Roadway Hypocrisy: What's Good For "Korean Veterans" Is Not Good for Bordeaux Residents

I had no dog in the fight over Brenda Gilmore's attempt to have the Council rename County Hospital Road to "Bordeaux Boulevard." Opposition to her measure seemed to be growing since May based on a perception that some businesses on the road opposed it even as Ms. Gilmore was arguing that the community supported it. That perception was probably the reason why Ms. Gilmore's ordinance went down to defeat 17-13 last night.

This was one of the first attempts to rename a road since the controversial renaming of Downtown's Gateway Boulevard to "Korean Veterans Boulevard." So, I zeroed my attention on how the 3 most vocal proponents of renaming Gateway--Rip Ryman, J.B. Loring, and Eric Crafton--voted last night. I did not detect the slightest bit of empathy from any of the three. All voted against Ms. Gilmore, and Mr. Ryman's on-camera facial expressions during Ms. Gilmore's remarks looked like he was less than cordial to her request.

Their opposition may border on hypocrisy, since there was neighborhood opposition to renaming Gateway expressed both to Council and to the Planning Commission. During the Gateway debate all three members either ignored or, in Mr. Ryman's case, minimized neighborhood opposition to renaming a boulevard that was not even in their own districts. Last night Mr. Crafton exercised his own two faces when he called attention to the Planning Commission's disapproval of Ms. Gilmore's request, even as he ignored the Planning Commission's disapproval of renaming Gateway Boulevard in March and April for reasons salient to the proposal itself.

For all of their sanctimonious hand-wringing and chest-pounding about the urgency of renaming a road outside of their districts for their own pet cause, one would think that Mr. Ryman, Mr. Loring, and Mr. Crafton would have shown a little more understanding toward Ms. Gilmore who was at least advocating for a road name in her own district.

David Briley's Height Restriction Bill Passes

Urban neighborhoods finally (pending the Mayor's sig) have a clear standard in place as Metro Council closes the three-story loophole.

Salemtown Wins! Metro Council Approves Planning Commission's Recommendation for Single Family Home Zoning on 6th

It has been a challenge, but Salemtown residents finally got the balance they demanded for months with the Metro Council approving the Planning Commission's recommendation of zoning for single-family homes on three of the six Salem Gardens properties. When the bill's time came up, Ludye Wallace merely moved to approve and the Council followed suit. All that is needed now is the Mayor's signature.

While the Salem Gardens group is definitely going to build three duplexes, the future status of the three single-family zoned properties is now up in the air and up to the owners. Two of the SFH properties have blighted triplexes owned by UP, LLC, which has said that it will build no SFHs in Salemtown. If they stand by those words, their options are to continue to manage the triplexes, to sell the properties, or to start the re-zoning request process all over (which would not be wise, given the neighborhood resolve and the Planning Commission and Metro Council strikes against them). The remaining SFH property is owned by Salem Gardens partners, who told Salemtown Neighbors that they would either look into the possibility of building a SFH or they would sell.

Ludye deserves some credit for finally coming through, but the real catalysts in this valuable win were all of the Salemtown Association members who volunteered to attend Metro meetings, to write council members, and to go door-to-door with a petition. Also, I am still amazed by the stunning response of the Planning Commission on behalf of the neighborhood. I honestly thought before their unanimous vote that our chances were remote. I think that the developers underestimated us, too. I am not sure that we would have won without their wholehearted support.

Amphitheatre Resolution Deferred

Metro Council voted tonight to defer on 2nd reading the resolution to approve the development of an amphitheatre on the old Downtown thermal site.

The Very Last 2006-2007 Infrastructure Request, and Guess Who It Is From?

Ludye Wallace made an emergency request to draw discretionary money from "infrastructure" funds, and it had to do with his previous request for $22,250 for MDHA. If I understood him correctly, his resolution is to stipulate that the funds could be spent on Edmondson Park (Charlotte Av.) as well as an originally requested mini-park on Jefferson Street. There was no objection to the request and council voted to approve.

Rose Park Bill Challenged on First Reading

Ludye Wallace's resolution to move the process along on behalf of Belmont University's expansion into Rose Park was brought into debate at the request of at-Large Member Carolyn Baldwin Tucker, who expressed her opposition on behalf of the Edgehill residents. The Council voted to approve Ludye's bill with a recorded roll call vote, requested by 5 members. I'll post the votes of the candidates for the August 2 election as soon as I get them. Obviously, Ms. Tucker, who is running for Vice Mayor, voted against the resolution.

Cheater's Wheel

During Metro Council discussion tonight on appropriating $1.187 million to the W.O. Smith School, Council Member Ludye Wallace tried to spin Metro's commitment to the school into an analogous commitment to the Hadley Park Junior Tennis Program. According to Ludye, the Metro Council expressed a $60,000 "commitment" last July to the Tennis Program. He conveyed the wish that the Mayor would consider following through with the $60,000 commitment the same way the $1.187 million commitment is being met.

Outside of being two non-profits focused on youth, the two programs have nothing to do with each other. Hence, Ludye Wallace, who knows parliamentary procedure better than any other council member, was out of order in bringing the tennis program into the debate. That fact alone was cause for turning his microphone off (which did not happen).

But Ludye omitted one very important detail about the Council's 2006 attempt to send $60,000 to the tennis program: they tried to pull money out of a fund that the Mayor had allotted to help poor people without means pay their utility bills. They attempted to cut public services for poor people and then funnel the money to a tennis non-profit, whose Director had been warned for years to stop relying on public funds. Where is the nobility in that?

And they only failed to move the money because the sponsor screwed up last July and confused the non-profit tennis program with a for-profit tennis program with a similar name, which automatically kicked the funds back into the General Fund that is subject to the Mayor's discretion. Who would honestly blame the Mayor if he did not honor their tennis "commitment" under those circumstances?

But Ludye was also not entirely honest about the $60,000 commitment; nor was he honest about the Mayor's support. Five months ago the council approved a resolution sending $18,000 out of discretionary funds to the Hadley Park Junior Tennis Program and the Mayor signed off on it. So, almost a third of the commitment has already been met with the support of the Mayor.

Ludye was cheating on the numbers in his spin. If the tennis program fails to get the remaining $42,000, then the loss can be chalked up to botched original sponsorship, and that balance should go back to support people who cannot afford to heat their homes in the winter.

Tombs of Unknown Immigrants

WARNING: This post contains a link to a gallery of graphic images of corpses in various states of decomposition. The images will be disturbing to many, as they should be. You have been forewarned.

ACK is using the news of another Nashvillian killed by an intoxicated illegal immigrant driver to beat the drum that enforcement of immigration laws would have kept that Nashvillian alive.

I'll not pursue the argument as I have in the past that his logic is fallacious in so far as lots of conditions beyond illegal immigration could have prevented that Nashvillian's death, too. That argument has merits, but it is generally ignored by ACK and other fervent immigration critics.

The news of the tragic death has whipped up the usual round of hostility toward immigrants--with the predictable characterizations of foreign lives as meaningless--as if all illegal immigrants live to drink and then drive around killing Nashvillians. To the contrary, there are bad illegal immigrants, but there are also good illegal immigrants.

But the underbelly of illegal immigration generally goes ignored by the deportation rhetoric focused on undifferentiated immigrants (and particularly Hispanics) as a group. There is tragic loss of life on both sides, and the zealots who write about illegal immigration focus on the death of Americans, of Nashvillians, without regard for the death of immigrants who risk everything they have to reunite with family members in America or who are fleeing squalor for a better life here.

