The Question of a Progressive Council Caucus

So, the progressives are discussing a caucus to help streamline and coordinate their initiatives so as to avoid the fracture of issues like placing LEDs in residential neighborhoods, huh?  Whose fault is that they fractured?  Was it really those progressive constituents who Nate Rau speculates "blogged" Charlie Tygard to death?

Given the rather limited influence of blogs, I doubt it.  I would venture to say that the fracturing occurred along the lines between members who received substantial donations from pro-LED interests and those who did not.  It also occurred along the lines of those who have a conflict of interest with the sign issues and those who do not.  And, quite frankly, some self-proclaimed progressive members spent way too much time representing some special business interests without reflection on the conflicted cultural implications of their actions.

It is rather rich that Nate Rau is blaming blogs for the divisions rather than underscoring their contributions to the debate.  If it hadn't been for blogs, much of the truth about the events unfolding around the LED controversy wouldn't have seen the light of day.  Enclave beat the media to this story.  We looked into the campaign financing by the Nashville Business Coalition PAC and the grilling that council candidates got last fall from that group, which included sign kingpin, Bobby Joslin.  Did the City Paper delve into those thorny issues?  It seemed busier trying to amplify Charlie Tygard's talking points and trying to spin zoning controversies into liberals vs. churches.  Did the mainstream media ever lift a finger to verify whether or not the cost of the signs reported by Joslin and Tygard were accurate?  Did reporter Nate Rau attend the one and only LED task force meeting?  I didn't see any media there.

So, if the council progressives are trying to overcome their differences then let them do so and let the media leave bloggers out of it.  But I can think of three real problems with caucusing in this context:

1. I disagree with Ronnie Steine's insinuation that "progressive" means whatever the user wishes it to mean.  It's that kind of relativism that lead to accepting large donations with strings attached and embracing conflicts of interest.
2. I believe that it is tactically unwise given that the ideological division in the council seems equal at this point.
3. I hope that the caucus doesn't become a means for insulating members from constituents to make sure that they are in the same page; that will give the special interests another lever that average voters don't have.

TNT Jumps into School Rezoning Flap

Amy Griffith reports that Nashville's community- and faith-based IAF-affiliate, Tying Nashville Together has come out against the MNPS-adopted rezoning plan that would send north Nashville students to the Pearl-Cohn cluster.

I wrote a Vanderbilt dissertation and an article or two in my time on TNT's brand of community organizing.

2nd Annual Salemtown Block Party Another Rousing Success

Scenes from Saturday night's block party hosted by the Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association:

It was even better than last year. Our friends from Lazzaroli dropped off some awesome handmade pasta to compliment the burgers, dogs, and potluck side dishes. Music and beer were flowing. SNNA raised nearly $200 by passing around a donation jar to help defray the costs. We didn't do that last year.

After doing my own part as part of the set-up, grilling, and clean-up crews, I'm exhausted and ready to consume all the beer that I bought but did not drink for lack of time.

Inside the Chamber Box

Bruce Barry has an outstanding response to the school rezoning histrionics of the past few weeks.  He underscores what I think is the primary problem of the advantage that the Chamber of Commerce enjoys over others who cannot give candidates as much money as the business community does:

[The Chamber] regards a weak school system mainly as an inconvenient obstacle to economic development and employment growth, not as a collective community enterprise that is failing to deliver on a civic obligation to create educated citizens who can fulfill personal aspirations and advance democracy.

Market assumptions have a troubling tendency to hyper-commodify every quality including broader civic values (like mutual respect and honor) and virtues of a democratic society (like fairness and justice).  Education has a larger purpose than the "bottom line," and yet because of the Chamber's influence over the school board, Nashville schools are not likely to serve any purpose higher than what business models require.

Bells Bend Opposition to May Town Center to Be Subject of East Nashville Meeting

From the Friends of Farmers' Market list serv:

If you have questions about proposed development at Bells Bend and the reasons many from the Bells Bend community (and beyond) are speaking out against the project or if you just want more information about the proposed project, the area in Bells Bend and the reasons why it should be preserved, JOIN US THIS SUNDAY AT 6:00 p.m. for a presentation from Brenda Butka, an active member of the Bells Bend community.

We are hosting this informal community gathering at our home in the Historic Edgefield neighborhood of East Nashville, 602 Russell Street. Brenda will do a 20 minute presentation on the Bells Bend community and answer any questions you may have about what is there now and why there is a movement against the May Town Center project.

Everyone is welcome to join us to discuss these issues, but please let us know if you can make it asap and no later than noon on Sunday by emailing me at theurbankitchennashville@yahoo.com.

Have a great day!
Jennifer Hagan-Dier

Netroots Dispatch: Clarke Hammers away at Homeland Security Apparatchiks

Richard Clarke tells a conference of lefty bloggers that we should worry over the junta of military intelligence and private defense contractors running this country's homeland security apparatus:

[He had] sharp words for the Department of Homeland Security, which he cited as lacking transparency and oversight from Congress. “Congress has done a horrible job of overseeing Homeland Security,” he said. “And so has the media.” He touched on what he called the ‘industrial intelligence complex” — thousands of private companies that now do the work of the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

“There are literally thousands of people in the for profit sector who are doing this work and we don’t know what the contracts are worth and there is no oversight — it’s totally out of control,” he said.

There seems to be rather old-style soviet quality to the growing power of the commissars at the federal level, and the lily-livered Democratic Congress seems loath to check it.  Clarke is one of the most knowledgeable and reputable figures on homeland security.  We ignore him at our own peril.

Tennessee Starbucks Closings Do Not Include Nashville Stores

Here's the list of Tennessee Starbucks closings via Consumerist:

appling & us 70 7610 us hwy 70 bartlett
hwy 58 & hwy 153 4503 hwy 58 chattanooga
nonconnah pkwy & houston levee 4630 merchant pk cir collierville
hwy 51 & lanny bridges 1625 hwy 51 s covington
i-40 & pine ridge 1796 roane state hwy harriman
highland & baltimore 112 e baltimore st jackson
strawberry plains & i-40 7228 region lane knoxville
dexter & germantown 1645 n germantown pkwy memphis
germantown & market plaza 2293 n germantown pkwy memphis
riverdale & maltan 3586 riverdale rd memphis
hwy 96 @ mall cir dr 207a stones river mall blvd murfreesboro
stones river mall kiosk 1720 old fort pkwy murfreesboro
hwy 64 & hwy 194 7275 hwy 64 oakland

Property Tax Referendum Poster Child Continues to Slide from Boom to Doom

Let's pretend for a couple of years that we really don't need property taxes to fund services for our growing community and then we'll be in the same mess that Spring Hill is.

Hiring KBR for Wiring Proves to Be a Fools Errand

Error-prone private contractor electrocutes and injures U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.  And they'll probably overbill the taxpayers for their faulty wiring.  All hail, privatization!

Southern California Death Watch

The LA Times blog has come up with a map of all of the Starbucks closings scheduled in the Los Angeles and San Diego Metropolitan areas, which bears no resemblance to the map of the growth of Walmart across America during my life span (HT:  Nashville Charrette).

Angry Bank Runs Have Begun as Federal Regulators Take Over

With this week's seizing of a California bank, it looks like the banking situation is becoming critical as people wait in line overnight for their money. There are also other banks around the country teetering toward take over by FDIC.

But in this footage of a bank run in California, the most absurd part is the news that President Bush, whose approval numbers lend his opinion little credence, is trying to reassure depositors.  The response of one depositor, who had been waiting in line 16 hours to withdraw his funds, to the question of what he thought of the President's advice is priceless.  He didn't seem too reassured.

FDIC is preparing for the worst by trying to lure retired employees back to deal with the growing crisis.

