Searching for Mayor Dean on Bicentennial Mall Security

Catherine McTamaney draws a sharp contrast between the beginnings of the Bill Purcell Administration and the beginning of the Karl Dean Administration:

Candidate Dean was focused. Candidate Dean was on-message,. From announcing on the Shelby Street Bridge to his election night acceptance speech, Candidate Dean talked about connections. It's all connected. Public safety and public schools lead to economic development. In that order. Which is why this leaves me longing for the days when a candidate, at least for that sweet first few months after he left office, actually did the things he said he was going to.

Remember that ad with Purcell's desk in the front yard? Remember Purcell's first Walk Your Child to School Day, just two months after he took office? Or how it felt when you first saw a new sidewalk being poured in the fall of 1999? Or how Purcell immediately made good on his promise to visit every single Nashville school? Remember how Purcell called for a comprehensive audit practically on his way back to the office after his swearing in? Dude got stuff done.

And yeah, yeah, eventually we got used to him, and we started feeling complacent with what he'd brought to the city, and I think we suffered from a little Purcell exhaustion. But here's something that Purcell knew that his successor sadly lacks: people need to see stuff getting done if they're going to continue to believe that you're the guy to do it.

She goes on to point out that Mayor Dean walks the walk of the Phil Bredesen Mayor's Office while merely talking the talk of Purcellian quality of life issues.

This contrast becomes particularly problematic for Catherine in so far as the Mayor's Office has seemed unresponsive to overnight security issues around Bicentennial Mall:

So, hypothetically, in the middle of the downtown community that you've promised to support, you've got this expansive, 17-acre greenspace. Theoretically, how long should a rapist be able to violently attack a 22-year old new Nashvillian before it warrants response? If a two hour long rape doesn't warrant a change in the patrol schedule, would a three hour long rape do it? Four? How about if the rape lasted the entire time that the park was both unpatrolled and dark?

You promised that if I called your office, I wouldn't have to talk to a Deputy Mayor. But a bunch of us, for a long time now, have been asking you to respond. And you haven't.

The silence is deafening on this one.

Jim Grinstead points to the possible reason for the lack of a response, and it has to do with dollars and the difference between suburban and urban.

I share these concerns, and I wonder what the Dean Administration is waiting for. If they are taking steps to fill the void that the state and Governor Bredesen's Office is leaving overnight at the park, then they are not communicating those steps to North End neighborhoods.

Perhaps Precisely Because of His Theological Training, Huckabee Talks Up the Evangelical Bible without Saying Much at All

Watch Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee's comments about one parochial approach to Christian scripture. It is a textbook exercise in hermeneutical doublespeak, which I see as designed to address the narrow biblical expectations of evangelical conservatives without necessarily alienating more moderate, less literal Christians:

Huckabee made his response to the King James Version YouTube question regarding believing the Bible. His response is general, evasive, and it doesn't really say much at all that you can pin him down on. In other words, it is politically astute and savvy.

Very few are going to question the authority he gives to the ideal of loving others, and he astutely avoids articulating what that love means. It is open to interpretation. Likewise, his statement, "it is the word of revelation from God" can be so interpretively broad that it can include any meaning to any legion of ways that one might express words like "revelation" and "God." Saying, "you either believe it or you don't" was the reddest of the meat that he threw to the evangelicals, but again it is so vague, opaque, and general in meaning that it can be interpreted both as an absolute comment and as cavalier observation.

I'm not convinced that the "pluck out your eye" instruction was originally meant to be glossed as Mr. Huckabee is doing: I think it is generally practiced interpretive move to hang on to a passage that if taken literally is quite masochistic from generally accepted standards. Literalists can be accused of arbitrary and bad faith for rationalizing the passage as allegory while treating other passages squarely in their comfort zone as if they were literal. And Mr. Huckabee seems to exercise his own brand of arbitrary and bad faith: if no finite person is ever going to understand fully the revelation of an infinite God, then why should we believe with him--assuming he is genuine--that a finite book can fully express that revelation?

Finally, I think it was interesting that Mr. Huckabee seemed to interpret the question as critical of a literal view of scripture (suggested in his eye-plucking comments) when it was posed by a Texan who seems quite the committed literalist, given his later responses to the debate. For a self-proclaimed people of faith, politically mobilized evangelical conservatives seem to operate in just as many gray areas as anyone else, but without the acknowledgement of ambiguity or compromise.


UPDATE: TPM has Mr. Huckabee at some less politically astute, more theologically honest moments in which he maintained that he is God's anointed candidate with a campaign that revivals New Testament miracles and in which he argued that AIDS patients should be quarantined.

Wilson County Suit Regarding Proselytizing Begins This Week, Unless a Settlement is Reached on Tuesday

According to e-mails sent out to the local branch of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a settlement may be in the offing in the ACLU's lawsuit against a Wilson County Public School. Originally, the trial was set to start Tuesday, December 11 at 9:00 a.m. in the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Nashville (Broadway) over what one Wilson County resident called the "Christianization" of government.

Now comes word that the trial has been postponed until Wednesday (12/12) because there is a conference scheduled between the attorneys for both sides of the suit with the hope of settling out of court (by means of a consent order). AU reports that a new principal and superintendent of schools seem willing to agree on a consent order. However, the Wilson County Commissioners, who meet on Tuesday evening, have to approve any settlement, so the case could still proceed on Wednesday.

You Can Read It in the Sunday Papers

In this morning's papers: studies say either duty or divinity induces generosity, and apparently both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders had neither in 2002 when they were given private briefings on waterboarding detainees with no protest.

In case you were wondering what generosity does not look like:

CRIME ALERT: Police Debunk Rumor That Salemtown Burglary Suspects Apprehended

If you thought you could relax in the belief that police MIGHT have apprehended Thursday's burglary suspects, well, you cannot. Here is the latest update, including a detailed description of the suspect, straight from the Central Precinct to Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association:

No one was arrested for the burglary. However, we do have a good description of the person responsible for it. He was described as a Male black adult, approx 20 years old, 5 ft 6 in 160 lbs, wearing a skull cap, black mid-length jacket, black jeans. He fled on foot to a Toyota Camry 4door green which had dark tinted windows and a temporary tag. He drove off going north on 5th Av N. If you have any idea who it is or see this vehicle please call crime stoppers at 74-Crime (742-7463) or 862-7044 (which is our precinct detectives main line).

An unrelated post to the HistoricGermantown website provides different information regarding the model of the car and rather nondescript descriptions of the suspects. It is not clear whether or not these are the same suspects:

At this morning's roll call, it was brought up that there's been several break ins in the Germantown area. The burglaries have occurred during the day while people are at work. The thieves have been seen leaving one of the break ins and described as two black males and one black female driving an older, green Toyota Corolla with temporary (dealer drive out) tags. If you see anyone in the area fitting the description, call 862-8622, Metro police immediately. Electronic equipment, including large flat screen TVs are among the items reported stolen.

So, until we get clarification, keep an eye out for a green Camry and a green Corolla with either one or three people in it.

Alexander and Corker Back Up Big Oil

In a follow-up to his earlier report on how the Tennessee House delegations voted on the Energy Bill before Congress, R. Neal observes that the bill stalled in the Senate, where Tennessee Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker both voted to continue the Republican filibuster of it.

Republicans may always defend Exxon's millions, but I thought they were the guys who also always demanded an up-or-down vote on bills over filibustering them. Does this mean we should not believe them when they demand a "simple up-or-down vote" or that Big Oil's money is so influential that it occasions the abdication of one's principles?


UPDATE: Looks like the Tennessee Republicans also voted to stunt southeastern economic development by voting against the Energy Bill. See Facing South after the jump.

"Dempotent" is the New Word for Irrelevance and Futility in Politics

The Democrats in Congress concede to Republicans on Iraq. Republicans continue to spread the lie that they are spending on behalf of the troops.


