The Metro business owner who wants Metro property in order to stop dumping continues to permit dumping himself

CM Buddy Baker has been trying to convince constituents in The Nations community for some time that he intends to hand campaign donor Ron Hunter a Metro alley in order to stop dumping. Mr Hunter's lawyer and Board of Zoning Appeals member David Ewing has joined Mr. Baker, insisting that Metro's "failure" to stop dumping and not Mr. Hunter's plan to rezone residential properties he owns across the alley is the real reason for the alley grab.

But what if Ron Hunter himself allows dumping on his property? Mike Peden sent an e-mail to Metro Council over the weekend with photographic recon that probably makes both Mr. Hunter's lawyer and his council member wince:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Peden
To: councilmembers@nashville.gov
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 6:43 PM
Subject: Emailing: P1017960

CM Baker - can you please advise your friend Mr. Hunter that his property is not zoned as an open dump site.

I have attached a photo of his property taken this morning.

The new no dumping signs have been installed in the alley, and the rules apply to Mr. Hunter as well.

Also, the grass needs cutting on his vacant lots. I have notified Codes and Public Works.

I am sure you are as interested as I am in keeping the neigborhood clean and free of illegal dumping.

Thank you
Mike Peden

During a recent community meeting over this controversial alley closure CM Baker replied smugly to a local who told him that The Nations had formed a dump watch, "Well, 'bout time y'all done something!" Given this embarrassing turn of events, perhaps the council member was wishing the neighborhood had not started monitoring and reporting dumping.

Alley closure opponents have insisted that the alley gets trashed in part because Mr. Hunter allows dumping and blight around his business. It appears that the business owner cannot straighten up and fly right long enough for CM Baker to slip the closure proposal, which is currently indefinitely deferred, under the community radar.

Many believe that closing the alley is merely the antecedent to commercial expansion in The Nations community. But let's play the fools that lawyer and council member take the neighborhood for and play along with the charade: now how would handing the alley in question to Mr. Hunter discourage dumping when Mr. Hunter seems to permit dumping himself?

Berry Hill cop testified his dashboard camera wasn't working during arrest of pregnant Mexican woman, but it was

The Tennessean obtained the dashboard cam that taped the stop and arrest of a Mexican woman in Berry Hill July 2008 in a Freedom of Information request. Part of the audio also appears to have been tampered with, according to the report.

This case gained notoriety when the woman went into labor while shackled in jail. I wonder if the missing audio would have included mention of the shackles? Immigration laws are out of control.

Loose leaves from yesterday's local election

Meandering personal reflections on the Pruitt-Turner results (see post update below) that, thanks to today being Friday, I have failed to put into a smooth narrative. I'm treating this stream of bullets as open, so I may add more as the day goes along:

• State House District 58 Rep Mary Pruitt can and probably will be beat the next election (assuming she runs). While Steven Turner did not get nearly as many votes as Pruitt's previous challenger, Jason Powell, he did eat into her win margin. Pruitt's base is shrinking and she has no one but herself to blame.
• Steven Turner was no stronger than Jason Powell as a challenger. There is no evidence that I can see that Turner's GOTV was stronger than Powell's. 2006 and 2010 races were Pruitt's to lose.
• Turner's enthusiastic support of the Music City Center may not have hurt him, but it sure didn't help him in a district that expressed ambivalence about MCC. In this case, what didn't help him get around 200 votes hurt him.
• Turner should have been as mum on the MCC lightning rod as he was on May Town Center. Or at least he should have muted the zeal, given North Nashville's concerns about MCC.
• Future challengers have got to develop the same GOTV machine that Pruitt has built. A little more diversity might help: incorporate the interests of poor and working class people beyond the paternalistic mantra "jobs, jobs, jobs," maybe? Diversity is not merely a matter of ethnicity.
• Future challengers should increase their reach beyond the factions of Democratic Party regulars who (con)descend to act as if they understand everything about local politics.
• Blaming voters is not the best way to defeat Mary Pruitt in the future.
• Future challengers should stop running on what Mary Pruitt doesn't do for the district. Go negative when you have to, but don't make it central to the campaign.
• Beating or leveraging Mary Pruitt starts today, not at the beginning of the next election cycle. Resign yourself to neglect until the next election, and Pruitt will definitely neglect us.
• Morning 100-degree heat and severe afternoon lightning storms may have kept many typical voters at home. However, Turner's more energetic base could be expected to go to the polls regardless of conditions. Would Pruitt's win have been bigger but for the elements?

Flood victims revictimized: another Metro identity breach of citizen personal information

A couple of days ago local tweets started crossing my feed that some flood victims' personal information, including bank account numbers had been posted on the Metro Tax Assessor's WebPro government site. Here is the Tennessean's follow up on the story:

Three property owners had private information exposed on the county web site, according to the Assessor's office. Rooker said he was first made aware of the information being posted by the Metro Legal Department this morning. As originally reported Dozens of flood victims seeking property tax relief may have had personal documents like checks [to pay for repairs] posted for public view on the Davidson County Assessor’s web site.

This is at least the 5th data breach of Davidson County citizen information since 2007, when laptops containing personal voter information where stolen from the Metro Election Commission. A Metro computer security laptop was stolen from a car shortly after that. Another incident involving exposure of 18,000 Metro Public School students' and 6,000 parents' personal information on Google occurred last year. Earlier this year an employee with Policy Studies, Inc. was given access to private Metro child support records with information like Social Security numbers, which he promptly attempted to sell.

Government just keeps privatizing more and more of its functions involving sensitive personal information without any accountability. Worse, yet, the information keeps getting breached. This running government like a business project does not seem to be working too well, especially for average Nashvillians. In the latest case, those who have already been victimized by May flood waters were revictimized by exposure of their identities.

If you like the local Democratic Party, you'll love today's primary in Tennessee House District 58

Nothing either Mary Pruitt or Steven Turner has done or said in the past 3 weeks since I declined to participate in today's Democratic Party primary circle jerk has made me rethink my stance.

Mary Pruitt will still do nothing for 58 or anyone else. Steven Turner may have all the energy in the world, but if it exclusively helps wealthy donors and developers who finance the county party, what good is that, broadly considered, for local communities? Some local Democrats would have you believe bread crumb economics is good for all of us. I say better to have done nothing at all.

