Morgan Park Fountain Waters Flow Again after 60 Years

Diane Neighbors: Metro Council's Version of "The Hammer"

The Vice Mayor announced committee appointments last week and some unsubstantiated buzz I hear is that Diane Neighbors punished critics of the Mayor's convention center plan, like Mike Jameson and Emily Evans, by not assigning them to chair committees during the next year. Check the list of Ms. Neighbors' appointments and see if there is anyone who has dared to raise a single objection to the proposed Music City Center:

Budget & Finance Ronnie Steine
Charter Revision Darren Jernigan
Codes, Fair, & Farmers Market Rip Ryman
Convention, Tourism & Public Entertainment Facilities Erik Cole
Education Kristine LaLonde
Federal Grants Review Sandra Moore
Health, Hospitals, & Social Services Charlie Tygard
Parks, Library, & Recreation Lonnell Matthews
Personnel, Public Info-Human Relations-Housing Phil Claiborne
Public Safety-Beer & Regulated Beverages Buddy Baker
Public Works Walter Hunt
Rules-Confirmations-Public Elections Anna Page
Transportation & Aviation Bo Mitchell

In fact, one of the Mayor's biggest cheerleaders, CM Steine has the plum appointment to Budget & Finance. Mayor Karl Dean should be elated by the prospect of acquiescience to his capital designs from this years Budget & Finance bunch:

• Megan Barry
• Erik Cole
• Michael Craddock
• Jim Forkum
• Tim Garrett
• Jason Holleman
• Jerry Maynard
• Sean McGuire
• Anna Page
• Rip Ryman
• Parker Toler
• Charlie Tygard

Half of that group (bolded names) signed the letter prompting the end of any further critical questioning of the PR/MDHA fiasco that temporarily slowed the roughshod momentum of the Mayor's finance team. I can barely imagine 1 or maybe 2 others daring to take any oppositional stance toward the Mayor regardless of all of the unanswered questions that remain. They collectively look whipped.

The Vice Mayor--who is married to a developer--also appointed a planning committee that seems to lean in the same pro-developer direction that the last committee did:

• Karen Bennett
• Sam Coleman
• Eric Crafton
• Duane Dominy
• Robert Duvall
• Jim Gotto
• Jim Hodge
• Darren Jernigan
• Kristine LaLonde
• Bo Mitchell
• Pam Murray
• Carter Todd
• Vivian Wilhoite

That committee, vested with important decisions that will affect zoning and growth in our neighborhoods, seems to sway more regressive to me. I suspect it will be dominated by the conservative bloc. Maybe we will be entertained by watching Murray and Bennett continue to tear into each other at a personal level. Indeed, we may need something to laugh at to keep from crying.

Worst of all, the only member running for the Chair appointment (decided by Council) is Jim Gotto, who just completed two years in the position that included support for May Town Center sprawl in Bells Bend, for commercial LED billboards in residential neighborhoods, for developers' fee-cuts to enable unexacting changes in controversial specific plans, and for a large commercial chain development run by a law-breaking, union-harassing company to replace a church in Sylvan Park. With no progressive likely to run against him, it looks like we're stuck with at least 2 more years of fighting Metro Council and Metro Planning to protect neighborhoods against overgrowth, blight, and sprawl.

Thanks, Diane Neighbors, for nothing. A tool used to forge for a Mayor is no less a weapon for pounding those beyond his inner sanctum.

Swim or Sink?

In 2007 non-profit Ujima House earned $0 revenues but received a $45,000 Metro grant. In 2008 Ujima House received no government grants but earned $120,000 from "fees and contracts from government agencies." Seems like a sweet racket to be able to earn government money to pay back unearned government money spent on personal items for an absentee non-profit executive living in another state. And it is interesting to me that Metro stipulates a $32,000 penalty against Ujima House that is just under their reported current assets. That seems to allow the House to live another year for more government money next cycle. Earned? Unearned? Does it really matter?

Pulling Back Misused Non-profit Funds Is Only a First Step

CM Ronnie Steine and columnist Gail Kerr are high-fiving the Mayor's Office for motivating Steine to introduce a bill to pull back a big chunk of a non-profit "grant" (otherwise known as "subsidy") that Ujima House, a women's shelter, spent not on abused women but on absentee Director Ervina Jarrett's travel back to Nashville (her LinkedIn page has her residing now in Virginia), on her personal shopping sprees in another state (Virginia?), and almost $3,000 in unnamed "other items" (decorative appointments for her Virginia home?).