UPDATE: The ultimate minimization of soldier deaths came from the same Kentucky Republican who claims that the Iraq spending spree is "for the troops":

Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Texas Won't Buy Fabled Tennessee Volunteer's Letter

The State of Texas cannot authenticate a letter supposed to have been written by the granddaddy of all Tennessee Volunteers, Davy Crockett (a.k.a., "King of the Wild Frontier"), so it will not be paying almost $500,000 for it.

Crockett is as much a legendary figure in Texas as he is in Tennessee (where he was a soldier, State Legislator, and Congressman), mainly because of his death at the the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution. He also told others to go to hell because he was going to Texas. What's not to like about that?

Sports Writers' Guild Opens Up a Bit

The Baseball Writers Association of America voted Wednesday to open up its membership for the first time to 16 web-based baseball writers who were employed by websites credentialed by Major League Baseball. Even as the conventional newspaper industry was finally choosing up conventional writers who just happened to publish on line, they were also creating some drama by refusing one popular ESPN writer. The guild has a reputation to maintain, right?

Hard Choices: The Poisonous Toys that the "Free Market" Offers

Some parents are mad that the government isn't doing what it is supposed to in regulating toy safety in our brave new "free trade" world. And the toy market is suffering due to its own greed and sloth.


UPDATE: KnoxViews has the latest recall Xmas list of hazardous consumer products from companies that only seem to care about safety when litigation could be involved.

New Nashville Blog Cursed to Live a Short Life

During its Nashville Winter Meetings in Nashville earlier this week Major League Baseball was hosting a blog it called "Nashville Confidential." It is basically a round-up of innuendo and facts concerning hot stove trades and player signings. With the meetings over and everyone gone I suspect that the blog is now on death watch.

Jim Cooper Votes for Energy Bill that Rolls Back Big Oil Tax Breaks

As does the entire Democratic delegation in the U.S. House, reports R. Neal. The Republicans, lead by lead-foot Marsha Blackburn, voted against the idea that Big Oil should have to pay its fair share of taxes on the billions of profits it makes overcharging us for gas. ProgNash has the dire reasons why the Energy Bill is important.

CRIME ALERT II: Burglars and Drug Dealers Terrorize Hope Gardens

After hearing about Salemtown's crime spree, a friend from Hope Gardens sent me word that residents living at the intersection of Warren and Jackson Streets have just suffered their second break-in in a month. Their alarm scared off the burglars, who kicked in their back door, but the family dog is now missing. In fact, three different homes on Warren Street have been burglarized.

Drug trafficking, which has been a problem along 11th Avenue, North in the past seems to be increasing. Hope Gardens leaders report numerous cars with tinted windows and temporary tags exchanging drugs. One neighbor reports that she lives in constant fear of the dealers on 11th. She refuses to attend neighborhood meetings because she thinks that they may retaliate against her if they find out she goes.

It sounds like Metro Police need to start paying more attention and sending more patrols to the North End.

CRIME ALERT: Break-in and Burglary on 5th Avenue Near Morgan Park

The Salemtown e-mail list is burning up this afternoon with news of burglars breaking into a duplex called Salemtown Townhouses at 11:00 this morning on the 1600 block of 5th Avenue, North. Reportedly the invaders used a "battering ram" to break through a mostly glass door on the backside of the house. No one was hurt, but nerves are shattered around here. I also received a report that the police apprehended some suspects. I'll follow up once the police confirm that.


UPDATE: Also, reports are that another duplex in the 1600 block of 5th was broken into yesterday between 7:30 AM and 2:00 PM and before that on Saturday. One resident saw three suspects walking across her yard after the break-ins and she describes them as two African American men and one African American woman. They are reportedly driving a green Toyota Camry.

The resident whose home was broken into earlier today tells me that despite the burglars breaking in a big glass back door, the alarm did not go off until they had taken her computer and her DVD player and walked out the front door (she has a breakage sensor 10 feet away from the back door). The police were already almost to her house after a neighbor reported the break-in before they got the call from her alarm company, Brinks Home Security. When she called Brinks Home Security to ask them to send someone out to check the sensor given that did not set the Brinks Alarm off, they told her that they would charge her for the service. What kind of customer service is that? Talk about kicking someone when they are down!

Twilight Watercolor

Tennessee Cracks the Top 20

Our smoggy state is ranked 17th in in the nation in carbon emissions due largely to our coal-burning power plants. The Tennessean reports that smaller counties are the worst polluters:

A handful of hotspots around Tennessee are pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas and a leading cause of global warming, into the atmosphere each year. And some of the smallest counties are leaving the biggest carbon footprints.

Sumner County will produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide this year, compared to the 123,435 tons that will come out of power plants in its more populous neighbor, Davidson County.

This year alone, the coal-fired smokestacks of the TVA’s Gallatin power plant will produce enough power to light 300,000 homes — along with 6.8 million tons of CO2.

The majority of Tennesseans get their power from coal-burning plants, which means that every time they flip a light switch, they’re burning coal, and producing greenhouse gasses.

Besides turning our unused lights off and buying more efficient appliances, how are we going to break the cycle on a large scale?

Roll Call Vote on Meals for Deals Bill

Here is how the Metro Council Members voted last night on BL2007-78, which was thankfully defeated:

Aye (to free meals): 9

Jerry Maynard (bill co-sponsor)
Lonnell Matthews (bill co-sponsor)
Frank Harrison (bill co-sponsor)
Darren Jernigan (bill co-sponsor)
Phil Claiborne (bill co-sponsor)
Edith Langster (bill co-sponsor)
Jim Hodge (bill co-sponsor)
Parker Toler
Sam Coleman (bill-cosponsor)

No (to free meals): 23

Tim Garrett
Megan Barry
Charlie Tygard
Ronnie Steine
Michael Craddock
Mike Jameson
Erik Cole
Jim Forkum
Rip Ryman
Jim Gotto
Bruce Stanley (bill co-sponsor)
Anna Page
Keith Durbin
Eric Crafton
Emily Evans
Jason Holleman
Sean McGuire
Greg Adkins
Randy Foster
Carter Todd
Bo Mitchell

Abstain (from voting on free meals): 5

Walter Hunt (bill co-sponsor)
Sandra Moore
Duane Dominy
Erica Gilmore
Vivian Wilhoite

Absent: 3

Pam Murray (bill co-sponsor)
Karen Bennett
Carl Burch

District 19's Erica Gilmore was originally listed last night as "not voting," which also counts as "absent." In this morning's roll call tally she is moved from the "absent" category to the "abstain" category. I wrote Ms. Gilmore an e-mail yesterday opposing this bill. Once I hear back from her on her reasons for voting as she did, I'll pass the information along.

UPDATE: The single sentence response I got from Ms. Gilmore today: "Thank you for sharing your position."

Gilmore Talks to Reporter about Germantown Overlay

District 19 Council Member Erica Gilmore talks to the City Paper about her reasons for bringing BL2007-19 to the Metro Council.

Werthan Only Half-Right, and I'm Not Even Sure That Half is Serious

These [historic overlay movements] are reactions to local problems, but they're not starting with an overarching vision of Nashville .... It's a patchwork of solutions.

- - Tony Werthan, Developer in comments to the Tennessean

And that is exactly the way many developers seem to want it. They would rather fight the zoning battle on a property-by-property basis, because when they go before zoning boards, planning commissions, committee meetings, and council gatherings they are still on the clock. Other non-developer property owners have to take time off from work and income for every single zoning issue that concerns their holding or dwelling. Fighting zoning battles on a case-by-case basis puts developers at a distinct advantage over the rest of us who do not always have time for every single development issue concerning our neighborhoods.

We do need an overarching vision of Nashville, but if developers refuse to help formlate an overarching vision for neighborhoods, then why should we believe that they are really interested in formulating an overall vision of Nashville for anything more than a torpedo to sink popular support for more informed and balanced planning at the micro-level?