Both Pruitt and Turner spoke to the last Salemtown Neighbors business meeting. Neither one said anything to make me think either would be in tune with neighborhood issues and balanced growth. Mr. Turner continued to court the geeks by emphasizing broadband and internet access (without regard to campaign donors who would profit from virtual expansion), and the rest of his talk was straight out off website memes on economic development. Ms. Pruitt failed to answer a simple question on how she would act as an advocate for neighborhood concerns about an expanding state highway bordering Salemtown, dodging by saying in effect that she would listen to any concerns we had.

My only litmus test in the 58 primary has been that either candidate show me how they stand for neighborhoods in their district over self-interest and moneyed influence. Both have failed.

There is no amount of fear-mongering or fabricating oversimplified choices between "the good" and "the ideal" that convinces me that there is an authentically redemptive choice here.

Mary Pruitt does nothing. That's clear. It's not clear to me that what Steven Turner might do would be good, at least not a common good. My guess at this point is that Mr. Turner has enough momentum in a rapidly changing district to win today. If so, I hope my neighbors who value balanced growth, sustainable development, and consistent progressive governance are not disappointed one day if Mr. Turner helps leverage community choking growth legislation that serves special interests and his wealthy campaign donors. I hope I'm wrong. I hope one day I don't have to say I told you so. I hope we all don't have to look back one day and say, "Nothing would have been better than the something they plan for us" (don't find that logic persuasive? Apply it to Bells Bend and state-sponsored sprawl).

Davidson County Democrats do not seem to be interested in balanced growth and sustainability issues unless you can add value on them, so they don't care either. Democrats here are basically useless on matters of economic sustainability, democratic input at the legislative level, and substantive community development.

I would not discourage anyone in this House district from going to the polls today if they see it their civic or patriotic duty. I would encourage them not to delude themselves into thinking that things could get better just because anyone is better than Mary Pruitt.

Today's election is not about District 58 or you or your family or our neighborhoods or anything else they want you to believe. It is about rival younger and older factions in the local Democratic Party, pure and simple. There is no good, there is no perfect. It's party-style snake oil. If you're into partisan politics, by all means, go vote for Pruitt or Turner, but do not try and convince me that the choice of a winner has not already been made: it's the local party apparatus, the sluice of campaign finance. The rest of us have already lost.

However, I still might have to go vote against Eric Crafton in the Juvenile Court race.

UPDATE: The unofficial results tonight with 172 of 173 of precincts reporting are:

• Mary Pruitt -- 1,308
• Steven Turner -- 1,158

Compare the nearly 2,500 votes cast today to how most of the 3,660+ votes were cast 4 years ago:

• Mary Pruitt -- 2,012
• Jason Powell -- 1,414

A lighter turn-out seemed to make little difference this year in the ultimate goal of beating Mary Pruitt. Even though Jason Powell got more votes in 2006 than Steven Turner did today, the latter lost by less of a margin than the former. If Mr. Turner had energized a couple hundred of perhaps more liberal voters or community activists to the polls, instead of appealing to business interests and the Democratic Party faithful, he just might have done what Mr. Powell couldn't do with more votes.

Proactive Salemtown a reason for the drop in Central Precinct crime

Four North End/Downtown neighborhoods gathered at Bicentennial Mall last night to present a plaque expressing appreciation to Metro Police's Central Precinct for recent low crime rates. James Nix at the City Paper has the details:

Janeen Griffin, of Fourth Avenue North in Salemtown, said the night was about “rallying around the community and really creating a safer community where we are truly connected … where we look out for one another, keep each other informed and really try to tackle any bad elements that may arise.”

Griffin said the drop in the Central Precinct’s overall crime is a reflection of the neighborhoods’ being proactive in reaching for the phones when they suspect criminal activity.

[Cmdr. Damien] Huggins told The City Paper the National Night Out was more than anything about promoting interaction and communication among the different neighborhood and public safety groups.

Looking at the crowd — about 30 or so neighbors most of them in their mid-30s, several with children — gathered for the evening, Huggins said when that many extra people are dedicated to watching over their community and don’t hesitate to call police over any suspicion it’s like adding so many sets of eyes and ears to the police force.

Blog overhaul

In the last 5 1/2 years I have made one other major redesign of the Enclave layout, and that was probably about 4 years ago. I liked the previous design, but it was just becoming too hard to maintain in the previous Jurassic Blogger format. Google changed the blogger format 2 or 3 years ago, and it was just too difficult to stay where I was. So, I'm bidding a fond adieu to the previous design with appreciation for an attractive medium.

Hopefully, readers will like the design changes I made (and will make in coming weeks).

In the meantime, good-bye old design, I will miss you:

Witness alleges that slain teen and suspect were members of rival youth gangs

A court witness describes Donquise Alexander, the 14-year-old charged in the shooting death of 14-year-old Vincent Lewis, as a gang member and runaway. According to the witness, Lewis was a rival gang member and drug peddler, which is not the picture previously painted as a kid working honest jobs for relatives to save up for a car.

Details emerged during a Wednesday hearing for the teenage boy arrested in the July 8 slaying of Vincent Lewis Jr.

A 13-year-old witness testified in Juvenile Court that the teen was a member of the Crips gang, had run away from home and planned to rob Lewis, a member of the Bloods, who sold marijuana.

As a group of boys smoked marijuana, the 14-year-old pulled a 22-caliber rifle on Lewis, told him "come out of your pockets" and hit him over the head with the gun, the witness said.

The witness, also a member of the Bloods, said that although they all were members of different gangs, they were friends, and the suspect did not intend to kill Lewis.

Metro Police Detective Deniz Ismailovic said Lewis was shot 10 times in the leg, stomach, hand and head. Police found the gun nearby, wrapped in a Titans blanket, beneath cinder blocks.

Up until this shooting, the teen gang problems of Salemtown's past has been receding over time. It is worth noting that the suspected perp is a runaway and the victim lived in East Nashville. The crime in this case came in from outside.

North End Neighborhoods Partner in Night Out Against Crime

A release from Salemtown Neighbors President Freddie O'Connell:

Four North End neighborhoods will come together again in 2010 to participate in the National Night Out Against Crime.

Nashville, Tenn. August 2nd, 2010 -- Renewing a commitment to continuing the favorable trends in crime reduction in Nashville's North End, four urban neighborhoods are joining together in celebrating the 2010 Night Out Against Crime.

Neighborhood organizations representing residents in Germantown, Hope Gardens, Salemtown, and Historic Buena Vista are gathering together to stand firm against tolerance of crime in their communities.

