Neighborhood Groups to Launch Plan at Metro Courthouse

The Nashville Neighborhood Alliance and the Neighborhoods Resource Center will present a plan for progress, based on the input of representatives from 130 neighborhood organizations, Tuesday, December 5 at 5:30 p.m. at the Metro Courthouse (2nd Floor Mezzanine). Leaders say they chose the Courthouse as the site of the "Launch Party" for the visibility of current and prospective elected leaders. Parking at the Courthouse garage will be free. I will be there; e-mail me if you want to go, too.

No Tears for Pinochet's Suffering

Hey Mr. Pinochet,
You've sown a bitter crop.
It's foreign money that supports you.
One day the money's going to stop.
No wages for your torturers;
No budget for your guns.
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son?

- - Sting, They Dance Alone

Notorious Chilean dictator of the late 20th Century, Augusto Pinochet has suffered a heart attack and he is in serious condition. The brutal overseer of torture and death never had to face justice in this life for his injustices against humanity. Even as I have a father who suffered from a heart attack, my sympathies for Pinochet are as cold as stone when I think of the Chilean mothers of the disappeared who were made to suffer at the hand of this tyrant and who will one day drawing nigh dance on his grave.

Briley Taps Jameson

The Council's two superlative members, David Briley and Mike Jameson are teaming up to help put Briley in the Mayor's Office next year. Jameson will be running the Briley campaign.

Metro's Unfulfilled Promises for 2006

As we near the end of 2006, I want to point you to three less than acceptable conditions in Salemtown that did not receive the repair promised earlier. Metro let us down on each of these problems, and we still are not sure if they will be resolved.

Last spring, Metro Public Works told us that they would pave a couple of our unpaved alleys, which have essentially become dirt/mud roads. In fact, at the end of April, MPW told our association president that the alleys were definitely on their list to be repaved in 2006 (although when I spoke with the MPW in charge of the projects, he seemed confused on whether our alleys were actually on the list). In November, MPW told us that, because of an unspecified "equipment breakdown," the alleys would not be paved until Spring 2007. But they tried to assure us: we are "one of the first on the list."

I'm tired of being on MPW's "list" and watching our alleys rut and erode and become mud-pits suited more for 4-wheeling than for city driving.

There remain areas of poor water run-off, like the corner of 4th Av. and Coffee St., which floods after every rain and where water stands for days after it has dried up everywhere else. The latest puddle even iced the road this week after the last cold front moved through. I first blogged on the puddle back in Spring 2005. S-towners started working on Metro Water over Summer 2005, and we started getting promises from them in the Fall 2005 that a resolution would be in the offing. The problem languished for months afterwards. We got no indication from Metro Water whether they would or would not fix the problem. So, several of us brought the problem up to Metro Public Works in Spring 2006, and they told us that they would add the problem to the "list" of conditions to be fixed in Salemtown. As you can see from the picture, it looks like being on yet another of their lists did not make much of a difference.

Finally, Metro Parks has let us down on the promised renovations to Morgan Park and to the Morgan Park Community Center. In Fall 2005, we got word that park improvements--including a walking trail, gardens along the trail, modified baseball field and a new playground--would occur over the span of "a few months." A year went by with no substantial improvements that we could see. I contacted the Parks Director, who replied that they were in the process for securing bids for the renovations and that they had increased the proposed improvements from $200,000 to $400,000, pending Metro Council approval. That was 4 months ago. No indication from Parks that anything is set to be improved in the near future.

So, 2006 may well be characterized as one in which important major projects that would have enhanced the quality of life in our little hamlet were promised and yet deferred (or even ignored in the case of water run-off) by local government. I hope that our leaders make some New Years' resolutions to follow up on these problems in 2007 so that we can be taken off their lists.

Slammed If I Do; Slammed If I Don't

Some wish to have it both ways: he tells me that I falsely read meanings into his comments that aren't there; he tells me that I should read meanings into his comments that aren't there. In the mean time, the notion of taking criticism gracefully is lost in the shuffle.


UPDATE: He's accusing Aunt B. of reading meanings (a.k.a., "misinterpret") into his thoughts.

Net Neutrality Takes a Giant Step Forward

Back in October I posted that Net Neutrality's best chance in DC was if the Dems took the House, which they did in November. Now the first step toward protecting NetNeut has been taken with the appointment of Ed Markey--who reportedly had lots of committee options--to chair the House Telecom and Internet subcommittee.