Non-Profits Still Shield Their Donors

It is a good thing that watchdogs of non-profits are becoming more accessible and that non-profits are moving toward greater transparency. But, according to WashPo, those close to seats of government still shroud spending by forming non-profits.

Progressive Jim Gives Tennessean What It's Got Coming

Huge news of no nuclear weapons program in Iran and the Tennessean buries it deep into the paper. Jim Grinstead contrasts the Tennessean's implicit denial of truth with a list of papers from around the country that put the story in its proper perspective: on the front page. Let's put the Tennessean in its proper perspective on the biggest national story of the day: coverage as weak as Fox News.

It Says That He Will Identify Emerging Issues of Import to State Constituencies

But will he help us motivate the Governor's Office to secure Bicentennial Mall overnight?

If not an emerging issue, it is at least an emergent issue.

Gilmore Offers Substitute to Original Germantown Overlay

District 19's Council Member, Erica Gilmore, pulled her own Germantown Historic Overlay bill at tonight's Metro Council Meeting off the consent agenda in order to offer a substitute, which she said removes property from the original proposal (BL2007-19). I do not have any details on the changes and I haven't heard anything from the Germantown grapevine that would indicate surprise or concern.

Waiting on the War on Christmas Paranoia

With no more shopping days left until the alleged "War on Christmas," I'm wondering how the magical season is passing without any shots fired over Christmas Trees, "Happy Holidays" greetings, and the Baby Jesus. It's just not the same fun season without being able to pick a fight with the histrionic edges of the rightwing.

So, I'll start:

• Even though I think that the prayers given before Council Meetings are inappropriate from a civic perspective and profane from a faith perspective, I always enjoy listening to them and parsing their theology. Tonight's prayer was actually pretty tame and uninflammatory even as it still amounted to Metro sponsorship of religion. It was even a little contemplative. And it actually ended on a higher note than the plethora of other un-closeted (as in "prayer closet") ones that end "in Jesus' name." The invocation ended instead with, "We ask it in all the names you are known by." That's an improvement, although I would have added, "... and those we'll never know at all."
• What is it about Christmas that brings out the most theologically incorrect pop lyrics? For example, in one pop Christian song a guy sings:
  

  He gave up his pride and came here to die.

  Ugh. A not-so-slight problem: pride is one of the seven deadlies. Singing, "he gave up his pride" is worse than singing, "he gave up his serially murderous habits."
• It's about damned time: pastors owning Rolls Royces, flying in private jets, living in mansions, staying in $5,000 suites, and crapping in $23,000 commodes is obscene. Now a Senate Republican is leading the investigation as to whether their churches should lose their non-profit status. Hell, yes, they should.
• Speaking of investigating, Liberty University and Jerry Falwell, Jr. should be investigated for violating tax laws by endorsing Republican Presidential Mike Huckabee in a mass e-mail on university letterhead.
• School Board President and local Pastor encourages Texas School Board to be intolerant and to tell members who ask for legal opinions on whether opening government meetings with prayer was constitutional to "Shut up."

Let the Christmas Wars begin, but let them begin with this prayer:

Metro Council Defeats Meals for Deals on First Reading

Metro Council turned back an attempt to water down ethics in Metro Council by voting to defeat BL2007-78. A roll call vote was called for and the tally was 9 for the bill, 23 against. The bill received 2 less votes than the actual number of members co-sponsoring. I look forward to seeing the roll call results in the morning. It is rare for roll call vote to be called and for a bill to be defeated on first reading.

Thanks to Council Member Michael Craddock, who pulled the bill--which would have permitted members to accept free meals from constituents and interest groups--from the consent agenda so that it could be debated by the Council. In his comments, Mr. Craddock told the Council that he did not get elected to get a free meal and said, "It's cold turkey," referring to the original Ethics Bill that eliminated free meals for council members. At-Large Member and Professional Ethicist Megan Barry joined Mr. Craddock in describing BL2007-78 as a "step back." She told the group that she did not think that any member could be bought for $25.00, but she argued that the bill does create the perception among voters that members are being bought.

Speaking on behalf of the bill co-sponsors, Vivian Wilhoite argued that debate on the bill was a "waste of time," and that BL2007-78 would "make it easier to pick up a cookie" off a constituent's table and eat it without worrying about whether it constituted a free meal. She did not explain the calculus for judging why anyone with half-a-brain and an honest motive would question the ethics of an elected official eating an Oreo.


UPDATE: I took a second look at the roll call votes on a replay of tonight's meeting and it appears that District 19 member Erica Gilmore did not vote on this bill.

Announcements of Germantown Historic Zoning Hearing in Today's Snail Mail

I had been wondering if at least some of us in Salemtown would be getting notices of Public Hearings for Historic Germantown's request for Historic Zoning, given that the overlay if approved would be contiguous with the southern end of Salemtown. Sure enough when I came home for lunch this afternoon, I found the announcements of the Planning Commission's and of Metro Council's Public Hearings in my mailbox.

Here are the vitals:

Metro Planning Commission Public Hearing
Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.
Green Hills Conference Room
"Metro Southeast" Building
1417 Murfreesboro Pike
(The announcement also notes that the request may be put on the consent agenda, which means it would be considered at the first of the meeting with no debate unless anyone requests that the item be removed from that agenda)

Metro Council Public Hearing on BL2007-19 (sponsored by Erica Gilmore for various owners)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.
Metropolitan Courthouse
1 Public Square
(The Planning Commission will have made its recommendation to the Council on Dec. 13, and the Council will eventually make the final decision to approve or to disapprove)

BL2007-19 is up for first reading at tonight's meeting, and it will be interesting to see whether it stays on the consent agenda or gets pulled off for debate or Ms. Gilmore's deferral. She has already deferred the bill once in order to have a community meeting that Salemtown did not seem invited to.


UPDATE: after the jump.

Meals for Deals Rises from the Dead Again on the Council Agenda

Tonight's agenda includes a bill that is stacking up to be an ongoing struggle to keep the influence peddlers and Council Member patrons at bay. A group of Council Members is trying to introduce the measure that would permit Council Members to accept free meals and gifts from outside groups and individuals.

While the bill is on the Council Agenda, it is not listed on the Agenda Analysis, which comes from the Council Office Advisors.

In response to this bill, Salemtown President-Elect Freddie O'Connell wrote the following letter to each of the Council Members-at-Large (including Meals for Deals bill co-sponsor Jerry Maynard) and to District 19's Erica Gilmore:

I find it ironic that, in the same timeframe as softening of Tennessee's open meetings laws has been discussed (and, with luck, discarded), our Metro Council, in the form of BL2007-78, is considering relaxing its own ethics rules.

Living in a neighborhood (Salemtown) that has been the target of much developer speculation resulting in variable outcomes, I am not in favor of developers being able to curry favor with councilfolk on the LLC tab. As my personal elected officials, I hope you will keep my interests on par with those of all of Nashville's citizens, which should be higher than out-of-county developers anyway. Please vote against BL2007-78.

I'd offer to take you all to lunch at The Palm in exchange for your vote, but, well, that's my point.

Thanks to all for your service and consideration.

Freddie's right. This measure should have been dead and buried a long time ago.


UPDATE: I hear from reliable sources that there will be a debate tonight on this bill. If that is true, it means that the bill will first have to be pulled off of the consent agenda, which is what all first reading bills generally get put on to be passed easily as a group with no debate until the second reading. This bill should be debated tonight. And a roll call vote should be taken so that we have a clear idea of which Council Members support the idea of getting free meals and gifts from constituent sources.

Tonight's Another Tuesday Night Metro Council Night

The "Cat Herd" meets tonight: head 'em up and move 'em out.

And You Want to Be My Latex Salesman

It's funny how some tend to argue that government should be run like business when so many businesses run things into the ground.