Which Liberal Bloggers is the Statesman Talking About?

It was inevitable with the 3,000 liberal bloggers descending on Austin, Texas for a new-media conference that editors of the local paper, the Austin American-Statesman, would weigh in and take a few conventional mainstream shots at the bloggers.  However, I cannot get my mind around the editorial's criticism that progressive bloggers have some single-minded focus on Obama's flip flop on telecom immunity to the exclusion of other interests like the economy and rising fuel prices.

The bloggers I've read who are critical of the flip flop have not stopped hammering way on the economy or fuel prices or the war or the nations infrastructure or human rights abuses caused by "free trade" or any other significant issue.  I certainly have not.  These issues are not mutually exclusive.

It is no more a waste of time to oppose telecom immunity now than it was to oppose school segregation in the 1950s when the majority of Americans were ambivalent about desegregation.  And widespread dissent doesn't just emerge out of thin air.  It starts with a few early adopters before it goes viral.  In fact, it won't go viral without early adopters.

CONCEPT G(rass)

I took the photo above standing erect on the plot where Double A Development and Village Real Estate plan to build "Concept G: Townhomes at Six Hundred Garfield" (http://www.600garfield.com/) in Salemtown (although they prefer to call us "Germantown").  I'm around 5'10", and as you can see there is some thicket that is over my head.  It's a clear violation of the Metro grass code (grass and weeds are supposed to be no higher than 12 inches).  It's even bursting through the erosion-preventing silt fence at the sidewalk.

The Concept G team has already met with some criticism here for its somewhat institutional design and for running cheeky ads even in a community that can hardly be characterized as prudish or puritan.  But those are less important, more subjective disagreements where a difference of opinion is expected.  Violating the Metro code times 6 so that vermin, trash, and probably drug dealers can gather hidden on their overgrown lot is unacceptable and an insulting blight on our neighborhood.  I am particularly disappointed in Mark Deutschmann's Village Real Estate company, which sells itself as a community-friendly, neighborhood-supportive group.

I wish the 600garfield.com people would treat Salemtown better by keeping their grass mowed.  Or if not mowed how about scythed once and a while?

Unfettered Competition May Just as Easily Lead to Lobbyists as It Does to Excellence

A couple of years ago the University of Chicago lost its exclusive no bid contracts for two famous national labs when the Energy Department decided to open the bidding process to private companies.  Did U. of C. find a way to strive harder to keep the contracts (which had been assured by the fiat of former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert)?  Nope.  They hired a lobbyist to leverage support in the U.S. Congress.  If you've got lobbyists, you don't need to work harder to compete and to produce excellent results.  Lobbyists are to competitive edge what tenure is to job security.

Dog Days in Salemtown, Too

Last night the Salemtown e-mail list lit up with word of a BB gun fired through the window of a townhouse, a late-night disturbance involving a group of unruly teenage girls near Morgan Park, a suspicious white van containing some of those teens shouting racial insults around 6th and Buchanan, and kids throwing rocks at windows and kicking front doors on 5th.

Robbery and Vandalism in 12South Neighborhood

The following troubling report came across the 12South listserv today:

Last night (or early this morning) somebody kicked the door down of a home at near the corner of 10th/Douglas. Nothing appeared to be taken. Holes were cut in the tops of two convertible cars but nothing appeared to be taken.

Yesterday the District 17 Newsgroup posted even scarier news:

More details on the Robbery on the 1500 block of Beechwood.

The robbery happened around 1 AM on a Friday night, when our neighbor was coming home from work. She parked on the street in front of her house, went around her car to pick up her violin case, and started walking towards her front door. She was almost at the door when the perpetrator appeared and demanded she give him her purse.

The perpetrator was described as being not tall, but of muscular build. He was wearing a ski mask, a dark jacket, jeans, and black tennis shoes.

After taking her purse, the perpetrator ran down the street towards twelfth avenue south. He may have had a car waiting, because about 30 minutes later, one of the credit cards from the purse was used at the White Castle on the corner of Nolensville and Thompson Lane. The security camera at the drive up window shows a dark blue car, most likely a 98-2000 Ford escort.

Our neighbors drivers license and now canceled credit cards, were found in Hendersonville, mixed in with someone else's cards. The police have suggested that person maybe working multiple neighborhoods in Nashville, rather than concentrating just on our area.

We do not believe that our neighbor was followed home from her work, or that the person had been waiting for her specifically. It may be speculated given the time and location, that the perpetrator was heading towards Mafiozas hoping to hold up someone leaving there (especially given the recent robbery that happened there). This is purely speculation, but it does suggest taking some extra caution if walking home from one of the establishments on 12th Ave. South late at night.

Summer days are turning dog days.

Obama about as Popular as a Hang Nail in the Middle East

Will Pew Research straighten out redneck assumptions in states like Tennessee?

Can Anything Good Come from Janel Lacy's Office?

In what looks like another rather half-baked, milque-toast, lawyer-measured statement, Karl Dean supports the school board's rezoning plan:

In response to a recounting of Thompson’s remarks, Dean e-mailed a statement Tuesday afternoon through spokesperson Janel Lacy. As he has previously stated, Dean said he believes that everyone involved in the process has had “honorable intentions.”

“I know the task force worked very hard on the plan,” Dean said in the statement. “Our goal as a city should be to move forward on every aspect of improving our schools. If people feel their voices aren’t being heard that causes me concern. It’s my understanding there is agreement on the majority of the rezoning plan. People should be able to come together and calmly work through the few areas of concern.”

Mayor Dean talked a good game about being out in front on education in Nashville early on, but if he is so committed to the school board action to rezone north and west zones, why isn't he stepping up in drum major fashion on behalf of this cause?  The heat gets turned up, and an anemic statement about pavers for the road to hell is the best he can do?

City Paper Continues to Conveniently Leave Karl Dean Out of the Rehab Zoning Flap

CP reporter Nate Rau constructs the same partial time-line of the Metro Council's rejection of rehabilitation services in agricultural districts that he has in the past incessantly and without reference to the seeming failures of Karl Dean's Metro Legal Department to discourage the council in 2006-07.  If Rau had been covering the introduction and passage of bill at that time, I would accuse him now of possessing a rather selective memory.

Despite the fact that the Metro Charter establishes a strong executive, Rau reasserts his or his editor's meme that the council was solely responsible for the original passage of the bill.  Mayor Bill Purcell could have vetoed the bill, but he did not.  By failing to acknowledge that over and over, the City Paper is actually revising history rather than writing objective copy.

Again, I believe that this is a matter of the NCP sucking up to the Mayor's Office and doing what it can to stay on Karl Dean's good side rather than lashing all of the responsible parties to the whipping post.  The reporter and his editors simply refuse to see that there is enough blame to go around.  They're choosing the soft targets, and I'm sure the Mayor's communications office is thankful for that solid.

Nonpartisan Researchers Conclude that Democratic Presidents are Better for Growth of Employment and Domestic Product

The Lisco Report has some very interesting graphs ranking the economic impact of Democratic vs. Republican Presidents since FDR.  The researchers assert their independence, and they conclude that the advantage of having Democratic Presidents govern the country is unmistakable:

Democrats have a clear edge on GDP growth: 4.4% vs. 2.6%. Even if you start the clock with Truman in 1949 (eliminating the war boom and immediate postwar bust), the Dem advantage survives, with average growth of 4.5%. The partisan difference is widespread, too, not dependent on a few strong or weak readings: the blue bars stack towards the top of the graph, and the red bars towards the bottom. It might surprise some readers to learn that the Carter years weren’t quite as bad as some remember—though the inflation performance was miserable.

Indeed, Carter edges the overrated Reagan Administration in GDP growth.

