On a possible legal challenge to the Mayor's bus rapid transit neglect of North Nashville

Apparently, I am not the only one who believes that Mayor Karl Dean's bus rapid transit proposal leaves North Nashville in the dust of Davidson County's economic disparities. North Nashville leaders more powerful than I am believe it, too; and strongly enough to consider legal action:

A lawsuit against the city could be in store if Metro officials don’t alter a proposed bus rapid transit project so that it steers toward North Nashville, according to a Nashville lawmaker.

“That’s certainly an option,” said state Rep. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville, who represents a large swath of the low-income, predominantly African-American area and is part of a group of a few dozen North Nashville residents concerned about the issue. “And there has been some discussion about that.

“Historically, North Nashville has just been neglected,” she added, stressing that litigation would be a last resort and that the group hopes to work with Mayor Karl Dean to address the concerns. “It’s pretty clear that wherever BRT has gone across the nation, businesses, housing and amenities have sprung up immediately. We would like to see some of that wealth spread.”

Gilmore, who plans to reach out to Dean in hopes he will meet with the group, said any lawsuit from the group would have an “economic disparity” focus but didn’t elaborate further on a potential cause of action. She cited legal action in Los Angeles she said led to the re-routing of a BRT line to include a low-income neighborhood there.

Even the possibility of litigation underscores what was bound to be a hurdle for a proposal to place the 7.5-mile East-West Connector from 5Points in East Nashville to White Bridge Road by way of Broadway and West End Avenue.

This route cuts through affluent West End-area neighborhoods such as Richland and Whitland – which happens to include some of the project’s loudest critics – but doesn’t deviate from a straight line to include the low-income area north of Charlotte Avenue.

Three things come to the fore in this article:

1. We should all acknowledge the lingering effects of racism and classism on the uneven economic development of west Nashville and North Nashville. Prejudice and class consciousness influence the quality of development, the extension of infrastructure and the flow of money across both ends of town even if individuals may not themselves be intentionally prejudiced against people of color or the working and lower classes. It is not unfounded or unsubstantiated to argue that economic disparities endemic to the ebb and flow of capital benefit west Nashville more than North Nashville. Neither is it untoward to argue that individuals are often prompted and limited by such a system. Karl Dean's transit policy perpetuates the racist and classist system insofar as it makes little attempt to serve the masses of Nashville's humanity in North Nashville. In my opinion, North Nashvillians have a case against this BRT plan.
2. The Mayor never faces tough buck-stopping questions himself. He always farms out the harder, uglier stuff to underlings. Other people take the falls. Nothing ever sticks to him. Likewise, with BRT. One of his two communications shills on the Metro payroll referred the Tennessean to the Metro Transit Authority, even though Karl Dean treats BRT like a signature policy when credit is involved and when bold vision is the tagline. The Mayor, who is the Tennessean's two-time "Tennessean of the Year", should be more accountable to North Nashvillians left behind by his new transit idea. Given the way he ducks difficulties, I'm not betting he will, especially if a suit is filed.
3. In attempting to defend MTA against charges that transit policy is biased in favor of affluent neighborhoods, the CEO unintentionally sustained the point that those neighborhoods enjoy better infrastructure due to their enjoyed wealth. David Lipscomb gets better bus stops because the university has the money to pay over and above what Metro does to provide them. (Recall that Green Hills' Julia Green Elementary got iPads for their 3rd graders after parents raised the funds and Metro matched the donations.) And which stops are likely to be better maintained? Ones that reflect the most basic investments or ones with a bankrolled quality ? Again, the point here, unfazed by MTA spin, is that wealthier west Nashville communities enjoy better infrastructure precisely because they are wealthier. Economic development continues to be uneven and prejudicial, rather than mutual and impartial.

Developer watchdog: Mike Kenner proposes SP for edge of Salemtown

Last year I described problems with perceptions of a 5th Avenue development and I suggested that we keep our eyes open in the future for any other rezoning requests by the developer, Mike Kenner. The future is now: the Nashville Post has the latest spin on properties along Rosa Parks and I-65 that Mr. Kenner wants to rezone for "cottage-style" abodes. He is seeking a "specific plan":

For Salemtown Cottages, Britnie Faith Turner serves as principal of Aerial Development, with Michael Kenner the principal of MiKen Development.

Kenner said the next step in the process is an April 10 [date changed; see below] community meeting (one has already been held) at Morgan Park Community Center. Metro Councilwoman Erica Gilmore, within whose district the proposed development would sit, is expected to attend.

“We want to develop in Salemtown with the support of Councilwoman Gilmore,” said Kenner, adding that Civil Site will serves as the project’s main engineer, with Village Real Estate Service’s City Living Team to market and sell the homes. He did not disclose the name of the architect.

“We’ve already submitted an SP (specific plan) and are waiting for comments from the Metro Planning Department,” Kenner said. “If everything goes well, we’ll get Planning and Council support and break ground within 90 days.”

Kenner said the development team will purchase eight different parcels on which Salemtown Cottages will be built only after all Metro approvals are finalized.

Rezoning for a specific plan allows a development to integrate elements of the neighborhood and allows neighborhoods a voice through community meetings and public hearings. It has been used well and misused, but it is generally designed to address "the unique characteristics of an individual property" while ensuring that "the surrounding neighborhood and community at-large are not adversely affected".

The concept posted here to keep our community informed.

In his interview, Mr. Kenner did not say he was seeking the support of Salemtown neighbors, even as he admitted that he was seeking CM Gilmore's support. However, the spirit of the original SP legislation is that developers seek the support of the neighborhood and not only the council member. Feedback about integration with community character and plans are welcomed in the process of this, and the council member is supposed to facilitate that process. In exchange the developer does not have to navigate pre-existing zoning that itself may no longer fit community character and hampers the build. It is vital that Salemtown residents attend the meetings and public hearings and give feedback that can be incorporated into the SP. It is also important that Mr. Kenner, who lives in the Sylvan Park neighborhood, listen to feedback in good faith.

I emailed Erica Gilmore to tell her that I did not receive an announcement about the April 10 meeting advertised in the paper and to ask her for all the details. She replied that the meeting had been moved to April 17 and that she was working on a mailer. I will post the details here when I am made aware of them.

Former CM Mike Jameson held an SP community meeting process almost 7 years ago that gives us a good idea of what it is supposed to look like:

JAMESON: “If you build a coffee shop in a residential area, right now you just get zoning variances or terms of conditions and it doesn’t say anything about hours of operation, so many parking spaces and so forth. SP allows that and it becomes your zoning. This coffee shop will have 6 parking spaces and will close at 9pm and it won’t play loud music or live music after 9pm or whatever you want to put in and that is the zoning.”

Both traditional and SP zoning have to go through the same process: planning commission approval, public meetings, and three readings before the metro council. But SP lays out the land usage up front, and neighborhoods have the opportunity to change what goes into a given property ....

SP can be used to apply design guidelines, or even regulate what types of businesses are in an area. Councilman Jameson wants to use SP to curb the number of duplexes built in his district. He hopes that including the neighborhood on the front end will give his SP duplex regulation smoother passage.

In the case of Mr. Kenner's request, the SP process actually allows us to keep tabs on what he is doing with his development and how whether he is responsive to community feedback. Once the SP is approved, the developer has to abide by the terms and we can verify whether he is or not. During a separate SP in 2007, I documented how another development team initially reversed course on installing brick veneer, which had been mandated in the SP. They would have had to go through whole rezoning process again if they had not gone back and installed it.

Let me reemphasize the important point that all neighbors interested in the character of our neighborhood should attend community meetings and public hearings on the Salemtown Cottages SP and keep up with the process. If you are a property owner who lives out of town, follow the news on it and write CM Gilmore with your feedback ("Erica.Gilmore@nashville.gov"). If you have concerns about parking, noise, signage, landscaping, design, number of homes, square footage, density, etc. you should involve yourself in this process. You can be sure that both the developer and the council member will. You cannot have any influence over them if you do not participate.

