2012 Country Music Marathon photos: half-marathoners

See 3 previous posts for other Country Music Marathon pictures.

2012 Country Music Marathon photos: marathoners

Yet to come: pictures of half-marathoners. Stay tuned.

2012 Country Music Marathon men's winner was just behind the leader into North Nashville, ahead after

Eventual marathon winner Ryan James was on the heels of leader Steve Slaby as he headed north on Rosa L. Parks Boulevard at Werthan Lofts toward MetroCenter:

On the leg from MetroCenter back by Germantown toward Downtown, James took the lead:

2012 Country Music Marathon women's winner also first in North Nashville earlier this morning

Keeping with my past tradition, I got up early this morning to take photos of the Country Music Marathon as it passed through Downtown Nashville to North Nashville and back again after MetroCenter. I'll post a lot of photos this weekend, but in keeping with my past practice, the first photos are of the leaders and eventual winners as they passed Salemtown at around 8am. The eventual women's winner was Erin Sutton, who was also first as she passed Salemtown and flashed me a smile:

Several minutes after making the MetroCenter loop and passing Werthan she seems all business in this series of stills:

I'll post photos of the men's winner next, and afterwards, lots of general photos I took of both the half marathon and full marathon. You can also see past marathon photos by clicking on the "Country Music Marathon" label below.

Former Salemtown association president expresses opposition to SNNA mixed use proposal

Tuesday, Freddie O'Connell, recent past president of Salemtown Neighbors spoke out against the association's executive board plan to request rezoning of unspecified sections of Salemtown from residential to mixed use. He sent his feedback to association elist:

Here are the reasons I'd personally oppose additional MUN zoning in the neighborhood:

• Perhaps most importantly, it runs counter to the North Nashville Community Plan, which specifically recommends, after much community input, preserving commercial activity for corridors. Salemtown is recommended to be a residential neighborhood with part in maintenance and part evolving (basically, southern Salemtown is anticipated to benefit from slightly higher density of residential development). In fact, they recommend rezoning some existing MUN to conform to the plan. Dozens of meetings with Planning staff were held throughout last year, and erasing that plan would be a shame, especially since it involved many long-time residents who have not historically been involved in SNNA.
• The retail establishments that have existed in the almost 5 years I've lived here have not, in my opinion, strengthened the neighborhood. What is now Amin's Market (and has operated under two other names since I've lived here) continues to be a source of vice (one shooting, multiple incidents of sex crimes at the intersection, multiple reports of drug activity, and enough of a general nuisance that a police camera was installed). There was a closed door / closed shades beauty parlor at the corner of Garfield and Rosa L. Parks Boulevard when we moved here. It did not have the neighborly atmosphere that Germantown's Gloss does. And there's a BP. I know some people enjoyed the market near 4th and Coffee. I never got a chance to go there before it closed, in part because of its unusual operating hours. But it never struck me as the sort of anchor that the Germantown businesses at 5th and Madison have been for that area. Non-retail establishments (Plumbers of Nashville, Franklin Finishing) also do not do much to improve the quality of either character or life in Salemtown (This isn't a knock against the businesses themselves, just a suggestion that they are here in some cases against zoning).
• Nearby retail establishments of the variety bandied about when this topic comes up for discussion (e.g., "coffeshops") have had to curtail their operating hours as a result of a lack of business. Namely, both DrinkHaus (a coffeeshop I'd prefer to patronize over Starbucks, which is technically in Salemtown at Rosa L. Parks and Dominican) and Zackie's (whose owner, Mike, lives in Salemtown) have both cut back their hours over the past year. They're both in Germantown, which is closer to downtown, almost completely gentrified, and fully walkable from Salemtown. If we're not keeping good local businesses vibrant a few blocks away, how are we going to convince good businesses that Salemtown is a better bet? I suppose it's possible that Salemtown residents could consider Germantown "too far," but that position would make me more concerned, not less, that good businesses would fail here.
• I have yet to hear a plan about how we will prevent shady businesses that offer undesirable services from taking advantage of laxer zoning or, the positive alternative, how we will recruit good businesses. Beyond that, I haven't heard much other than generics about what exactly we want in Salemtown. Personally, most of the things I could want in a livable neighborhood (including good food and drinks) are in Germantown or at the Farmers' Market. So I'm interested in what's missing and why it makes sense to invite very broad commercial uses into our neighborhood without a strategic plan preceding the zoning.
• Werthan will continue to redevelop. Just across Salemtown's souther[n] border, Werthan packaging is slated for relocation and, ultimately, redevelopment. When this happens, it will bring mixed use to our border, under the purview of Germantown. I think waiting to see (and participate in) this redevelopment would be a much more reasonable time to consider whether MUN within Salemtown would be of benefit to the community.