The researchers draw similar conclusions on employment with rather sullen news for George W. Bush:

The comparative partisan performance on employment is similar to GDP growth. Under Democratic administration, employment has grown an average of 3.0% a year (2.9% if you start in 1949); under Republicans, 1.3%. And here the blue bars are all at the top of the graph, and the red at the bottom. And it seems that the Bush family, whatever their other accomplishments, won’t go down in history as great job creators.

It's clear to me from this research that if you want a stronger economy that includes job creation, you have to run with Democratic Presidents.  All of the conservative campaign rhetoric that moderate-leaning-left administrations will destroy American jobs is unsubstantiated in this research.

HT:  The Monkey Cage

Gilmore Defers S-town Property Rezoning Bill Indefinitely

Two weeks ago just before the second reading vote on Erica Gilmore's Ardelia Park bill Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors mentioned the possibility of a deferral so that CM Gilmore could get approval from Stormwater and Public Works, which had not yet signed off on the SP rezoning to allow the high-density detached single-family homes at 7th and Garfield.  Perhaps she should have availed herself of the opportunity.  At tonight's meeting, CM Gilmore was forced to defer the bill indefinitely because the Council Planning Committee made their approval contingient on getting department approval, and Public Works had not yet approved.

CM Gilmore acknowledged as I previously reported that Stormwater had approved, but developer RC Hazzard had not yet received any word from Public Works.  She openly wondered whether the delay was the fault of Planning, which is responsible for transferring the primary documents to MPW, but that does not explain why MPW would not respond in some fashion to the developer or to her.  CM Gilmore thanked fellow members and emphasized that she is moving the bill in order to do what is best for Salemtown.

Those of us who have worked with Public Works in the past can testify that delays and miscommunications are at times a distinct possibility.  Perhaps if this bill had moved more slowly and neighborhood feedback would have been more deliberately incorporated, then some of us could have supported the developer by contacting Planning and Public Works and expressing our support.  Salemtown Neighbors might have even endorsed and asked its President to express that endorsement on their behalf (no SNNA member showed up to the Council Public Hearing two weeks ago to express support).  In my comments to the Planning Commission, I expressed the personal wish that this project move more slowly and that it not be hurriedly punched through.

Some of us here would have happily stepped up to help grease the machine--including speaking favorably at both Public Hearings--if we had been given a chance.  But CM Gilmore seemed to take this on her shoulders as a personal quest (in fact, tonight she even made what sounded like an appeal to "councilmanic courtesy," which is the idea that approval should be driven exclusively by the council member).  My sincere hope is that Ardelia Park does help Salemtown, but we are not in such a tight spot that approval couldn't have waited until all of the ducks lined up (including consistent communication between the CM and SNNA).  Tonight's deferral shows that such a delay was inevitable.  The council committee did the right thing in putting basic conditions on this bill.  Let's not be in such a hurry that this rezoning is not done right.

Metro Council Approves Acceptance of Federal Block Grant for MetroCenter Neighborhood

Council approved accepting a $565,000 block grant for the Cass Street Neighborhood.  A portion of the block grant will be used for pedestrian crosswalks, sidewalks, pedestal/street and stop signs, neighborhood watch signs, park benches, park pavilion, trash receptacles and public street lights improvements.

Salemtown is still waiting on construction of its block grant streetscape improvements to begin.  Our improvements were supposed to have started in late June.

They Should Have Done This for Previous Elections, Too

Metro Council intends to move the regularly scheduled Tuesday, Nov. 4 meeting to Thursday, Nov. 6 to avoid a conflict with the presidential elections.

Developer Reports Stormwater Approval

RC Hazzard forwarded me an e-mail this afternoon from a stormwater official who declares that the Ardelia Park concept in Salemtown has received Metro Stormwater Division's approval because it incorporates pervious concrete driveways and green roofs.  It looks like CM Erica Gilmore's bill will pass tonight without much controversy.

Challenges the Assumption that Independent Coffee Houses are Collectively the Good Manichean Counterpart to Starbucks' Evil Empire

I'm not a big iced coffee drinker, but doesn't an independent coffee owner go a bit overboard by threatening to punch a iced-coffee drinking customer "in the dick," especially given the damage that could be done?

Ardelia Park Rezoning Bill Up for Final Reading, But No Word on Whether Gilmore Has Addressed Stormwater Problems

CM Erica Gilmore continues to move the Ardelia Park rezoning bill at a fast pace toward final approval tonight, but I've seen no news from her that the stormwater run-off problems that lead to opposition to the development in the Stormwater Division have been addressed.  CM Gilmore could have deferred the bill at last reading to provide more time to deal with the stormwater issues, but she chose not to and she has maintained that Salemtown "needs" this development soon.  I am aware that developer RC Hazzard has expressed openness to correspond with other developers in the area to incorporate more attractive elements consistent with the neighborhood into the original design, but I am worried that the stormwater issues are just going to be ignored or a solution will be patched together that will complicate the stormwater run-off problems in our neighborhood.  I'll be listening to CM Gilmore intently tonight to see if she fulfills her promise to solve this problem in the short period of time between readings.

Tonight's Another Tuesday Night Metro Council Night

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

Tennessean Gives Eric Crafton Some Really Nice PR

Reporter Janell Ross splashes a headline that is bound to make the English Only drones hum.  The headline insinuates that their narrow-minded and misguided crusade to micromanage Metro employees and help Republicans in the fall is actually "pushing immigrants to learn English," even though there is nothing in the article that substantiates that theory.  In fact, one English-as-a-second-language administrator she interviewed says that the ballot initiative is pointless, given the challenges that English-learners face.

It's just another puff-piece to fill the vacuum resulting from the unwillingness of the press to do some hard-hitting investigative reporting to dig up information on who is financing Eric Crafton's baby.  Any blogger with a little time away from their real job could have researched and written the Ross piece and tacked a misleading title to it.

I'm sure that the mainstream media continues to operate under the assumption that it is doing the public a service by writing stories that mimic a critical edge, but it's like every story published by the newspapers seems to help Crafton more than hurt him.  He's got something to hide in not divulging who is behind "English First," and the media does not seem to want to dig to uncover what he's hiding.  They're either lazy, disinterested, foolish, or invested in the success of Crafton's group.

Chamber Continues to Get Flak for its Public School Patronage

Progressive Nashville weighs in and cites some familiar names, Sharon and Howard Gentry, who both sit at the receiving end of a lot of campaign finance cash and who are entangled among the benefactors giving that cash.

Notable among those in the most recent campaign finance report is money given by Tom and Constance Cigarran. Tom Cigarran is a member of SuccessPAC, the Chamber's political action committee. The reports show that Tom and Constance each gave $1,000 to Sharon Gentry's campaign and Lee Limbird's campaign. Gentry's husband, former vice mayor Howard Gentry, works for the Chamber.

The Chamber claims that its money is given freely and without strings attached, which is true. However, major contributors get access to candidates and they use that access to promote the Chamber's agenda.

So what is the Chamber's agenda? That's what's unclear. It's obviously political because of the money it spends in that arena rather than on what's happening in the classrooms.

Most importantly, we must remember that the Chamber's mission in life is "supporting the growth and prosperity of Chamber-member businesses," according to its web site.

Whatever the Chamber has in mind for Nashville's schools, you can bet that educating all of Nashville's children is not topping the agenda. The Chamber's agenda is intended first to help its member businesses and that doesn't mean being an advocate for children who live in challenging social situations and who have no options other than the city's public schools.

I have not decided whether to vote for Sharon Gentry or not, but her embeddedness with the Chamber of Commerce, which has goals not necessarily consistent with an average parent like me, does not endear her to me.  I would like to see more independence from special interests on the school board than we've seen so far, and I am concerned that all of the influence peddling is eroding any chance of getting a free-thinking, public-oriented board.