Case in point: the Westin Hotel, which is now coming back to the bargaining table after admirably building enough community support to pursue their mammoth Downtown project, but then turning a 180 and whining about standards that they agreed to "LEED" with as part of the deal. Now they are about to start the whole painful approval process over again because they want to eliminate the condos planned for the deal.

Downtown Cliff has the best, most biting response to such Westin destabilization:

Let's review. The developers reps told us that:

- the hotel had to be 20 stories due to the condos
- the condos were essential to make the project viable
- but not to worry, the presence of the local folks living in the condos would help insure the long-term integrity of the project.

Now they say the project needs to shed the condos in order to be economically viable.

I can't wait to see which shade of lipstick the hired guns choose to dress up this pig.

Such are the marketing wizards that some say should effectively run governments.

The Time to Kiss Some of Your Metro Services Goodbye Draws Nigh

Mayor Karl Dean plans on cutting back services 5 to 15 percent:

One of the things we have to do as a city is we have to have a balanced budget. We have to have a budget that protects the long-term financial interests of this city. So this is a process where I don’t know what the cuts will be, or if there will necessarily be cuts, but I’m assuming there will be some given the tightness of the economic situation, but we have to go through a thoughtful exercise to make sure we’re looking at all options.

What will be cut? Sidewalk maintenance? Already understaffed Animal Control? Police patrols of neighborhoods? Libraries? Community centers (they already close on Saturdays to save money)? Education programs? Brush collection? What will be cut?

Newspaper Attempts to Rename Sulphur Dell Area Around Bicentennial Mall

I have to confess that whenever the Nashville City Paper publishes something on Salemtown, I brace myself for the worst. Even so, I was unprepared for the one-sided infomercial for Schoene Ansicht that appeared in William Williams column this morning.

So much so, that I could not work past Williams' blatantly partial marketing (he's apparently never met a DAAD he didn't like, although others in the housing design community have found a DAAD or two dudworthy) to get to the second portion of his article where he drops the "Sulphur Dell" portion of Bicentennial Mall (south of Jefferson, between 3rd and 5th Streets), "also knowing it as" the "Market District." This is another mistake, which Downtown Cliff at the Charrette already pointed out this morning.

There is some cue that seems to be taken in the moniker "The Market District" from the propensity the real estate community has for making new names out of whole cloth, for ignoring tradition (Sulphur Dell has a proud history that includes immortals like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson), and for attempting to appeal to fleeting and fickle empty-nester lifestyles. On the contrary, Sulphur Dell is such a North Nashville tradition that it has its own booth each year at Germantown's Oktoberfest. Could someone direct me to the "Market District" booth?

Why would William Williams angle toward the name change? And why try and fix something that is not broken?

Photos of the New, Unlit, Wrong Signage at Bicentennial Mall

Can you read this sign in the dark? It was a little after 5:00 p.m. when I took these photos.

CatMac has pointed to the fact that the hours open are wrong in the final line of the sign (the photo on the left was taken with the flash; so if you are in the park after dark with a light source, you will be able to read the warning of closure). The last line seems to be a recent edition as it appears more white and less yellowed than the stencil above it.

Again, if these are the only changes that the state makes to secure Bicentennial Mall from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. (or is it 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.?!) is to stencil a few signs does that make you feel safer?


UPDATE: This unedited, unretouched, but flash-assisted photo--blurrier because of the low-light, longer-aperture conditions--shows the contrast between the newer bottom line and the aged and weathered lines above it on a "park rules" sign in a different part of the park.

State Puts Warning Signs Up at Bicentennial, But They Post the Wrong Information and The Signs are Unlit

A Little Simplification went hunting this morning, searching for new open-closed signs at Bicentennial Mall and what she found was rather shameful:

If the single line on the uniform, unlit pillars I observed in the park this morning are the "new signs," frankly, they suck. Even if they're the way the hours for the park were previously posted, they're wrong. They list the hours of the park as 6AM-10PM. The November 14th email indicates that the park is opened from 7AM-11PM ....

UPDATE: The Commissioner's office says that the existing signs have been "updated" and that new signs will happen "in the future," but are not scheduled yet. So, the signs are both new and wrong. Lovely.

So if you have your night vision goggles on after 4:00 in the the winter time, then you'll be warned to be out of the no-mans-land that is Bicentennial Mall by 6 hours later and it actually closes 7 hours later.

Go read the rest of her observations about the response of the two hour rape of a Germantown resident. You will get a feel for just how poorly both government and media have responded to calls for some, any overnight security at the state park.

Controversial Salemtown Developer Gets His 15 Seconds of Fame in the Nashville City Paper

City Paper writer William Williams decided to showcase controversial developer and Salemtown Duplex King Taurus McCain in an article that suggests Hume Street is moving on up thanks largely to McCain's Schoene Ansicht development, which has its own checkered past with the residents who actually live here. Say what you will about the Tennessean's flawed past reportage on Schoene Ansicht; at least they acknowledged that the development generated controversy. The City Paper sexes up 6th as halcyon and heavenly.

Mr. McCain, whom I once witnessed threaten the Salemtown Neighbors President with physical violence, is quoted as saying that he's bringing diversity to our neighborhood (as if we were not already diverse):

UP’s Taurus McCain says Salemtown, once fully redeveloped, will offer significant diversity in both its building styles and the socio-economic/age ranges of its residents. “You will have something very special that Nashville hasn’t seen,” McCain said.

Diversity from Taurus McCain? The same real estate investor who has only built one duplex (priced above $200,000) and the Schoene Ansicht townhouses? The same guy who has opposed every attempt to have downzoning include detached single family homes? The same property owner who intends to keep blighted trailer-like duplexes on 6th Avenue standing rather than tear down and build quality detached and affordable single-family homes after Metro Council rezoned his lots for the same?

Mr. McCain has demonstrated over and over again that "fully developed" means one thing: "fully duplexified for the fullest dollars." If appealing to Taurus McCain as a source on diversity in Salemtown is supposed to inspire street cred at the City Paper's neighborhoods department, then the CP has shot itself in the foot.

The fact that a Salemtown renaissance is being narrated by a journalist who not too long ago mischaracterized and overgeneralized all infill in the neighborhood as "run-down, outdated and/or ugly" is laughable. And Mr. Williams' ideation that the developments of Taurus McCain represent part of a cleansing surge is a total farce. Just keep in mind that the last time Taurus McCain and William Williams came together in the same City Paper article (written by reporter Bill Harless) it was a total debacle for our neighborhood under the headline "Developments cause trouble in Salemtown." After that circus, Taurus McCain told me that his investment team was considering never using the "Salemtown" name again in their developments.

That's how committed Mr. McCain is to our neighborhood. His community commitment extends only as far as his credit limit and his bank account will allow. If there weren't any money to be had in Salemtown, he wouldn't be here. And both the developer and the journalist seem to be concocting a fable about our neighborhood that serves their own purposes rather than the neighborhood itself.

Repeal of Tranparency Bill Likely to Pass; Another Transparency Bill Reportedly in the Works

Tuesday night's Council Agenda includes third and final reading of a bill that would repeal another ordinance passed earlier in the fall that requires non-profits receiving non-contractual Metro funds either to submit quarterly reports or to open their meetings. While the intention of the original ordinance was to create greater transparency in the deliberation of non-profits receiving Metro funds it seems to be a duplication of reports submitted to Metro. The repeal of the first ordinance will likely pass, since generally all third reading bills pass and since lord knows duplication of efforts is a great stain on bureaucracies.

My primary concern with the repeal ordinance is that it has been shepherded through and supported by Council Members who appear to have a conflict of interest. I did not attend the Rules Committee Meeting on November 20 before the Council's second reading of the bill the same night, but I am told that the question of perceived conflict of interests of the co-sponsors (Ronnie Steine and Rip Ryman) of the bill was raised (given that the bill would directly benefit non-profits that they serve). The discussion as characterized "did not go very far." But as far as I'm concerned, the lack of popular traction of the conflict of interest question does not diminish its ethical significance in any way.