If you care to look hard enough, you can find those traces of tragic deaths of immigrants (men, women, and children) whose stories, unlike those of the deceased Nashvillians, will never be told and will never be used to beat a political drum with the passion that critics do.

The Texas Observer, in an online supplement to a recent story they did on the killing fields in Brooks County, Texas, provides a gallery of the corpses of unknown, weak and unlucky immigrants caught in the machinery of black market human trafficking, a market that will probably grow even more lucrative and more deadly when and if mass deportations begin.

I offer the link not to minimize any innocent killed by the vicious behavior of some illegal immigrants. I offer it to balance out the nativist vitriol and thirst for vengeance.

Nashville Women's Political Caucus Candidates Reception Tomorrow Night

Click on image to enlarge.

HT: Freda Player

Tonight's The Night

The Salem Gardens rezoning bill is up for third and final reading at tonight's council meeting. What will Ludye do? Will he support the Planning Commission, the neighborhood association, and over 70 Salemtown residents who signed the petition by moving for passage of the bill that would require 3 single family homes to balance 3 duplexes? What will he tell his fellows about failing to have a community meeting as promised? Will he defer yet again? Only Ludye knows what he is going to do.

Court Allows Metro and Belmont to Continue with Rose Park Plans

The City Paper reports that the Judge has cleared the way for the Belmont move to the Board of Zoning Appeals with their plans for Rose Park.

A Franchise That I Require

The worst part of owning a big dog is the big poop I have to clean up around the yard that stacks up each week before the trash man comes. Pet Butler cannot come to Nashville soon enough for me, and ten bucks a week sounds like a good deal as long as I do not go anywhere near doggy doo any more. So, if any of you enterprising entrepreneurs are looking into franchising, just let me know. I'll be your first customer.

HT: bizgrrl

NCP has Overview of District 19 Candidates

The City Paper provides a summary of the candidates' talking points, including those of Janice Davis and Keith Pitts, whom we have not seen yet in Salemtown. Are they less committed to working for us on the North End than Erica Gilmore, Freda Player, and David Shaw? Those three have been visible and audible here. Ms. Davis seems wholly devoted to the Rose Park/Belmont controversy.

Ghost Ballet Frame Foreground

This the 34th Day Since Councilman Ludye Wallace Declared That He Would Hold a Community Meeting in Salemtown

So, will he move to approve tomorrow or move to defer? More importantly, will he tell the Council that he had a community meeting?

Still Fails to Answer the Question of Whether You Can Build a House "Too Low"

The eternal question--which only council members who are not running for office are allegedly free to ask--of whether you can build a house underground will probably go unanswered tomorrow night as David Briley's height restriction bill is up for third and final reading. They just need to pass this thing, get some measurable standards in place, and let "Lawyer Dread" address the superfluous minutiae.

Bill Would Recoup Losses on False Alarm Responses by Raising Alarm Permit Fees

I imagine those of us with security alarms have gotten off rather easily only paying $10.00 a year (residential). I also imagine that the costs of police response to false alarms is substantial, given the number of alarmed homes now.

Metro Council intends to change that by doubling both residential and commercial fees tomorrow night on third reading. While I wish that the residential raise would have been closer to $15.00, I'm not entirely opposed to this fee increase. Someone has to pay for false alarms, and going after the owners individually would probably involve a complaint and appeal process that would end up costing Metro even more, thus requiring even higher fees.

Blogging Pelton Is Not the Real Pelton?

V-Squared reports that at-Large candidate and newly minted right-wing firebrand Dave Pelton is not blogging his own posts even though they are written in first person as if he were blogging.

If true, it is more of a Romper Room no-no than a huge bloody transgression, but if I were given the choice between a candidate who blogs less frequently but honestly because of campaign demands and one who has a hired front man shilling under the candidate's name, I would prefer the former over the latter.


UPDATE: Pelton Campaign Manager says it is not true.

More Alarming Than Mere Spite

Charlie Tygard told the City Paper that some fellow council members want to "test the real estate market" and possibly sell the most valuable piece of Tennessee property (the old thermal site) to private developers.

Set the red flags to waving. Public ownership of that land makes our community much more wealthy than it would be should a clique of council members offer it to their development buddies. Only short-sighted leaders sell the long-term value of land for the short-term value of cash.

Petty Spite from Charlie Tygard?

The City Paper reports that Council Member and at-Large candidate Charlie Tygard, who originally supported the idea of an amphitheatre on the old Downtown thermal site, is now threatening to oppose it because the Mayor's Office is still not giving his district enough money to build a library (although they are getting enough money to buy land for a library). It sounds like, even if an amphitheatre were the best use for Nashville over all of the property, Charlie Tygard would still oppose it on smaller-minded grounds. No surprise there. He did it before in opposing Court House renovations.

Scene Corrects Online Anecdote About Howard Gentry

They added an editor's note to the body of Jeff Woods' Political Notes hit piece on the mayoral candidate.

Council Bill Would Regulate After Hours Clubs

A bill sponsored by Council Members Adam Dread and Mike Jameson that would require registration and regulation of after hours clubs (those that stay open after 3 a.m. and allow patrons to bring in alcohol) is up for first reading at Metro Council tomorrow night. According to the bill, over 560 calls to Metro Police were made from these clubs over a 2 year period.

Maine Steps Ahead of Tennessee in Promoting Small Business by Protecting Net Neutrality

Maine becomes the first state to pass legislation protecting net neutrality, making it a more attractive place (than Tennessee, for instance) for launching tech industry start-ups.

Controversial Downtown Westin Eighty-Sixed?

Rumors seem to abound about unworkable redevelopment lines and slow condo sales.

"Neighborhoods Mayor" Still an Unfilled Campaign Niche

According to this morning's Tennessean, demand is still high for at least one of the mayoral candidates to step up strongly and be a pro-neighborhoods advocate. We are less than two months away from the election and so far all we are hearing are half-baked ideas that are not nearly as seismic as the 1999 formation of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods.

Columns and Steps

The Tennessean's Use of "Adult Entertainment Businesses" is Air-Brushed Racial Code

This morning's Tennessean reports:

Unlike brothels operated from massage parlors or adult entertainment businesses, many Hispanic brothels are set up in regular homes or apartments, right in the middle of Nashville neighborhoods. That can pose a problem for adults and children who live in those areas and are exposed the business of prostitution.

Let's read between the lines. The real implication here is: "Unlike white brothels ..., many Hispanic brothels ...."

The Tennessean is in part feeding uninformed racial stereotypes. Brothels and prostitution are social problems, not just cultural or racial problems. Salemtown is predominantly white and African American and we recently had blighted duplex that was being used as a brothel; and our neighborhood is full of children.

When I lived over on Blair Boulevard in the Hillsboro-Belmont area (as white a neighborhood as any could be) the police raided and closed down a brothel in an attractive rental single family house. That house stood less than a block from mine.

I remember passing nice bungalows around 12South in the 1990s and seeing traffic going in and out alley entrances with no visible signs of legitimate business and wondering if something shady was going on inside them.

People hook in neighborhoods across race and economic boundaries, and I believe that the problem should not be addressed as a Hispanic or a white or an African American or a poor or a rich one.