School Board Member Heavily Patronized by Wealthy Campaign Contributors, Says Woods

While her opponent in the redistricting debate, CM Jerry Maynard, has his own dubious campaign finance entanglements, Karen Y. Johnson has a history, now documented, of feeding at the trough of Chamber of Commerce finance.  According to PiTW, her campaign contributions include:

$10,500—almost two-thirds of what she raised altogether for her 2006 campaign.

Johnson took $2,500 from the Chamber of Commerce’s Success PAC, $5,000 from the Excellence for Public Education PAC and $3,000 from the Fund for Nashville Families PAC. David Fox, another key vote on the school board for the rezoning plan, took $10,000 from two of these PACs.

These PACs, despite their inspiring names, are actually merely fronts for extremely wealthy business people and convenient ways to circumvent contribution limits.

The rich guys can dump enormous, unlimited sums of cash into the PACs, which in turn give to the candidates. The law limits PAC contributions to $5,000 for each candidate, so the PACs give big donations to each other in a kind of shell game, and then they all give to the same candidates. That way, Johnson could take $10,500 from essentially the same rich guys. Health care executive Thomas Cigarran and Orrin Ingram of Ingram Industries are probably the biggest donors to these three PACs.

Given that the rezoning vote is reportedly driven by the Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Johnson's vote for rezoning looks like political patronage. If the Chamber of Commerce is driving the MNPS Board decision-making process with loads of money, why spend any more tax dollars on electing a school board to rubber stamp their initiatives?


UPDATE:  Amy Griffith reports that Johnson is not the only one making a big campaign donation haul. 

PiTW Launches into the Courthouse "Liberals"

The controversial school board rezoning vote punctuated by charges that the Chamber of Commerce masterminded the plan to move north Nashville students to the inner city Pearl Cohn cluster is blowing up into a media conflagration and now so-called "liberals" are getting heat for their silence on the issue:

there’s still been no word from any of the city’s white progressive leaders on this issue. Karl Dean, Diane Neighbors, Ronnie Steine, Megan Barry, Mike Jameson, Erik Cole—none seems to have any problem with lumping hundreds more poor, black children into the same schools in their blighted neighborhoods.

I'm not convinced that Karl Dean is progressive. He ran against Bob Clement. The better part of Nashville is liberal compared to Bob Clement. He put up some progressive window dressing in ensconcing himself in education and crime fighting, but what are Dean's liberal credentials? And Ronnie Steine? Any Council Member who would gush like Steine at a past meeting that State Parks Commissioner Jim Fyke belongs in a Metro employee hall of fame doesn't deserve to be called progressive. Diane Neighbors seems more latched to the fence than she does falling progressive.

But I won't bicker over the credentials of the rest of the list. It is sort of amazing how Council Members (with the exception of a few like Emily Evans) seem to go mum about school board issues when all the fur is flying. Keep your butt down unless you want it blown off.

Salemtown/MetroCenter Starbucks Apparently Clears the First Cut

The Consumerist claims to have a list of the first group of Starbucks stores that will close by the end of the month. The store at the northern tip of Salemtown (Rosa Parks & Dominican) is not listed; in fact, no Tennessee stores are listed in this group. I spoke with the kind folks at the S-town S-bux, and they had no clue as to whether they were going down in the reeling corporation's plan to close 600 stores.

Videotaped at His S-town Studios?

You may not know the issue but you probably recognize the actor:

I was a little startled when I saw it this morning at about 6:30. Then I thought, "Nah. It couldn't be him."  It's taken me a few hours to get past the state of denial.

Save Farris Bueller Robin Smith!

Karen Y. Johnson Finally Speaks

About the drama swirling around the school redistricting (resegregation?) vote.

She takes CM Jerry Maynard to task.  I don't have a problem believing her allegations that he has generally been unresponsive to her attempts to communicate and basically out-of-touch during the task force process.  His history as an elected leader so far strikes me as rather checkered, and as a parent I'm not entirely comfortable with him as a sudden advocate of my north Nashville community.

But that is not necessarily a vote of confidence in her vote for redistricting, either.

Quote of the Day on Dems

Theda Skocpol stirred up a hornets' nest (and did her best Bill O'Reilly impression) at TPM by calling upon liberals either to sit down and shut up or to join in lock step behind the Obama campaign.  Here's the best reply so far from a commenter named "HungChad" referencing Obama's FISA flip-flop:

you can almost always say that a single vote didn't matter. Choosing to do the right thing is a question of character - not practicality. Convince me that the FISA vote demonstrated Obama's character and I'll come around - but everyone knows damn well that ain't gonna happen. It ain't gonna happen because it was a vote that was cast out of fear. And until Democrats stop acting like fearful little bed-wetters every time a Republican says "Boo!," we are going to keep losing elections.

To me it seems a clear contrast of views of what wins and loses elections. Do voters cast ballots against Democrats because they exercise vigorous public debate or do they cast ballots against Democrats because the latter seem anemic and vulnerable in mimicking rather than contesting the opposition?

I have to admit that I don't see the Republican habit of acquiescing to the nominee as a virtue given that it has produced the worst administration in history. So, are not progressives actually doing our nation a great favor by testing the mettle of our candidate rather than rubber stamping and papering over his mistakes and inconsistencies? And in the end it is nothing but wishful thinking to shut up and assume that Barack Obama will change his late support of FISA when he eventually shoulders the awesome and corrupting power of the Presidency that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have fashioned in 8 years.

As If the Bongo Empire Needed Any Help

The contraction of Starbucks has not infected independent java slingers ... yet.

They Say the Future of Bikes is Bright on Broadway

NYC is eliminating two lanes of traffic on the world's most famed and traffic-congested boulevard in order to make it more bike-and pedestrian-friendly:

[The Bloomberg Administration is] spending $700,000 to create the string of blocklong plazas from 42nd to 35th Streets. That includes painting the bike lane green, buying the chairs, tables, benches, umbrellas and planters and applying a coat of small-grained gravel mixed with epoxy onto the pedestrian areas, which will set them off from both the street and the bicycle path.

Three private improvement districts will spend $280,000 per year on maintenance of the plazas.

Contrast NYC to post-Purcell Nashville where recently the wide major artery heading north out of Downtown was repaved and repainted by TDOT without any consideration of installing a bike lane.

The Interest of a People of the Book

The next time evangelical Christians start their Bible-thumping pride about adhering to religious teachings, they need to pay heed to this Des Moines Muslim who risks his business and lays his modest profits on the line in order to remain faithful to the Qu'ran's prohibition against paying interest.  He is fighting an uphill battle in a country where usury is as holy and unquestionable as the very gates of heaven.  The Christian scriptures and church tradition prohibit paying interest, but those prohibitions are conveniently ignored by Protestants who claim that the Bible is literal and without error.

Who Really Plucks the Public School Marionette Strings

After watching the proceedings of last Tuesday's controversial school board meeting, CM Emily Evans informs us that the State of Tennessee is in the driver's seat over at Metro Nashville Public Schools.  All else is mere detailing.

This Week's Tennview Liberal Blogger Round-Up

The "saluting a mentally deficient nation of whiners without a FISA warrant" edition of the Tennessee progressive blog roundup with a look at what the best Tennessee bloggers are talking about this week.

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Phil Gramm, the author of John McCain's economic policies, the man who brought us the Enron loophole, which in turn has led to $4.00+/gallon gasoline, the man who probably doesn't have a friend with a net worth under a million dollars, thinks that Americans who have lost their jobs, who can't decide whether to buy a prescription, a tank of gas, or a week's worth of food with their last $60 for the month, who have been forced out of their homes by a mortgage crisis that Gramm created -- that these people are just a bunch of whiners who can't get past a mental disorder that makes them only think that they are suffering economic hardships. Seriously. Take a moment to really absorb that.

