhound would partner, the two could really offer some innovative high quality transportation to the residents of Nashville," said Council Lady Gilmore.

Additionally, Gilmore believes since the government has done such a good job in many areas of keeping the citizens informed, transparency still can be improved upon even when there are not zoning changes required by the Metropolitan Nashville City Council. "We must still find ways to keep our constituency informed with public notices through the various departments and agencies when there are no required zone changes, or special variances. We must get the message to our citizens that they are welcomed-we want their involvement.

Additionally, the different arms of government must work together in a coordinated effort through their City Councilmembers to make sure that citizens remain involved and informed. When permits are pulled for a Councilmember's district, the Councilmember should receive a notice even if it does not require special zoning or variances," said Council Lady Gilmore.

I'll look back through my e-mails but I do not remember receiving anything from the Convention Center Authority on this move. This episode supports public perceptions that Metro government led by the Mayor's Office refuses to be transparent to the community about decisions that affect us.

Any initial thoughts on Ms. Gilmore's support for both the community and the Greyhound terminal?

No pleasant surprises from MDHA during my blogging break

During my sabbatical from February 8 to April 8, even with some beautiful breaks in the cold weather, very little progress was made on the Salemtown streetscape project, which should have been finished months ago. In the past few days construction crews have painted some of the stamped crosswalks, but just like last fall, warmer temperature days were wasted. And there are still lingering problems that have yet to be fixed despite the fact that I reported them to MDHA long ago and repeatedly.

We have a community meeting with MDHA tomorrow night at 6:30 announced as a kind of closure meeting in spite of the loose ends. I'm not feeling good that MDHA will finish this strong.

Mike Turner, coal bearer

There's an old British expression meant to convey the futility of some action. A futile action is said to be like "carrying coal to Newcastle." In the 15th century that English town became famous for its coal mines and export of coal. Hence, carrying coal to a place rife with coal is a monumental waste of time.

Democratic state legislator Mike Turner is carrying coal to Newcastle by introducing a bill to allow Nashville's Mayor to appoint the Director of the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency instead of the decision being left up to the MDHA Board. Turner's attempt is both empty and disingenuous as it seems to suggest that the Mayor has no control over MDHA. On the contrary, the Mayor's Office appoints MDHA Board members, so there is already some control. Perhaps the Mayor should consider appointing board members who critically question the MDHA Director rather than rubber-stamping decisions. The attempt to give the Mayor more control is empty symbolism and a distraction to solving what is wrong with this administration.

Now, if you reject the Newcastle metaphor as archaic, I've got another one for you. Mike Turner is simply carrying Karl Dean's water. However, giving Karl Dean appointment control over the MDHA post is only carrying his water in a sieve. It is a monumental waste of time that fools the local mainstream media who seem charmed by that crap.