Werthan site developers set community meeting date on blasting, but the timing makes me think it's more PR than neighborhood interest

We received the following letter a week ago from a "seismic services" company, which seems to view it as effective communication about blasting that could damage our property:

I sent the following email response to Jim Bricker of Bricker Seismic Services and carbon copied CM Erica Gilmore, neighbors who might be affected, the Salemtown Neighbors president, Metro Water, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods as well as the Werthan development team at SWH Residential Parters, Smith Gee Studio, and Reno & Cavanaugh:

We received your "letter of introduction and authorization" (see attachment) yesterday, which stipulated that you may be conducting pre-blast surveys of our premises and other properties in our neighborhood based on their proximity to construction of a new sewer line as part of the Werthan development. In it you warn us that you intend to have the surveys completed by this Friday, March 29, 2013.

First of all, I am disappointed that you and the Werthan developers did not schedule a community meeting with us to describe the blasting process, proximity, and possible risks to those of us within 300 feet of the project. I do not recall this ever being brought up by the development team with SWH Residential Partners, Smith Gee Studio and Reno & Cavanaugh in the community meeting they held with us last October, because I would surely have raised these questions. At the very least, you and the blasting company should have sponsored a face-to-face meeting to explain every step of the process to us. My sense is that, if we were a wealthier, whiter neighborhood in Green Hills or West Nashville, then Bricker Seismic would have already done so.

Second, this short timeline is unrealistic--if not ridiculous--for affected property owners to make sure that our rights and interests are protected given the possible risks that have not been adequately communicated by your company. Metro Nashville schools are currently in the second full week of spring break, which means that some affected families may not even be present to get the letter that you left at houses within the affected radius. If you would have dropped this off last week with a similar timeline that ended last Friday, my own family would not have been properly notified because we were out of town and did not get back until after 8:00 pm Friday night. Do you actually know how many residents might be in the same position this week? What about affected property owners who do not live in Nashville? How have they been notified? In your letter, you encourage us to call as soon as possible, but "soon" for some not here may be too late. Frankly, we should have been notified about his demolition weeks in advance by either you or the developers with appropriate lead time to ask questions or seek outside legal advice about our rights in this extraordinary situation. As it is, you do not even give us time to pay for our own independent inspections if we choose to do so.

Finally, you say that you are paying an inspector for pre-blast surveys, which may seem fair on the front end. However, I would like to know how this rises above the appearance of a conflict of interest? What I mean is that you give money to an inspector to produce reports on the condition of our properties; and to whom is this inspector most likely to be obligated? To those of us who are not paying him/her? Or to Bricker Seismic (which pays inspectors now in order to avoid a costly legal future legal process over properties that may have been damage in blasting)? How can we be sure that the inspector you hire is going to be impartial and fair to both sides? There may be a reasonable explanation of honest impartiality in this. However, that should have been stated in a community meeting properly publicized, with a chance for question and answers.

Spray paint marks have appeared on the street in front of our houses indicating gas lines and water mains/lines, which suggests to me that blasting and demolition could come very close to some properties. But we cannot be sure because neither Bricker Seismic nor the development team has been forthcoming about the blasting patterns. Again, I ask you to please extend your deadline and hold a community meeting with affected residents, explaining everything to us and giving people who may not be here a chance to be notified. We also need to know that the inspection process is going to be fair rather than biased in favor of protecting your rights above ours.

If you cannot make more of a concerted effort to be a good neighbor while visiting our community, then we may consider contacting a lawyer in order to protect our rights as clearly as you are protecting yours.

I received no immediate response from Bricker, but within two hours of sending this email, I received the following from John Trill, SWH partner:

Blasting rock is occurs on almost every construction site in Middle TN which is why we did not specifically mention it during the meeting.  I apologize for my over sight. If you would like to schedule a neighborhood meeting to discuss our construction schedule, I am happy to meet. I could meet the evening of April 10th or 11th. We could meet at the community center or the Taylor St. Warehouse on site.  If those dates are not convenient, let me know some other dates that are better.  If we do meet, I would appreciate your help with notifying the neighbors.

Okay, the construction of apartments happens a lot around Middle TN, but that did not stop the development team of this project from pitching this project last fall as a beneficial one for the local neighborhoods. So, why overlook the risks to homeowners? The rezoning was coming up for public hearing and developers put the best possible spin on the benefits for the community with no mention of the costs.

Nonetheless, Trill apologized and seemed to reach out with a community meeting to "discuss" the construction schedule.

At least one of my neighbors who lives a door closer to the blasting area told me she did not receive the letter and she sent me an email from contractor R.C. Matthews Project Manager that said:

I’ve asked our site contractor and his blasting sub to review and advise your on situation…..I’ll keep following up and will follow-up with you.

FYI….we are NOT blasting anytime soon and won’t until you’re fully informed.

So, they promised at least one person not to blast without fully informing. And so, why keep the pre-blast timeline of 5 days in place if affected neighbors who Mr. Bricker did not contact have to be informed? More importantly, why set the deadline before rather than after Mr. Trill's community meeting with us? That is puzzling.

Then last Friday afternoon I came home to find a second Bricker letter with the words "Final Notice" handwritten on it taped to our front door. After having emailed Mr. Bricker 5 days beforehand without a reply and corresponding with the developer to set up a community meeting between affected residents, I considered the "Final Notice" a slap in the face. I tried to call the person whom the letter told us to call between 8-5 each weekday but he did not pick up. I tried to call Mr. Bricker but he did not pick up. I tried Bricker again a few minutes later and he did pick up. He told me that he was considering moving the deadline to next Friday (Apr. 5 at 5:00p), which for me was still not good enough, given the community meeting a week later. Bricker told me that it was not his decision and that the people above him on the Werthan project had already made the decision.

I thought that was curious, given that Mr. Trill had seemed to reach out to offer a community meeting. So, today I raised the question of Bricker's pre-blast survey deadline with him, and I asked him to help me understand the need to continue to contract the survey process to a deadline a week before neighbors had a chance to meet with developers to discuss the process of blasting and documenting any damages. Here is Trill's reply:

I am happy to meet to discuss our construction schedule, which is subject to change. However, we are not stopping construction prior to this meeting. Metro has issued a Grading Permit for the entire site and a Building Permit for the parking deck. The blasting, which is typical for a site in Middle TN, is approved by Metro and approval of the neighbors is not required.  The blasting will be performed in a controlled and professional manner. All blasting will be monitored and if there is damage caused by the blasting the contractor will be responsible which is why they want to document existing conditions.  If there is damage caused by the blasting, the documentation of existing conditions will benefit the Owner of the damaged property because there will be before and after documentation.

So, I'm bound to ask: what is the point of "discussing" the construction schedule at next week's community meeting if affected Salemtown residents are not granted more time to schedule a survey or to consider the option of having their own documentation of damages done? I did not ask for a halt to construction. I asked that the survey company give us a more reasonable amount of time to consider documentation of damages to our property. The pre-blast deadline as it stands is arbitrary and coercive; if we take more time, then developers and their lawyers will respond, "You had your chance, and now it's gone". And they are going to use the Bricker documentation so to serve their special interests.

Otherwise, there is no reason why they cannot extend the deadline until after they meet with us, just like there is no excuse for having neglected to speak with us about the possible risk of damage in the first place and to give us a realistic, rather than self-serving timeline.

I feel like I gave my support to this project too enthusiastically, and these exchanges make me wonder what other surprises the Werthan site development team have in store for us in the future that they are not telling us about now.

Salemtown Overlay bill to be deferred

This morning around 9:30 I received an email from the executive director of Metro's Historic Zoning Commission acknowledging my concerns about Erica Gilmore's conservation overlay bill and saying that the legislation may be deferred for a month for revisions based on neighbors' input.

This afternoon Salemtown Neighbors president Freddie O'Connell announced that both supporters and opponents of the overlay mutually agreed to accept the MHZC exec's offer to defer the overlay until April. O'Connell also said that the proposal will be more effectively aligned with the North Nashville Community Plan. He announced that Salemtown properties not conforming to the conservation overlay could qualify for an urban design overlay.