• Andy Axel: The Fish Hawk

• Tiny Cat Pants: 287(g) Means Stealing Babies from Mothers

• BlountViews: Willie Nelson cancels PLUS (IMPORTANT): Allman Bros., Please!: Please vote for the Allman Bros. here.

• Carole Borges: It's 3 A.M.. What if McCain can't even remember where the phone is?

• The Crone Speaks: So, it’’s important to note that when the people that have been harmed by the current economy, that was spurred by Phil Gramm’s legislative blunders, they get little help. When Bear Stearns cries, the Fed bails them out.

• Cup Of Joe Powell: A peek at Kingsport Times-News reporter Hank Hayes' email on why he does not cover Democrat candidates for Congress..., plus: Kingsport Newspaper Still Refuses Coverage of Candidate Rob Russell, bonus: Mega-Micro-Blog-Feed-Mobile-Alert-Pod Nation

• Don Williams: But he was much more than that -- author, artist, hunter, trapper, fisherman, farmer, developer, columnist, merchant, musician, yodeler, storyteller, botanist, broadcaster, poet, husband, father, seeker, dreamer and prophet -- and still more yet. For once you tramp around in the body of lore that falls under the name Wiley Oakley, you encounter variations on a theme that boil down to this: Wiley was a part of these mountains.

• TNDP: Sen. Diane Black needs a coat

• Enclave: According to Forbes, Nashville cannot compete with peer cities like Charlotte, N.C. in providing unemployment benefits to jobless workers who qualify for federal aid.

• Fletch: Summer on the Salt Run

• KnoxViews: Harold Ford Jr. responds to Gramm's "nation of whiners" remark

• Lean Left: That makes my cost basis on that account $1,075. As of today, the balance in that account is $1,203.13, a profit of $128.13, and an ROI of 11.9%. Considering the age of the account (ten years), that makes my annual yield a whopping 1.1%!

• Left of the Dial: I’m trying to determine which group has me shaking my head more this week: iPhone fanatics, villagers and tourists running with the bulls in Pamplona or my Baltimore Orioles.

• LeftWingCracker: So, on that basis, whom would I rather see in that seat? Well, since A) I believe Blackburn should have gone to jail for inciting the near-riots surrounding the income-tax vote in the State Senate, and B) she is a Bush-Cheney parrot, and C) she lives in that most right-wing county, Williamson, I would go for Leatherwood.

• Dear Sen. Phil Gramm « Newscoma: Sen. Gramm, let me ask you sir, could you come over here to northwest Tennessee? I can show you about seven empty plants, downtowns with more closed businesses than open ones and -- awww, forget about it. You don’t get it. I understand that. Plus: I Want Immunity Too

• The Pesky Fly: Headlines to Remember: Bush Readies Pen; Relishes Signing Wiretap Bill

• Progressive Nashville: I suppose that now that I've mentioned Hobb's name here, he officially is a Progressive. Time to resign Bill, Progressives have no place on the GOP payroll. Plus: Alexander vs. McCain on Pork

• Brian Arner's Resonance: Bush Administration: You Are Worth $1 Million Less Than You Were Five Years Ago - Accelerated depreciation? Plus: Fortune ponders the doomsday scenario of Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac folding. I smell a massive, taxpayer-funded rescue in the air.

• RoaneViews: Whites Creek is Closed for Maintenance: There are several rare, threatened, and endangered species of various sorts living in and around Whites Creek. We'll have underwater cameras and other cameras and will try to document everything and report back on what these folks find.

• Russ McBee : A silver lining?: However, there may be one silver lining in all this: now that the telecommunications companies no longer face lawsuits for their (previously) illegal actions, they can be subpoenaed to testify before Congress in depth about their spying activities against Americans. Since they have immunity, they can no longer plead the Fifth when asked pointed, specific questions about their collusion.

• Sean Braisted: get that people are upset with this, but c'mon, the death of the 4th amendment? Setting aside telecom immunity, what is so damned bad about this bill? Plus: Diane Black Getting Nervous

• Sharon Cobb: I could deal with his move to the middle to get elected. I could deal with him not having the best health plan. But voting FOR FISA? No. I can't deal with that. ... You can go ahead and tell me "I told you so," but out of compassion, please wait a day or two to do so. Plus: It was only a matter of time before the election to see which side was going to put the fear of war into American voters so they might elect a warmonger instead of a peacemaker. This is going to be big news later on today, because it's just breaking now, and I had to go to Aljazeera English website for the information, as CNN is running something about Madonna.

• Silence Isn't Golden: And wouldn't you know it, Troy King also happens to be the Alabama chairman of the John McCain campaign. This whole scandal is just way too perfect! Plus: Joe Lieberman Admits He's A Lying Schmuck

• Southern Beale: By the way: is this elitist? Because I can’t tell anymore. I think these kind of statements are only elitist if a Democrat says them. It certainly shows how out of touch Phil Gramm is from the lives of ordinary Americans. Plus: McCain’s Free Pass: That teflon suit that George W. Bush has worn for the past seven years has been handed down to John McCain 100% intact.

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: If you can believe it, Obama adulator Andrew Sullivan recently suggested that the Barack Obama campaign is "far too cocky for its own good." Like many conservatives, Sullivan, expert on the subject of self-absorption, is occasionally worth listening to.

• TennViews: TN Senate Dem fundraising update Plus: Sen. Finney to launch "family friendly" lobbying effort: It doesn't say whether same-sex couples will be welcome, or whether the group will lobby for adoptions by same-sex couples , or promote marriage or at least equal rights for same-sex couples, etc.

• WhitesCreek Journal: Rich people, corporations, and foreign governments, are the folks who would lose Trillions of dollars is Fannie and Freddie go into bankruptcy. Having already doubled the National debt by borrowing more money than all 42 presidents that came before him, George W. Bush and his Republican buddies look like they will double it again, in one form or another, trying to keep Rich people, Corporations, and FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS from losing a lot of money. Plus: Whites Creek Journal: Whites Creek Journal is really about the largest unpolluted watershed in the State of Tennessee, outside the Smokies...And the struggle to keep it that way.

• Women’s Health News: I don’t care about legal status - I think it’s better for all women, legal immigrants or not, to receive prenatal care than not to - at least to have the option. This event sends a message to the community of immigrant women that there will be no discretion, no compassion, that they risk being jailed, giving birth in custody, and having their baby taken away if they take the simple step of seeking medical care while pregnant.

A Better Nation is Bigger than Electing Obama

Perhaps 8 years of the most inept presidency in the history of this nation has blurred any vision we might have to see past the petty solace that at least we will no longer be embarrassed by the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  However, there used to be a dream of America based on liberty, rule of law, and virtue that seems to have collapsed under the iron fist of the last two terms.

At least some progressives are making higher demands of Blue-Dog-inspired Barack Obama rather dozing under the opiate that simple party change in the Oval Office will be a catalyst of reform.  I like the idea of leveraging reform by holding an escrow account of campaign contributions over Obama's head rather than contributing to his campaign no questions asked.  Threatening to vote somewhere else or not vote might prompt the campaign in a close election to co-opt the left rather than roll-over to the right.

Progressives need not pander to the party based on the wishful thought that Obama will deliver more goods than Bush did.  His recent move to the right could also indicate that he may govern too close to George Bush for our comfort.