"We're especially proud of the strong partnership we've forged with the Metro Nashville Police Department under the leadership of Commander Damian Huggins," said Jason Powell, President of the Hope Gardens Neighborhood Association. "We'll be making a presentation to Cmdr. Huggins and Central Precinct in recognition of their effective work and their recognition as Precinct of the Year for 2009."

"We've dealt with a shocking shooting death in Salemtown this summer," said Freddie O'Connell, President of Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association. "The response from MNPD was rapid and thorough. There's a suspect in custody, but our work as neighbors is to stand together to ensure that we don't tolerate crime or criminal behavior in our homes or in our neighborhoods. We have a lot of work to do with each other, and we want to continue and extend the great partnership with MNPD and with each other as neighborhoods."

Neighbors from all four neighborhoods will be marching separately from their respective neighborhoods and then joining together for music, refreshments, and brief remarks at the Southeast corner of Rosa L. Parks Boulevard and Jefferson Street just North of the Nashville Farmers Market from 6-8pm on Tuesday, August 3rd. Remarks will be offered at 6:30pm.

Contact:

Freddie O'Connell

President, Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association

615-260-0005

tfo@alumni.brown.edu

http://www.salemtown.org/

Nashville celebrity draws international attention to continuing Haitian plight, but she can't generate local interest

Nashvillian film star Nicole Kidman was in Haiti this week as a UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador trying to draw attention to the plight of Haitian women and children in shelters since last January's earthquake. However, you would not know it from any the local media, who have remained mum on the goodwill effort. Despite her best attempts to bring attention to the forgotten tragedy, Nashville is not paying attention as far as I know.

We are Nashville. We are provincial.

UPDATE: Still no local reportage on Kidman's Haiti effort, but last night USA Today put up a story on it:

Kidman, who won an Oscar for 2002's The Hours, says philanthropy is a big part of her life. "I'm just constantly trying to give a voice to the women around the world, women everywhere, who are in need of help. If there's anything to be had from having worked for 23 to 25 years of my life, I'm so glad to now be able to do this. I don't mind being used like that," she says.

Town hall meeting erupts: "When the oil's comin' around ... y'all send the plane, and y'all are fuckin' sinkin' it"

Important civics lessons can be learned locally by watching someone else's community meeting with power brokers. Video after the jump to my tumblr page.

Teen suspect in recent Salemtown shooting apprehended

From the Metro Police, via the Salemtown Neighbors e-list:

July 30, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Central Precinct detectives late last night arrested 14-year-old Donquise Alexander on a charge of criminal homicide for the July 8^th fatal shooting of 14-year-old Vincent Lewis outside an apartment building at 1611 6^th Avenue North.

Three weeks of continuous investigation by Detective Robert Anderson and his colleagues, which included numerous interviews, led to the identification of Alexander as the suspected gunman. Upon learning of last evening’s issuance of a Juvenile Court arrest order, Alexander’s mother surrendered her son to detectives at 11 p.m.

The investigation into the homicide is continuing. Robbery may have been a motive.

Senator Henry has paid campaign "volunteers"?

I noticed Douglas Henry campaign supporters distracting traffic at Hillsboro Village this morning. A few minutes ago Mike Peden e-mailed me a dispatch from further south on a similar group and some troubling background:

Senator Henry has had people at the intersection of Thompson Lane and Nolensville Rd all week, wearing blue t-shirts and waving at people with signs.

I stopped and spoke with one of them this morning. They are working through a temp service and being paid by the hour. The man I spoke with didn’t know who Mr. Henry is or what he is running for.

It seems pretty pathetic to have to pay pretend supporters ....

In these times of high unemployment, I would not begrudge people for getting paid where they can, but Senator Henry passing off relatively low-paid employees (who probably don't get benefits) as enthusiastic campaign volunteers does seem pathetic.

EPA has "no serious concerns" about petro-chemicals leaked into flood water in May

During the catastrophic floods last May I documented oil and chemicals leaked into rising flood waters in East Germantown and at Morgan Park here at Enclave and I've expressed my concerns about what I saw. EPA's latest findings seem to suggest that I shouldn't have worried so much:

it’s impossible to know how much leaked into flood water, but soil and water testing has raised no serious concerns for the EPA.

When the Cumberland River rose well above its banks, riverside industrial buildings were some of the first to go under. On Nester Street near Nashville’s MTA headquarters, first responders helped pump 25,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water out of a drainage system. Otherwise, Spurlin says the spills were minor.

“We didn’t see large releases. It essentially was either potential releases from the containers that had not spilled or minor releases of chemicals or oils that could be readily addressed without causing any long term issues.”

That being said, keep in mind that EPA estimates of dumped toxins have been contested by reputable sources in the past.

Suit: MetroCenter exec ordered employee to defy flood evacuation

Thomas Wood on a pending lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court:

With flood waters threatening to overwhelm the levee that protects the MetroCenter commercial district from the Cumberland River, police were ordering a complete evacuation of the 800-acre development. But on his cell phone, the president of the company Jones worked for was telling him to instruct employees to evade the cops and get to work.

Jones says he did as the cops told him to do — and that his boss responded by summarily dismissing him from his production supervisor position at Shared Hospital Services Corp.

The president of SHSC is not named in the lawsuit Jones filed against the hospital laundry service July 21 in Davidson County Circuit Court, but documents in a prior lawsuit identify him as George W. Wade, the name currently listed with the Tennessee Register of Deeds as registered agent of the company.

The legal complaint says Jones let the president know that Metro Police safety cones were blocking off access to SHSC’s Mainstream Drive facility. The boss nevertheless told Jones “to inform all employees to come to work” and to get around the traffic cones by driving through the Comcast parking lot across the street and then turning in behind the barriers.

FBI raid on former Metro Council Member Pam Murray's house? [Correct: Secret Service raided Murray's home]

Last night District 5 CM J.R. Hollin tweeted that federal agents descended on the 800 block of Stockell in East Nashville. This morning I received a forwarded e-mail from a neighbor saying that "stuff, people, and cars" were confiscated from former District 5 CM Pam Murray's house by the FBI last night. Pam Murray lives at 802 Stockell. Any other information out there on what's going on with Ms. Murray?

UPDATE: East Nashville resident, Justin comments below:

I live around the corner on 800 block of N 2nd.