These four advancements--proper forums for community feedback, conformity to the 2010 community plan, an urban design overlay, and deferral of a flawed overlay bill--have all been advocated here at the blog. So, I'm declaring a victory for those of us who have been skeptical about the overlay for a year now. I feel like someone in Metro finally heard us and has slowed down the crazy train.

Oh, and the losers here are the 2012 SNNA executive committee who defied the community plan and launched this disputable, untransparent mess to begin with.

A letter I never imagined writing to the council: opposing the Salemtown overlay

While I have opposed the proposed overlay publicly at the blog for months, I have not been persuaded to communicate my oppostion to Metro Council until this weekend. Overlay opponents approached me and asked me to join them in sending letters to council members in advance of the third reading of the bill. I certainly had sufficient reasons to consult our elected officials before, but finding out that increasing numbers of neighbors outside of the association feel alientated and angry about the overlay process was enough to convince me to send CMs the following:

I am writing to encourage you to defer BL2013-370 instead of passing it on third reading. In my opinion the bill has created more division than consensus in Salemtown because the democratic process has been disregarded in the name of passing an overlay.

I am a former neighborhood association president and co-founder of Salemtown Neighbors. I generally and in principle support overlays, but not as an ends to justify the means employed in Salemtown to make the conservation overlay appear popular or inevitable. I hope that before you approve this overlay you will ask supporters for a copy of the 2012 survey conducted by last year's SNNA officers. I think you will see that it is more of a biased push poll than it is an information gathering tool.

I oppose the overlay not because I believe it is a bad idea, but because the process has been rushed and community meetings poorly communicated. The only community meeting that I am aware of CM Gilmore sponsoring on this question was held in January. I found out about it a couple of days in advance after someone dropped a flyer on my porch without making sure that I had received the information.

Now members of the community are stepping forward to say that they only recently found out about the overlay and that they oppose it. This weekend I signed a petition against the overlay that was started on Friday. I am told it now has 50 signatures. Today a former president who supports the overlay wrote to the SNNA elist, "the meetings next week re the overlay [including third reading] are not public meetings, so please don't plan to attend".

If the overlay enjoys the broad neighborhood popularity that supporters claim it does, then where is the harm in extending the discussion so that all who feel excluded from the debate can be given a chance to speak and influence the measure?

Please do Salemtown a favor and defer the conservation overlay proposal until we can come to a freely reached consensus on where to go next. I am willing to support an overlay, but only one that is carefully constructed and inclusive of the many voices in our community. BL2013-370 as it stands is neither.

Conflicting claims about the Salemtown Conservation Overlay

Consider the glaring contrast in comments from the March 5 public hearing on the Salemtown conservation overlay (published online at YouTube):

"[We went] door-to-door to every resident owner in the neighborhood and came up...with a 90% response rate. 85% of those were clear, 'Yes'. 93% was, 'Yes, and maybe but I'd like to know more about it' .... In going door-to-door I was particularly struck by how passionately the long-time neighbors feel about the neighborhood."

-- Molly McCluer (Salemtown resident since 2010)

"We were away most of this past year in Chicago, dealing with a relative who was dying of cancer. We had no knowledge of this whole overlay until about 2 weeks ago, when we were told about it; and, it's our belief that there are many neighbors in the neighborhood who have no knowledge of this, nor do they understand what it would mean .... We've spoken to our neighbors across the street. They're both opposed to it".

-- Diana Darby (Salemtown homeowner since 2005)

Over the weekend I signed a petition opposing the Salemtown overlay precisely because the process of collecting feedback about the proposal--which seems at odds with the latest North Nashville community plan--was neither transparent nor democratic. I have never seen either any hard data or explanation of methodology to support claims from overlay supporters of high positive response rates. In fact, I have already posted a copy of the survey Ms. McClure and her supporters wrote and circulated last April underscoring its flawed methodology. To my knowledge there was only one, poorly publicized community meeting (outside of scripted Salemtown Neighbors meetings) held by CM Erica Gilmore to discuss the measure.

However, I did notice that the petition I signed--which I am told was started Friday--had about 2 dozen people who had signed it as of Saturday. That kind of negative response rate seems at odds with the overconfident claims of supporters, as does the appearance of 4 overlay opponents and 2 overlay supporters (according to my unscientific count during the broadcast) 2 weeks ago at the public hearing.

North Nashville may be a payday lenders' paradise, but it is a food desert

From the Community Food Advocates' blog:

there are currently 103,100 food insecure households in Davidson County or approximately 16.8% of the population.This includes both rural and urban residents, the elderly and disabled, and about 29,100 children ....

Four Nashville neighborhoods: North Nashville, JC Napier/Southeast Nashville, East Nashville, and Edgehill/South Nashville, are still considered food deserts

The fact that 30,000 kids live with food insecurity is shameful in a civil society. I would maintain that hunger and want have more to do with poor student performance than teachers or curriculum. Word to the reformers: you cannot innovate privation.

Here's one I missed in 2011

Now that Google Reader is shutting down, I've been going back through the stacks of stuff I have not yet read, and I found this 2011 piece by education blogger Jim Horn on the start of "KIPPster" Karl Dean's budget commitments to the charter school corporation:

No leaky roofs in the Mayor's office.

After the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954, Southern governors and mayors spent large sums of cash to fix up ramshackle black schools in an attempt to placate African-American communities and, thus, seek to avoid the white nightmare of court-ordered desegregation.  Now a half century later, Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville is doing something similar, but this time the effort not only serves segregationists but also the corporations in need of a compliant and positivized work force that is to include a few black and brown faces that can be counted upon to keep their mouths shut.

Mayor Dean has committed almost 10 percent of Nashville Metro’s 4-year school building budget for a new segregated KIPP, Inc. corporate charter school, which lays claim to the exemplary urban penal pedagogy model that has the backing of all the oligarchs of the Billionaire Boys’ Club, regardless of whether they keep Republican or Democratic politicians in their stables.

Meanwhile, Nashville's public schools that serve the poor and the brown use garbage cans to collect water from leaky roofs and cram their kids into overcrowded and damaged classrooms.  At Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet, a high-performing integrated public school, kids eat lunch in the hallways and do not have a functioning gym.

Never mind that KIPP has unlimited funds at its disposal and more on the way, thanks to bottom feeders like hedge funder, Whitney Tilson, who beats the Wall Street bushes daily for new philanthro-capitalists looking for big tax breaks and a sure-fire way to behaviorally neuter and culturally sterilize minority schoolchildren.  Meanwhile, KIPP, Inc. spares no expense to shuttle children around to Ivy League schools under the pretense that a significant percentage of these kids will someday actually attend college at Ivy League schools.

Now that we are about halfway through Hizzoner's commitment, how does Jim's criticism hold up? Is KIPP doing anything more than resegregating public education and raking in the bling via Mayor Dean's regressive education policies? And is Metro Nashville Public Schools really doing anything better than it was before Dean's infatuation with privatizing education began?


UPDATE:  I neglected to mention in this context that Karl Dean recently lent vigorous support to a state charter school authorizer that would effectively remove power to approve charter schools from Nashville and Memphis school boards (what's the legality of that narrow focus?). Hizzoner believes so fervently in privatization that he is willing to invite the state to wrest political control from the hands of local voters, putting it in the hands of a conservative, bureaucratic state board that does not have to be directly accountable to Nashvillians or Memphians.


UPDATE: To reiterate, Williamson Co schools emphasize infrastructure over charter choices. Yet, Hizzoner believes that charter choices make Davidson more competitive.

National Museum of African American Music abandons Jefferson Street

The intersection of Jefferson St and Rosa Parks Blvd is one of the most important intersections around Downtown Nashville, and it has been historically misused by developers and planners who treat it more as a transitional, pass-through crossroads oriented to cars and not people. As a result, the four corners of Jeff St and Rosa Parks now possess a gas-station, a drug store (parking lot in front), a predatory lender and a vacant lot. The lot had been slated to bring the intersection up with the construction of the National Museum of African American Music.