This the 31st Day Since Councilman Ludye Wallace Declared That He Would Hold a Community Meeting in Salemtown

As many days as a month can hold have now passed since Ludye promised a community meeting in Salemtown before Tuesday's Council Meeting. Unless he plans on calling each one of us and personally inviting us over the weekend, I think that it is safe to say that he broke his promise.

Hot Times at the American Artisan Festival

Lame Duck Goes to Bat for Belmont and Attempts to Circumvent Court Order

Ludye Wallace has gone salty again, this time on a court mandate prohibiting Metro from going through with approval of Belmont University's proposed athletic builds in the Edgehill neighborhood. "Salty Papa" plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that, if passed on three readings, will "authorize" the Metro Parks Department to "execute" the Belmont Plan. The affected neighborhood association submitted a petition to Ludye with over 300 signatures opposing Belmont's expansion, according to this morning's City Paper. Obviously, Ludye is unmoved by popular opposition.

Given Ludye's lame duck status (he is done after August 2) and the neighborhood opposition from those Ludye is supposed to be representing, I wonder what Ludye stands to gain from this in the end. This inquiring mind would like to know if there is pay back from the increasingly influential and ably lawyered Baptist university in Ludye's post-Council future. It seems to me that the court mandate should have motivated the council member to take a step back and to allow the legal process to take its course before taking sides. Even as anti-neighborhood as Ludye has been lately, I am surprised by his rather brazen contempt for a reasonable court order.

Since the bill is up for first reading, it will probably pass on consent with all of the bills on first reading; but with any luck this bill will go the way of so many other misguided resolutions under Ludye's sponsorship and die the death of deferrals. If Belmont is going to win this thing they should have to expend some legal funds rather than relying on a lame duck to beat 300 neighborhood signatures.

Backdrops of the Day Become Night Conscious

Mayoral Candidate Briley Coming Back to Germantown on June 24

It's not exactly "D" to the "A" to the "V-I-D-B, R-I-L-E-Y," but the invitation just got here:

"B" to the "A" to the "R-A-C-K": One for the "No Free Publicity is Bad Publicity" File

A crush and a catchy track. "Barack" can now be used as a verb.

HT: ACK

Scene Fails to Correct Online Article Containing False Info on Gentry

As of this morning, the Nashville Scene's erroneous anecdote on Howard Gentry's night spent with the homeless on the streets during Urban Plunge remains posted with no edits on their website. Instead, the editorial staff buried a correction at the end of the Love-Hate Mail section along with a correction of an error they previously made on an art show. As if slandering a mayoral candidate with a fabricated story posing as fact was on the same level as trifling with a social calendar.

Sean Braisted points out that the Scene's minimalist bygones do not solve the problem of being able to hit on the slanderous anecdote with a simple Google search absent any link to the correction. In all fairness, the Nashville Scene should post a correction at the beginning of the original online post in font at least as large as they use to write:


If they were really feeling apologetic and accountable, then they would strike the false bits in Jeff Woods's piece with a single thin line, too.


UPDATE

Now That I've Apologized to Mr. Gentry, I Need a Favor from Him

Well, it is not really a favor, since it concerns the quality of life in Salemtown and a codes violation on the part of one of his "longtime senior advisors." It is more of an expressed expectation than a favor.

I would like Mr. Gentry to encourage his advisor, Brooks Parker, to attend to the upkeep of his 4 properties at the corner of 6th Av. and Hume St. The weeds and grass have grown chest high. That is a violation of the Metro Code against allowing weeds and grass to grow over a foot tall, unless they are being cultivated as part of a garden or set back from the front property line 15' in order to cultivate a "natural state."

The photo of one of Mr. Parker's properties indicates that the tall vegetation is neither part of a garden nor part of a "natural state" setback, but it is basically the result of neglect on the owner's part. There is no telling what kinds of vermin are living in that tangle.

Mr. Parker is also neglecting his properties by allowing trash and garbage to accummulate there. According to the 2005 Code, Mr. Parker is endangering the public health, safety, and welfare by ignoring these problems. I tend to assume that a Mayoral Candidate, especially one who served on the Metro Council when the grass code was passed, would be less than satisfied with an advisor basically breaking the law and endangering the health, safety, and welfare of the Salemtown neighborhood.

And, speaking of the health, safety and welfare of our neighborhood, I wonder whether you believe that a sign posted on one of Mr Parker's rental units creates safer conditions in Salemtown. The sign warns: "Intruders will be shot." Is hot lead flying around Hume Street and endangering innocent by-standers (like the dozens of children playing around the neighborhood or the increasing numbers of Werthan pedestrians walking their pooches in the vacinity) something worthy to promote by a Senior Gentry Campaign Official?

With overgrown grass, broken windows and some visible boards, it looks evacuated, but to tell you the truth, the sign alone discourages me from going up to the door to find out. Nonetheless, the last thing I want to hear in Salemtown is gunshots after we have worked so long and hard for 3 years to make gunshots a rare thing. If the house is indeed empty, then might Mr. Parker board up the premises more securely to discourage intruders?

Blogger Catches Scene Political Writer Passing on Fabrication About Gentry

First, I owe Mayoral Candidate Howard Gentry an apology. While sitting in the Sylvan Park Goldie's Deli yesterday morning, waiting for my take-out breakfast, I made the mistake of picking up last week's Nashville Scene. That was my first mistake.

Then I made my second mistake: reading Jeff Woods's anecdote about Mr. Gentry trying to use his high-profile name to get into the Nashville Rescue Mission in order to sleep during his participation in Urban Plunge after all the beds were full.

I confess to Mr. Gentry that my final mistake was forgetting my usual skepticism when reading the Nashville Scene and buying the anecdote all the way down to Mr. Gentry's warm-ups. I regret my naivete now that Sean Braisted has caught the Scene at best failing to fact check and at worst perpetuating a lie about Mr. Gentry.

Sean, bless him, even takes a swipe at the Scene's Editor


who says that she is frightened of bloggers, because they are not subject to the rigorous fact-checking of the newsroom like reporters are. Actually, I find it more frightening that someone with journalistic credentials like Jeff Woods and his "rigorous" news editors could run a false, but colorful anecdote that reached (tens of?) thousands of readers in the past week, making Mr. Gentry look pompous and self-privileged.

While we are rubbing Scene staffers' noses in the hypocrisy of criticizing bloggers for mistakes that they make themselves under the auspices of professionalism, allow me to call your attention to one other comment:

Exaggerations [by bloggers] ... are signs of overwhelming self-importance and an easy way to ruin a thirst for knowledge.

The hard-copy Gentry story was exaggerated to the nth degree. It was fabricated, and thus, even more ruinous of the thirst for knowledge (if the Scene still has a thirst for knowledge as opposed to a thirst for sensation).


UPDATE: Scene Editor-in-Chief "Name-in-Large-Font" gives the News 2 Political Blogger a lame excuse for their failure.


UPDATE

This the 28th Day Since Councilman Ludye Wallace Declared That He Would Hold a Community Meeting in Salemtown

We are less than a week away from the 3rd Reading of the Salem Gardens rezoning bill that would require 3 single family homes instead of twice that number in duplexes at 6th and Garfield, and yet, Ludye Wallace has not organized a community meeting as he promised.