Bully for Metro in attempting to take back misappropriated funds that should have been spent on the public interest. However, this does not begin to address the problem of designating money for non-profits that could be going to public services, unless those earmarked victim intervention funds had been plowed into a Metro program that would use them broadly, like MNPD's Victim Intervention Program or other such programs designed both to support victims and to be directly accountable to the voters.

But CM Steine's bill, which passed first reading last night, simply redistributes Ujima House's share to the other non-profit agencies on the original bill. It works out to around an extra $1.40 per criminal offender for the victims groups who now enjoy preferred status in the list of agencies subsidized by local government. This is not the great stride in progress that Kerr editorializes. It is a baby step that basically continues council patronage of non-profit agencies.

Ujima House's problems go back to 2006, when it was singled out by the previous administration for failing to exercise oversight according to its by-laws. Those irregularities did not stop the council from passing a bill in 2007 that earmarked $9,500 for Ujima House (that $9,500 does not appear distinctly on the organization's financial report published at Giving Matters, so I would assume that it must have been part of the $45,000 Metro eventually awarded). It did not stop council from mandating that $7.00 of every $45.00 a criminal offender paid to Metro go to Ujima House. (In an interesting turn of events, former CM Brenda Gilmore co-sponsored the 2007 bill; her daughter and current District 19 CM Erica Gilmore co-sponsored the 2008 bill).

It seems to me that this problem could have been nipped in the bud had council members refused to approve any non-profit earmarks in the 2006-07 year. Back in June 2006 the Metro Council had the opportunity to plow $1.95 million in surplus property taxes collected from delinquent payers back into Metro services at a time when the economy was starting to recess and harsh Metro budget cuts loomed on the horizon. What did they do? First, they greedily divided up the surplus, promising to spend their rations on improvements in their districts, calling their initiative the "Reserve Council Infrastructure Program." By January, it was becoming clear that council was headed toward spending 80% of those funds on private non-profits (many of whom could help them politically), and the title "Nonprofit Grants and Council Initiatives Account" was added to the original name.

It seems now with Mayor Dean's move to place tighter restrictions on Metro grants to non-profits, any infrastructure need that might bubble up from the community through the council has been lopped off and private charitable organizations are the actual winners. The money that flows from Metro to non-profit coffers makes an impression on influential organization executives and prominent board members that could last until it is time to crank up the next election for Mayor and a new council. Privatization of public services translates to election season boon.

Metro's non-profit patrons may not be going out to spend grant money on their own personal travel or in faraway department stores. But you can bet that they will be working and mobilizing come election time to keep their government spigots open. In a Metro budget climate of diminishing returns for public services that's a net loss. Neither Steine nor Kerr should be crowing about that. But they do have a Mayor's Office to patronize.

John Early Principal Exercises Some Online Damage Control

Showcased at John Early Middle School's webpage on the MNPS website in the midst of a civil rights controversy that includes a judge's order to MNPS to provide the school with textbooks by tomorrow:

Judge Orders Metro to Put Same Textbooks West Nashville Kids Have in the Hands of North Nashville Kids within 24 Hours

News 2 with the outrageous news that implicates the Metro School system in failing to live up to its commitment to spend more money on north Nashville schools in exchange for ending busing to west Nashville schools:

The Scene's Jeff Woods follows up with a breathless account of what happened in District Court:

The NAACP's lawyer, Larry Woods, took full advantage of the media attention.

"The Metro school board doesn't do anything but tell lies about this," Woods declared. "They want black children kept in north Nashville where white people don't have to see them or think about them."

.... If the city is spending $6 million a year to improve inner-city schools, a key ingredient in the rezoning plan, "then why don't we have textbooks for the sixth grade at John Early," Woods demanded to know. "Where's the extra resources they promised? They can't even get schoolbooks into north Nashville.

"I don't understand why every school board member didn't back their cars up to the Tennessee state schoolbook warehouse and deliver these books to these schools already."

Haynes granted both the NAACP's demands after an hour-long hearing in which Metro lawyers tried to dismiss the situation as an unfortunate, yet commonplace snafu. Metro lawyer Jim Charles blamed John Early's principal.

"She didn't order enough books," he told the judge, adding later "she didn't order them in a timely fashion."

He insisted Metro could deliver textbooks to the school by Friday. "Tonight would be a lot better," Woods snapped.

The judge was nonplussed. "Where is the book depository? You mean you can't get a bus to go out there or a car or a van to go out and get these books?" he asked before ordering the textbooks brought to the school within 24 hours.

That was a gutless, spineless defense by Metro lawyers in hanging the responsibility around the principal's neck. After school board chair and Chamber of Commerce darling David Fox guaranteed that John Early would be among the cluster of schools given first consideration in expenditures, it seems to me that Mr. Fox should have been on the front lines himself at school opening here in the north, making sure at the very least that no principal or teacher would obstruct his follow through or deliver such an embarrassing blow to his credibility.