I understand that steps are now being taken to introduce new legislation that actually does what the original meeting transparency bill was intended to do: bring more transparency to non-profit board meetings that benefit from Metro contributions. I would like to see the co-sponsors of this repeal co-sponsor a new ordinance to create greater public transparency on those dozens of non-profits benefitting from our tax dollars.

Stormwater Run-off Measure Before Council on Tuesday

Although purchasing property does not ostensibly seem connected to stormwater run-off controls, it is one of the strategies that Metro Water Services uses to prevent damage to property by flooding. Whenever it can the utility in concert with the city buys buildings on flood plains and demolishes them, creating more green space and minimizing the chance of flood damage the future.

Up for approval Tuesday night is a resolution that would authorize the city to acquire, on a voluntary basis a home on the Seven Mile Creek floodplain and to demolish it. The city's portion of the bill 25% of the purchase price, with a TEMA grant funding most of the purchase.

Metro Resolution Would Would Approve and Match $50,500 Arts Grant for Community Projects

A resolution coming before Metro Council on Tuesday would generate over $100,000 for granting purposes above and beyond the already allocated $2.25 million in the Arts Commission's budget. According to the Metro Council Office:

[The resolution] approves a state arts commission grant in the amount of $50,585 for the Arts Build Communities program. These funds will be used to make grants to non-profit organizations for community arts projects .... There is a required local match in the amount of $50,585 to be provided from the Metro arts commission budget.

Assuming that this resolution passes, the possibility of applying for grants is something to keep in mind for those neighborhoods whose groups are working on streetscape projects.

Cavalcade of Capitalists: Comcast Continues to Filter Content of People It Doesn't Like

In technical terms, the internet provider is injecting "reset packets" into certain customers' connections, thus causing them to close. This is exactly why we need net neutrality laws to keep providers from strategically controlling content based on their private interests on the public internet.

A Talk-Shop Question

Just for a minute, I want to think beyond writing-a-blog-as-reward-in-itself. Which is the most reliable gauge of a blog's influence:

1. Number of links to?
2. Average number of commenters per day?
3. Number of subscribers (through feedreaders)?
4. Number of visitors?
5. Other criteria (for instance, how many mainstream stories are anticipated by blog stories on the same subject)?

Two Emerging Blogs You Should Read

With the demise of Nashville Is Talking and in the absence of any worthy successor, Enclave has experienced a decline in link love in the past few months. Even the political blogosphere here seems to have been mainstreamed; especially over at Volunteer Voters.

However, in the past couple of weeks two other blogs have emerged on the scene--willing to turn over stones that others simply step over--and they have linked us here on several occasions, and so I'm returning the favor.

If you are moderate-to-progressive, or you just want to read stories outside the mainstream and beyond the seeming blogger cliques, you will appreciate both TennViews and Progressive Nashville. When you stop over at Progressive Nashville, read Jim Grinstead's latest piece on how the government was not the problem in the collapse of the housing market, but it may very well provide the solution to raise that Titanic. Jim defies stifling conservative convention that the market will bring us out by itself, pointing out that the market was what sunk itself in the first place. Might some regulation have forestalled or limited the carnage? I think so.

Lobbied Legacy: The Chicken Shit Administration

The smell of poultry poop and anti-family policies may be guaranteed before the 2008 elections with industry lobbyists putting on a full-court press:

Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements.

Mayor's "Connecting Communities" Meeting

This morning I joined a lot of other neighborhood leaders in a packed Downtown Library auditorium to hear what plans the Mayor's Office had in store for "connecting communities." If Mayor Karl Dean had specific plans for dealing with neighborhood issues, he held them close to the vest. I have to say that I was disappointed to hear him in his opening speech falling back on his safe campaign formula of emphasizing education and schools without much regard for the challenging facing neighborhoods in general.

It is not that education is not important, but unless we have a school board full of homeschoolers, then a commitment to better public education is a no-brainer. Seriously, if this is the direction that the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods (MOON) is going to take, then it seems like it has lost its broader purpose. Even the evaluation forms for the meeting that they had us turn in afterwards had a question framing the MOON mission as one focused on fighting school drop out rates and addressing youth crime. It seems to me that MOON is departing from what made the office stronger in the previous administration.

Even questions got asked in the Q&A portion regarding what the Mayor's Office could do to focus on infrastructure even as growth and development are exploding, Mayor Dean made an uninspired response about dealing with each infrastructure problem on a case-by-case basis. That's not good enough when you hear feedback also coming Mayor Dean's way that the bodies that govern planning, zoning, and infrastructure decisions have their meetings at times that may be convenient for developers, but not for average working stiffs whose jobs do not depend on neighborhood growth issues. Yes, we have a problem with youth violence, but developers also take an adversarial relationship to residents and have more money to pour into their purposes than do youth gangs.

A highlight of the meeting was the Mayor's announcement in response to a codes enforcement question that the police have just started writing codes citations rather than relying on the Codes Department to do so. In fact, the police reported that they issued their first codes citations yesterday. This is welcome news to those of us who have been put through the ringer reporting dumping and vandalism on property to Codes officials only to wait months and many times with no response. That's good news, but it is only one piece of what needs to be a more comprehensive approach to neighborhood issues.

I left the meeting feeling as if there are still large holes in the Mayor's Neighborhood policies and I do not know how he intends to fill them. A commitment to public education is not good enough. And the meeting could have been better organized to give government officials and the bevy of Council Members present a better idea of the scope of concerns that people have. A number of folks were standing in line to speak during the Q&A portion when the end of the meeting was announced.

One of those people was my neighbor Freddie O'Connell who had the best suggestion: the Mayor probably should have turned the Q&A portion over to MOON Director Brady Banks to continue to address people's concerns until they were exhausted. Everyone understands that the Mayor is a busy man. And who would blame him for needing to leave after an hour and a half? But someone should have stuck around to address the additional questions in the public forum itself rather than afterwards on an individual, "case-by-case" basis with MOON later.

Handicapping the 'Ville

Nashville is listed in a real estate brokerage firm's list of "2008's Top 10 Industrial Markets to Watch." The list focuses on future trends rather than on current data, so this is more like a "his-mudder-was-a-mudder" prognostication. Let's also be post-Newtonian about the physics of picking certain "economic factors" over others (observing "tax incentives, low labor costs, and low utility costs" is not objective; it is biased and it effects the field observed).

On an unrelated but not unimplicated note: The salad tax-free days in Spring Hill are over and its future is cloudy. Says the Tennessean:

A nationwide housing slowdown is taking a financial toll on cities across Middle Tennessee, including this town that once thrived off money from development but now has to sell off investments to make ends meet.

Aldermen voted this week to cash out almost $900,000 in certificates of deposit to help pay the bills, and state auditors are reviewing Spring Hill's financial books looking for places to save money.

The days when "growth fees" could fund services are over with the housing slump.

Nashville has got its own problems (like the looming $1 billion price tag attached to the mortgage slump) that should factor in to whether it will actually emerge as a top 10 market beyond "tax incentive offers." However, might Nashville's brighter future have to do partially with the fact that it depends on a diverse set of revenues streams beyond growth fees? Not in places where horn-honkers are rallied to oppose any and all tax increases.

Hot Stove Stoked Next Week in Nashville

Fantasy sports leagues can be traced back to the founding of the original baseball rotisserie league in 1980, which grew out of the propensity of baseball aficionados to study and to debate statistics. Statistics repartee grew out of a cultural ritual called the "Hot Stove League," the heart of which are the events of Baseball Winter Meetings, which this year will be held here in Nashville.

Next week Nashville will be exposed to a hard fact that many other cities realized a long time ago: every other professional sport takes a backseat to baseball during the Winter Meetings, because of the drama of trades and signings that have such an impact on the 2008 season and beyond to our competitive rituals of debating players' stats.