In the last two weeks, Metro PD prescence has gone crazy. Round the clock patrols, harassing anyone on the street, my neighbor (who helped Hollin get elected) was mowing my lawn and the police told him he had no business being there. Its been like a mini police state. Pam's been cruising the street ever since this has been going on, and has been behind at least some of the complaint calls to Metro. When my previously mentioned neighbors house was raided by SWAT, finding a really dangerous small bag of pot, Murray was outside watching.

UPDATE: The Tennessean has the story:

Agents were at the Stockell Street home Thursday evening, "Retrieving some items related to our investigation," said Keith Perrigan, assistant special agent in charge for the Secret Service's Nashville field office. Perrigan declined to detail the nature of the probe but said nobody had been arrested Friday.

Murray said the agents were investigating her son, who was on probation for a credit card fraud conviction out of Oklahoma. "I really think it's where my son violated his probation," she said. "His probation officer came there." Her son, Patrick Merriweather, 22, was convicted last year after he and two other men were caught in Sequoyah County, Okla., trying to use a stolen credit card at a country store. Investigators later found cash, a laptop computer, several credit cards and a credit card encoding machine in his car.

Terminal pain: CM Erica Gilmore still catching heat for her handling of community concerns about Greyhound

Downtown CM Erica Gilmore is still facing tough times with constituents over the Greyhound terminal relocation due to Music City Center construction. Local response to a recent Tennessean interview on the relocation to 11th and Charlotte generated more expression of frustration from nearby Hope Gardens.

Here is an interview excerpt:

Councilwoman Erica Gilmore said it was her understanding that Greyound [sic] would not move to its temporary location at 11th and Charlotte until a future permanent site was selected ...

“I heard they were moving into a temporary station soon, which I guess would mean they found a permanent location,” Gilmore said. “I think they did a good job of keeping their word. It’s a relief.”

A Hope Gardens leader who was involved in organizing the original community meeting with Greyhound and the Convention Center Authority, which was not organized or attended by CM Gilmore, copied me on a response that he had to her interview:

How can you simply assume, or in your words “guess” that Greyhound has secured a permanent location? Have you called Greyhound, MDHA, the Mayor’s Office, or the MCC to ensure that they have kept their assurances to our communities? Quite, in fact, Greyhound told us that there would be a public announcement of their permanent location before they moved to the temporary one. NO PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT WAS MADE!

Once again, I think the future of our neighborhood is too important to leave up to your “guesswork”. You may be “relieved”, but I assure you that many of your constituents are still deeply concerned. Any first hand information that you might be able to share with us in the coming days would be greatly appreciated.

Likewise, when CM Gilmore replied via e-mail to the neighborhood leader, I was CC'ed again:

Always feel free to discus [sic] any of the issues or concerns you have anytime. As it relates to Greyhound, I will forward on the information so that they can provide you with the information as it relates to the announcement.

CM Gilmore's hands-off approach to zoning issues and Metro power moves does not seem to be working with those leading constituents most affected.

CM Buddy Baker has to break out of his huddle with the lawyers tonight to pass an unpopular alley abandonment

A little later this evening Metro Council Member Buddy Baker will bring his controversial motion to abandon an alley as requested by one of his campaign donors who has also drawn up plans to industrialize residential properties by rezoning them. Many in the community believe that the abandonment is the gateway to rezoning, so they are organizing to show up in numbers tonight even though they will not be given the chance to address the council in a public hearing.

It's basically David and Goliath: The Nations neighborhood against Baker and the lobbyist lawyers who helped him take on opponents during a community meeting this week. Expect CM Baker to be as dismissive of his constituents as he was in this exchange during Saturday's meeting:

Constituent #1: Lots of neighbors are now doing neighborhood watch, dumping watch. They are pulling together as a neighborhood association and group to keep the community safe and clean.

CM Baker: I'm glad they're finally doing it!

Constituent #2: Do you know that there is an order in to get Metro Public Works to put a camera in this alley should dumping continue? And the dumping sign that's on the tree at the end of the alley which appeared this week is due to the community contacting Metro Public Works to get it done?

CM Baker: Well, 'bout time y'all done something!

[Laughter]

Constituent #2: Why did you not consider these options instead of driving around and acting like there is nothing to be done but, "Oh, let's abandon this alley and give him the land?"

Constituent #3: I been picking up dump here for ... years.

It seems to me that CM Baker is so lead around by donors and lawyers that he feels emboldened not to work with voters in his district who disagree with him come to a win-win solution for both sides on alley maintenance and community planning.

UPDATE: According to the 43rd Avenue Rezoning Twitter feed, the Neighborhoods Defense Fund and the Historic Sylvan Park Neighborhood Association have publicly come out in opposition to alley abandonment.

UPDATE: Opposition leader Rick Bradley reported tonight on the Nashville Neighborhoods e-list that CM Baker told NewsChannel5 that he deferred abandonment at the council meeting because he did not have the votes for approval. Baker's indefinite deferral allows the bill to be put on the agenda again without much warning.

UPDATE: Buddy Baker told NewsChannel5 that he believes he had the votes to pass abandonment but it would have been close.

UPDATE: NewsChannel5's video:

It's still the economy, stupid

There continues to be 2 disparate Americas in the national consciousness according to Pew. President Obama's rather weak economic solutions have not curbed popular frustrations with a big government that protects big business first:

The public sees clear winners and losers from the economic policies the government has implemented since the recession of 2008. Most Americans say these policies have helped large banks, large corporations and the wealthy, while providing little or no help for the poor, the middle class or small businesses.

Fully 74% say that government policies over the past two years have done a great deal (53%) or a fair amount (21%) to help large banks and financial institutions. Majorities also say that large corporations (70% great deal/fair amount) and wealthy people (57% great deal/fair amount) have been helped.

By contrast, 68% say government policies have helped small businesses not at all (29%) or not too much (39%); 68% also say middle-class people have received little or no help from these policies. And about the same percentage (64%) says poor people have not been helped.

I believe Americans expected better from Democrats in charge in Washington. The latter have failed to sustain any pretense of champions of common folk.

BREAKING: Owner of "nuisance house" in Hope Gardens dies

Hope Gardens leader Alan Huffman sends news that the owner of 1010 11th Av N has died. The house the deceased owned has been a chronic center of illegal activities to the point that the Hope Gardens neighborhood association felt compelled to work with police to gather signatures for a "nuisance petition" allowed under state law to end criminal centers in communities.