Now comes word from the Tennessean that the museum dedicated to African American culture is giving up on predominately African American North Nashville:

Organizers behind Nashville’s long-discussed National Museum of African-American Music are no longer committed to building a facility near Jefferson Street and are seeking Mayor Karl Dean’s assistance to find space in the tourist-concentrated part of downtown, ideally in the city’s old convention center ....

A museum near Jefferson Street would likely be inaccessible by foot for most tourists on Lower Broadway. Sharon Hurt, executive director of Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership, said though she previously hoped Jefferson Street would land the museum, she’s no longer sure it’s the ideal spot ....

Metro Councilman Jerry Maynard, a supporter of the museum project, called the old convention center “a fine place to have it,” adding that it would be a “boost for downtown and a boost for tourism.”

He downplayed the loss for Jefferson Street, which could benefit from the museum as the corridor undergoes a revitalization effort.

“We’ll find some other uses for that land,” Maynard said. “There’s endless possibilities of organizations or institutions that would like to be at the corner of Rosa Parks and Jefferson Street.”

Yeah, maybe they can find another payday lender, a new pawn shop, or a bail bonder to drop into that spot.

This is just another example of resources and planning efforts flowing away from North Nashville. Even the business leaders and CMs who view North Nashville as their territory are writing us off. Frankly, I believe that North Nashville leaders who are not seething at the tragic neglect driving this called audible likely have ulterior motives. The silence of "civic designers" who have drooled over the area for ballparks and charter schools is also sad. No one is standing up for North Nashville.

Maybe if the Mayor had put more effort into spreading rapid mass transit evenly around the city to places like Jeff St then inaccessibility to Broadway wouldn't be blamed for lack of commitment to seeing this 10 year project to its end where it most appropriately belongs: on Jefferson.


UPDATE: The homepage of NMAAM still has a banner mural of its concept located at the Jefferson St location. Notice the North Nashville view of Downtown on the horizon:

Might be a good idea to replace that one with a new one since they're fleeing Jeff St.

By the way, I put a post on their website questioning the decision and linking to this blogpost. I assumed when I put it up that it would be taken down immediately in order to protect their brand (and it was), but I was surprised to see several weeks of February status updates that I did not see earlier today. The most recent update that I saw earlier was late last year. Just to confirm that, here is what another reader posted in February:

This afternoon there are lots of 2013 updates.

When I read "Courtney Wheeler, top aide in the Mayor's 2 election campaigns, now heads the Office of Neighborhoods" I think ...

... "neighborhoods are nothing more than campaign stops and potential pools of human capital to help Karl Dean's acquire his next office".

Courtney Wheeler is a lawyer and political operative with no listed neighborhood-related experience that I could find. From her LinkedIn resume:

Special Assistant
Mayor Karl Dean
January 2013 – Present (3 months) Nashville
Voter Protection Coordinator
Obama for America
Nonprofit; 1001-5000 employees; Political Organization industry
January 2012 – November 2012 (11 months)
Campaign Manager
Karl Dean for Mayor Re-Elect
February 2011 – August 2011 (7 months)
Director of Special Projects
Democratic National Committee
Nonprofit; 201-500 employees; Political Organization industry
August 2010 – January 2011 (6 months)
Deputy Campaign Manager
Karl Dean for Mayor
January 2007 – July 2007 (7 months)
Political Director
Jim Davis for Governor
2005 – 2006 (1 year)
Political Director
Tennessee Democratic Party
Nonprofit; 1-10 employees; Political Organization industry
2004 – 2005 (1 year)
Delegate Tracker
John Kerry for President
Nonprofit; 1001-5000 employees; Political Organization industry
2004 – 2004 (less than a year)
Field Director TN and MD
John Kerry for President
Nonprofit; 1001-5000 employees; Political Organization industry
August 2003 – March 2004 (8 months)
Campaign Manager for Rep. Jim Hackworth and Rep. Dennis Ferguson
Tennessee Coordinated Campaign
July 2002 – November 2002 (5 months)

Yeah. I'd say the Office of Neighborhoods is probably going to be run like a high-stakes campaign war room for the next few years (generating spin control, mobilizing volunteers, serving as an early warning system for the candidate, etc) instead of coordinating effective delivery of Metro services to the neighborhoods. Otherwise, why not appoint someone who has had more experience with neighborhoods?

Hizzoner does not even project due diligence in hiring qualified, experienced individuals for Metro posts. This one oozes naked cynicism and opportunism.

Westerholm advocates uneven, unequal growth

Retorting to those who have criticized the location of bus rapid transit along affluent West End without consideration of slower growth corridors like Charlotte, CM Peter Westerholm tears a page out of the Karl Dean playbook and pastes it in the Tennessean:

I agree that infrastructure like transit can be a great driver for new development, which is needed not only on Charlotte, but also on several major corridors leading into Nashville, including from the north and south.

Transit, however, is not just an economic development tool; it connects people to work, to housing, and to entertainment and recreation. Successful systems work when people already have a reason to ride. Cleveland’s BRT system worked so well precisely because “it connects downtown to major employers.” West End has the major employers, the restaurants, the hotels, the attractions, the parks that people want and need to access.

I knew all along that Hizzoner's West End BRT proposal was intended to serve the wealthy institutions along the western corridor like Vanderbilt, the hospitals, and the hotels/tourism industry. Nice to see a council "progressive" finally concede that there is little "mass" in the transit proposal, since it was never intended to serve the masses. It is a Darwinian transit policy bent to the least vulnerable in the Nashville caste system. It leaves North Nashville in the dust of Davidson County's economic disparities.

I guess we can see that Peter Westerholm will likely never be confused with a renegade left-wing populist on the Metro Council. Liberal elitism advocates a more conservative, trickle-down method of growth, which is exactly what Mr. Westerholm opines.

Brady Banks names his "best part of the county"

The most galling dimension of Brady Banks' continued presence on the Metro Council is that he never bothered to speak a word of remorse directly to the North Nashville community for soliciting prostitutes a year ago in MetroCenter, which is alarmingly close to where we live and send our 3rd grader to school. I'm sure that CM Banks would prefer that we all just forget about his little North Nashville peccadillo and go on acting like there was nothing exploitative to see in February 2012.

In his latest email to his constituents, CM Banks gushes that he lives in the "best part of the county", which could imply, given his interest in the local sex trade, that the seedier parts of Davidson are those like ours:

Date: Tue, Feb 26, 2013
Subject: UPDATE: Villages at Holt Road proposal and Southeast Community Plan Amendment ....

Dear neighbors,

....Councilman [Fabian] Bedne and I have had a number of conversations with the Planning Dept. staff and the applicant/developer about the proposed site development. Following the three community meetings where the applicant, Planning staff, and Councilman Bedne and I were able to hear your feedback and thoughts on the proposal, the applicant for this proposal has withdrawn both their request to amend the Southeast Community Plan and their proposed development for the site.

This means that, at the March 14th Planning Commission meeting, the applicant will formally withdraw their proposal for Villages at Holt Rd. and the proposed amendment to the Community Plan. Practically speaking, this means neither item will be considered at this time .... The applicant would have to refile and go through the process of developing a proposal, applying to the Planning Dept. for any future changes, and schedule more community meetings, if they wanted to try this proposal again ....

On a personal note, I want to thank all of you for participating in this process. The planning/zoning process can be a messy one for many council members and communities. I'm proud to say that my constituents and Councilmen Bedne's went through this process and participated in an open and honest way. I couldn't be happier with the way you shared your thoughts, concerns, and with the way you communicated them fairly on this matter. We truly live in the best part of the county, with the best people ....

Sincerely,
Brady Banks
Metro Councilman, District 4

We're obviously not "the best people" here in North Nashville, else CM Banks would have been drawn to objectify women and set a bad example for progressives elsewhere in Davidson. I just wish he would have treated our part of the county the way he would like his own part of the county treated. Surely he grasps The Golden Rule. He is married to a minister.