I'm a former SNNA president myself. I echo everything Freddie wrote in his open email. I would also add that there is nothing, including the North Nashville Community Plan, that stops small businesses from requesting rezoning of houses to "Commercial" if they desire to start a coffeehouse or nail salon à la Berry Hill. Mixed use requests from businesses should be judged as they arise rather than jumped at prematurely. However, mixed use is not the only means of allowing commercial use in Salemtown, and any request should either be consistent with the community plan or have some ironclad, irrefutable reasons for altering the plan.

Road Trip to Manchester?

I recently gave Starbucks' art designers permission to use one of my photos from a previous blog post. They tell me it will be included in the artwork at the store in Manchester, TN in a few weeks (renovations to the shop are about to begin).

I do not see myself headed to Manchester anytime soon, but if any of you reading this stops by that Starbucks in the not-to-distant future, please let me know how it looks.

If we rezone it, they will come: about Salemtown's Field of Dreams myth

The Salemtown officers have been holding meetings during the first quarter of this year with developers and real estate people to leverage a mixed use plan for sections of our neighborhood. Recently, they decided to open the question to the membership and to other neighbors at the back-end of the process. Their survey is not the most objective information-seeker and members have not been prepared to respond with open consideration of all the facts--good, bad, and indifferent--before taking the survey.

For the record, in the half-a-dozen or mixed use requests that I have encountered in the 8 years I've lived here, I have supported some and opposed some, but I have never dismissed the idea of mixed use.

However, I have to say that I have never seen such enthusiastic, blind faith in mixed use as recently expressed by the Salemtown association's Executive Board. They seem prepared to embrace any and all mixed use around the neighborhood regardless of consequences that are clearly observable in other North End neighborhoods.

They sent out a survey that misleads about what will go into mixed use in Salemtown and that double loads mixed use with a conservation overlay, which itself opens a host of other problems and questions before the mixed use issue is even resolved. Here is the first 2/3rd's of the survey with some of my responses written in:

Yep. I called the survey exactly the way I see it: push-polling (a poll that does not really poll but instead biases people's responses).

Even the small amount of space for comments limits feedback. A couple of sentences in the comment section can barely express the empirical evidence around us weighted against claims that mixed use without businesses-at-hand will enhance our quality of life.

But I have this chronicle on Salemtown with all the space I require to cite the plain evidence that weighs against blind rezoning efforts.

Boarded- up retail space in mixed-use development, corner of
4th Av N & Monroe St.,  Germantown (Google Maps, 2009)

In the first place, you can plan mixed use--absent business demand for mixed use in Salemtown--but simply rezoning is a leap of faith that does not guarantee takers. In fact, even building mixed use ahead of time does not guarantee that a business will respond to the empty space. Germantown is often mentioned as a model of mixed use for Salemtown. And yet, not all of their mixed use is thriving as hoped. A corner shop at 4th Avenue North and Monroe Street constructed 4-5 years ago sat boarded up for years after completion. Only this year does it look like interior work is being done by the property owner, but there are still "for lease" signs up in the windows. I am aware of no demand for the space.

Given that a mixed use property can sit idle and boarded for years in Germantown (very near very popular City House restaurant), why should we assume that Salemtown would fare any better? In fact, I would assume that it would take us even longer than renowned Germantown to attract clients for any mixed use built here. Other small businesses in Germantown in mixed use properties (including a coffeeshop) have cut back their business hours for lack of customers. Why would we assume that Salemtown would provide enough foot traffic to keep such businesses open if Germantown cannot? It seems to me we should be supporting and patronizing struggling Germantown businesses, within walking distance of our homes, rather hoping that demand for businesses will pop up simply because we rezone properties here.