Local sports writers and reporters have a golden opportunity to correspond first-hand with our national pastime at perhaps its most significant annual event rather than rely on dispatches from USA Today and other news outlets. We'll see whether they seize that chance.

One for the "English First" Drones

Some new Pew Studies:

show that fewer than one-in-four (23%) Latino immigrants report being able to speak English very well. However, fully 88% of their U.S.-born adult children report that they speak English very well. Among later generations of Hispanic adults, the figure rises to 94%.

The surveys also indicate that Latinos are motivated by the belief that deficiency in language skills is the cause of discrimination against them.

Further Affirmation of My Nonvote for Ford

LiberFreddio refers us to Harold Ford's op-ed piece in the Moonie tract, otherwise known as the Washington Times. That Mr. Ford feels the need to suck up to conservatives now as much as he did when he prayed ran against Bob Corker for U.S. Senate justifies my decision not to vote for him in 2006.

I look forward to the day, which may never come, when I regret not voting for Harold Ford, Jr. But for now, I'm glad he lost, because if he's pushing cutting corporate tax rates to the Moonies and the Neo-Cons without defending a Senate seat, imagine what kind of conservative tear he would be on if had won in 2006.

Another Reason to Hold Comcast in Contempt

[I]t looks as if big money wins out again against the little folks.

- - Cowboys' fan married to a Packers' fan faced with the possiblity of paying extra to see the biggest contest of the regular NFL season tonight

Comcast is only broadcasting what is arguably the biggest football game*--tonight's contest between the Green Bay Packers (10-1) and the Dallas Cowboys (10-1)--of the regular NFL season on pay-per-view. The NFL and Comcast are in a "political" battle over providing more football games as part of the basic cable package to customers, and as usual, the customers--at least the average ones--are the losers.

_____________
*If the New England Patriots were not completely in another universe far from everyone else, then the previous New England-Indianapolis contest would have been the bigger game.

Not Good

The Nashville Predators have only hit the paid attendence that they are supposed to be averaging (14,000--in order to keep their lease with Nashville in tact) once this season. That's not exactly a ground swell of support after the Mayor bowed to the "Keep Them at Any Cost" Crowd and pulled the Preds' hindquarters out of the fire.

All I can say is there should be some sustained debate in Metro Council over approving the Mayor's deal with the new ownership team. Attendance is not just lagging, it is limping. And instead of blowing the roof off the arena in the wake of the deal, all those Preds supporters got quiet, almost as if they were breathing a collective sign of relief rather than walking the walk. They are a man up and still can't muster a power play.

The lack of any groundswell of support for the hockey club should give the Council pause about this deal. And this thing should not sail through our legislative body easily. Finally, those who argue with no qualification that we have no choice but to do what the team demands of us--when the lackluster attendence clearly suggests that we can do otherwise--deserve a strong round of boos.

When They Told Giuliani to Get a Room, He Did So on the Public Dole and He Didn't Exactly Slum It

How's this for cynical? As Mayor of New York, Republican Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani used public funds to finance extramarital rendezvous with his mistress in the Hamptons and charged them to city agencies. He even charged agencies that aid the disabled and provide lawyers for indigent defendants, according to Politico. Still waiting for the cynical part? At the time the Mayor's Office was asked to explain the expenses to auditors, Giuliani refused to divulge the information citing "security" reasons.

Why isn't the mainstream media grilling the Republican like they did Bill Clinton over the Jennifer Flowers affair? Using 9/11 fears to hide public funding of sex romps in the playground of the rich seems a lot worse to me than anything Bill Clinton ever did.


UPDATE: If you haven't noticed yet, TPM is using the term "shag" now in as many different ways possible to refer to the allegations that former Mayor Giuliani was exercising his extramarital preogatives with government funds. If the term "shag" (as in "he shagged his mistress") eventually sticks, then will we see folks waving squares of shag carpeting at Giuliani campaign events the way the Republicans waved flip-flops at John Kerry events?

Here is footage from last night's Republican debate that includes questions regarding "shagginggate":

UPDATE: Giuliani gave his mistress her own NYPD security detail while he was still married to his previous wife! Mistress used them as her own personal taxi service! Can this get any uglier for Rudy?

3-Year Immigration Backlash Sampling Includes 3 Tennessee Communities

The Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center lists a number of the "more egregious examples of physical and psychological violence" against Latinos in various communities around the United States.

Tennessee has the dubious distinction of having 3 listed:

MAY 7, 2005
Maryville, Tenn.
A Mexican grocery store is vandalized by five white men who shatter windows, damage a refrigerator and spray-paint neo-Nazi symbols, causing over $17,000 in damage. Two men — Thomas Lovett and Jacob Reynolds — eventually plead guilty and are each sentenced to six months in prison.
....
JULY 20, 2006
Dayton, Tenn.
Gilberto Mejía, owner of the Mexican grocery store Carnicería Los Primos, is verbally assaulted by anti-immigration activist June Griffin, who barges into the store and tears down a Mexican flag. Griffin then allegedly harasses Mejía and leaves threatening phone messages, which Mejia saves for police.

"It was an act of war," says Griffin, who has unsuccessfully run for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. Charged with civil rights intimidation, phone harassment, theft and vandalism, Griffin is released after witnesses fail to turn up at a court hearing.

"I'm not ashamed of anything I did," Griffin tells The Herald-News.
....
MAY 10, 2007
Dunlap, Tenn.
Frankie Bowman, who in 2005 launched an unsuccessful petition drive to prevent a Mexican nightclub from moving into his neighborhood, is arrested for offering an undercover Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent $2,500 to burn down Mexico de Noche. Bowan, 52, allegedly told the agent he didn't care whether the building was empty or occupied when the fire was set. He faces trial on charges of solicitation to commit aggravated arson.

Mountain Minuteman founder Robert Crooks E-mails a video to several prominent anti-immigration activists that appears to shows a Minuteman tracking a group of Mexicans through a gun's night vision scope. In the video, an unidentified man can be heard calling the Mexicans "cockroaches" and then firing off a shotgun. "This video shows how to keep a Home Depot parking lot empty," Crooks writes in his cover E-mail, snidely suggesting that recipients know how to "Talk the Talk" but not "Walk the Walk" of effectively fighting illegal immigration. A few days later, a very similar night-vision video surfaces, this one purporting to show a Minuteman hitting a lone Mexican with a sniper shot. Crooks, who initially denies making the videos but then admits it, later says the second video was faked. Although state and federal law enforcement officials look into the incident, no victims are found.

I Guess He's Willing to Demand that People Sacrifice Property Rights for A Border Fence

Local blogging Republican Candidate for Some-Office-in-the-Future, Bob Krumm, wants a border fence along the Mexican border (and none for Canada?) based on a piece in Reverend Sun Myung Moon's conservative newspaper, the Washington Times, which reported a plan to smuggle Afghan and Iraqi terrorists through tunnels used by Mexican gangs to smuggle drugs into the US.

Leaving aside the argument that tunnels go underground (thus rendering surface-obstructing fences moot), I would have to say that Bob Krumm's wish for a 6,500 mile fence is impractical and even dangerous to Americans on the border if you consider the complexities and legal implications (let alone the cost, which Republicans are generally unwilling to pay unless they can borrow the money) of actually building a border fence.

Quoting a report on one such plan for the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the Texas Observer opines:

[T]he tactical infrastructure within several of the 21 sections [from Rio Grande City, TX to Brownsville, TX] would also encroach on multiple privately-owned land parcels. Some proposed fence sections could also encroach upon portions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Texas State Parks in the Valley.

....In addition to the possibility of legal entanglements from eminent domain proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security must also leap over environmental laws, and if it wants to use the levees, it probably needs Mexico’s assent as well. Then, of course, there is the widespread opposition from residents and elected officials from the Rio Grande Valley.