Could not contain my laughter on this one

The Tennessean's local beat reporter, who rarely writes a discouraging word about Mayor Karl Dean, attended yesterday's Lipscomb University panel discussion on neighborhood associations and tweeted the fawning comments of Colby Sledge (one of Cass's former colleagues who has also been a paid partisan flack and lately a public relations pro working with government agencies).

For someone like me, who has followed and documented the short but happy neighborhood attention span of Mayor Dean, Sledge's Lipscomb panel comment is over-the-top. At his very first summit with a lecture-hall full of neighborhood leaders, Hizzoner emphasized economic development as one of the primary means for dealing with neighborhood interests (cops and schools being the only others). The Mayor made no bold moves as his predecessor, Bill Purcell, had on infrastructure, smart development, or quality of life. The Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods rarely made the same splash it did under Purcell. When it did, it was drawing the ire of neighborhood leaders for giving their personal information over to the marketers of spam. Then when the 2007 election cycle hit, Karl Dean was suddenly remaking himself into "the neighborhoods Mayor", even though he had been more focused on helping big business with subsidies, tax breaks, and the largest capital project in Nashville history, which was devoted to the tourism industry.

Colby Sledge replaced Keith Moorman--who was trotted out to the Metro Council in 2010 to lend a neighborhoody rubber stamp to Hizzoner's plan to sell all but 5% of the non-flood-risk fairgrounds holdings to private developers (who have lots of bling to donate to election campaigns)--as leader of South Nashville Action People. Then came "Neighbors for Progress", a group that shot for 2,000 petition signatures to flip the fairgrounds the Mayor's way, but only got 500, and then showed themselves to be funded not primarily by neighborhoods, but influential Democrats and a 527 organization. With Sledge as its spokesperson, NFP flip-flopped on the fairgrounds question from relocating the flea market to razing the racetrack to trying to capture what council mandated as a broad community plan process. Then without skipping a beat, NFP endorsed Sarah Lodge Tally in a council district far away from the fairgrounds in what looked like a bid to give the Mayor a pocket vote 100% of the time.

Such a sliding scale of scruples should give those of us who are concerned about neighborhood issues pause.  The "emphasis on neighborhoods" Colby Sledge stresses suggests to me whatever will win for an up-and-coming red-state Democrat like Karl Dean. Consequently, neighborhoods seem simply a means to the end of greater influence and more donations with a head-fake of populism. We're in for another lean 4 years if the next Mayor treats neighborhoods as cynically and opportunistically as Karl Dean has.

Mind still not changed

Over the past few days I have met dozens of really nice people from the television soap-opera series "Nashville".

About a week ago we gave permission to "Music City Productions, Inc. 'Nashville - The First Season'" to occupy, stage, and film a short scene (maybe 30 seconds?) in an upcoming episode (16) at our home in Salemtown. I can confess that we were a bit nervous having people in and out and having one of our walls altered to fit the scene. However, I encountered people from most of the segments of the production -- location, construction, design, lighting, sound, make-up, director, producers, actors, etc -- and I found them to be gracious and easy to host.

As I told their location manager (who followed up after everyone was gone to make sure that we were completely satisfied), we were so pleased with how the experience turned out that we would welcome them back if they needed to re-shoot something anytime. And I would recommend them to any fellow Nashvillians who were considering sharing their homes as sets. The production company even responded favorably when I asked them to make a $500 donation to the Salemtown neighborhood association as an expression of good will for the disruption of closing the street to film.

Even for an introverted homebody like me there actually were fun experiences across the past few days. Listening to construction people talk about working on other film projects (like the upcoming bio on Jackie Robinson, "42"). Observing designers at their craft. Sitting next to Callie Khouri, wrapped in awe, while she studied the action on a video monitor. Listening to Michael Waxman describe how New York City is different than when he grew up there and how his daughter stops for kolaches on her way back to his Austin ranch from college. Hearing Chip Esten (a.k.a., "Deacon") laugh at our 8-year-old's notes tacked to a kitchen cabinet as he ate breakfast over our stove. Watching another actor, who plays Deacon's romantic-interest-of-the-moment, romping around our backyard with our dog between takes. It seemed all surreal, but entertaining without the show.

As fun as the ride was, it did not change my opinion that Metro government should not subsidize the network TV series. My opposition to giving the production company public money by no means indicates a lack of support for Nashville's film industry. I would like to see many more films and series made here, employing lots of people. However, Nashville the municipality still has budget obligations to the needs of its citizens first, and until the Mayor can fully fund those obligations, production companies should have to make it on their own (and they seem to me to have the resources to do so).

After our positive experience of the past week, I wish I could support subsidizing a TV series. I might have been so inclined if we had a Mayor who consistently put spending for the benefit of the masses ahead of special treatment for the few. I hardly believe that the dozens of hard-working, but considerate folks we met were undeserving of the support.

District 19 council member listed among others on developer's "secret tapes"

Over the weekend the Tennessean reported that "secret tapes" exist that contain 40 hours of conversations between a May Town Center developer and over a dozen council members regarding his team's plan to build a sprawling "second downtown" on Bells Bend. Noteworthy is the mention of District 19 CM Erica Gilmore:

 

By early 2010 — when the first recording was captured — May Town leaders had turned their attention from the Metro Planning Commission, where the development had stalled in a 5-5 vote, to the 40-member council, where the project needed 27 votes for approval because of the planning commission setback.

Ultimately, the council in March 2010 voted to defer the May Town project indefinitely.

According to May’s recent filing, plaintiffs secretly recorded conversations with council members Megan Barry, Phil Claiborne, Tim Garrett, Erica Gilmore, Jason Holleman, Edith Langster, Lonnell Matthews Jr., Jerry Maynard, Bruce Stanley, Ronnie Steine, Charlie Tygard, and then-council members Michael Craddock, Randy Foster and Jim Hodge. It also cites “others.”

The parties discussed the project, speculated about votes and offered their impressions of Jack May, Mayor Karl Dean, Tony Giarratana and others, according to the brief.

The Metro Planning Commission refused in a close vote to approve the proposal, which put the burden on Metro Council to approve it only with a super-majority. The proposal was eventually withdrawn, so we do not have recorded votes of these CMs.

However, some of these council members made their opinions clear during the planning public hearing process. Here is an excerpt of the May 2009 public hearing minutes:

Councilmember [Mike] Jameson first explained that he was asked by Councilmember Barry and Councilmember Cole to include their names as part of the record as expressing their opposition to the proposed May Town Center. They were unable to attend the meeting....

Councilmember Holleman acknowledged Councilmember Matthews support for the May Town Center, however, expressed his concerns with respect to the May Town Center development affecting the entire region as opposed to only Council District 1. His district is in the pathway of connecting this development to the rest of the city and he expressed his concerns regarding its impact on District 24. He explained the work that he and his constituents have completed on the West Nashville Community Plan update and spoke of how the May Town Center would impact their transportation network and infrastructure. He also explained that he and his constituents have not had the chance to review the Traffic Impact Study recently released from RPM and would like for the Commission to allow them an opportunity to review the study and provide their comments regarding the study at the next Public Hearing scheduled for June 25, 2009. Councilmember Holleman then pointed out some of the highlights included the Traffic Impact Study and how they would directly affect his district. He requested that the Commission deny the zone change request until he and his community can further digest any impacts on their district.

Councilmember Craddock expressed his support for the May Town Center development as the project is a good quality development; and that the proposal would lessen the burden on the Nashville’s taxpayers. He spoke on the issue of spiraling property taxes and the need to seek good quality development to further enhance the City of Nashville. Councilmember Craddock then acknowledged the importance of not allowing a development of this size to adversely affect surrounding districts and to need to find the best way to implement the project for the betterment of all living in Nashville.

Councilmember Matthews .... stated that over the year, he has obtained the necessary information in which he could now support the proposed May Town Center development and explained all of the positive attributes that could be derived from the development. Attributes such as increased jobs for the area, and additional opportunities for corporate relocations to the City of Nashville .... He stated he would assist the bill as it makes it way through the approval process at Council .... As Councilmember Matthews closed, he explained all of the conversations he has with all involved parties and expressed his support for the May Town Center.