Bail bonds business will be mixed use
less than 5 blocks from Salemtown.

In the second place, there are no guarantees that when we set aside mixed use absent demand for it, we will get the kind of stores we want: the ones that enhance the overall quality of life beyond the simplistic calculus of property values. Hope Gardens is a cautionary tale for Salemtown. They have dense mixed use coming to the vacant corner of 10th Avenue North and Jefferson Street. The problem: the anchor of the development is a party-busing bail bonds business which profanes a noble idea of Martin Luther King, Jr. in its name. It's not the kind of small business I would feel a connection to if I lived in Hope Gardens regardless of the mixed use mantra. We can dream all we want to about building to attract "coffeehouses and nail salons" but then be slapped by the reality that it attracted payday loan merchants and tattoo parlors. If we rezone it, anyone can come.

Let's consider mixed use. But let's consider the merits of each request as they come from developers rather than putting the cart before the horse, as this "Salemtown Survey" does. And for Pete's sake, let's hope that our association officers can send us more objective and neutral future surveys to live up to the appearance of gathering information.

BREAKING: Erica Gilmore announces that the Fehr School Building will receive historic designation and protection

CM Erica Gilmore just called me to say that a rezoning bill to preserve Salemtown's historic Fehr School building is now being drafted thanks to Metro Action Commission Director Cynthia Croom's change of heart on the question. The director originally opposed a historic overlay for the civil rights landmark at the corner of 5th Av N and Garfield St, which brought the overlay to a grinding halt unless MAC got an exemption from the legislation. However, according to CM Gilmore, Ms. Croom now "enthusiastically supports" the rezoning measure without exempting MAC.

Once CM Gilmore's bill is drafted she tells me she will forward a copy to me. Once I get my paws on it, I'll post it here.

Thanks to Ms. Croom. Thanks to CM Gilmore. Thanks to everyone who made this important progress happen.

Whoopee! Now let's make the most of this opportunity and lend popular support when it is introduced in council!

Old San Juan

After we docked at the Port of San Juan (Puerto Rico), we joined one of several lines of tourists from our ship waiting to depart on excursions throughout the city and the local countryside. We probably stood in line 15-20 minutes before I eavesdropped on a couple from Florida behind us who were complaining about the wait and the lines. "You would never see this in Orlando", one quipped. He added, "We know how to get tourists in and out efficiently". I restrained myself from pointing out that mainlanders probably would have torn up the gnarly, narrow streets of historic San Juan a long time ago to allow multi-lane automobile traffic and demolished inveterate architecture--some hundreds of years old--just so fast-food-oriented, plastic-coated tourists would not have to wait in line past the point that they are convinced they are entitled to move.

I was content to stand in line to see a rarity in our disposable era, a venerable, old city:

Commenter: Sharon Gentry unresponsive to, uncaring about constituents

While I was on vacation the week before last, a concerned parent whose child had attended a North End school  responded to a previous post I wrote criticizing school board member Sharon Gentry's demeanor at a public meeting. I did not think her comments should be relegated to a 2011 post that may or may not be seen in 2012:

I was a parent in this zone at Churchwell Elementary. My son was constantly assaulted and bullied almost from his first day of school. As a very involved parent, I was in the school almost daily volunteering, checking on my son and offering support to teachers, administration and support staff. I reached out to Sharon Gentry in dire need because of the assaults and got NO RESPONSE to this day. She simply doesn't seem to have time or care about the needs of her constituents. I finally had to pull my son out of that school after he'd been choked, had his eye blacked three times, kicked in the stomach and pushed down stairs by other 4 grade students, boys and girls. Churchwell has all the means to be THE BEST elementary school in Nashville, TN if we can get the proper leadership at the School and Board levels. Even though I have removed my son for his own safety, I still support the efforts to make North Nashville schools safe and extraordinary places of learning! It has to work as that is the only opportunity most of those students have.