What Metro Council Member Buddy Baker supported and when he supported it

Via Mike Peden, a February Planning e-mail that indicates CM Buddy Baker understood an alley abandonment issue and rezoning request to be more directly connected than he claims to now:

At his community meeting on Saturday, CM Buddy Baker denied the connection between alley abandonment and rezoning. The 43rdrezoning website has video. Here's an excerpt of CM Baker's comments that contradict Metro Planning's construal of his support for rezoning:

A lot of y'all think this is a zone change. This is not a zone change. I have nothing to do with a zone change.

If it is rezoned it'd be Mr. Hunter. That would not be me .... I did not know anything about the zone change until Wednesday or the Thursday before we went to the Planning Commission. If Mr. Hunter wants a zone change that is up to Mr. Hunter. That's not up to me.

I find CM Baker's appeal to ignorance disingenuous. I've observed the planning and zoning process for some years, and I believe that council members do not bring rezoning requests forward in the face of public opposition unless they support them themselves. Rezoning does not go forward on Mr. Hunter's initiative alone. It requires CM action. And if CM Baker did find out about it last minute, why didn't he put the brakes on and plan community meetings?

Almost on cue after CM Baker mentioned Mr. Hunter, the attorney for Mr. Hunter, former Chamber of Commerce lobbyist, and Board of Zoning Appeals member, David Ewing, interrupted and took the heat of community questions off CM Baker. He insisted in spite of his client's wishes to rezone industrial that the motive behind the alley closure was to clean up the alley because "Metro is not doing that well."

There was a time in Salemtown when we were having trouble with Public Works not maintaining our alleys well. Abandonment never even entered the picture. We just assumed that if Metro wasn't doing something well, then we would work to compel Metro to take care of the alleys, which they eventually did. It seems a lawyer's trick to use poor Metro service delivery to justify privatizing an alley, which increases the probability of rezoning in the future. Metro Planning opined that themselves.

But the lawyer overplayed his hand by insisting that those who chose to participate in this community meeting could only ask questions about whether the alley should or should not be abandoned. He has a responsibility to represent his client, but he has no authority in the forum

to terminate questions about rezoning, especially when his client, the business owner, initiated the rezoning process.

Attorney Ewing also oddly declared CM Baker's community meeting closed and out-shouted a community opponent around minute 39:00. Who put him in charge? He won't be able to alter public perception that rezoning remains the long-term counterpart of short-term alley abandonment. The huddle of CM Baker with the business owners' lawyers at the end of the video is emblematic of what is wrong with the planning and zoning process. It often defies democracy.

Dear 58: early voting starts today and I will not be joining you

The Tennessean's local beat journo Nate Rau asked for my opinions yesterday on the state House race between Mary Pruitt and Steven Turner, some of which you can read here. I have fielded several queries on why I have not taken a stance on this election, given my expressed dissatisfaction with Ms. Pruitt and Mr. Turner's seeming embrace by local progressives. This post is my attempt at a more full explanation.

A recurring (and perhaps the strongest) argument for voting for Mr. Turner is that Ms. Pruitt has been "absent from the legislative process in any meaningful way." Indeed, the constituents of 58 have been underrepresented by Mary Pruitt. She did not give any indication that she fought for security measures on Bicentennial Mall after a Germantown woman was raped not too long ago. She showed up to the Hope Gardens' community meeting on the Greyhound bus terminal relocation, but she did not make it plain in word or deed that she would be the community advocate in the face of Metro insularity. She chooses to remain invisible.

However, Turner campaign supporters are hard-pressed to explain exactly how he would be a better option other than "anyone would be better than Mary Pruitt." Given what I have read of Mr. Turner and heard from him, I have reservations about voting for him.

Let's assume that Steven Turner would be more proactive than Ms. Pruitt and that he take leadership positions on House committees, crafting legislation. If he is proactive and prominent in working for the Democratic Party establishment and the wealthy business interests who fund their fights with Republicans, how is that an improvement for all of us in 58?

I attended the North Nashville community meeting Erica Gilmore called on the Music City Center proposal a few months ago. Mr. Turner stood at that meeting to express unqualified and enthusiastic support for building a convention center. He did not bother to acknowledge community concerns about obligating Metro's General Fund (which pays for everything from brush clean-up to adequate policing) as a safety net for construction overruns.

However, the prospect of tapping into the Metro budget to prop up a convention center exposes infrastructure like parks and street and alley maintenance to risk. Steven Turner came across as callous on an important neighborhood issue, although his passion for MCC is entirely consistent with the priorities of local business interests. Support for a convention center is not necessarily a deal-killer for me in the voting booth, but I was not mobilized by Mr. Turner's appearance. He seemed more committed to growth than to softening the blows growth makes on communities.

My concern arises from precisely that kind of appearance. Let's grant that he may be more proactive on committees, with legislation than Ms. Pruitt has been. That may be good for the Tennessee Democratic Party, but to whom will he be beholden? I have yet to find a case where Steven Turner would balance his advocacy for commercial interests with a defense of neighborhoods.

His website collapses community development into economic development while referring to local businesses and young professionals. He makes no mention of balancing growth and infrastructure and quality of life in neighborhoods.

His commitment to education refers to "modernization." I do not know what that means, but it sounds like the kind of public school privatization that Davidson County Democratic leaders like Mayor Karl Dean support.

And would Steven Turner lead a House fight to build 2 or 3 bridges from West Nashville neighborhoods to Bells Bend to sprawl urban developments and retail across rural greenspace? I know next to nothing about his commitments to conservation, but would he be so bold as to undermine every other neighborhood's community plan by striking blows at those of West Nashville and Scottsboro-Bells Bend under the guise of "creating more jobs" in North Nashville?

So, the idea that just putting anyone more proactive than Mary Pruitt in the 58 House seat does not motivate me to participate in the Democratic Party's primary. This primary strikes me as inside partisan baseball: should we replace an entrenched do-nothing Democrat with a Democrat who may be exclusively in the pockets of developers and corporate big shots? Either way the people who win are not the people of 58. So, I intend to exercise the grace of doing nothing during this primary.

Buddy begrudgingly bends to constituents on contested alley abandonment

CM Buddy Baker reverses his field and will hold a community meeting on the controversial plan to shut down an alley and industrialize the Nations neighborhood in his district at the behest of a campaign donor. Via Rick Bradley:

From a neighbor in the Nations. Note that we are 6 blocks from the site and received no notice, so the notification must be very selective.