Church-State Forum Buzzes on Obama's Faith-Based Expansion

James Carroll's Boston Globe op-ed on the behalf of secular rules to protect faith-based organizations has got discussion at Tennessee's religious liberty/church & state forum going.  Charles Sumner comments:

It probably is true than many of the religious groups are in some respects better than their secular counterparts. Yet many others are not equipped as well or staffed with people as informed and educated as the government offices. In some cases secular offices are being more or less replaced by religious in a geographic area. Their locations may not be as easily available to folks who sometimes have no automobile. There are also some people who would not go to a religious facility not of their own faith.

I think we should let Barack Obama know of our attitude on Faith-Based Initiatives. We should compliment him on his desire to prevent discrimination and proselyting but show him that it has not been a success.

I agree that Obama should be cautious in extending the Bush embrace of religious non-profits. I don't have a problem with an office to coordinate faith-based initiatives. I have a problem with the length to which the Bush White House went to trade tax dollars for patronage from the faith-based organizations. The risk is no less real for an Obama Administration, especially given Obama's background with IAF, which sometimes reduces mainline denominational social-justice commitments to a utilitarian calculus of power, control, and influence, for better or worse.

Former Bush Administration member David Kuo outlined the use of values as pretexts for consolidation of control during his time in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives:

Given the fervor with which Obama is himself embracing faith-based initiatives we should be even more concerned about the potential for religion to become an instrument of control rather than a vehicle for curing social ills like poverty and homelessness.

Vacation Wonderland

Nashville One of the Worst Cities for Unemployment Pay

According to Forbes, Nashville cannot compete with peer cities like Charlotte, N.C. in providing unemployment benefits to jobless workers who qualify for federal aid.  Unemployment benefits in Nashville do not keep pace with the cost of living here, putting us the the bottom 10 of worst cities.  This is not a good place in which lose your job.

Texas Border City Both Supports Fence and Lawsuit against Homeland Security

Del Rio will not say a discouraging word against other Texas cities fighting the Bush Administration's attempt to take land in order to build a border wall, even though they were happy to give up their land.  The acreage that they sold to Homeland Security for their section of the wall is "useless," and they made a cool million on the deal.  Unlike sister Rio Grande towns that radiate from the river, Del Rio sits off the river.

City of St. Louis Asks Court for Ruling Against Activist for Mural Opposing Eminent Domain

Neighborhood activist (graffiti artist?) protesting government's land-grab to help developers will have to defend his code-breaking sign (freedom of expression?) in court.

Stealing Christ

The light blogging of the past week was due to our family vacation in Florida.  Between the beach and other diversions I tried to keep tabs on what was going on here, but Orlando news proved to be more fun.  Take for instance the troublemaking University of Central Florida student who decided to commit a faith-based faux pas.  I'm not Catholic, but I do know enough about Catholicism to know that non-Catholics should not mess with the Eucharist inside its performance.  If you don't like it, then just don't go.

Dean Talks with DMI's MayorTV.com

Nashville's Mayor discusses mass transit, English Only initiatives, green developments, and wages vs. economic "competitiveness" with DMI and The Nation:

The Education Mayor?

Jeff Woods has some choice words for the School Board and Nashville's white progressive leadership, personified by Mayor Karl Dean et al.:

Under pressure from the Chamber of Commerce and their own white constituents a month before elections, they were obviously hell bent on ramming this through, even if it meant pissing off an entire segment of the city ....

No matter how hard the white board members try to dress up this plan, essentially the idea is to fix it so white kids in Hillwood don’t have to go to school with black kids from North Nashville. As the NAACP’s Marilyn Robinson puts it, “They want to keep all the poor, black kids together” ....

Last night’s meeting recalled the dark days of Nashville’s racially polarized past. Toward the end, I almost expected the board to turn fire hoses on the crowd. Here’s a good question: Where were the city’s so-called progressive white leaders in this fight? None felt compelled to take a public stand. Not Karl Dean, Diane Neighbors, Mike Jameson or Ronnie Steine. (Oh wait, Steine's kid goes to USN. What does he care about this?) Thanks guys. That’s leadership! ....

And later in the comments section, Woods again takes aim at Mayor Dean, whose central, winning plank was education:

Speaking of cowardly white liberals, it's particularly galling for the mayor to sit on his hands on this. After yammering incessantly about education during the entire mayoral campaign and forever afterward, he's suddenly struck mute as the school board makes this historic decision ....

I asked the mayor's office for Dean's position on the rezoning. Here's his statement: “I believe everyone involved in this process had very honorable intentions. Clearly it was a difficult decision for the Board of Education. The members of the community task force worked very hard on this plan for a number of months. It's important that we all stay focused on the goal – providing schools in which every student has a chance to succeed.”

Allow me to suggest that Mayor Dean is where he always seems to be on various issues: hiding behind empty platitudes about education that signify the absence of bold leadership.

And Now a Moment of Quiet Reflection at Our Loss

Some of your liberties were sacrificed today so that Big Telecom could be freer than you to divulge your perfectly innocent, but private correspondence to our Big Brother in the White House without any fear of retribution.  Barack Obama changed course and broke his promise to filibuster.

Council Member Sees MNPS as Out of Touch on the Hillwood Cluster's Capacity for Neighborhood Schools

District 23's Emily Evans wades into the redistricting task force mess:

The school re-zoning plan indicates that neighborhoods in the Hillwood cluster are "ripe" for development that will increase the student population. MNPS folks apparently haven't been to a zoning community meeting here lately. Seriously, as I have said before, one of the biggest barriers for Hillwood schools in this district becoming neighborhood schools is the sheer lack of children. The population is older. Many people are affluent enough to afford private schools. There are a number of strong church based schools in the area.

She expects school closings rather than development in west Nashville.

School Board Approves Controversial Rezoning

According to the NashPo blog, School Board Member Karen Johnson seemingly cast the deciding vote (5-4) to pass the rezoning plan that establishes post-desegregation-era neighborhood schools without any mechanism for preventing the resegregation of Nashville public schools.  It has also been criticized for concentrating urban gangs in inner city schools.  Ms. Johnson, who has been a prolific blogger since joining the school board has not yet posted on her reasons for voting as she did.

Meanwhile, PiTW's Jeff Woods contends that the School Board may have violated state sunshine laws by lining up the votes in private.

Trojan Horse Analysis

It's not as if Bells Benders are going to find "independent economic analysis" here either.

The marketplace is full of companies that develop a sales pitch and then find and pay "independent" researchers to support that pitch.  That doesn't make it right, but does it even the score in the terrain across which money gets exchanged? (Who made up the rules of that game anyway?)

Seriously, are the May family, Tony G., and their development team doing nothing remotely reproachable?  You would think so listening to Chatterbox.

Chicago's Public-Private Housing Experiments Could Stretch Out to a Quarter of a Century

A huge issue I have with pulling in private developers to build public housing initiatives is that while the developers immediately benefit from an influx of tax money and free public land, projects designed to mix affordable housing for poor and working classes with middle class homesteads plod and languish.  A generation of families will pass in the time it will probably take Chicago to finish their public-private experiment in 2025.  Will demographics completely change the demand for housing that prompted the project in 2000?

Not everyone involved lacked foresight unblemished by the avarice for quick profits; residents themselves has concerns even before the project began:

Former residents may be the least surprised by the situation. From the start, many predicted they would be displaced and forgotten while developers grabbed coveted swaths of city real estate for re-development and private profit.

In pushing the plan, the Daley administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Habitat Co., the court-appointed overseer of public housing construction, placed what amounted to a high-stakes wager:

Upscale homes in the new developments would not only raise the aspirations of public housing families but also spur the construction of badly needed housing for the poor and affordable housing for working people struggling to buy a home.

Instead, the market-rate homes have proven in some cases to be an albatross.