Future challenges are formidable as the corporate-friendly Blue Dog Democrats (like Tennessee's Jim Cooper) could work with Republicans to winnow or cancel out any good things that Markey does to secure NetNeut. Perhaps if the Blue Dogs pay attention to the GAO Report that says that there is less rather than more competition in the telecom business and which criticizes the FCC for not keeping up they will buck their corporate ties and support NetNeut. Since Jim Cooper's stronger constituents include both AT&T and BellSouth, the rest of us are probably going to have to scrap to coax him toward NetNeut.

Speaking of the FCC, Radio Free Nashville is encouraging people to attend the FCC's official hearings on media ownership rules to be held here in Nashville on December 11. They say that Nashvillians should come out and testify before the commission on how media consolidation is a threat to competition and public interest.

Can't-Lose Scenario

Is Mike Jameson a magic man? Either way he's in the catbird seat: either Lower Broad gets a historical overlay to bar future run-amuck development and it gets a scaled-down and greener Westin OR Council rejects the overlay and Jameson bails on the Westin, keeping Lower Broad as is. Just about every party involved in either scenario wins, except for the Westin if Jameson bails; but if Westin loses it is hardly a loss for Nashville (and do you want to make a bet that if they lose they come back to the table with a substantially altered alternative?). The Metro Council is over a barrel on this one. This is no retread of John Summers faced off against large numbers of his own constituents over an overlay; the Broadway merchants still benefit economically from a historic overlay because they have a huge hotel next door, which neutralizes their incentive to protest. Council members have to take this overlay very seriously and they are not going to vote for the Westin if the council member representing Lower Broad bails. This is a textbook example of how local governance sets up parameters for development for the sake of the larger community: it is a consummate give-and-take. Well played, Mike Jameson, well played.

Salemtown/MetroCenter Starbucks Opens Today

I stopped by the new Starbucks pre-opening yesterday, had a triple breve and met the nice people who work at and run the North End's new coffee joint. The new store is comfortable (though probably not as comfortable as the 21st Av. Starbucks) and it is as-hip-as-mass-production-allows. The location at the corner of MetroCenter Blvd. and Dominican allows S-towners to slip in and out quickly via 3rd Av., but exiting the place to get on to 8th Av. via Dominican during rush hours might be a nightmare, since traffic spilling to and from 8th Av. from MetroCenter will be in full social darwinist mode. Nonetheless, many of us here are pleased to have our first coffee option on the North End.

Bad Seeds in Anti-Immigration

Tennessee Klansmen join others in Georgia to protest illegal immigration.

And in Arizona, a guy pulls up to a Catholic cathedral during Mass, brandishes a Glock, turns on a loudspeaker and screams,

You people don't seem to understand forbidden territory, whether it's a child's anus or the American border! You just want to push on in, don't you? We are going to be driving you back to Mexico real goddamn soon! .... Get used to it! My name is Roy Warden, and I burn Mexican flags!

Thank God for free speech; it allows us to witness this movement's various, nefarious colors.

Christian Attitudes about the November Election Results

Says Pew:

Most Americans (60%) -- including majorities of white mainline Protestants (56%), black Protestants (84%), white Catholics (60%) and seculars (72%) -- say they are happy that the Democrats won the election. Only among white evangelicals did as many express unhappiness as happiness with the Democrats' victory (41% each).

I Don't Remember a More Intelligent Metro Council Bill

Kudos to Council Member Mike Jameson, for introducing and shepherding this important ordinance through the Metro Council. What this complex ordinance does in a nutshell is to remove the responsibility of property owners for any leaks in their water or sewer line past their own meters. Previously residents were legally and financially responsible for repairs to the water and sewer lines between their meters and the water mains buried beneath the streets. That is patently illogical. Why should home and business owners be responsible for any repairs not underneath their own property?

Ludye Wallace admitted during debate on the second reading of Jameson's bill that a church in his district faced the enormous expense of water line repair and that he could not get anything done on this in the past. I am not at all surprised that Mike Jameson was able to get something done where others failed. He is the kind of representative that all of us deserve. The bill is up for third reading next Tuesday, so please contact your council representatives and encourage them to vote for ORDINANCE NO. BL2006-1239, unless of course you want to pay for any repairs to the water lines not under your property.