"Mr. Baker has sent notice dated July 9, 2010 of a "District 20 Neighborhood Meeting" to discuss Metro Council Ordinance No. BL2010-682.

For those who did not get the letter, it reads in part: "It is not required that I hold a public meeting on an alley closure. I have followed all the rules of the Metropolitan Government as relates to alley closures. However, out of loyalty to my constituents, I am holding this meeting to provide an opportunity to allow for feedback on this issue."

The meeting is set as follows:

Saturday, July 17, 2010
4:00 p.m.
4300 Georgia Avenue"

When bloggers merely blog to repeat news, they better divide it rightly

Yesterday local content-scraper, Nashvillest, incorrectly conveyed facts concerning the relocation of the Downtown Greyhound terminal:

The 8th Avenue Greyhound bus station is finally moseying its sweet self down to a temporary location on Charlotte so that crews can get on with the Music City Center construction. The bus station was pretty much the last thing standing in the way of the construction site.

Blogger Christy Frink makes the situation sound like the terminal has the project itself in gridlock. It's been my understanding that the Greyhound terminal only blocked construction on a small corner of the Music City Center site. Other than that patch, construction has gone on as planned. I confirmed this with the City Paper editor, Stephen George. CP journo Joey Garrison gave a more accurate reporting of the scope of the delays than Nashvillest did.

Is Christy's mistake heinous? Not by any means. But popular content scrapers should be a lot more judicious about conveying the news content they are scraping. Christy's spin on the story has the potential to create the impression that slow-walk deliberation of the relocation of Greyhound throws a wrench in the MCC project wholly, not partially. Because of its large following, Nashvillest has a long reach and can multiply misperception.

The lineage of Nashvillest posts on Greyhound terminal relocation hints that they are positively disposed to moving it anywhere but the Music City Center site. Along the way they have seemed displeased with delays. The bloggers are entitled to their opinions on this, but this reader wishes that they would not let their predisposition cloud the facts in this news. It is not too much to ask that the content scrapers be as detached to the relocation story as they were to the news that North End neighbors were upset about the furtive moves to spirit the blighted terminal closer to us.


UPDATE: Salemtown's Hutch points out that the Nashvillest coverage of the Greyhound move is also misleading insofar as the bloggers insinuate that Greyhound was lolly-gagging.

Greyhound terminal moves north on Wednesday; permanent location announced

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

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

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

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

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

Now at MikeByrd.net: about those local crime statistics

Click to jump:

Why did Nashville Mayor Karl Dean single out Ronal Serpas on stats when Murfreesboro PD had the same problems?

14-year-old shot dead in Salemtown in what police call a "rare" criminal act

According to NewsChannel5:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Metro police are working to find the person or people responsible for shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy in downtown Nashville. The teenager has been identified as Vincent Lewis.

Police said a maintenance worker found Lewis' around 3:15 p.m. in the fenced backyard of a house at 1611 6th Ave North. They believed the body had been there for a couple of hours.

Police reported he had been shot in the stomach and head.

Dozens of police officers and several detectives knocked on doors to figure out what exactly happened.

6th Avenue was shut down while they investigated. Police say shootings are rare in that area.

Anyone who has information about Vincent's murder is urged to contact Central Precinct detectives at 862-7049 or Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME.

This is a particularly jarring event for our local community, but the media deserves praise for not sensationalizing this shooting, which word on the street says is gang-related. NewsChannel5 underscored the rarity of the crime, as did the Tennessean, which reported that such a shooting has not happened in at least a year. It wasn't long ago that the local media reported gang-related issues in North Nashville (if reported at all) with a stereotypical sensationalism that did not serve to enhance public safety.

Police work with Hope Gardens on serving nuisance document on residence that was site of drive-by shooting

Jason Powell to the Hope Gardens neighborhood social media website:

There was a drive by shooting again late Tuesday night on 11th Avenue North. The shooting was related to the ongoing problems at 1010 11th Avenue North. Commander Huggins has asked us to have a petition signed ASAP in order to move forward on ending this nuisance. This is the next step as a follow-up to the letters everyone signed earlier in the year.

Below is a police description and some correspondence from Commander Huggins:

Shooting, 1010 11th Ave North (10-577710), this is a reoccurring 10-78 location. A small gold/gray vehicle drove by the location and fired multiple shots at the residence. A female victim was on the porch and was grazed on her lower leg by one of the rounds. A neighbor approached officers and gave a partial tag of a similar vehicle that sped off from the area running a red light. ID was called to recover shell casings and some possible rounds in the residence, Precinct detectives were notified. The victim was treated at the scene by MNFD.

Here is Commander Huggins latest messages about the nuisance ordinance:

"Please gather the signature documents from community members. I would like to get what you have. This latest incident may be critical in the application of the nuisance document that we are wanting to attempt on this residence.

Please remind everyone that this is very rarely used and not tested in all aspects and will be a first in many regards to its application. It will may take some time to get everything into place; if it can be applied here.

There has been some recent legislation on civil actions by governments to restrict certain activities in certain areas that may support this now as well.

We will be working on it.

* (Council lady Gilmore has also signed and sent to me a waiver supporting any civil nuisance action we take at this location as well.)"

Then this message:

"I do not want to be too optimistic, but I think we may have everything lined up right on this to make it happen.

You should also see an increase in our police activity as we want to avoid or try to prevent any retaliatory actions. Please have everyone be on the lookout for any suspicious activity and report to us at 862-8600 or 911 as needed."

Thank you for your assistance. The bottom line is that our neighborhood association will stop at nothing to remove this problem as quickly as possible.

Please, please do attend tonight, this is critical! If you can't make it then email me at jasonleepowell@yahoo.com and I will email you the document to print and sign and make arrangements to pick it up from you.

Tennessean journo links body to rezoning issue

Reporter Juanita Cousins chose last week not to lead with the commercial potential of industrialization of residential 43rd Avenue in West Nashville. Instead she simply repeated the talking point of local developers and CM Buddy Baker that crime is the reason they are seeking a road and alley closure.

After getting interview responses from abandonment critics on crime, she linked the rezoning proposal to the disturbing find not on 43rd itself, but a block away in CM Edith Langster's district.

"Problems could be solved through neighborhood watch and better coordination with Metro Police. If they can successfully coordinate with police department, then they can make this a safer area, but closing the alley will not solve this."

A school bus driver found the dead body of Montgomery Bell Academy custodian Malith Wiek, 33, propped against a fence near 42nd Avenue North and Indiana Avenue on April 21. He had been shot multiple times.