Discretionary Funds Gave Wallace a Chance to Provide for Park Youth Summer Programs, But He Did Not Seize It

District 19 Council Member Ludye Wallace squandered ten months of opportunities to use a portion of $48,000+ in discretionary funds to leverage summer programs for the children and adolescents living near Morgan Park. And, since the Morgan Park Community Center is closed and undergoing renovations for the next several months, there are many bored kids around here that could have used that programming to keep themselves occupied rather than getting into mischief as some already have this summer.

Last week Ludye earmarked $22,250 out of his discretionary funds for an unstipulated MDHA project. That was his first request for public use of the funds (gathered from previously uncollected Metro property taxes) in the 10 months since Council Members started making requests. Less than half of his discretionary funds went to public services.

He spent all but approximately $6,000 of the rest on private non-profit earmarks including:

• $5,000 to Senior Citizens, Inc. for recreational programs and dinner theatre performances (December)
• $5,000 to Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, Inc. for an electronic records system (February)
• $5,000 to the Interdenominational Ministers' Fellowship Peniel Initiative for salaries (March)
• $5,000 to Bethlehem Centers of Nashville for bus maintenance (April)

I am convinced that the remaining $6,000 would also go to a patronizable non-profit if he had the chance, but he acknowledged that Council Members by and large did not manage their request for funds adequately.

I found out yesterday that $20,000 of Ludye Wallace's funds could have provided a "roving park program" that could have kept the kids who frequent the MPCC occupied for the summer. In fact, I am told that Parks officials "beg" Council Members every year for a portion of their discretionary funds for summer programs.

I also found out that earmarking the money for Parks would have been easier than the many hoops that Council Members go through to get non-profits funded. That is contrary to what I have heard Council Members claim in the past: I've heard them say that funding non-profits is easier than funding Metro Departments. However, I am also told that there are greater personal opportunities for quid pro quo when Council Members fund private organizations. The money seems to go where favors flow.

Thanks to Ludye Wallace's total lack of leadership the kids who use Morgan Park are left to pudder and to putter around here on their own with sporadic guidance, unless they have the transportation (which Metro does not provide) to go to either the Cleveland Center or the Looby Center for summer programming.

Being an effective elected community leader means anticipating when certain neighborhood services are going to be interrupted and doing what you can with the resources you are given to fill the breech until those services begin again. If the MPCC had been open, then there might not have been a need for Ludye to use his discretionary funds there. But there is a need and he should have anticipated it.

We have already had fire hydrants opened (which I am told is a felony), signs vandalized, and some folks harrassed in Morgan Park by some of the bad seeds among the teens. The better kids are finding more constructive stuff with which to occupy themselves, but some of the adults here wonder how long that can last. We can all thank Ludye for doing nothing with his funds to support us in the absence of park programs.

F-Stop F-Works

Gen Ass Moves That Much Closer to Privatizing Our Public Roadways

Yeah, they are unnecessary, but they are also the next step toward the Trans-Texas-like Trans-Tennessee Corridor. Tolls are also cover for raiding funds and for allowing our roads to rot and deteriorate. If I'm going to give my money for the upkeep of roads, I would rather send it to TDOT and have still have some control over it than I would turning it over to a private tolling industry under the lock of 50-year contracts.

Is This a Stereotype Tennessee Republicans Really Want to Promote?

Passing out a tiny number of tax breaks to a few select sympathizers instead of sitting behind a desk working on state business?

Nashville Post Has Obtained Nashville's Agenda Draft

NashPo has a draft report of Nashville's Agenda--which has been criticized by some neighborhood organizers as too close to pro-business lobbyists--and they just posted a story on-line with a link to the full text. The draft report is scheduled to be presented to the Nashville's Agenda Steering Committee tomorrow.

Gaylord Bill Will Test How Fiscally Conservative the Council's Social Conservatives Are

The large elephant in Metro Council Chambers before the August election that no one will probably talk about is Gaylord Entertainment towing their request that Metro pick up their $80 million in debt for hotel expansion. In the role of ringmaster: J.B. Loring, who has never met a corporate expansion he does not like.

I predict that Council Members will pass this quickly and quietly for the sake of the conservatives like Buck Dozier and Charlie Tygard who are running for office. Let me suggest that every vote of support for this corporate welfare bill needs to be heaped like hot coals on the heads of the council conservatives and most especially on those members running for office who do not debate it.


UPDATE: Gaylord is apparently about to start flexing its muscle around the nation's capital, too. With a million room-nights already booked and all of that money they are pulling away from the staid DC hotels to the Potomac waterfront, why can't they pay for their own expansion in Nashville? (HT: NashPo).

Republicans Love Pelton at-Large

While at-Large candidate Dave Pelton's press release today says that winning the Davidson County Republicans at-Large Straw Poll (at $25.00 a head admission) "proves" his broad appeal, I would have to say that it proves that his red-meat, culture warrior e-mail to certain voters saying that only he could protect them from left-wing domination of the Metro Council was effective at rallying a conservative cadre of Republicans who could afford entrance to the picnic.

The comments in that e-mail are rather bizarre, but the fact that they were written in the space between endorsement by the local teachers' union (not a favorite of social conservatives) and the occasion of the Davidson Co. GOP Straw Poll gives it a certain tactical campaign logic. The e-mail should have put the torches-and-pitch-forks social conservatives at ease enough to cast a vote for Mr. Pelton.

I also heard today that Charlie Tygard came in second with the Republicans, who don't have an easy go in largely Democratic Davidson County. That would make sense since Mr. Tygard generally votes with the conservative wing of the Metro Council. Every time I hear his name, I cannot help but be reminded of him absurdly railing against the Metro Courthouse Public Square as a "monument to government."


UPDATE: Sean tells us that Buck Dozier overwhelmingly won the Republicans' Mayoral Straw Poll. No surprise there. If I were a Republican, especially a plugged-into-the-system Republican business man, I would probably vote for Dozier, too.

District 19 Now Has Two Blogging Metro Council Candidates

Erica Gilmore is now blogging her campaign for District 19 Council Member. Freda Player has also been blogging intermittently for a while.

This the 25th Day Since Councilman Ludye Wallace Declared That He Would Hold a Community Meeting in Salemtown

Did you really think that he would have one? It means so much more just to tell the Council that he is going to have one. They don't follow up well.

Hope Gardens by Night; Salemtown in the Morning

Thanks to our Hope Gardens friends Brian and Marie for having us over to celebrate their dog's birthday last night. S-townWife begged out due to exhaustion, but told me that decorum required me to go to represent officially the household delegation to the HG contingent. Their deck was a great spot to watch the CM Friggin'A fireworks (as opposed to having them wake me up the night before). And the flowing Dos Perros and Margaritas did not unsteady my camera hand one bit (well, maybe just a little bit; you haven't seen all of my photos).

This morning I was up bright and early helping my 7th Avenue neighbor Stephanie pick up trash on her street, 6th Avenue, Garfield, and Hume. I recommend that more S-towners participate in periodic Saturday morning trash pick ups. Not only do they help the neighborhood look better (we picked up three bags worth of garbage from just the streets and sidewalks alone), but they help us get to know one another and they are a great way to inventory other problems and code violations, like properties with tall weeds and illegal dumping (like the chartreuse market that practically dumps its own garbage in its back parking lot). Hopefully, we can entice a few more people to participate in the future.

NashBizJ Feels Salemtown's Heat, But From the Wrong Side

I guess we "could be" a hot spot if we were actually in East Nashville. Here in North Nashville, we've been a hot spot for a while. Read article after the jump.

