Metro Public Works to Pave Salemtown Alleys This Month

This morning I and a couple of other Salemtown Neighbors members met with Public Works head honchos in the alley between 5th and 6th Avenues not for a rumble, but to come to some mutual understanding on addressing Salemtown's problems. They told us that they are going to pave the alleys between 5th and 6th from Hume to Buchanan. Originally they were going to stop before they got to Buchanan, but one of the members present who lives on Buchanan told them about his alley deteriorating because of the garbage trucks that come through.

Another neighbor raised the issue that Schoene Ansicht (corner of 6th and Hume) developers were required by Metro Water officials to put down a crown in the alley next to their property because they have directed a surface-water holding tank run-off toward a low-lying property across the alley. Public Works officials told her that the alley would be paved as scheduled and that when Schoene Ansicht investors (UP, LLC) put the crown in that they would be responsible for any repairs to the asphalt put down beforehand. They told us that it had been a mistake to allow UP, LLC to build Schoene Ansicht as they had: packing as many townhouses as possible on a steep incline with inadequate provisions for proper underground stormwater run-off.

PW leaders also tried to emphasize that problems we encountered with Metro Customer Service in the past were not with their CS employees. They said that the problem with CS is that there are three different phone banks to which callers go when they want to file a complaint, and that creates response problems for PW. We were encouraged to contact PW in the future if we had any problems at all.

Metro Council Bill Would Give $15,000 Property Tax Dollars to a Baptist Church

There was a time when and a people for whom being Baptist meant rejecting state funding for fear of violating church-state separation under the Constitution's Establishment Clause. That does not seem to apply for St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, which awaits passage of a Metro Council resolution on Tueday that would hand them $15,000 of public money to support their outreach ministries.

What We've Worked Hard For

The Salem Gardens zoning bill--amended to include 3 detached single family homes to balance planned duplexes or townhouses--is scheduled for third reading on Tuesday. Unless our Council Member stumbles, bumbles, and defers this, the victory of final passage will be a sweet one. It seems such like a long time ago that I went before the Planning Commission thinking that we had little chance of turning the original request around. What a sublime satisfaction this will be should we win.

CRIME ALERT: Salemtown Developers Also Hit By Recent Crime Wave

Trust Development, builders of the Clayton on 6th Avenue, reported to the Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association that two of the three new Trane HVAC units at the Clayton were ruined by thieves ripping the insides out. They've asked SNNA to communicate the theft to the police and to find out whether there are any off-duty officers who might be available for hire for a security watch. They are also contacting other Salemtown developers to explore different security options.

I suggested to another developer just a few days ago that, since their property does not sit on a corner surrounded by SNNA block watchers, he may want to consider bright lights and either a security guard or security cameras. He told me that he was already considering the latter. I suggested to Trust Development that this is an excellent opportunity to help us recruit more SNNA block watchers around the Clayton (that part of Salemtown has been relatively unresponsive to invitations to join during the last couple of Nights Out Against Crime that we've sponsored).

What Are the Odds that Two Different Lester C. McClains Share the Same Zip Code?

Thanks to Bill Hobbs for sharing the information from the Governor's Office that the gubernatorial appointee to a safety board, Lester C. McClain lives at:

305 Long Valley Road
Brentwood, TN 37027

The mailing address listed on Metro Property Maps for Lester C. McClain who owns the 6th Avenue property suspected of quartering prostitutes is:

P.O. Box 63
Brentwood, TN 37027

I received the following pictures of Lester C. McClain's other properties in urban neighborhoods from a reader who prefers to remain anonymous. I have not been told whether these abodes house hookers as the apartments on 6th Avenue near Hume are alleged to, but they do not exactly set the bar very high for their communities, either. At least a couple of them clearly qualify as blight (being extraordinarily charitable to the two others):

1711 24th Ave. North
(purchased 1997 for $8000; Duplex; appraisal: $149,000)

1623 12th Ave. North
(purchased 1995 for $15,300; Single family; appraisal: $42,000)

1621 7th Ave. North
(purchased 1998 for $6000; Duplex; appraisal: $80,200)

712 Lena St.
(purchased 1996 for $10,000; Single family; appraisal: 40,000)

My guess is that Lester C. McClain probably takes care of his Brentwood 37027 property (or property) much better than those he owns in North Nashville.


UPDATE: I have added the purchase date, price, and current appraisal to the pictures above.