There is no indication that CM Langster is trying to close down 42nd in response to this crime, so why is CM Baker using it as pretext to help a campaign donor consolidate his commercial real estate? Because this really has less to do with crime and more to do with investment opportunity.

View Larger Map

It is not too much to expect reporter Cousins to be more neutral and to avoid adding to the spin that CM Baker has already put on abandonment.

Nashville business located on flood plain wants to move Richland Creek regardless of environment, neighborhood impact

Same players who tried to force English Only on Nashville try to flip residential neighborhood industrial

After CM Buddy Baker refused to hold any community meetings on his sponsorship of a controversial plan to close an alley and a road and convert residential zoning to industrial for a campaign contributor and developer, Rick Bradley stepped in and held a meeting on July 1. Bradley has been leading the fight against industrialization, including maintaining a website.

Bradley also presented the case against Baker's proposal at the community meeting, and he has now placed that presentation on line. The part of the presentation that leaped out at me was the section where Bradley connects the dots between 43rd Avenue rezoning, the developers, and Eric Crafton's English First. Remarkably, one of the development companies was incorporated at the listed address of English First.

CM Baker supported English First with votes. CM Eric Crafton not only supports industrializing 43rd Avenue, but ran down neighborhood opponents, saying that they do not understand "simple road abandonment." Developers have both in their back pockets. Abandonment opponents face a tough challenge, but they have the West Nashville plan and popular sentiment on their side. If you would like to add your support to their cause, you can sign their petition here.

One day the fairgrounds may be called "Deaneapolis"

A local preservation group wants to know why Mayor Karl Dean is passing on the $8,000 bill from a local nonprofit he enlisted to lead the task force he assigned to consider options for future uses of the fairgrounds. Here is part of the press release the group sent to the Nashville neighborhoods e-list:

The invoice in question is from the Civic Design Center, who the mayor hired to run the meetings. Apparently no one on the Metro staff is capable of the task, so it was outsourced.

The CDC, apparently also entered into the job with the understanding that it was the mayor's task force, and sent their invoice to Alexia Poe at the Mayor's Office of Economic and Community Development, who forwarded it to the fair board's office for payment.

Additionally, a look at past Fair Board meeting minutes indicates that this project has not been presented to, nor approved by, the Fair Board of Commissioners.

This seems to be another part of the on-going effort to drain the profits of the Fairgrounds operation. Put this in the same category as other "service fees" that Metro charges to the Fairgrounds, such as the $300,000 annual "Personal, professional and legal fees" or the "Indirect LOCAP expense" of $157,000 or over $8,000 per year for "Vehicle Maintenance" (among others).

I have been slow to take sides in the debate over what to do about the fairgrounds, but it is hard not to pull for the underdogs in the latest episode of mayoral melodrama. The preservationists do not seem to stand a ghost of a chance. However, it is pathetic that Mayor Dean passed on the costs for a task force that was his idea to the trustees of the fairgrounds. It looks like a gambit to saddle the fairgrounds spreadsheet with random expenses so that later someone in Metro Finance might be enlisted to ride in and save the fairgrounds from skyrocketing costs. I cannot see it saved for anyone beyond some wealthy developers to convert into private property.

Bad form: CM Lonnell Matthews sends constituents combined flood relief meeting info and Steven Turner campaign fundraiser ad

Thanks to Mike Peden for forwarding the e-mail below that CM Lonnell Matthews sent to his District 1 constituents. I am not sure whether this violates campaign ethics laws, but pigging-backing a fundraiser for a candidate for General Assembly with a mailer on North Nashville flood relief seems crude to me. Isn't sending out campaign material under the Metro government insignia plainly unethical?

Click on image to enlarge.

The false sense of connection in Metro Nashville Public Schools' social media & Twitter

I don't waste too much time analyzing why people follow me and then unfollow me on Twitter. I have my own reasons for following and I respect that others have their reasons for following me (or not).

But just this once I'm going to bust the chops of the Metro Nashville Public School PR flacks who maintain the district's regular blog and their micro-blog via Twitter.

MNPS started following my Twitter stream in early May and they even sent me direct tweets. I was impressed with the breadth of the coverage of many different meetings. I even defended them on Twitter when it was suggested that this single agency approach to blogging was limited.

It seemed like a good match: a committed public school parent, PTO member, and engaged family guy following the local public school blog effort. And things were fine between @MetroSchools and @micchiato as long as I re-tweeted them and complimented them. But shortly after I started criticizing MNPS for being insular and suggesting that privatization through charter schools was not a wise course of action for public schools, they unfollowed me.

I don't take their choice as a personal affront. For me it is confirmation of my perception that the local public school system is thin-skinned, insular, and walled off from the regular families it is supposed to serve by its own bureaucratic and marketing agendas. Hence, it doggedly follows local media, celebrities, influential politicos, the latest hip non-profits, non-government organizations who generally don't rock the boat, and a slew of sexy people without kids in public schools.

Meanwhile, I do not doubt that it imagines, spins, and markets its social media as tools that public school families can themselves follow for information. However, since the writers of @MetroSchools are not following the tweets of more public school families, theirs is a fake exercise in connection. MNPS on Twitter is just another tool for keeping their actual clients, public school kids and parents, distant from two-way lines of communication that give people a sense of participation in and ownership of public education.

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

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

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

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

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

Other actions CCA took are specifically described:

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

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

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

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

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

Neighborhood concerns about increased crime around Greyhound bus terminal supported by media's statistical analysis

SouthComm's Stephen George has the numbers comparing the old Greyhound site to the new one at Charlotte & 11th:

in blog posts and at public meetings, many have argued that the Greyhound station will be a magnet for crime in their area. According to statistics The City Paper obtained from Metro police, it seems they’re right — at least to some degree.

A comparison of crime statistics stretching from Jan. 1, 2009, through May 27 shows that nearly 17 times more crimes and potential criminal activity were phoned in to Metro police from the current Greyhound location than the area around the proposed new one.

Most of the 314 reported incidents at Greyhound involved public intoxications, thefts and assaults. The 19 incidents at the new site were similar in nature.