Overlays are Neither Demons Nor Angels

Just a few days ago real estate blogger Will Sanford was haranguing Council Member Mike Jameson as some kind of co-conspirator against neighborhood democracy itself. Now he is crowning Jameson's efforts (along with other Council Members) to rezone Gallatin Road with an SP ("Specific Plan" zoning) backed by some ambitious projects. Sanford's extreme interpretations are hyperbolic and head-spinning.

But they no doubt serve his purposes. I'm not surprised at all that Sanford is keen on SPs. As long as neighborhoods can track them and stay attuned to what is approved they can be good things. But just like any other zoning tool, they can be abused and misused. And they can be better for some than for others.

I recently spoke to Germantown leaders who were critical of SPs because of the constant attention--development-by-development, planning meeting-by-planning meeting, approval-by-approval--that they require. Unlike the developers and the investors, very few neighbors have the time to monitor every single stage of the SP approval process. That puts the neighborhoods at a distinct disadvantage, unless their Council Members (like Mike Jameson) are proactive and hands-on. How is that "forward-looking"?

Salemtown's only experience with SPs has been Schoene Ansicht, and if you have kept up with that saga, you have some idea of the problems we have had with a development design that probably should not have been allowed on a property of that size and of with a stormwater retention tank that, though approved by Metro, was also met with Metro's concerns about how it could flood an adjoining property and aggravate an already unacceptable surface water run-off on Hume Street.

The SP opens the door to many things for investors, developers, and real-estate types, but it can be a booger for neighborhood leaders to have influence over. If we would have known that on the front end of the planning process, the Schoene Ansicht development story probably would have been a different one.

Don't mistake my sobriety about zoning for a rejection of the Gallatin Road SP or SPs in general. They are tools, like conservation overlays, that help in some situations, but in others, not so much. Make no mistake: SPs have their own complications for neighborhood leaders and those complications are what often give the people who make the lion's share of the money in the real estate industry a clear advantage. I am thinking that such is what Sanford means by "practical, forward-looking."

Sky High Over Downtown IV

The heart of the North End is framed in sunlight. 5th & 6th Avenues are the street arteries running away from you. Germantown sits forward to the edge of the sunshine and back to Werthan Lofts (large building on the left side of the picture just above center). Salemtown sits beyond Werthan under the thicker canopy of trees. MetroCenter lies farthest away, beginning near the Mother House of St. Cecelia's (large red-roofed building in the upper left-hand corner).

This the 23rd Day Since Councilman Ludye Wallace Declared That He Would Hold a Community Meeting in Salemtown

Less than 2 weeks to go until the third reading of the 6th and Garfield (Salem Gardens) rezoning bill that Salemtown Neighbors supported because it would require single family home zoning on 3 properties. However, we still have not heard a word on the community meeting that Ludye Wallace announced to the Metro Council that he would have with us after deferring third reading on May 15 in order to help us understand what we already understand.

CRIME ALERT: More HVACs Stolen from 6th Avenue Builds

The Salemtown Neighbors website is reporting tonight that two HVACs were stolen from 1620 6th Avenue North, A & B either last night or early this morning.

Sky High Over Downtown III

Sky High Over Downtown II

Sky High Over Downtown I

I took my first trip up to the 30th floor terrace of the L&C Building this week and got some spectacular shots on what was one of our clearer days. Thanks to grouthaus for referring me (grouthaus is also considering a move to Salemtown and has some outstanding ideas on locating higher density housing on the outskirts of Salemtown and saving the heart for more single-family homes) and thanks to the Terrazzo Sales Team for showing me around their roof-top digs (Terrazzo will be one of the few if any LEED pre-certified "Green Buildings" in the next generation of Downtown housing options).

At-Large Hopeful Megan Barry To Be in the North End on Sunday

Megan Barry will be in Germantown at 506 Monroe St. on June 10 from 4 to 6 PM. According to the invitation, she will be discussing Nashville's future with "friends and neighbors who care about our great city." I'm going to be there. Are you?

Better to Err on the Side of Inconvenience or Vice?

After sleeping on it I have a little more perspective on this tussle. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the other side is correct, and that those of us who might ever think of supporting an overlay in any situation outside of Sylvan Park have too much "religious intensity" about overlays.

What would be the worst thing that you could say about us if it were even true? That we are an inconvenient, impractical impediment? That we are irrelevant? Besides some wasted time and a few errant dollars, what is the worst damage that we cause to people (not plans) if we are irrelevant and too pie-in-the-sky?

If inconvenience is the error on our side, then what would be the extreme of the marketer's side? That they are solely driven by money? That they will tear down or build anything in any community and that they will oppose overlays everywhere in order to protect their profit margin? And isn't the worst thing that you can say about the drive for money is that it makes greedy people? And don't we all know the damage that greed causes?

So, I guess if I were forced to accept the terms of the anti-overlayers (which I don't), then the choice I face is between erring either against the most inconvenient preservationists or against the most vicious money-makers. And being lumped with the scrupulous is supposed to convince me of the soundness of the other side's cause?

To Live and Die in Committee

The next phase in spending Salemtown's $580,000 federal community development block grant has started with my attendance along with others today of the "Salemtown Streetscape Project Request for Qualifications Review Committee."

We are now reviewing the qualifications of 7 design firm proposals for a Salemtown Streetscape Project based on 6 criteria:

1. Experience of the firms
2. Specialized expertise of firms' team members
3. Firms' organizational capacity to complete work on time and within budget
4. Project strategy
5. References
6. HUD Section 3 (employment and training of lower income residents within project area) requirements

The only other thing I can tell you is that I have a stack of notebooks to read; let's just call it my community service for the next few weeks.

Winning Ugly

Well, it looks like there are some opponents of the Sylvan Park Overlay not satisfied with just winning by forcing John Summers to capitulate last night. Such ugliness is why I felt so ambivalent about the whole debate in 2006 and why I now judge it to be one of the sorriest episodes that I have witnessed in local politics.

Some seem to be set on a more far-reaching, ideological agenda of marketing bias against overlays in general rather than treating them as pragmatic tools of benefit in some situations. In that battle, it is not the neighborhoods or the individual home owners who stand to win (although some will no doubt have some "trickle-down" benefits) because eliminating overlays on the front end means one less tool at their disposal in defense of their communities. Instead, it is the marketers and the investors who will gain the upper hand in neighborhoods, commodifying everything they can get their paws around.

Quality of life has a price, you know: it costs what they tell us it costs, and they struck a blow against overlays, so sit down and shut up.

I repeat as before: a pox on all sides of this debate.


UPDATE: A voice of reason in Sylvan Park.

Last Minute Discretionary Funds Requested As "Emergencies" Last Night

Three request to pull money from Council Infrastructure/Non-Profits Funds were passed last night. They include:

• $20,000 to the Metro Sheriff's Office (Carl Burch)
• $22,250 to MDHA (Ludye Wallace)
• $20,000 to Public Works (Billy Joe Walls)

I'm trying to find exactly what the earmarks are for. It is unclear whether they can be dispersed in time for the June 30 deadline.

"We Don't Call It 'Cashin' In.' We Call It 'Deregulation.'"

$35 billion in profits over 12 months and AT&T is pressing Congress to allow them to charge people more for faster-tracked internet service, creating virtual haves and have-nots in a public right-of-way.