I attended that public hearing, and I do not recall seeing CM Gilmore. I am curious about what her views on the May Town Center proposal are on those "secret tapes". I am also wondering, as a constituent, whether I have a right to know what my CM says to developers about voting intentions on significant projects.

CM Carter Todd, TFA donor, expresses his support for Karl Dean on education

There are many avenues of education reform, but I want to address one in particular: high-quality public charter schools .... we have to create and recruit more great charter schools. And I will stand in support of any reasonable measure that helps make that happen.

-- Mayor Karl Dean in last Sunday's Tennessean

It is noteworthy that CM Todd agrees with Hizzoner's conservative embrace of charter schools and has donated a large sum of money to Teach for America. TFA is a "teacher's pet" of corporate venture philanthropy that strives to remake public education on market-based models and business strategies irrespective of the views of veteran education professionals.

It is also noteworthy that TFA has its own problems. Witness just a snippet of the comments from a TFA alum to NPR last year:

the biggest thing is that politicians hear these inflated successes, and then they buy into the current myth that we've got these old, lazy teachers that need to be replaced with these young go-getters. And that's also not the way it works.

But the huge issue - and the thing that got me, about a year ago, writing on this almost weekly - is the TFA alumni who, after two or three years, leave the classroom and go into a leadership pipeline. Now, there are some great Teach for America alumni that became leaders. They taught for a lot of years, and they became principals and things like that.

But I'm talking about a certain, small class of them. They taught for maybe two or three years, and then they were given the reigns to take over a district - and they have not done a very good job. A prime example is Washington, D.C., where Teach for America alumni are sort of at all levels, including the very top, and they haven't succeeded there. They have a policy of shutting down schools, firing teachers, given bonuses based on what I consider to be inaccurate metrics. And they've sort of bought into the whole corporate reform movement.

Gary Rubenstein points out elsewhere that the corporate push behind TFA and education reform consistently renders those of us who are its opponents (many of whom, like me, do not make enough to offset CM Todd's big donation of $5,000) as "defenders of the status quo". Hardly. Both Mayor Dean and CM Todd are established, powerful politicians who rely on corporate donations in a Republican red state, by definition conservative. Calling themselves reformers in the sense of agents of change, is far from expressing truth in advertising.

The status quo in Tennessee is that poor students and students of color generally end up with poor education while students from wealthy, mostly white families are handed better opportunities. In fact, that is the status quo in America. Neither charter schools nor TFA do anything to change that status quo. On the contrary, charter schools "cream" the best performers from public schools and can move poor performers out. Moreover, education reformers defend the status quo themselves by drawing the discussion away from economic inequalities that keep some students down in the dust while lifting a few others to obscene heights. I certainly understand why: conservative corporate donors do not want to support anything that rocks the boat that brings them their wealth in the first place.

And consistent with the corporate status quo, it is not students who are the primary beneficiaries of school reform, but the few wealthy white guys bankrolling it with their investments; the kind of guys on whom Karl Dean and Carter Todd rely on to keep their powerful positions in Nashville. The Mayor and the Council Member may cheerlead the flipping of education away from public, but at the end of the day let's hope that they are honest enough to admit that it really will not amount to any real positive change for the vast majority of Nashville's students.

Latest Salemtown Neighbors compromise on overlay still fails to live up to democratic process

Salemtown's neighborhood association sent out their minutes today. In the report was an update on discussions held at the last business meeting (which I did not attend) on the proposed conservation overlay:

Conservation Overlay: This process is well underway and all paperwork has been filed with Erica Gilmore .... the lengthy discussion on this important issue is summarized below.

• SNNA is responsible for the cost of notifications, including mailings and signage.  The cost for this is estimated to be about $2,000, but we have been advised to set aside approximately $3,000.
• SNNA voted in 2012 to pursue the overlay, and the current executive board endorses it.
• However, this will require a budget amendment and/or running a deficit.  Fundraising is an option for making up the difference.
• The area being considered is 3rd Avenue to 7th Avenue north of, but not including, Hume Street. The guidelines would apply to any new construction and any significant street-facing renovations.
• The most significant aspect of the guidelines is a height restriction much lower than the current restriction of 45 feet.  This would make construction of 3 or more stories extremely difficult, if not impossible.
• One alternative to the Conservation Overlay is an Urban Development Overlay, but this would require us to start the entire process over.  Another option is to amend the currently proposed guidelines to be more flexible on height restrictions.
• Many people voiced a concern of how to ensure the character of Salemtown while not tying the hands of quality developers who are willing to work with us. Also, there are also a lot of concerns about some new development that appears out of line with the existing charm and character of the area.
• If the overlay is pursued in some form, it will serve to give us more leverage in future development.
• There was a motion to amend the current overlay guidelines regarding height restrictions to be more in line with that of Germantown.  The motion passed.

These events do practically nothing to address concerns already expressed that the 2012 Executive Board trampled all over the democratic process to get the appearance of a plurality on a conservation overlay. I am still not convinced that the consent reported (and I've never seen hard data on the survey results) by the officers was adequately informed and thus reliable.

While softening height guidelines may satisfy developers, who as a group tend to oppose restrictions anyway, that is not enough to win my support for this overlay. The process matters more than the ends-means fallacies currently floated as justifications for not starting over. However, if starting over to pursue an Urban Development Overlay is an option, that's the one I would prefer. If we're going to pursue an overlay, lets do it right this year.

Advance Financial's campaign contributions evade tracking

After I posted on a Facebook discussion of Germantown's new predatory lender, Advance Financial, I received the following observations from Mike Peden (who single-handedly tracks campaign finance) on the lender's influence:

Advance Financial is making political contributions two ways.

They are making donations as "Advance Financial" and as "Advance PAC" [political action committee].

"Advance Financial" can make unlimited contributions to PAC's without filing a disclosure, which is the case with the $10,000 contribution to Tennessee First.  But they cannot make a contribution directly to a candidate without filing a disclosure.

"Advance PAC" can make contributions to other PAC's and candidates, but must file a disclosure.

So, you cannot tell how much Advance Financial has given just by looking at the Advance PAC disclosure.

It is very confusing.

I am convinced that the purpose of the loopholes and misdirection of campaign finance is intended to be confusing so that influence and power are hidden from communities who would stage popular revolts if they could see through the ruse.

Mike's comments further sustain my point that letting businesses off the hook with arguments like Ron Wynn's (that they are just trying to make a buck) is irresponsible and naive. They system of planning and zoning is gamed, juiced and lubed by business money, and the entrepreneurs and executives, as well as the politicians they woo, should be held personally responsible for the maze and the mess.

Using social media to get the lights back on

Back in February 2005 I blogged a post on a cobra-head street light in front of my house burning out and the 10-day wait I was subjected to after the Metro bureaucrat at the other end of my phone request for repair drug his feet and rationalized the delay.

Jump forward to the first week of January 2012. I contacted the NES social media manager via Twitter to ask for the most effective way to report 3 sidewalk lampposts--installed several years ago as part of our federal block grant streetscape project--that had burned out. With Metro's confusing website makeover, I felt that going straight to NES was a better solution this time. That person directed me to their online report form.

One of the lampposts had been out for at least two years without any repairs. Two others stopped working late in 2012. I reported all three on January 4, giving locations and a lamppost serial number.

Despite my anticipation that going straight to NES via Twitter would get faster results than in 2005, three weeks passed with no changes to the lights. I tweeted @NESpower again. The person at the receiving end of my tweet replied, "For some reason, the work order was marked complete." They issued another work order.

Another week passed without any repairs and I direct tweeted @NESpower again. The social media specialist said that they were working with NES Customer Service to resolve the problem. Eight more days elapsed without changes, and so I followed up on Twitter again. @NESpower responded last Friday by saying that they tried to repair the lights on Thursday, but had some obstructions that kept them from completing the job.