From the beginning, construction at the new communities moved slowly, held up by bureaucracy, politics and complex financing.

Now, the downturn in the housing market threatens to bog down the plan even further because developers are struggling to sell high-priced homes amid a glut of new construction across the city.

Nothing is going to make this dog hunt, because the developers are making money and have no other investment in making it work. The politicians are supported by private money and have little incentive to help families that they claim to be helping. Privatization of public housing is a win-lose proposition and the losers are those without the money or power to leverage affordable housing.

"Small Urban Spaces" Doc Now on YouTube

A couple of years ago I attended a Nashville Civic Design Center screening of "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces," a documentary identifying qualities of the built environment that draw people to linger and socialize. I also wrote a series of articles on Nashville's small urban spaces--some of which can be read here--based on my viewing.

If you haven't seen that documentary, yet, I highly recommend it, and fortunately, it has been posted on YouTube:

HT: bzorch

UPDATE: The video has been removed from YouTube. There is a fragment of it currently posted at Vimeo:

William H. Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - The Street Corner from MAS on Vimeo.

Slouching Toward the Center

NYTimes has an editorial on Barack Obama's recent flip flops, of which the most regressive and Machivellian to me is his course change on telecom immunity and federal wiretapping:

The new Barack Obama has abandoned his vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause for telecommunications companies that amounts to a sanctioned cover-up of Mr. Bush’s unlawful eavesdropping after 9/11.

In January, when he was battling for Super Tuesday votes, Mr. Obama said that the 1978 law requiring warrants for wiretapping, and the special court it created, worked. “We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend,” he declared.

Now, he supports the immunity clause as part of what he calls a compromise but actually is a classic, cynical Washington deal that erodes the power of the special court, virtually eliminates “vigorous oversight” and allows more warrantless eavesdropping than ever.

PiTW Asks for Ledes and Commenter Gives Them One

followthemoney tries to get media to follow the money:

You guys have only just glanced at the goldmine of great stories in the connections and cozy machinations of real estate developers in our fair city, who are allowed to lay waste to green spaces, wriggle out of building things like sidewalks, and over-build local infrastructure with impunity. And with the arrival of serious energy cost and environmental problems, thoughtful coverage of how we're building our city is long overdue. And we won't get it elsewhere

If the alt-weekly won't uncover it (any reporter can "cover" it), no one will, especially not the self-promotional southcomm ingratiators.  Those latter reporters are too busy trying to jibe government critics to be of any use to anyone but the courthouse elite.

Maybe I'm Missing Something

Isn't this the same PR and press pitched about George W. Bush in the run-up to the 2000 election?  He surrounds himself and manages good people is not necessarily the strongest selling point for a president in my book.

School Cluster "Choice" = More Code for White Flight from North Nashville?

From the Sounds Great in Theory If We Had a Perfect World Department:

Mark North, the school board member who is chair of the task force, emphasized Wednesday the choice component of the plan. The plan eliminates noncontiguous zones — areas in which students are bused out of their neighborhoods into other areas to attend school — and creates choice zones instead. Under the proposed plan, for example, residents of some high-poverty neighborhoods near Metrocenter will no longer be transported out of their neighborhoods into the more affluent Hillwood cluster, unless families choose to do so.

But how is Mr. North's Task Force Plan going to prevent the resegregaton of the north and west school clusters?  Brown v. Board of Education showed that people have to be forced to do the right thing because in their identity groups and in majorities they are prone to choose the wrong thing.  How would Mr. North suggest that we guard against Pearl-Cohn and Hillwood/Hillsboro becoming separate, but equal clusters?

Telecom Immunity Resisters are Now Obama's Largest Social Network

Perhaps it's time for me to sign up on Obama's website.  Yes, I can. This netroots initiative to steer Obama's ship on a straight course is much more stirring than YouTube videos.

Local Community Not Waiting for Federal Government to Address Mortgage Crisis

Fairfax County, Virginia becomes the first local community in the country to kill two birds, the mortgage crisis and the affordable housing challenge, with one stone:  a housing program to buy foreclosed properties for middle income families.  I doubt you'll find anything close to Fairfax County anywhere in Tennessee, which has its own wavering habits that squander precious time.

I don't see anyone in Metro Nashville making these kinds of plans.  We would rather subsidize our mildly supported hockey team.  And, God knows, the first thing a family whose adjustable rate mortgage has just rocketed skyward wants to do is to catch a Predators' match.

Here are the details that we seem to be missing:

Fairfax is plunging deeper into the issue by agreeing to spend more than $10 million in tax revenue toward the purchase of as many as 200 foreclosed houses. The county will purchase 10 houses outright; the rest will be purchased by qualifying buyers with the help of government-backed, low-interest loans. Buyers will be eligible for subsidized mortgages as well as low-interest second trusts up to $70,000. Most of the assistance will be directed to first-time buyers earning as much as $75,600, or 80 percent of the area's median income. Most purchases will be limited to $385,000 and exclude condominiums. All of the money in the first year would come from existing housing programs.

Homeland Security Writes Its Own Environmental Impact Studies on the Border Wall

Ignoring the Environmental Protection Agency, providing no measureable data or real explanations, and taking common people's land while leaving resorts alone, Michael Chertoff continues the Bush power grab.

Hitchens Submits to Waterboarding and Questions the Government's Integrity

He concludes that the Bush Administration is actually aiding the enemy and sacrificing any claim that we may have in the future that our troops not be tortured. "[I]f waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture." Indeed, all of these Pentagon qualifications and nuances on state-sponsored brutality and stacked abuse of human beings amount to meaningless rationalization.

There's Room for Him, Too

There are some liberal bloggers still left who are fighting Congress's attempt to excuse their corporate donors from obeying the law just like everyone else.

Can we add the likeness of Tennessee's Jim Cooper to the bottom of this poster, too?

Media Matters, Except in the Local Paper

Once again in a follow up to last night's predictable Council vote to give religious-based halfway houses special considerations in zoning issues in the wake of a lawsuit against Metro by a religious-based halfway house, one local paper avoids laying any fault at Metro Legal's or the Mayor's Office doorstep in rehashing their time-line of precipitating events.

I've admitted that I'm torn on this bill given that I don't think rural areas should generally be exempt from social and charitable services.  However, I don't think that history should be revised to saddle Metro Council with the responsibility for this mess.  Red lights and alarms did not seem to be going off in Karl Dean's Legal Department back in late 2006 and early 2007 when the thorny rose first bloomed.  But the mayoral honeymoon being what it is, even with the media, that is an ignored narrative, a boat they dare not rock.

Liberal Blog Readers are More Participatory, More Likely to Mobilize

Liberal blog readers are both engaged in the process and self-segregated from right-wing bloggers (who also self-segregate):

Blog readers are more likely to participate in politics than are people who don’t read blogs. Left-wing blog readers are more participatory than right-wing blog readers. We speculate that left-wing blogs have more fully embraced the tasks of social movements, thereby seeking to mobilize their readers.

No Word on Whether Salemtown/MetroCenter Starbucks is among Increased Closures

According to MSNBC, Starbucks has increased the number of stores it plans to close from 100 to 600.  The Salemtown/MetroCenter Starbucks has one thing going for it and one thing going against it:

1. Starbucks will be closing stores close to other Starbucks stores
2. Starbucks will be closing stores that opened more recently

Closures will begin in late July.

Buttorff vs. Lawson: When Was the Bells Bend Bridge Proposed?

When was that bridge proposed?  Time for a compare and contrast.

On May 1, NCP's Christine Buttorff wrote:

[Tony] Giarratana, who is working with the May family, presented a modified plan last night that includes more “green space” to buffer the proposed May Town center from the surrounding area. The location for the bridge over the Cumberland River — needed as the only access point to the development — has been moved northwards to the Cockrill Bend area, after objections from the neighborhoods surrounding Charlotte Park.