Dominating Last Night's Public Hearing

Plainly ignored or minimized by the mainstream print media this morning was the overwhelming opposition to the Mayor's budget regarding low-income and homeless items last night. (Perhaps the newspapers were reclining in the glow of their victory for apartment guide boxes everywhere. In the case of the City Paper, they were focused on pressing the hot button Union issue). A long line of advocates from the Homeless Power Project and from the Mary Parish Center (which accepts all domestic violence victims regardless of income) came asking for money that the Mayor did not provide.

It was heart-wrenching to hear the stories, but I came away believing more than ever that, unless local government is more committed to providing such services rather than relying strictly on non-profits, it will just be easier and easier to look the other way. Non-profits do great work and we need them and some government money should go to them. But they are also the weakest link in the service delivery chain, and the populations that they serve are the ones that get thrown overboard at budget crunch time. There is no accountability to voters when Metro funds or fails to fund non-profits, and elected officials rarely face consequences for cutting them loose because very few constituents who vote are involved.

3 Vanderbilt Area Neighborhood Associations Co-sponsor Candidates Forum, Which Includes District 19 Hopefuls

Thanks to Paige Clancy for the heads-up on a June 14 public forum to be held at Edgehill United Methodist Church (1502 Edgehill Av.) from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Reportedly, the District 19 candidates will be included with Vice Mayoral and at-Large candidates will be involved.

The Germantown and Salemtown Association Presidents are supposed to be coordinating a debate forum in our area for the District 19 candidates tentatively slated for the end of June. I have not heard a thing about that forum since the Germantown-Salemtown pow-wow two weeks ago. I hope the ball does not get dropped on that debate (Freda Player and Erica Gilmore have already committed to attend), because our community should have the opportunity to hear these candidates discuss their differences face-to-face.

Germantown Announces Picnic with Salemtown

I missed the Salemtown Social Committee memo on a June 23rd picnic/block party with our Germantown neighbors. The announcement is posted over at HistoricGermantown. All we need now is the "What time?" and the "Where?" to post on our calendars.

It Does Not Do Anything (Unless It is MY Memorializing Resolution!)

Not too long ago Council Member Eric Crafton tried to limit to one the number of "Memorializing Resolutions" (resolutions that express the intentions of the Metro Council without codifying them into law) that members could introduce. Earlier in the year, he opposed the "English Official" MR that the Council passed overwhelmingly as an option to his own "English Only/First," saying that, because it was memorializing, it would not do anything.

Yet, tonight Mr. Crafton moved--with a good deal of gravitas--an MR to encourage Governor Bredesen to fund Metro Public Schools equally to other school districts. Apparently, he has had a change of heart about the influence of MRs. Even fellow Council Member Jim Gotto, who has in the past argued that MRs "don't do anything," rose in support of Crafton's bid for Metro Public School funding, saying that he hoped that it was not too late for the resolution to turn Governor Bredesen's budget around (Crafton's late attempt to get "emergency" consideration of the MR in May was denied after an objection was lodged that it was out of order; and, in fact, Crafton had already introduced two other MRs that very same night!).

Let's hope that it is not too late for a resolution that supposedly will not do anything!

Summers Withdraws Sylvan Park Overlay Bill

Metro Council just voted to approve John Summer's motion to withdraw the controversial Sylvan Park Overlay Bill. Summers continued to waste time charging opponents with a "campaign of misinformation" and a phone bank to influence the January-February 2006 vote, but he did relent.

It is a relief to have this thing behind us, regardless of the outcome (there was never a chance after last year that this thing was going to pass third reading). I wasn't comfortable siding with anyone in this ridiculous episode. Every time I tried to understand the warring sides' particular arguments, I came away feeling like I needed a bath for all the moral grayness creeping around and smothering any reasonable debate.

It was a sorry chapter both in the local history of neighborhood organizing and in the advancement of the idea of overlays.

Metro Council Lets Mayoral Veto of News Rack Regulation Stand

Looks like the mainstream print media put the Metro Council in its pocket along with the Mayor and gave the neighborhoods the back of its hand. Vice Mayor Howard Gentry just announced at the beginning of tonight's meeting that the recent Mayoral veto of the bill to regulate the out-of-control placement on public sidewalks would stand without any objection from anyone besides Ludye Wallace, who says he will pursue some sort of legal action.

Dave Pelton Forsakes at-Large Moderation to Contend for Right-Wing Culture Warrior

At-Large Candidate Dave Pelton has not yet gone off the deep end with this guy, but an e-mail excerpt posted on a Tennessean blog makes him look like he teeters very near the edge of extremism.

Pelton is quoted as saying that he is "the only candidate that stands between the residents of Nashville and total domination of the Metro Council by left-wing candidates.” To even read the term "left-wing" applied to this field of candidates nearly made me hork a bite of peanut butter sandwich (extra crunchy, too) up my nose. I would like to see his list of left-wingers, which would be short enough to leave on a post-it note. How far right and unbalanced must Dave Pelton be if he is calling a field of mostly moderates and conservatives "left-wing"?

He also claims that he intends to be “a conservative voice of reason on the council.” We've repeatedly heard from a cadre of a baker's dozen of social conservatives on the Council this past term, and they have tended to render the terms "conservative" and "reason" as oxymorons. So, you'll excuse my jadedness, Mr. Pelton.

Somehow he has confused other terms:

I believe in fiscal responsibility, open and ethical government, strong economic development and excellence in education.

I have just a few replies:

• Conservatives are fiscally responsible? Has he seen the conservative council members' record on funds available to them at their own discretion? Since when are conservatives fiscally responsible? They don't like taxes unless they have some control over how they are spent. And if they don't have control, then you better watch your services, neighbors, because the conservative code for "fiscal responsibility" is to take away funding for your police officers, for repairing your sidewalks, for maintaining your public parks, for building greenways, and for generally protecting your quality of life. I hear Dave Pelton saying he's going to work to cut our services.
• How is open and ethical government a "conservative" cause, when there are clear examples of conservatives as guilty as anyone else of ethical lapses?
• Strong economic development is conservative code for untrammelled growth that commodifies our neighborhoods and hawks them to the highest bidders. Strong economic development without balance on behalf of communities helps only wealthy elites and greedy absentee landlords. Take note of what Dave Pelton failed to say: he failed to mention neighborhoods.
• "Excellence in education" (for conservatives) = school vouchers funded by declining revenues for public education.

Whatever chance Dave Pelton might have had for my vote as a moderate is gone with his partisan windbaggery.

Another State Fast Track Grant via Metro to Gateway for Parking Lot Expansion

Tonight Metro Council is entertaining another bill directed at the State's Fast Track Infrastructure Development Grant Program: a request to increase a previously entered grant agreement from $152,125 to almost $500,000 for the parking lot expansion of Gateway Pro Partners (a $5.6 joint venture agreement that provides for the manufacture of personal computers).

Tennessee already awarded Gateway Pro Partners a $343,000 grant in February for "facility improvements," and late last year, the Council approved and the Mayor signed a bill accepting a $100,320 Tennessee Department of Labor grant for the recruitment and training of Gateway Pro Partners employees.

It sounds like Gateway is getting a large piece of that $5.6 million it invested back from Metro and the State of Tennessee. Tennessee seems to have a deep corporate honey pot.


UPDATE: Approved by Council on voice vote. No discussion. Council Committees reported unanimous consent.