For purposes of comparison, here is a picture of the alleged bordello on 6th Avenue, North along with purchase/appraisal figures:

1611 6th Ave. North
(purchased 1995 for $16,000; 4plex; appraisal: $109,800)

UPDATE: In comments below, Sageish relates a conversation with a relative who acknowledges that property owner Lester C. McClain and Bredesen appointee Lester C. McClain are one and the same person.

More 6th and Garfield Zoning Details

At this very moment a "Subdivision Public Hearing" is being held by the Planning Commission to get public feedback on a Salem Gardens partnership request to subdivide the two of five original properties (the ones zoned MUN) into three. The purpose is to orient those parcels to Garfield and to raise the density. The Planning Department tells us that the three remaining properties on 6th Avenue will remain RS7.5 (if Metro Council approves on Tuesday's third reading) and stay unaffected by the request.

I don't see much opposition in Salemtown to this newest wrinkle. That is fortunate since only one household that I'm aware of was notified of the Public Hearing. How can a hearing be public if the public doesn't know about it?

On a related note, some in the Salem Gardens partnership have asked to sit down with Salemtown Neighbors leaders to discuss their plans for the site. It is late, but at least they are trying to work with us now. We remain resolved about the need for balance in developments.

Metro Public Works Jockeys for Enclave's 2007 Worst Metro Services to Neighborhoods

After last year's anemic showing in providing services, Metro Public Works is jockeying for a position around the first turn of 2007 that would make it the absolute worst cellar dweller in the field of local government service losers.

As you may recall, a few days ago I related another erosion event on Hume Street during rainstorms that caused some of the gravel from Metro's half-ass attempt to repair an alley without paving it. I warned them before the rainstorm that gravel would erode. I took a picture of the intersection after the rain to document the debris.

Obviously, making scant progress with the paving underlings, Frick (Paving Manager) and Frack (Paving Scheduler, who never returned my phone message), I went back to Public Works Director Mark Macy (with whom we have spoken face-to-face in the past) via e-mail on this past Monday:

Mr. Macy:
I understand that after much confusion, the alley between 5th and 6th Avenues in Salemtown is scheduled to be paved now in either October or November after originally being promised as this past spring. In a phone call with and in an e-mail to the Paving Manager, Don Reid, I warned that the loose gravel in the mix that Public Works put down as a temporary solution to the dirt road that the alley had become would erode down Hume during the next rain storm. I based this on past experience we have had with a developer on 6th and Hume who refused to use silt fence, and as a result was cited by Metro for allowing gravel and other debris to wash down to 5th and Hume (while he was cited once, erosion occurred on several occasions).

Sure enough, thanks to the rain events of the past few days, a significant amount of the gravel that your department put down on the alley has washed down to the intersection. I have attached a day-after picture. The intersection had been gravel-free before the rain. Could you please send a crew out to 5th and Hume to clean up the eroded debris? Is there any other way for your department to contain any future erosion if we cannot have our alleys paved until the fall?

I'm also trying to understand your stated policy of paving roads in the spring and waiting until fall to pave the alleys. If that is indeed the policy, then why was a Germantown alley between 3rd and 4th Avenues freshly paved within the past few weeks? Mr. Reid couldn't answer that question. I left a voice mail message for your Paving Scheduler Tim Young 10 days ago, but I have yet to get a return call from him.

As I write this and as God is my witness, the gravel still sits at the intersection. Several neighbors have told me that they have skidded on the gravel while driving through the 5th and Hume intersection. No one has cleaned it up. And until I wrote Mr. Macy again this morning asking him if he had received my prior e-mail, I heard no response from Public Works.

But after the latest query, he wrote me a terse response saying that I need to work with Customer Service on this issue. My past experience with "Customer Service" is that it is a bureaucratic black hole designed to screen the people who make things happen in Metro from people who rely on Metro services. I have responded to Mr. Macy that I did not appreciate being bureaucratically volleyed to an entry layer of government when we had been dealing with the people who are supposed to make things happen for two years now.

I also made it clear that I will go to whatever length necessary to have my questions answered, including coming to his office. Somebody should tell me why at the time Salemtown was being told that alleys are not paved in the spring, a Germantown alley was being paved. If I do not get the answers by e-mail, I'll just go knocking on actual Metro doors until I find an answer.


UPDATE: Customer Service, with whom I've been e-mail sparring today, says that they will clear the debris from 5th and Hume.


UPDATE: Mark Macy e-mailed me to say that the alley on my block will be paved this month, and he wants to meet me there tomorrow morning at 8:15.

Future Residential Development in Bell's Bend?