More on Last Night's Armed Robbery

According to Metro Police, the armed robbery that caused Morgan Park Community Center to be locked down last night actually occurred in Germantown across 8th Av. from Kroger. The suspect--a 19-20-year-old black male, 5'9", 150 lbs., wearing a hoodie with yellow writing on it--committed the robbery with a blue steel handgun in the lot of the 8th Avenue Market. He then fled into the Cheatham Place Public Housing Development to the north of Kroger. That is where K-9's lost his scent. Police say that no one at the Morgan Park Community Center was ever in any danger.

No Slouch

Forget all those posture-edicts. I slouch, and I'm better for it.

Narrowness Damns Conservative Evangelicals

When you stretch out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

- - Isaiah 1:15-16

Unfortunate events of the past week show that conservative evangelicals are just too narrow to take the prophet Isaiah seriously on the good things that divinity requires. Democratic Senator Barack Obama learned the hard way this week that the purity streak among conservative evangelicals runs so strong that they prohibit themselves from reaching out to anyone else with different views merely to aid the sick and the needy. A Florida pastor who opposed the death penalty and who, as president, wanted to move the Christian Coalition toward caring for the poor and the environment learned the same thing and then resigned from the ultraconservative group.

Aiding the sick and needy, caring for the poor and the outcast, regardless of who does it, is what the Christian scriptures require. Yet, in spite of hundreds of scripture passages that address concern for the least of these, conservative evangelicals selectively quote scriptures while broadly applying their selections to everyone else. WKRN's Jamey Tucker is a case in point. In a blog entry on inter-faith dialogue, Tucker opines:

For Christians, they believe Jesus is not only the Son of God but He is also the only way to heaven. And if that is not enough, they also believe Jesus (who is also God) instructs them to go tell others about the one true way to eternal life.

Tucker presumes to speak "for Christians" without regard to the fidelity of some Christians not like him to Jesus' teachings against war and other state-sponsored violence, against wealth, and on behalf of the poor and the oppressed (that is a lot of mainline Protestants, Catholics, and liberal Christians). He sets up the narrowest definition of what it means to be Christian, and with that a significant number of Christians are left out (I also skewer Tucker today at Free Tennessee for his holiday-double-standards).

The lesson for community leaders is that conservative evangelical Protestants are too narrow to consider even their own biblical mandates, if following such mandates transgresses extra-biblical boundaries that they themselves construct. Catholics find a way to work against capital punishment and war alongside those with whom they disagree on abortion. They teach us that in an imperfect world one never neglects an opportunity to redeem life where one can. All we learn from white evangelicals is how not to behave toward one another.

In Rush to Defend "Christmas," Reporter Ignores Pagan Influences That He Focused on at Halloween

Originally published at Free Tennessee:

WRKN reporter Jamey Tucker filed a story on October 30 about the "pagan roots" of Halloween. In and of itself, his story would be a non-starter, except that Mr. Tucker has lately shown a tendency to take up the "Christmas" mantle in the perennial culture war over words used to describe the holiday season. That indicates that the reporter may lack an even hand when dealing with volatile cultural issues involving holiday observances. He is entitled to call the holiday season anything he wants, but one would think that the intellectual honesty of a journalist would require him to file a story on the pagan roots of Christmas just as he has on those of Halloween, if for no other reason that it is conventional to gloss over the pagan roots of a seemingly Christian holiday.

Mr. Tucker has yet to note the probable ties between Christmas and the seasonally-structured practices of gift-giving, role reversals, and feasting of earlier pagan observances in Ancient Greece, Imperial Rome, Indo-Iranian Mithra, and pre-Jewish Canaanite religions. Granted, the possible pagan roots of Christmas do not stir the same negative emotions that Halloween (Christianized as All Hallows Eve, the day before All Saints Day) does among Tucker’s favored target audience of conservative evangelicals in their ironic Holy War against the word "holiday"; but we are bound to point out that there is little difference between the trick-or-treat ritual of keeping food on hand to appease evil spirits and caroling at Christmas to ward off evil spirits.

It is entirely fair to ask that Mr. Tucker bracket his personal concerns about making sure that that "Christmas" does not get called "Holiday," so as to give more journalistic attention, for instance, to the ancient pagan rituals of decking houses with evergreens, which was a magical representation of fertility, and which transferred into the American practice of erecting Christmas Trees, which Mr. Tucker himself now defends against so-called "political correctness." It is one thing to guard Christianized rituals from pagan influences; it is quite another to privilege some Christianized rituals over others under the pretense of journalistic evenhandedness.