What I learned from tonight's cover-your-ass-in-public meeting on the Greyhound relocation lease

My impressions of Erica Gilmore's public meeting on Greyhound's relocation held earlier tonight:

1. The best way to control imagined "You lie!" incivility in controversial zoning issues is to treat the few locals yokels who show up (a large number of attendees seemed to be Metro employees, politicos, and news media) as if they are in detention, restricting them to 1 minute each to ask questions and make comments.
2. If urban neighborhoods wanted to stop this specific Greyhound/Music City Center relocation, they had their chance during the Downtown Code community meetings a few years ago.
3. Given #2: any future community plan (e.g., the North Nashville Plan) better be formulated only by those leaders in the community who are psychic and can predict exactly where and when the Mayor's Office will be relocating businesses they don't want to see by their tourism attractions Downtown.
4. Neighborhoods lost opportunities to be informed by not being prescient enough to attend public meetings of the Convention Center Authority (CCA) where they could not give feedback, even if they were not informed by CM Gilmore (who has said that she only heard things in passing and found out about the decision in the media rather than by attending CCA meetings).
5. The CCA publicizes their agenda; community leaders can look at the agenda and clearly see when the Greyhound bus terminal relocation will be discussed if they exercise extrasensory perception (note an example agenda below):
   
   
   
   
6. The CCA meets the first Thursday of every month, and if working Nashville citizens want to burn vacation or sick days away from the job each of those Thursdays after 8:00 a.m., then they have the chance to find out more about controversial relocations by attending.
7. Greyhound has picked an undisclosed permanent location; you still don't have any say over it; your 1 minute for a question is up, next question.
8. I don't know how to interpret the conspicuous absence of Hope Gardens neighborhood leaders (who organized the well-attended and angry May 27 public meeting) at tonight's meeting.
9. CCA rep Holly McCall failed to follow through on her May 27 promise to release the Greyhound lease to the public. Instead, she sent it to CM Gilmore.
10. Given #9: I'm disappointed that CM Gilmore did not forward a copy of the lease to me given that she should have a May 27 e-mail from me requesting a copy of that lease from MDHA's Joe Cain as well as Mr. Cain's reply saying that CCA had it. Nevertheless, she promises to release it tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

West Nashvillians to Mayor Dean: "Floodplain. We told you so. Time to reconsider police precinct plans."

This is what the Charlotte Avenue lacation for Mayor Karl Dean's planned West Precinct Police Headquarters (the old Bob Frensley car dealership) looked like on May 2 as flood waters around Nashville rose:

During the controversial planning stages of relocating the headquarters, neighborhood associations and a Richland Creek watershed group warned the Mayor, Finance Director Rich Riebeling, and former police chief Ronal Serpas that the old Frensley plot was in danger of flooding, but the Mayor's Office ignored the warnings and pushed past the public opposition.

Instead of pausing in the wake of the flood to reconsider, Mr. Riebeling is now suggesting more expensive, environmentally insensitive plans to build a new headquarters on the flood-prone site, even as Nashville accumulates private property that sits on floodplain elsewhere to stop future destruction and even as those plans might violate the Mayor's own green initiative.

Neighborhood leaders are once again organizing to oppose Courthouse foolishness. West Nashvillian Trish Bolian writes GCA News:

As most know, that part of Charlotte was under torrents of water when Richland Creek became the equivalent of a raging river. Buildings on the former Frensley site elected for the relocation of the police needs addressed above were flooded and surrounded by raging water. Almost right next door at Pep Boys, employees and customers had to be rescued by boat and this was on Saturday before the full force of this water was felt on Sunday.

Here is what security cameras inside that Pep Boys caught of the creek flood overwhelming their building:

Trish continues:

The first action then taken was to ask for an easement of that area violating the mayor's own Green Initiative and pledge to protect the creeks and waterways! Then the floods. Note: not only is this in the flood plain much of it is in the flood way! Taxpayers are on the hook to spend $10 MILLION more to erect this building! Had the precinct been opened there, police cars would have been totally under water, the building greatly flooded, equipment and computers lost, DNA evidence washed down Richland Creek! Basically the second largest police precinct in the county would have been "down".

Another leader, Kathy Baker, reminds the Metro Finance Director in a direct e-mail that he ignored community warnings:

If nothing else you owe the citizens of West Nashville a debt of gratitude. We got this purchase deferred and later got the creek buffer variance deferred so the building process could not move forward. We knew all along it was a bad decision to purchase this piece of property but you wouldn’t listen. Council wouldn’t listen. If you had your way the building would have been in progress and what construction had been done would have been lost ....

When Richland Creek Watershed came to our meeting and told you about the issues with the creek you said “don’t worry about it, we’ll figure that out as we move along.” In their application to the stormwater committee, the engineers said:

“we have not submitted an alternate plan because we see no option to fully restore the buffer and still provide the facilities required for the new precinct and crime lab.”

Really? No one checked that out? We warned you ....

We showed you maps and pointed out that this property was in a flood plain and what happened? It flooded.

What would have happened if the precinct had been built according to your plans? ....

The people of Nashville would have wanted to know “what were you thinking building a police precinct in a flood plain?” You might be tempted to say (and some have said) – this is a 500 year flood and, chances are, nothing like this will ever happen again. But this is not a 500 year flood plain, it’s a 100 year flood plain and parts of it are in the floodway and it will happen again ....

I’m mad at you for not really listening to us. I’m mad at you for standing in the doorway at our meeting with your arms crossed refusing to come into the room and engage and hear what we were saying. You thought that we were simply upset about the precinct moving away from our neighborhoods, and said as much, when what we were actually saying was that this property, in particular, had not been properly vetted ....

It’s time for you to admit you made a mistake....we don’t even have an architect’s drawing or a budget, stormwater would not give you a variance on the creek buffer (and you shouldn’t have even asked for one), and the place has flooded. We must at least consider the possibility that the precinct should not be built here.

Finally, West Meade leader Mina Johnson appealed directly to Mayor Karl Dean via e-mail:

I ask you if it is truly our best option to build a new West Precinct police station and DNA lab on currently proposed 5500 Charlotte Pike?

We know more that 4.2 million dollars has invested into this location thus far. Regardless is it absolutely our best option to spend another 10 million plus dollars to continue the project on the current location despite of Metro's Floodway and Floodplain buy out plan underway[?]

What exactly has to befall the Mayor's Office before it will start listening to the wisdom of the community and watershed specialists or start abiding by its own green initiatives? What reason outside of sweetheart ties to auto dealer Bob Frensley does Metro have for steamrolling this ill-fated police precinct plan? If colossal floods do not turn Rich Riebeling's boat around what will?