NashPo has a story on yesterday's $7.25 million sale of almost 500 acres of farmland in sparsely populated Bell's Bend (due west across the Cumberland River from Metro Center) to a development group that has already laid out plans for 1,200 homes there. Incidently, the Metro Parks System is in the process of preserving 808 acres in Bell's Bend as part of the city's greenway system.

Garfield Place Resurrected?

Brentwood-based Tennessee Home Builders tells me that they finally intend to mow this property at 6th and Garfield and they will take down the long-vandalized sign. Hallalujah!

Also, they tell me that while their plans for Garfield Place have changed they intend to break ground soon. The process is with the Planning Department right now. I look forward to hearing more.


UPDATE: Tennessee Home Builders told me that they plan to attend the next Salemtown Neighbors meeting on Monday, May 28.

Salemtown Block Grant Committee Update: MDHA Issues Request for Neighborhood Project Proposals

Last night's Salemtown Community Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting initiated a new phase of planning for block grant projects. We were told by our Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency rep that a request for proposals for possible neighborhood projects on which to spend the $589,000 Salemtown block grant had been issued and that several responses from design firms had already been received. May 24 is the deadline for receipt of proposals.

The "Project Priority List" of possible projects on which to spend the block grant has been determined by the Salemtown CAC (based on 2 years of public discussions) as follows:

• Distinctive Street I.D. signs
• Traffic calming bulb extensions at intersections
• Decorative crosswalks
• Decorative lighting
• Distinctive neighborhood entryway signs

After May 24, a Selection Committee (which will include two CAC members, one of which is yours truly) will read through the proposals and will select the design proposal best qualified to make improvements to the neighborhood.

At last night's meeting, CAC members agreed to cancel June and July meetings, since very little could be accomplished by the CAC until the Selection Committee does its work.

Police Must Have Listened

The on-line Salemtown discussion about neighborhood crime ended on an upbeat note yesterday as some neighbors reported that visible police patrols were seen around the neighborhood yesterday x10.

The Community Affairs Officer at the Central Precinct also wrote to the association via e-mail that the nonchalant response by the officer who said that hooking had been going on for 15 years was not a professional response (perhaps not, but was it an honest response?). He also related news that information that neighborhood residents passed on to police about a suspected drug dealer on another property lead to his second arrest in which his car, money, and "a lot of drugs" were seized. They are also working on arresting his supplier, which would help other neighborhoods.

Still no word on Sunday's shooting at 8th and Garfield.

Dawn Hits Werthan

We Still Have Hookers to Go with Our Mud Slides: Words Come Back to Haunt

If I had to make a choice between the prior gang, prostitution, dope dealing, and other illegal activities (violations) that Salemtown was well known for. Or this mud violation. No contest..... The cause of that violation [Steve Yokley's failure to control erosion from his construction site] will make for a better neighborhood. The others will not.

- - Commenter JM defending UP, LLC a couple of months ago

New buzz on "houses of ill repute" continue to spring up in Salemtown Neighbors' on-line discussions today. I'm also hearing a good deal of anger expressed at police for what seem to be diminishing patrols. One neighbor reports witnessing police allowing a squatter who had taken up residence in an abandoned house on 6th Avenue to get away in spite of attempts to draw their attention to him climbing out a window and trudging off down the street.

I cannot help but recall how defenders of real estate investors Steve Yokley and Taurus McCain talk about how their developments are driving away problems like prostitution and drug dealing. Mr. McCain even stood before the Metro Council last week and told them during the Public Hearing on Salem Gardens that he was proud that their developments were doing just that.

Today I'm getting word of an alleged house of prostitution and drugs believed to be on 7th Avenue. Also, ironically, a trustworthy source tells me that an alleged hooker is currently renting one of Mr. Yokley's older Salemtown properties. Making our neighborhood better, huh? The moral power of real estate investment would be staggering, I'm sure, if it had any teeth in its impotent jaws.

We are still waiting for a response from the Central Police Precinct on this issue. Heck, I'm still waiting for Central to get back to us on the drive-by shooting near 8th and Garfield the other night. You would think that we would have been advised on that yesterday, given the nature of the crime.

Police Divulge Worst Little Whorehouse in S-town; Is Property Owned by a Bredesen Appointee?

A police officer reportedly confirmed neighbors' suspicions recently that prostitutes were living and hooking on 6th Avenue North, and that "it's been like that for 15 years." The officer made those comments after police responded to a fight between men visiting the apartments of the alleged hookers on 6th during the last weekend in April. Neighbors tell me that various older men come and go from the back of the women's apartment at all times of the day and night.