Substituting Woodland-in-Waverly for Salemtown

A long-time Enclave reader and the facilitator of the Nashville Neighborhoods elist, Pete Horton, responds to a previous post I wrote on some undemocratic changes that the Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association president tried to push through when she took office earlier this year:

Mike: This thoughtful commentary, coupled with your Jan. 31 follow-up, is priceless.

I am tempted to trade out the words Salemtown and substitute Woodland-in-Waverly (WiW) and send it out to our members. Except I am the new guy suggesting a retreat from the 10 voting meetings our bylaws require and letting the Board determine when and how many meetings members want as long as a bare bones schedule of four voting meetings and four social events are scheduled. (Those here who are interested can meet monthly with the police at Sunnyside Neighbors and/or Dist. 17 community meetings.)

We may also consider a third type of meeting: informational. No committee reports. No refreshments. No voting. Just speakers on an issue of interest to the neighborhood. For example, this could include an annual meeting with our precinct community coordinator or council member (for the convenience of those who don't go to the district-wide meetings)..

(Originally, I hoped this kind of discussion would be a feature of the Nashville Neighborhoods Newsgroup - instead we seem to be focused mostly on advocacy issues.)

If you don't mind I will share this with our neighbors via our WiW newsgroup - and hopefully save a lot of meeting time and stimulate some online discussion in between meetings.

6th and Garfield development: third time's a charm or three strikes, you're out?

I received a card from my council member recently publicizing a 3rd community meeting with developers who are requesting rezoning from the council for their properties at 6th and Garfield.

This meeting was hurriedly put together after I forwarded the proposed designs for the development to the association elist on March 20, prompting a firestorm of criticism both publicly and privately (in email responses sent to me off list). I suggested a third meeting might be appropriate. SNNA officers immediately stepped in and promised a third meeting as the criticism grew.

This drama could have been avoided had Salemtown Neighbors NA clearly communicated the previous two community meetings on the project well in advance and scheduled them at times where the most neighbors could attend. Event planning was handled horribly, with one meeting even scheduled at the same time that the Vanderbilt men's basketball team was playing in the the NCAA tournament. The association's grasp of what the developers were doing was also off as the president sent out an email early on describing them as "Baltimore Brownstones," at which the developers expressed confusion.

Having attended both meetings, and expressing my feedback on parking, pedestrian issues, sight lines, consistency with the community plan and location of the trash carts, I did not feel like I could cast stones at the design, which was aptly described by others as "looking like public housing" (jabbing at the generic, institutional, unstylized design). I have to pick my battles, but I agree with many of the criticisms that came across the Salemtown elist.

I am hoping that many of those who spoke out so strongly against the developers' designs will come out to the community meeting and express themselves again. Unfortunately, I have a previous commitment to attend my daughter's softball game. But I spoke my piece at the other meetings, and I will leave these issues to others to champion.

On the subject of scheduling these meetings in the early evening: the association has made no apologies about catering to schedules of developers with the excuse that they are busy and the insinuation that they are doing the community a favor in meeting with us. We are all busy. Some of us cannot meet consistently between 5 and 7.

And frankly, the rezoning process in Nashville is supposed to be community-based, which means that if property owners seek rezoning they must seek community support, or at least avoid community opposition. It is part of the job description of "developer" to interact with the community. When Salemtown Neighbors' executives speak down to the association and when they scold members to be more flexible with meeting times they indicate that they either do not understand community planning or the do not care to engage in it.

After speaking to one of the 6th and Garfield developers candidly just before the second meeting, I have to wonder whether the association does not care to engage in community planning. That developer told me that the association was handling all the communication with the neighborhood, and that an association leader told him that a small number of people would be invited. If that was indeed the case, it would explain why the communication before the first two meetings was so atrocious. I had been excluded myself from the correspondence that went out about the first meeting (which someone else forwarded to me).

Last night I sent CM Gilmore a thank you note for mass mailing cards to neighbors rather than having us rely strictly on the association. Maybe if the communication had been so broad before the first meeting, developers would not still be scrambling for community feedback and support at this point.

The community meeting is tonight at 5:30 at Morgan Park Community Center.

Back from spring break vacation. Not sure I when I will find the desire to get back to this thankless grind.

Oh, yeah. It was even better than it looks in my photo [St. John National Park].