Brave New Blogosphere

Some in the land of the giants, Web 2.0, cannot wait until the more independent, less "amassed" of us die off:

All in all, the modern blog has progressed. Greatly. From a simple beginning, it’s managed to carry itself up the proverbial ladder in a few years’ time, and now stands tall amid big-money media houses. Yes, even the giants have joined in on the fun, creating their own blogs to gain new followings of their own.

What does this mean for the future of blogging? Does it portend a consolidation in the total number, with a decrease in amateur blogs, and disproportional fame given to the topmost percentile?

In short, yes, it does. But that’s always been expected. Such a trend occurred in the old media landscape. New media will experience a similar transformation. Which is fine by us.

Well, as long as we’re still alive and kickin’ with this here publication when all’s said and done.

And will Web 3.0 actually downsize or merely isolate and provide cover for targeted market penetration by the "amassed"?

Speaking of Empty-Nest Hipsterdom: Two Things Surprise Me about This DA|AD Ad

1. That they refer to the advertised development as "6th & Hume" (which is in Salemtown) rather than as Schoene Ansicht, which is its actual name. You'll remember that I posted a picture for your impressions just a few days ago on a Baskin Company development across the street from Schoene Ansicht called, "6th & Hume." DAAD is also designing it.
2. That they call these units "multi-family." I don't take issue with the "multi" part. That's obvious. But "family"? C'mon! I visited an acquaintance who owns one, and I concluded there is no way your average American family fits into that space. Maybe if the family is a single parent and a single child. I did ask my acquaintance last night whether he thought his townhouse could hold a family and he told me that if the laundry room was converted to a bathroom and the garage was converted to a bedroom, then yes they could. So, a family buying any of these spaces would basically have to park on the street and take their laundry to a laundrymat in order to fit in to a space that is obviously designed for either single or coupled empty-nesters. So, why mislead with terms like "family"?

However, New Urbanism May Already Be Stale and Wasting Away

NPR is reporting that the urban hip lifestyle market has hit a wall and that once available city homes are no longer attainable, especially when the empty nesters cannot afford a downpayment. That has slowed housing sales and urban "revitalization." All of that unfettered growth without any attention to diversity or deliberative planning appears to be experiencing karmic blowback. Look for more and more of these duplexes and condos sprouting up everywhere to be rented rather than sold to the hipsters. Or developers might actually consider a more stable market niche: attracting families with children and leveraging good schools and safe parks around the neighborhoods. Stability is in.

Developers, Planners, and Politicians Alike Should Heed These Words Lest New Urbanism Become Stale and Waste Away

As I continue to bang the drum for family-friendly city neighborhoods I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall of empty-nest hipsterdom.

Then along comes today's Wall Street Journal op-ed (of all things) and puts wind in my sails:

Married people with children tend to be both successful and motivated, precisely the people who make economies go. They are twice as likely to be in the top 20% of income earners, according to the Census, and their incomes have been rising considerably faster than the national average.

Indeed, if you talk with recruiters and developers in the nation's fastest growing regions, you find that the critical ability to lure skilled workers, long term, lies not with bright lights and nightclubs, but with ample economic opportunities, affordable housing and family friendly communities not too distant from work ....

The evidence thus suggests that the obsession with luring singles to cities is misplaced. Instead, suggests Paul Levy, president of Philadelphia's Center City district association, the emphasis should be on retaining young people as they grow up, marry, start families and continue to raise them.

The question is: will that wind drive me where I am or pull me out of the city? I will not wait forever for Nashville to catch up.

HT: Nashville Charrette

"Park Closed" Signs = "Closed to All But Criminals"

Both the Tennessean and NewsChannel5 carry stories this morning that State Officials are going to put "closed-at-night" signs up in Bicentennial Mall and that they are "studying" whether to put emergency call boxes in the Downtown park. Catherine MacTamaney and her blog are mentioned prominently in the Tennessean piece. On the air this morning a NewsChannel5 reporter said that area residents actually start walking around the park for exercise as early as 4:30 a.m. The state admits that it does nothing to secure the park from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

If this is the extent of the changes promised by Senator Thelma Harper in a phone call to me before Thanksgiving, I've got to say that I am very disappointed. About all posting signs do is cover the state's legal butt if someone else gets assaulted in the park. It does not increase overnight security. A sign is of little solace to someone who finds themselves stranded alone in the area without a phone through no fault of their own. It is also a cue to predators, muggers, and thugs that the park is unpatrolled and is low priority on high visibility.

As for "studying" call boxes, I remain unconvinced that such studies have not been conducted by paper-pushing bureaucrats in the past. I think that the announcement to study the possibility is a stall tactic, based on Park Commissioner Jim Fyke's total allergic and stonewalling response to me. They announce a study now, taking the edge off the controversy and, when attention turns to other matters, then the study goes away. Then we still don't have security on Bicentennial Mall, and early morning walkers or stranded motorists are left with the cold solace of "closed signs." How do signs secure an accessible park?

Side note: the Nashville City Paper is curiously silent on the state's about face as they have been on Mall security in general, despite their interest in becoming more net-focused. My guess is that since this crime doesn't involve illegal immigrants or bloggers uncritical of their publication, then they are not interested.


UPDATE: CatMac weighs in on state-significant signage:

The new signs are not news. The new signs will be pointed to after the next attack, no doubt, as a good faith effort by the Commission to intervene. But, really, guys, signs? .... [T]his is really not an issue of signage. It's one of economic development, revitalized urban centers and an antiquated model for patrolling in state-run parks. The bad guys are not going to care that the signs are there, and unless the city opts for that oh-so-much-more-efficient monorail from downtown to the residential neighborhoods nearby, people are still going to walk in the park. Indeed, that's what it's designed for. Our downtown development, essential to avoiding Nashville becoming the dreaded "Next Atlanta" (cue frontpage story on the Tennessean) depends on a thoughtful, common sense approach to making downtown livable again. A 17 acre greenspace is a beautiful thing in an urban center. The way it is managed should be a tribute, and not an obstacle, to a thriving downtown.

UPDATE: Et tu, Aunt B:

I’m sure [closed-at-night signs] will deter those law-abiding rapists. And, really, if they don’t put cops in the park, how will they enforce the “closed at night” rule?

Gore Blog Hacked

Online pharmaceutical hawker-hackers hit the blog set up to promote "An Inconvenient Truth."

When Lighting One Candle Blinds Our Gaze to the Darkness

I won't question the ostensible nobility of providing a Gulf Coast families here and there with homes and getting them out of FEMA trailers (even if it merely amounts to tax breaks for big box corporations).

However, I am bound to ask whether heart-warming one-cottage-at-a-time stories unwittingly become a distraction to the largely ignored story that speculators are grabbing many more families' holdings and that Mississippi casinos are raiding government funds designated for rebuilds for homes with the help of Republican Governor Haley Barbour (who is mentioned as Vice Presidential material).

LiberFreddio Elected President of Salemtown Neighbors

Liberadio's Freddie O'Connell is the President Elect of Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association and will serve his term in 2008. He ran unopposed and the rules were suspended tonight to elect him by acclamation. Freddie was definitely the strongest of all possible candidates in my book and I'm hopeful about his leadership of SNNA.

Recovering Neighborhoods in NOLA

The Times-Picayune has a series of great video-essays on several New Orleans' neighborhoods attempting to bounce back after Katrina. In some areas, like Broadmoor, community organizations have tenaciously held the line to spur recovery in places that others were content on writing off as unrecoverable.

Mainstream Media to Return to Bicentennial Mall Security Issue

Word on the street is that tomorrow's Tennessean will carry a story on the controversy over the lack of overnight security in the Bicentennial Mall State Park.