Then on Saturday, the cherry picking truck showed up and replaced all of the the burned out lights that I originally reported on January 4. It took about 5 weeks longer than I hoped it would, but the lampposts are shining brightly once again on my street.

The lesson to be drawn is that the traditional channels for requesting lighting repairs are not any more reliable for me now than they were in 2005. In fact, replacing the lights took longer and a work order was erroneously marked as complete even though repairs were not made. And not having Metro help readily available for neighborhood infrastructure may make leveraging follow-up more difficult. My next option if nothing had been done by this weekend would have been to contact my council member.

Consequently, I would counsel anyone having trouble with NES customer service to be sure to use social media to interact with a company representative directly about follow-up.

Rezone for a restaurant in Salemtown? Don't be dazed by the dream

So, there is this rumor floating around Salemtown and promoted by certain segments that a developer on the 1600 block of 6th Av North is trying to woo owners of East Nashville burger joint, bar, and beer garden The Pharmacy to open a second place in our neighborhood (or at least to woo a restaurant "like The Pharmacy"). The 6th Av property, like most of Salemtown, is zoned for residential, so the developer would have to rezone either for commercial or mixed-use if they come to an understanding with restaurateurs.

Screenshot of 1604 6th Av N & homes from Google Maps

The developers who bought 1604 6th Av N last summer are absentee. They are Oak Tree Partners LLC of Gallatin, TN. They were founded in 2011 and they flipped another holding in their own town into a liquor store. According to Next Door comments forwarded to me, Salemtown Works (a 501c3, not to be confused with Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association) president, Molly McCluer has corresponded with Oak Tree Partners. She encouraged neighborhood residents online to "lobby" The Pharmacy owners (the restaurant is owned by Terrell Raley) to open a restaurant in Salemtown. No word on which owners of restaurants "like The Pharmacy" are being so lobbied.

Now I don't question the value of having restaurants in higher density urban neighborhoods as long as there is careful planning and attention to traffic and parking impact and noise abatement. I have expressed support on this blog for a number of local businesses, including those that feature bars and restaurants. And we spend our money in these establishments to support them particularly because we appreciate the chance to walk rather than drive to do so.

But Salemtown sends the wrong signals to developers when we unquestioningly welcome them with open arms and no critical concerns. We send the wrong signals when we assume that, if we support a specific zoning change here, developers--especially absentee developers--will deliver the restaurants they float in front of our noses as wishful concepts to get their rezoning. We send the wrong signals when we appear to fall in love with their product and generally appear desperate for development when we should be asking developers to compromise to a win-win.

I live very close to the property that other people in my neighborhood who appear to live farther away want to see flipped into The Pharmacy. If I lived where they live I might want that dream, too. The reason I like going to the Pharmacy, besides the fare, is because it's across the river in East Nasty, and I do not have to worry about late-night bar closings near my property or noisy beer gardens.

But if this rezoning bobs to the surface, I will be contacting Mr. Terrell myself to ask about parking, traffic, his closing hours of 3am 7 days a week, and any amplified music played in a beer garden on top of the voices of dozens of customers on school nights. I see that he has a kid about my youngest kid's age, so he would probably understand why I would ask. I might even visit The Pharmacy late night with a decibel meter to measure the noise level myself.

Before I could support a bar and restaurant with outside service near my house on a property that is currently zoned residential, I would need assurances. And I have already talked to a couple of my neighbors who tell me they would need the same assurances. I bet I could find other neighbors who would be sympathetic, especially parents.

One online review of The Pharmacy indicates that parking is a problem in its East Nashville location. In 12South residents have been struggling with shrinking parking due to business growth for years, and the tensions came to a head in 2012. Following multiple meetings between 12South neighborhood association, the Belmont-Hillsboro Neighbors neighborhood association, and 12South businesses, affected residents have successfully navigated the parking permit application process to reserve street parking for themselves. They have a public hearing set with Metro Traffic and Parking Commission on March 11. I bet reserved on-street parking for residents will be approved.

Given that Salemtown has primarily on-street parking, support for residential permits is one thing among others that developers and business owners should be willing to give in order to get support for rezoning. One among others, like noise abatement.

Speaking of the impact of neighborhood businesses on parking, I meant to respond to Chris Chamberlain's observations about on-street parking in a Nashville Scene review of Germantown's Rolf and Daughters back in November. Chamberlain wrote:

Although Rolf and Daughters may seem to be in a remote location with no dedicated parking lot, intrepid diners will quickly realize that it is really only about a minute past the Nashville Farmers' Market and just a couple minutes from the interstate at the Rosa Parks exit. There is plenty of street parking on Taylor Street, so you shouldn't have to walk far to enjoy this new gem in the local restaurant crown.

I drove down Taylor tonight at rush hour, just before dinner time. I saw no ample on-street parking. There was ample parking if you were willing to walk at least a block to get to the place, because cars were choking both sides of the street (and what is the impact on residents who live on 7th Av off Taylor?). Taylor is so narrow that moving traffic is reduced to one squeezed lane when the ample parking spaces are occupied. Without traffic flaggers, two-way traffic on Taylor would be impossible on nights when Rolf and Daughters is slammed and on-street parking backfills for two or three blocks. Ample parking? Did Chamberlain closely look at the street before writing that?

All questions about traffic and parking impact and noise abatement must be soberly considered by Salemtown before we indulge ourselves in the seduction of developers' dreams.

Facebook chatter on Germantown's Advance Financial

Metro planners were criticized a couple of weeks ago in a thread on the new predatory lending store (Advance Financial) going up in Germantown at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Jefferson Street. Of course, observers pointed out that predatory peddlers are always dumped into more transitional neighborhoods and that you would not see this happening in West Nashville.

One person insisted that a liquor store replacing the demolished gas station would have at least given something back to the North Nashville community rather than simply taking away.

Local jazz and blues column writer Ron Wynn was expressly concerned about about the lack of warning we got about the arrival of the lender:

The time to do something about this was before they got on the property. Where are the elected representatives for North Nashville and why did this happen without some comment from them? I don't blame the business. They are doing what business people always do, trying to maximize profit. But these things don't happen in other communities because they get stopped before they get started.

While I believe that our council member more than likely should shoulder some of the responsibility for her part in allowing this to happen without due diligence to the community, I also think that Mr. Wynn lets Advance Financial off the hook too easily. What he fails to include in the profit-maximizing equation is the political influence the lender flexes through the vehicle of campaign donations, full-time lobbying and leveraging public support. Advance Financial, after all, has its own "527" political advocacy committee (remember "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"?). This not just some shop owner trying to make an honest buck. Advance Financial is a player and the politicians predictably fall in line with the players' money.

And these things don't happen in other communities because other communities have either organized money or organized people to stop them. North Nashville needs more of the latter. Yet, any of us who stand up and argue that not all growth is good for our quality of life are often met with knee-jerk and baseless criticism from people who have issues with confrontation of and debate with Nashville's patrician class, the "job creators".

I do not disagree that we need more people here who are willing to be an early warning network of watchdogs digging up dirt that otherwise is spirited under the radar. I've curated and blogged (8 years last week!) with that as my intention.

A neighbor here in Salemtown who joined in the Facebook discussion quoted one of my previous blog posts on Germantown's new predator to point out that zoning, use and historic overlay requirements were all met by Advance Financial, making it legal. Mr. Wynn responded:

I can guarantee you that there are plenty of other places in this city where Advance Financial would have never gotten approval to set up where they are. They are directly across from the planned Black Music Museum. You think the city would let a predatory lending company establish itself across from the Country Music Foundation?

Point taken. But Advance Financial greases deals like this. They contributed thousands to the Germantown Street Festival. I believe that they could get a predatory lending company across from the CMF if they were willing to donate millions. Of course, that would fly in the face of the whole "maximizing profits" equation. But money changes everything. It can purchase anything in any part of town for the right price. In reality Advance Financial makes more from preying on working class and poor people, who are compelled to concentrate away from affluence. Putting Advance near the CMF makes bad business sense in an established tourism district, but if they needed to locate there the price would be higher than it is on Jeff Street.