Today, NCP's Richard Lawson wrote:

The developers of May Town Center have proposed a new location for a bridge over the Cumberland River to ease opposition against the development.

Now, if the proposed $4-billion development wins approval, a bridge would pass over the river into the Cockrill Bend area and connect Bells Bend with Centennial Boulevard.

Previously, the bridge would have connected the development with Interstate 40, cutting across state-owned land next to the Charlotte Park neighborhood.

Tony Giarratana, a consultant for the May family on the development, said the decision was made about three weeks ago after meeting with the neighbors opposed to the bridge, the councilman and the state representative.

I'm stymied as to why old news on a bridge proposal to neighbors would be presented as new news 8 weeks later. The possibilites that I see include:

1. Honest oversight
2. Unclear communication
3. A PR gimmick favorable to May Town Place

Gilmore Gets 7th & Garfield Development Through Public Hearing and Council Vote

In definance of the latest Courthouse/local media stereotype of neighborhood advocates as some kind of elite group that opposes developers at every turn, I was out doing yard work and picking up some neighborhood litter rather than making my way to tonight's council meeting to oppose developers just to make them mad.

I was able to get and tune into Channel 3 about halfway through the meeting (which eventually finished as expected in very short order) in time to catch the discussion on the Ardelia Park development.  No one from Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association spoke against or for the development.  A couple of residents who live near the 7th & Garfield intersection spoke in favor of it as did a contractor with Ardelia Park.

Again defying ridiculous stereotypes, no neighbors spoke against it, but another developer did.  The developer expressed the same concerns that Metro Planning did:  the setback of the 5 single family homes is too close to the street compared to the other single family homes on 7th Avenue.  The other developer, who insisted that he was not opposed to developing the property, expressed concern about hooking up 5 1,900 square foot units to a single ancient sewer line that he had already hooked houses to.

The Council unamimously passed Council Member Erica Gilmore's rezoning proposal without a deferral to deal with stormwater and sewer issues.  Ms. Gilmore merely told the council that they would be dealt with and that the measure required immediate approval because "nothing was happening" in "blighted" Salemtown.  The Vice Mayor offered the option of deferral, but it was declined.  So, it looks like Ardelia Park is headed toward easy approval, since most bills (and almost all unanimously supported bills) pass on third reading.

Here some unanswered questions and challenges as Ardelia Park is quickly moving toward reality and any chance of the community influencing the project has all but evaporated:

• Will the stormwater concerns expressed by neighbors and by Metro Stormwater be addressed?  The builder has already said that he cannot afford to hook up to the bonafide stormsewer, so stormwater will shed on the surface, and yet most of the surface will be covered either with a parking surface or with poured foundation.  How will Council Member Gilmore show that she has followed through on her promise to make sure that stormwater is dealt with?
• Will developer RC Hazzard follow through on his word to be open to community feedback on design?  At last night's Salemtown Neighbors association meeting, Mr. Hazzard asked members for feedback and told us that he is willing to diversify the design on each of the buildings in the development.  That goes against his comments about not changing the design made at a community meeting several months ago.
• Will Mr. Hazzard market the build in the same way he sold it to the association?  Last night he told us that the Metro Planning-opposed corner unit would face the blighted K&M Market, so that residents could "keep an eye" on anything shady happening across the intersection.  While that may soothe the current residents, I don't know many homes that are sold on the basis of the owner have the privilege of being the sentry watching perhaps a neighborhood's sketchiest spot.
• Are we unwittingly putting ourselves in the weaker, more vulnerable position by continuing to rationalize these developments by arguing that "something, anything" is better than the status quo?  Does it really serve Salemtown to maintain, "If not this, then nothing will happen."?  My sense is that developers will build down to meet a community's expectations rather than building something that meets a higher standard on their own.  And the concepts look acceptable on paper, but in reality they could as easily become a low-rent node to compliment the awful K&M Market and the imposing Union Rescue Mission, rather than quality housing that benefits the neighborhood as a whole.  Real estate sharks sense desperation, and I don't like the desperation that comes across when we say that we need Ardelia Park more than it needs Salemtown.  And even it realizes its full potential, it still a piecemeal solution to an intersection that ought to be a thriving gateway to Salemtown.
• Am I too cynical to be suspicious of Mr. Hazzard's argument that he will move into whichever of the 5 units is last too sell?  As long as I've lived in Salemtown, I've heard the developers' song over and over of promises to live in what they build.  With all of those promises, I've never seen it happen, and so, when I hear one more absentee landowner tell me this, it has no effect on me whatsoever, other than to cause me to say to myself, "Whatever."  I'm either going to need something in writing or the actual sight of RC Hazzard moving in to believe it.  Although he could put way two of these questions by signing a pre-build contract to live in the unit facing the K&M Market; not that would be impressive.

MAC Utility Bill Line Long in Salemtown

They lined up long beginning early this morning for assistance to pay skyrocketing utility bills.

One of the reasons why I don't have much sympathy for suburbs fighting the placement of social and charitable services in their neighborhoods is that I live in a neighborhood that is already saturated with them, including the Metro Action Commission, which helps people pay their rising utility bills. I already have those services in my backyard.

I am sympathetic with people who despite their best efforts fall behind on their utility payments. That sympathy is strained when I watch them come into Salemtown and throw their litter on our streets. I even watched one guy get out of his car and take a piss on the sidewalk before heading down for some assistance. There's nothing like a hikers code among these folks that says you leave a campground cleaner than you found it. And MAC certainly does nothing that I can see to provide people who are waiting outside with proper facilities to relieve themselves. And there is still that annoying small number of aid-seekers who get out of some pretty nice looking vehicles to go up and get help with their utility bills.

So, what we have heaped on Salemtown today is a combination of a total ineffectiveness to regulate utilities prices and a lack of personal responsibility. Both hurt my neighborhood, and so I am AIMBY about MAC: I would like to see another neighborhood shoulder some of the social services burden, if not in part then on the whole.

Incompetent Justice

The worst president in history still scares Metro Council.

The same Bush Justice Department that is threatening Metro about allowing religious-based halfway houses on agricultural properties is settling out-of-court with one individual whose name it leaked to the press.  DoJ is opting to pay Steven Hatfill $5.8 million of our tax dollars rather than to defend itself against liability.

The Metro Council takes up a bill tonight that is an overt attempt to appease the keystone cops in the Bush Justice Department.  Despite the possibility that the Bush Administration may be trying to extend special rights to religious-based organizations through forcing local zoning ordinance, the Metro Council looks set to kiss Bush ring.

It looks like rather than make the hapless, unpopular Bush Administration play defense, Metro Government intends to roll over.

The Special No-Conflict, Pre-Holiday Metro Council Meeting Edition!

The feline round-up is upon us again this evening, and they don't want any trouble from any of you who have zoning concerns. Dissent and criticism of developers would be unpatriotic given that July 4 is upon us.  Besides, you are more likely to be out buying your Independence Day potato salad than to be sitting burning hours tonight waiting your turn to speak before a council that has probably already made up its mind to bow to councilmanic courtesy on behalf of the developers.

Nonetheless, let the round-up begin.

Police Response

Metro Police Central Precinct has a new commander who got an earful of criticism at last night's Salemtown Neighbors meeting about recent police response to incidents and follow-up in Salemtown.  Community policing here seems to have slipped lately as cops seemed to sit back and do nothing on incidents of public brawling and gang activity, and we've gotten mixed messages on whom to contact to report suspicious activity in the past.  MNPD used to be one of the strongest Metro services in our neighborhood, but it seems to have become anemic.