Science Has Its Own Spaghetti Monsters

We don't have to be holy-rollers to be intellectually honest about metaphysical assumptions in every discipline. Yesterday's NY Times op-ed page pulled back the curtain that hides the gods that science makes in some of its unassailable assumptions

The piece demonstrates once again why philosophy is helpful for both religion and science:

[B]oth religion and science are founded on faith — namely, on belief in the existence of something outside the universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen universes, too. For that reason, both monotheistic religion and orthodox science fail to provide a complete account of physical existence.

This shared failing is no surprise, because the very notion of physical law is a theological one in the first place, a fact that makes many scientists squirm. Isaac Newton first got the idea of absolute, universal, perfect, immutable laws from the Christian doctrine that God created the world and ordered it in a rational way. Christians envisage God as upholding the natural order from beyond the universe, while physicists think of their laws as inhabiting an abstract transcendent realm of perfect mathematical relationships.

I do not think that the suggestion here is that science and religion operate in the same field or have the same goals. I do think that it is arguing that holding certain unquestioned metaphysical assumptions is common to all human behavior even as it is the basis of religion. But I would also argue that doubt, self-interrogation, and agnosticism are also integral to religion, just as they are to science.

How's that Red-State Sexual Abstinence Emphasis Working for Tennessee?

Carole Borges discloses a rather dubious distinction for a Bible Belt state.


With just a little more ignorance and distortion, we'll get that prize.

North End Development Watch

Here is the sketch of new condos going up at the corner of 6th Av N and Hume St:


Impressions? (If you have direct financial ties to this project and want to comment, please disclose that in your response).

Journalist Would Have Been Happy with Hitler Offing Bloggers

In defending his defense of National League Baseball's 2007 MVP (Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins), Philadephia Daily News Sports Reporter Bill Conlin responded thusly to a blogging Philly fan who questioned his defense:

The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler’s time on earth–I’m sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called “Pamphleteers.” They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites.

Is Conlin merely expressing out loud what many other journalists quietly desire?

Thus Averting the Plan to Build Red Square on Top of Plymouth Rock

Doctor, question that's always bothered me and a lot of people: Mayflower, combined with Philadelphia - a no-brainer, right? Cause this is where the Mayflower landed. Not so. It turns out Columbus actually set foot somewhere down in the West Indies. Little known fact.

- - Buck Laughlin, Best in Show

Music City Bloggers Blogger Glen Dean would probably be more at home during the Red Scare period of American history, and he demonstrates that by channelling Mark Rose, who does his own impression of Buck Laughlin with a wish bone lodged in his gullet, spinning the original Mayflower landing into a socialist plot.

Both Dean and Rose got a little history lesson from a commenter named bridgett, who seems to have a less partisan grasp of the facts.

Foreign Workers

It's the great Dominican pass time and "their field of dreams is the United States." Notice that the goal is that of many other immigrants: to help their families.

The Right Musters Its Academic Shock Troops Against the Foe-Du-Jour

While R. Neal is pointing to a report attacking social work in universities by the right-wing National Association of Scholars as both alarming and hypocritical, I would like to suggest that this is simply the opening salvo by the neo-cons to move their minions to elect a candidate of their own liking to the White House in 2008.

The right-wing always needs to find demons in the academic community to match the ones it says are prancing around society at large in order to maintain control of government. It is part of their fear-agenda to create unease among the voters about what is going on in colleges and universities. So, the NAS is doing what groups like it always does in the run-up to elections.

Their Board of Advisers is organizationally incestuous, relying almost exclusively on the neo-con American Enterprise Institute (which brought you the occupation of Iraq and which might bring you soon the occupation of Iran). All of the politically correct names are there: Kristol, Himmelfarb, Sommers, etc. This time they target social workers. Next election it will be some other academicians.

Social work is larger than what NAS makes of it. It is checkered with diverse ideological persuasions and inner tensions, as Robert Fisher points out, between social welfare, service delivery, and questioning the structural causes that necessitate welfare and service delivery. The scholars of the right-wing would be more comfortable with social workers limiting themselves to welfare and not questioning (how "rational" is that?), but this skirmish has nothing to do with what the scholars might actually want. It has to do with electing a President and a Congress and solidifying the Supreme Court's hard right trajectory.

Free-thought opponent David Horowitz's recent campaign on university campuses failed miserably, so the NAS is merely stepping into the breach in order to demonize a discipline and mobilize its troops.

Pro Forma Senate

U.S. Senate Democrats find a way to stop George W. Bush's constitution-skirting recess appointments during the holiday break. They just have to keep having sessions at least every 4 days.

12South's Stamped Asphalt Jungle

12South residents seem to have had enough with thefts even at the point of a gun. From their neighborhood watch regarding an 11/19 incident near Sevier Park:

Four black teenagers surprised victim unloading groceries from car on the street and demanded money and car. One assailant held gun in victim's face. Victim refused, fought off two, and robbers escaped northward with few groceries. Hour later police captured all four with "evidence" at Wedgewood and 8th, where victim then identified them (and again at yesterday's arraignment). Police said they were from Edgehill area north of Wedgewood and at least one is a multiple offender.

Metro Council Roll Call Vote to Support U.S. Senate Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act

Here is the Metro Clerk's record of Tuesday night's vote to pass the memorializing resolution:

The Professionals Win Again

Everywhere we turn, mainstream journalists are pouring into the blogosphere like Sooners across a prairie. Some of them are even receiving "training in social media and blogging," so that they can do what many other bloggers cannot: get paid for blogging at work.

For me blogging started as a way to bring to public light conditions and problems largely ignored by the offline media. It was a helpful alternative that sometimes forced traditional media to pay attention (if we were lucky).

Now the mainstreamers are flooding the zone online, ignoring just as much as they did before, but getting paid for what the rest of us do with our spare time. It seems to me that the blogosphere is beginning to reify and harden into a crusty realm of paid specialists, and thus the free exchange of ideas is beginning to shrivel like Apache Plume in a bone-dry Pecos arroyo.

And, given the mainstream media's will-to-merge, it likely won't be long before non-mainstream writers and bloggers are being slowed, side-tracked, and blocked by AT&T and Comcast, who will partner with the corporations that pay the mainstream media bloggers to flood the zone. One sees a whole new level of dystopia on the horizon.

Forget what they say about journalism disappearing before social media; it is already latching on to social media like a parasite invades a host.

Cavalcade of Capitalists: A Portion of those Phone and Cable Bill Payments Go To Political Influence

So, why don't they have a line item that says "service charge for lobbyists to pull in government favors"? Appalling to know:

Disclosures show that both sides [of the cable and telecommunications industry] and their allies collectively spent between $10.7 million and $11.2 million on lobbying and related activity for the year ended Sept. 30, 2007. The figures are contained in reports covering the periods from Oct. 1, 2006, to March 31, 2007, and from April 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2007. The latter report was due last week.

AT&T lobbyist disclosures show AT&T spent $600,000 to $700,000 to hire 26 lobbyists to represent the company on the legislation. AT&T reported spending an estimated $2.85 million on lobbying-related expenses.

And they feed us lines about how the large sums we pay each month are plowed right back into research and implementation of technology that make our service more efficient. Hiding the ugly details is called "effective marketing."

Resolution Supporting Greater Freedom for Labor Passes

26 Council Members voted tonight to support the memorializing resolution (someone requested a roll call vote, which is rare for virtually powerless memorializing resolutions) encouraging Tennessee's U.S. Senate delegation to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. Only two of the at-Large Members voted favorably: Megan Barry and Jerry Maynard. Charlie Tygard, of course, voted against it. Tim Garrett and Ronnie Stein took the safe route and abstained (is it a more progressive group than the last one or not?). I'll try to post the entire vote tally tomorrow. I think it is remarkable that a pro-labor statement was supported by 65% of the Metro Council.

CM Erica Gilmore Defers "Single-Serve Beer" Bill Indefinitely

Ms. Gilmore said more research needed to be done before bill is brought back.