Once a company has the zoning and the use requirements lined up and then the local neighborhood association cows to their money, how can they possibly be stopped?

Undeterred, Mr. Wynn seems to have an answer:

The killer here is that this MIGHT have been stopped if action was taken way back in the beginning. It's not like businesses have never been prevented from setting up shop in areas due to neighborhood opposition. But the opposition has to happen beforehand, and it has to be informed .... I didn't find out about this until it was already set in stone. Where are our (the community) sources with access to this type of information regarding who's obtaining property and for what purposes? You better believe anytime something is vacant, for sale or available in Brentwood or Belle Meade or even Madison it is closely tracked and people living in those communities are briefed and informed about possible buyers, businesses, firms, etc. I don't believe that the people of North Nashville would have stayed silent had they known what was happening in advance.

So, Advance Financial is not to blame for this deal, but "community sources" who did not properly warn North Nashville are? (Also, note that North Nashville, which has not been organized well enough to catch wind of these things and mobilize in the first place, is absolved from responsibility). Who are these community sources he demands step up? Campaign-financed politicians? Bought-out neighborhood associations? The incentives have already been handed out. Expecting them to go turncoat is unrealistic.

So, who is left to sound the early warning system? Neighborhood leaders and watchdogs unplugged from streams of influence?

In all fairness, waving red-flags about power moves in Nashville is highly risky. You can be ostracized as "conspiratorial". You can be stigmatized as "NIMBY". You can be ignored as someone who merely looks for a fight without higher goals. There is very little benefit in watchdogging in Nashville. After so many years of doing it through this blog, I do not blame anyone for not stepping up and sticking their necks out.

And there's the rub. If by "community sources" Ron Wynn is referring to ordinary people, why isn't he willing to step up and do the job himself? Why not start his own hyper-local blog?

Maybe because hosting your own neighborhood blog is tough and thankless? Neighborhood groups and watchdogs proliferated under the previous Mayor and his relatively robust Office of Neighborhoods. The focus on neighborhoods has died in Karl Dean's administration. The courthouse class effectively counters community watchdogs with communications specialists, PR flacks and rumors of anonymous trolls on online comment boards.

Speaking of flacks, there is no shortage of reporters who are willing to echo what they are fed about growth and development.

Journalists have colonized the blog lifeworld and they promote the dominant narrative there. The local blogosphere was at one time an alternative channel for voices that would convey news that the news media ignored. News companies now pay social media managers and enlist bloggers who gatekeep the legitimate voices more effectively than dead-tree versions could.

Hence, there are so many obstacles to the communication for which many of us wish before developments move from concept to reality.

We do need community watchdogs. We do not need unrealistic expectations about community watchdogs, who assume remarkable risks in service to the community.

I want to ride my bicycle

The Nashville restaurant business is a tough one. I've lived here nearly a quarter of a century and I've watched them come and go; birthed, prosper and blow away like ashes in the wind.

I used to buy cat food in the old Jones Pet Store in Hillsboro Village. Then I stood in the same shop on Fido's opening day at the counter (that replaced a line of fish tanks), and I ordered my first of many coffees. I also wrote half my dissertation at Fido, setting the trend early of annoying students who occupied the place for hours (except that I made a point of purchasing food and drink during busy times so as not to miff "Bongo Bob" Bernstein). Fido is one of the few places with staying power, and that makes my remembrance of its early days that much more significant.

Since moving to the North End in 2004, we have been able to rely on the Big 3: Mad Platter, Germantown Cafe, and Monell's not falling to Nashville's fickle dining market. However, newer places like a coffee shop called Drinkhaus, a hotdog cafe called Zackies and a sweets boutique called The Cocoa Tree have shuttered. (I should at least mention City House, a newer place that has held its own for several years).

And we really have not had the benefit of a bona fide breakfast place (my personal favorite for meal of the day), although Garden Brunch Cafe may qualify despite its brunchiness (and the Garden Brunch owners are salt-of-the-earth folk you should meet if you have not already). However, all of the sudden we do with the opening nearly three weeks ago of The Red Bicycle Coffee and Crepes, which previously served the denizens of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I have now been to the Red Bike at least half-a-dozen times and I have not had a bad experience or fare. Full disclosure: my taste preferences run from savory to spicy, so I have not yet tried their sweet menu. To tell you the truth I liked the savory crepes I've had so much I may never get to the sweet side and still not regret it. I have tried at least four variations of their breakfast crepes (the "Good Morning" with meat and without, the "Wake Up" and the "Yummy Crepe") and two variations of their lunch crepes (the "Thai" and the "Bacon Cheeseburger"), and I thoroughly enjoyed every single one. Given what you might be in the mood for, each is a winner in my book.

I have to say that I have had more crepes in the past two weeks than I had in the past twenty years, so there is definitely a niche among my taste buds for something extraordinary.

The only glitch in their menu that I see is that the salsa that they serve with their chips and salsa is not what I have traditionally called salsa. It is more of what we from my corner of the southwest refer to as "picante sauce", which is thinner and less chunky than salsa. No matter. They send it out in a supersized coffee mug with a huge plate of chips that I could not finish by myself. More for sharing.

My preference in breakfast drinks runs toward the espresso end of the pool with lots of shots, and again, nothing sweet. Their breves (steamed half-and-half instead of milk) are the best I have had in our end of town (yes, better than the departed Drinkhaus, of which I was a loyal customer). They pull their shots from a cool retro machine that looks like a shade of Tar Heel blue. I have had the coffee with my meal and stand-alone, but I have yet to be disappointed in their skills. In fairness, I should mention a couple of other eateries in or near the North End whose espresso drinks are also worth a mention. Newly arrived Swaffles (across 5th from the Red Bicycle) has brewed me a mean cup of coffee the several times times I have been there. They tell me that they were schooled by some of Bongo Bob's minions (the legend becomes legacy). Also, I refer you to Garage Coffee Company a short drive away in Marathon Village. They also pull tasty java.

A big selling point of Red Bicycle for me is that they are open 6:30 am to 9:00 pm. Those hours are rare in this community and we need to avail ourselves of the privilege. If you follow their Twitter stream, you'll get daily tweets on specials they have during the evening hours until closing (2-for-1 crepes, 50% off drinks, etc). They have knocked out the cozy boutique that was The Cocoa Tree into a big, breathing dining room that bests any other shop at the corner of 5th and Madison (excluding Silo). The way things are setting up, the Red Bike could be to Germantown what Fido has been to Hillsboro Village. That is a hugely favorable comparison based on my experience.

Follow the bouncing logic

Karl Dean, Jesse Register, and just about every charter school leader I listen to draw the conclusion that Nashville needs charter schools and more charter schools. Their premise is that "choice" will give Metro Public Schools parents incentive to stay rather than to move to affluent public school districts like Williamson County or to private schools.

Williamson County Superintendent Mike Looney told reporters yesterday that he does not want charter schools in his school district because they dilute the resources that the public schools have. So, the focus in Williamson is not on "choice", but on "infrastructure," since money would shunt from the latter to fund charter schools. So, how can Williamson possibly be one of the most envied district if they do not even wave choice at their parents?

I have argued for some time that, as a public school parent, I am more likely to abandon Nashville schools over the charter issue. I base my view exactly on Mr. Looney's premise: charter schools sap what little money bona fide public schools have. Charter schools weaken already reeling Metro public schools. Hizzoner et al. give parents a false sense of choice because the mediocrity is spread around while wealthy education corporations (and some charter administrators) enrich themselves on the pedagogic blight. Choice is like an opiate that lulls parents into believing they have power in a school district that does not share power with those who do not first have the influence (like that of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce).

I guess sometimes, when the red flags of peon parents in poorer districts are ignored, it takes an affluent (and predominantly white?) school district leader to smack down the bouncing, flawed logic of our own educational overlords. Since few people listen to me, I hope others notice the hot mess of Mr. Looney's logic (and take note that infrastructure seems to take precedence over choice in one of the most Republican-leaning counties in the country). It makes more sense than the bunk we are spoon-fed here.