River Fountains Geyse Again

Maybe That's How John Summers Intended to Get Support in the August Election

Michael Cass's article did make me aware that John Summers started a Neighborhood PAC called Nashville Neighborhood Defense Fund to "recruit and to support pro-neighborhood candidates for local and state offices." I had received a mailer from them some time ago, and I was sort of waiting to find out more information before deciding whether to lend my support.

I have now decided. I threw the mailer away. Helping neighborhoods generate more power in government is a worthy cause, but its street cred is hurt by the ambitions of this particular founder.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Metro Beat Reporter Michael Cass tries to make a case for Metro Council inconsistencies on voting for and against development, but the case is weak. What look like inconsistencies could be traced to the differences in various neighborhoods and the community plans. The plans create a vision and a strategy for development in each sub-area and they are based on a participatory process every 7 to 10 years. In theory, they seem to provide a democratic balance to destructive growth. Mr. Cass seems to ignore the sub-area plans.

Yet, where Mr. Cass probably could have hammered the Council's inconsistencies more effectively would have been to demonstrate the ways that Council Members claim to represent their communities but then vote in opposition to the sub-area plans (the recent controversy over a Hermitage PUD is a case in point). Council members seem most arbitrary when they make no reference to the community plans for their decisions or they just completely ignore the frustrated references of residents to the plans in often hopeless attempts to protect neighborhoods from indifferent business interests.

Or take the case of at-Large Member Carolyn Baldwin Tucker, whom Mr. Cass claims is inconsistent in voting for the Westin Overlay but voting against the Sylvan Park Overlay. The real inconsistency in Ms. Tucker's votes is her selective application of the principle of protecting dissenting residents in the minority who oppose overlays. On the one hand, when the Belmont-Hillsboro Overlay came to Public Hearing, the neighborhood leaders spoke in favor of it in an impressively and excruciatingly long parade to the podium, with no more than 3 neighborhood leaders taking the opposing position. Nonetheless, Ms. Tucker mounted her protect-the-minority high horse both in speaking and voting against the overlay.

On the other hand, Tucker's defense (via Cass) that all of the businesses on Lower Broad supported the Westin Overlay is just wrong. A substantial majority from the neighborhood supported the overlay, but it was not unanimous. Nevertheless, Ms. Tucker voted to support the Westin Overlay. The inconsistency is in Ms. Tucker's headlong rush to defend minorities in some cases (even though the Belmont-Hillsboro Overlay is benign), but to downplay them in other cases.

I am disppointed that Michael Cass did not dig more into the difficult growth and overlay issues that affect communities or into the real problems of inconsistent Metro Council support.

Who is Going to Vote with Summers? Who is Going to Vote for Summers?

Sean Braisted wades into the fray--launched by Intown Will--on John Summers:

this whole ordeal is a bit of a mess, and its in large part due to Councilman Summers. Now, if you want to promote this Overlay, that's fine...and if you want to recalculate the survey results to reflect residents, that's fine too...but at least put out the information prior to the debate on the Council floor .... But when Council members contact Summers to find out the super-secret details of this survey, and are told to wait until Tuesday, that just adds more logs to this already incendiary debate.

But that is exactly how Mr. Summers seems to want this issue.

He is like a gold fish inside of one of those take-home water-filled plastic bags; only the bag he is in is floating on a lake stocked with thick-whiskered catfish and trophy trout. As long as he stays in the bag, he is in control of his world and blissful in the appearance that the larger water world beyond those fragile walls is in his sway, but once out of his bag and subject to uncontained ebb and flow, he would have nothing to use against anybody.

The overlay is the only card he has left, and everybody from the sharp card-counter to the obtuse fly on the wall knows what it is. It is his last futile gasp of power, which really is not much of any power at all. There are already die hard overlay opponents on council who would not be persuaded by widespread community support; but the community does not support this overlay, a fact which is going to tip most everyone else against Summers (with the exception of those with whom Summers may have made deals).

Sean concludes that John Summers made a bad start with him in getting one of his at-Large votes. As far as I'm concerned, John Summers started badly more than a year ago and he has done nothing that would change my perception that his at-Large run is a joke in every sense. Seriously: who is going to vote for him? And what voter who has paid attention would vote for him after February 2006?

I guess that I can see a few of the hard-core, single-issue overlay proponents voting for him, particularly those conservation purists who appreciated his slimy, but self-defeating attempt to kill Mike Jameson's Westin/Lower Broad Historic Overlay compromise on a technicality. But he allegedly tried to barter his own support for a controversial Electronic Billboards Bill in exchange for Buck Dozier's support of the Sylvan Park Overlay (Dozier lost the billboard bill by one vote while Summers was outside Chambers bargaining for more support) and Summers voted in favor of Eric Crafton's English Only Bill. Summers is not a social conservative, so what base could he possibly have to mobilize for his at-Large run after those kinds of moves?

Despite the debate Intown Will started on whether Jameson or David Briley will vote for Summers' Overlay tomorrow night, the more interesting question is whether Eric Crafton will return the favor to Summers' for English Only. I don't totally buy Will's conspiracy angle involving Mike Jameson's possible support on third reading, precisely because of Summers' effort to kill the Westin Overlay Bill without a vote. Jameson's support of the Westin shows that he is pragmatic about what can be achieved and what cannot in these overlay debates; Summers is overreaching in Sylvan Park. Besides, Summers' naked attempt to torpedo Jameson allows the latter to support or oppose the Sylvan Park Overlay on the merits. As such, Summers is irrelevant, just as he will be in the August election.

CRIME ALERT: Development Still Not Driving Out the Riff-Raff II

At least one HVAC unit was stolen from the Schoene Ansicht construction site at Hume and 6th at some point in the past 24 hours. Police told us at the May Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association meeting that they have been arresting several bands of copper thieves who are pilfering HVACs on unattended construction sites in the area.

This latest crime is unfortunate and does nothing to enhance the security of the neighborhood. I hope that the investors will become more open to working with SNNA--rather than against it as they have in the past--in order to help strengthen our crime watch. They told us over a year ago that they would be putting in lights for their property at the alley, which they have not done. Some of us might have seen the crime if there had been lighting.

At best, I hope that they see that development does not necessarily drive crime out as they keep pridefully arguing; vigilant residents and community policing do. Developers rely on the community that lives here more than they seem willing to admit.


UPDATE from the Police:

We've had a few thefts in the area south of I65/Metrocenter Blvd and west of I24 East, which includes Salemtown/Germantown areas. [The Community Affairs Officer] did get the report this morning on this air conditioning theft. Our detective sergeant has identified someone regarding these thefts and are still in the process of developing a case on him.

Where Were the Tennessean Editors When the Public Discussions Were Had?

I am firmly neutral on an ampitheatre at the old thermal site, but I do find the editorial call in Sunday's Tennessean to include the public quite vexing in light of the fact that the Nashville Civic Design Center held various public discussions on Riverfront Development to get feedback. There will also be a Public Hearing at the Metro Council's second reading of the bill.

Given the public's comments at the NCDC's charrettes, the editors' solution would be simply remaking the wheel and replicating services already rendered. Besides, Metro needs to hurry up and get something built with some more sidewalks so that the Tennessean will have more right-of-ways to clog with its news racks, which seem to have 1st Amendment rights to collect money gratis. I thought the rights were limited to actual people to speak and to write freely.