Yesterday evening, I observed a woman (white, fair-skinned, brunette, larger-than-average build, short pony tail and plastic-rimmed glasses) hanging out near the Morgan Park Community Center construction site (corner of 5th and Hume) for about an hour like she was waiting, drinking a quart of malt liquor, talking on her cell phone, chatting with a couple of pick-up truck drivers who stopped by, and then leaving on foot with an older man towards 6th. Those who have witnessed the suspicious activities at the 6th Avenue apartment tell me that the woman I saw fits the description of one believed to be hooking.

The apartments are a neighborhood blight and they look to me like they could be owned by a slum lord. According to Metro maps, they are actually owned by a "Lester C. McClain" of Brentwood, TN. What I'm wondering at this point is whether that is the same Lester C. McClain of Brentwood, TN who was just appointed by Governor Phil Bredesen to a state safety board. If such is the case, then it would be pathetic that a safety official owns a property that threatens the safety of Tennesseans living in Salemtown. (The front of this property was also the location of a recent major drug bust, in which a large quantity of cocaine coming into the neighborhood was seized).

In the meantime, some of us are beginning to worry about the police and the possibility that they might not be as concerned about our safety as the should be. What other explanation would they have for expressing casual indifference toward 15 years of hooking in Salemtown?


UPDATE: The ever-resourceful Sageish comments below that after searching he has found only one Lester C. McClain in Brentwood, TN. He also posts Mr. McClain's phone number. Leave it to the on-line neighborhood to do the work that ought to be tailor-made for "professional journalists," none of whom (not even the mainstream media bloggers) seem interested in this story.

Lester C. MClain is also listed in a 2003 list of Notary Publics approved by the Metro Council. And he is listed on the Board of Directors of the Williamson County UT Alumni Association. His e-mail on the latter list is: lestermcclain@aol.com.


UPDATE: Brittney at Nashville is Talking (WKRN's blog) has picked up the story.

Summer Street Sidewalk

Carrots Only for Corporations: Legislature Takes Mayor's Stick Against Petrochemical Polluters

After the Houston Mayor did what he could to apply nuisance ordinances to force the petrochemical industry to reduce cancer causing air-toxins, the Texas Legislature stepped in and passed a Republican-sponsored oil bill to restrict the city's ability to regulate big oil. Republicans said that they were worried that the corporations would suffer financially if Houston's attempt to protect the health and safety of Houstonians was allowed to continue. I guess it would be too much to ask the fat oil cats to cut a million or two off their $400 million retirement packages in order to clean up their own mess.

One of those Rare Moments When the Clouds Part and Common Sense Shines Forth from the Mainstream News Media

The best part of this clip is the part where Chris Matthews begins, "By the way, I don't know what your problem is with politicians," and ends, "The last time I looked the President lives ... right in the middle of the beltway. He's a politician."

"You got a problem with that?"

MetroCenter Sunset 2

Salemtown Future Need #5: Extend the Riverfront Redevelopment Transit Loop Past the East Germantown Landing

The basic framework on which the Riverfront Redevelopment Plan is to be built is said to be shaped like a "V" extending from Downtown to East Nashville on one leg and from Downtown to East Germantown on its north leg. East Germantown is also the point farthest north of Downtown in which a landing on the river itself will be located.

Salemtown proper is cut off from the Cumberland River by the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Plant that produces other problems for our neighborhood--including time-to-time foul odors (like yesterday's) and the sight pollution for residents along 3rd Avenue and parts of 4th Avenue--also cuts our neighborhood off from direct contact with the river. So, the closest landing contacts our residents have with the river would be East Germantown and Downtown.

So, it would make sense to extend the proposed transit loop past East Germantown to Salemtown and possibly MetroCenter. This could be done most easily by footpaths: extending the proposed greenway from East Germantown to the Cumberland River Levee Greenway in MetroCenter. But if a trolley run is planned for the Downtown to East Germantown leg, I hope that the future District 19 Council Member would look into the possibility of doing what he or she could to extend that trolley leg to a Salemtown transit stop (perhaps a greenway turnaround at the 3rd Avenue Treatment Center strip) .

Extending the vehicular loop farther north would help those Salemtown residents who are less mobile when it comes to walking our greenways. Those residents should not be barred from an East Germantown or a Downtown river landing just because they lack the on-foot mobility of other residents.

Burst of Color in the Beds