Salemtown Neighbors Hear More on Crime at Shiloh Apartments and Get Locked Down

At last night's Salemtown Neighbors meeting, Metro Police reported that 3 weeks ago their Flex Unit made 5 felony arrests (25 total counts) at the Shiloh Apartments at the corner of 4th Av. and Hume St. During a "Knock and Talk" a tenant gave permission to the police to search her apartment and 3 guns, along with significant amounts of pot, crack, and cocaine were seized by police. The tenant was not among the 5 individuals arrested because police reported that she did not have knowledge of her guests' activities.

The Shiloh Apartments continue to be one of the more suspicious properties in Salemtown. Cars stream in and out of Shiloh at all times of the day and night. That property is rundown and it has been the center of crime in the past. It faces Morgan Park, where a lot of neighborhood children play, which only makes it a bigger hazard and libility to the community. According to Metro Records, the apartments are owned by Amos L. Howard, LLC, of 1214 Bayard Av. in Murfreesboro, TN.

While the police say that they are keeping an eye Shiloh, the primary challenge for our neighborhood watch is that the shape of the complex opens up to the park but closes off from the rest of Salemtown. The best line of sight on Shiloh is Morgan Park Place, which sits across the baseball diamond from Shiloh. So, essentially we have to rely on our Germantown compadres at MPP to watch out for Shiloh's shady activities; and they probably need binoculars to do so.

In an unrelated incident, during last night's police report, both attending officers left the association meeting to respond to an armed robbery in the Morgan Park area. Multiple units and police dogs were called out. Morgan Park Community Center, where we were meeting was locked down for a while, so that we could not leave the building for a while after the Salemtown Neighbors meeting ended. When we did leave, we found the neighborhood thick with cops.

Police Gang Units to Beef Up in January

Mayoral candidate Buck Dozier doesn't like it, according to the City Paper.

All Announced Mayoral Candidates Except Clement Oppose Crafton's English Only Bill

Bob Clement takes the very unbrassy and even timid stance of not taking a stance on Eric Crafton's English Only resolution due for third and final reading before the Metro Council. "No comment" is no answer to this divisive issue. He's already got the rap that he is not a bold leader. Why would he want to reinforce that perception among voters?

The Check Is in the Mail

Yesterday I received the first $100 for the Google Ads that run on Enclave, and to fulfill an earlier pledge I sent a $100 check over to Friends of Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Here is the text of the letter enclosed with the check:

For the past two years I have authored a neighborhood-based weblog called "Enclave: Nashville North-by-Northwest." The purpose of the "blog" has been to focus on issues of concern to residents of the North End of our city and to provide a place for dialogue between those neighbors, organizers, planners, developers, and other leaders.

Recently, I pledged to my readers to donate the first $100 that I earned from the clickable ads displayed on my blog to your worthwhile charity. Today I received that first payment from Google Ads, and in fulfillment of my pledge, I am passing this check on to FBCMSP leaders to apply to the organization's very worthwhile mission of preserving the North End's premiere green space.

I trust that this money will help in some small way make the North End a better place to live, to work, and to visit by enhancing the jewel that is the Bicentennial Mall. And so, I am pleased to be able to make this donation to the organization's trustees. All that I ask is that you send me a receipt to verify that the donation has reached the appropriate stewards. I also hope that you will consider my donation as a vote of confidence in your worthwhile efforts.

Thanks to the ad-clicking readers who made this donation possible. I would encourage everyone to join Friends of Bicentennial Mall and, if you are able, I hope that you will consider making your own contribution to this valuable organization.

Quieter Salemtown Streets Support Police Report on Reduced Gang Crimes

This is purely anecdotal, especially compared to the numbers crunching of the Metro Police, but based on my personal experience in my neighborhood, I would have to say that the report of reductions in youth gang activities due to the 6-month crackdown on the gangs by the police is believable. Times I have seen gang colors anywhere close to my block since May are few and far between. I've witnessed no graffiti since last winter and no gunfire in quite some time. If there is a connection with the crackdown, then I applaud the police for making our neighborhood safer.

The acid test of whether the reductions are coincidental and momentary will be the months of January, February, and March. If you do a "gang" word-search on Enclave, you'll see that my reports of gang-related activities in Salemtown are clustered in the first three months of 2005 and 2006. So, let's get through the winter, and then use that to gauge whether the police are making any real dents in the gangs here.