Downtown's North End Line of Sight

Pistons Pumping

Intown Will is revving his motor at supporters (in fairness, those who voted "yes" on the second of three readings) of the Sylvan Park overlay again--this time on Council Member Mike Jameson--with a breathless, behind-the-scenes account of the January 17, 2006 drama. Back on January 18, 2006 I let you know that overlay sponsor John Summers disappeared inexplicably when his bill came up. Will explicates his whereabouts, and it does not look good for Summers or former Council Member Amanda McClendon.

My Memory of Yesterday's Sky

Metro/State $$$ for Pharmaceutical Company

I have to admit that I do not know much about either the Accredo Health Group (whose website says that it is a subsidiary of "one of the largest providers of specialty pharmacy services in the United States") or Tennessee's "FastTrack Infrastructure Development Program." But I do see a bill coming before Metro Council on Tuesday night that would approve an application for the state grant in the amount of $688,704 with estimated matching Metro funds of $459,136.

If the resolution and the application are approved, the $1.1 million in public dollars would "install network, telecommunications infrastructure and data cabling for the Accredo Health Group, Inc." It looks like corporate welfare for Accredo's phone, computer, and data networking services, unless I am missing some broad public service beyond the typical "property taxes and jobs" that are usually thrown around as reasons.

The private enterprise ascetics seem fond of saying how there is no evidence that government run telecommunications networks like Metro-supplied broadband for Davidson County would work. But I notice that there is no such uproar against government-subsidized network infrastructure for corporations. There is no red flag waving about a network that will at least be used to increase the private wealth of a few.

And dare we wager that it will be used to help coordinate state and local lobbying efforts on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry in the future? Are there ethics codes that prohibit the use of publicly-funded network infrastructure for corporate lobbying efforts?

I hope that there is something about this resolution that I just do not see yet that might redeem it in my own mind. We will see on Tuesday night.


UPDATE: Ben Cunningham maintains that these subsidies may be unconstitutional.


UPDATE: Approved by Council on voice vote. No discussion. Council Committees reported unanimous consent.

Local Filmmaker's 2006 Shortie on North-by-Northwest Nashville

The TurnHere infomercial features Bicentennial Mall River Fountains, Farmers' Middle Men's Market, and Yazoo Brewery (although I ended up feeling tempted to crash the Yazoo regulars party as an interloping irregular. I drink plenty of Yazoo outside the tap room, so maybe that counts for something).

What You Would Find at the Sulphur Dell Site Today

Besides state employee parking lots, you would find a greenway (with a fountain) following the original course of Old French Lick Creek to the Cumberland River.

Salemtown Mentioned in Public Television Documentary on Sulphur Dell Ballpark

One of the players who was with the Negro Southern League's Nashville Cubs in 1947 mentioned Salemtown as his home neighborhood in tonight's broadcast of "Memories of Sulphur Dell" on Channel 8. He talked about how he enjoyed getting recognition in Salemtown after leaving games at Sulphur Dell.

Domestic Bliss, Portended on Boards

Public Square Farmers' Market Expands Hours

I received the following comment from the Co-Manager of the Public Square Farmers' Market in a previous post:

Thanks for all your support and we hope everyone can make it down to the Public Square Farmers' Market at least once this season to experience of the best of Tennessee agriculture!

We have bumped up the time of the market, please join us from 10:30am - 2pm every Thursday until the end of October. For more information visit www.nashvilleurbanharvest.org and help us spread the word!

Thank you,
Sarah
Public Square Farmers' Market Co-Manager
Nashville Urban Harvest

A Built Environment

Baseball's Ghosts Return to North Nashville Tomorrow Night

Sulphur Dell, a historic minor league ballpark that sat for nearly a century just east of what is now Bicentennial Mall (near 5th Av., 4th Av., and Jackson St.), will be showcased tomorrow night on local public television. Channel 8 will show "Memories of Sulphur Dell" tomorrow night at 7:00 PM.

Unfortunately, it is going up against ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, which will be the Yankees against the Red Sox (the most watched rivalry nationally of any baseball line-up). It would have been wiser to show Memories at 6:00, so as not to compete with the grudge match of the two most popular major league teams. Regardless, I'll be tuned in to Channel 8.

Motion on the Mall

John Summers Gives His Reasons for Overlay Reintroduction

Here's what council member and at-large council candidate John Summers told NashPo about bringing the Sylvan Park Overlay Bill back up for third reading:

This was already an issue because the anti-overlay group had recruited a candidate. [Sylvan Park council candidate Katherine] Beasley is only running on one issue. I'm trying to reslove the issue and take it off the table so that the campaigns can revolve around education, funding of basic services, and other issues of importance, Beasley is running a soley [sic] anti-overlay campaign .... the [January-February 2006] Council survey [of Sylvan Park on the overlay] was heavily dominated by absentee landlords. Remove absentee landlords, and a majority of the neighborhood wanted the overlay. The survey wasn't fair. One developer had subdivided property and voted against the overlay 31 times. I listened to resident property owners, when you look at resident property owners there is a majority. It's about preserving and protecting historic neighborhoods.

It sounds like I was not too far off the mark when I judged Mr. Summers as tainting the idea of the overlay by using it against his opponents. When he says that he is going to take it off the table, is he saying that he's bringing it back up so that it can be defeated and thus no longer an issue? If not, what the heck does he mean?

A Hard Question for David Briley

I saw this one coming when I looked back over the January 3 roll call vote last night.

Puzzled Over Yard Signs

About three weeks ago I started seeing a specific District 19 candidate's yard signs going up around the North End. The thing of it is, they were not going up here and there, but they seemed to blanket entire streets, even before the May 17 qualifying date for the candidates. It seems early in the race, but you can drive around parts of Germantown and Hope Gardens and see rows of yards lock-stepped with a single candidate's signs.

After spending a while turning the issue over and over in my undecided mind, I am bound to interrogate my neighbors. I completely acknowledge the right of anyone to decide to choose a candidate whenever they see fit. And I can certainly understand how some individuals here and there might have already reached a decision, perhaps even months in advance of the qualifying date. However, unless there is some sort of unreflective herd-mentality afoot, I fail to understand how entire streets can endorse a single candidate before we've had exposure to most of the candidates. We have not even had the opportunity to judge them up against one another in a debate format.

I am told that some feel that it is important to go ahead and choose one and try to get them on board with particular neighborhood agendas. I can understand how individuals might do that, but entire streets and blocks? Is that approach not how we got into this current mess with a complacent Ludye Wallace, who acts like he has never fought for votes? Let me suggest that we will get the best candidate should we hold out and encourage them to fight for our votes and our political contributions for a while before we commit. I assure you it will make them better Council Members after August if they have to scrap and fight for support before August.

I have already met and talked with three candidates for longer amounts of time than I am sure each reckoned for, and I am still undecided. And I want to have to make a hard choice between strong contenders, because it gives me a modicum of faith that whoever wins will be a stronger representative of our interests. The District 19 race should not be another coronation of a pre-selected candidate, who can thereafter be buoyed by name recognition and a few large financial contributors who have the winner's ear.

I'll reiterate: I don't expect every individual to be like me and hold out, but I just fail to grasp how entire blocks of North End residents would seem to have already made up their minds en masse, in some cases without having met other candidates. We've already been down that road with Ludye Wallace. Why do we have to go there again?