Metro government is strong executive, which means that our chief cannot keep having his captains pass the buck to principals and MDHA directors for what are flaws in his own administration of government. Karl Dean promised during his 2007 campaign that generating a higher quality in Nashville schools would be among his highest priorities. Ultimately, he should be held personally responsible for these failures. Captaining a ship that cannot follow through with the simple act of getting north Nashville children the same textbooks west Nashville kids get reflects the same old broken patterns of the past, not to mention a growing number of broken campaign promises.

Another MDHA Embarrassment at the Homelessness Commission

MDHA's Homelessness Commission Director has been put on 90-day probation by the commission for awarding a computer security contract without publicizing it to other companies. The Tennessean reports that Commission Chair Erik Cole admitted that the governing body--which includes former Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, current Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, and MDHA Director Phil Ryan--failed to carefully supervise staff.

Setting the Record Straight on Tony G.

Truth be told about a checkered past at the Nashville Scene's Love-Hate Mail section:

Tell Tony no
Giarratana has done nothing but destroy historic buildings and change our skyline for the worse ("The Signature Tower and May Town Center are far from sure things. Is Tony Giarratana's legacy as Nashville's development king up in the air?" Aug. 6)—e.g., taking the iconic L&C Tower out of our skyline.

Why anyone would not speak up before he tore down the Tennessee Theater and the Sudekum Building is beyond me. And FYI, he did not convert the Bennie Dillon Building into lofts. It had already been converted into beautiful lofts five years previous to his buying the building and giving renters the ultimatum of paying his over-inflated prices or get out. He bought the building and claimed to have converted them.

I know he didn't convert them because I had lived there for three years when he quietly went through my apartment several times with his posse, thinking I would never know. But I had a neighbor who informed me each time. When I would ask management about it, of course they denied it.

That is the MO of his management team, and that is his way of doing business. I don't understand why articles whine about his presence here, yet no one will speak up. Just say no to him, then there will be no need to keep putting his "big ideas" in the paper.

J.D. Robertson

Local Landscape Architect Promotes Salemtown Streetscape Design in Her Online Projects List

Carol Ashworth has published a write-up and mock-up of the Salemtown Neighborhood identification signs that are almost ready to be put up at several places around the neighborhood. As a member of the advisory committee that motivated Ms. Ashworth to come up with this design, I am most pleased with this concept. It ties the historic character of our community with the practicality of "vandal resistance" into an attractive and unusual design for neighborhood ID signage. It fits nearly exactly with what we asked her to do and I have not seen anything like this design anywhere else in Nashville. She e-mailed me last week to say that the signs are almost ready to install.

Because it's the only way anyone outside of the Mayor's Office will ever be allowed to influence the convention center project

Metro CFO Rich Riebeling sounds like he's had enough of the reaction formation and pansy-ass criticism against the botched roll-out of the Mayor's Music City Center:

"I'm tired of being told we're not doing it the right way. If people have a better way, they can run for mayor."

Either sit down and shut up or start your own exploratory committee. Otherwise, stop acting like we're supposed to live in a democracy.

Video Mashup of Gore/Clinton Appearances in Nashville

Christian Grantham mashes it up so we don't have to:

Converting Urban Commercial to Mixed-Use Residential

Newport News, Virginia is dealing with the question of urban repurposing and infill:

reuse makes sense for urban spots that are no longer as economically viable, attractive or popular as they once were. That's the case for these warehouses along the railroad tracks in Hilton, which have more vacancies than going businesses.

Recycling city land reduces sprawl, and that's a good thing. When new residential developments spread into surrounding counties, claiming open land, woods and fields, there's a big downside.

Poli Sci Prof Asks for Fair Treatment of Tennessean Reporter on Enclave

Dr. Sekou Franklin left the following comment in response to my post a Tennessean reporter's coverage of the question of racial profiling in North Nashville. I thought it remarkable enough to be brought to the surface in a post rather than relegated a link removed to the comments section:

Sir,

I read your comments about Janell Ross and her piece in The Tennessean. I've been reading your blog for some time now and enjoy reading your comments. Although I must admit, I disagree with some of them. Also, I've learned a great deal from your insight. However, I think you need to be more fair in some of your analyses. Before moving further, I should say that I too live in North Nashville (11th and Buchanan), and I know and respect your neighborhood association leader (Freddie O'Connell). I've also done a considerable amount of work with progressive and social justice organizations in Nashville.

Though Ms. Ross is not perfect, her general observation about racial profiling is correct. Racial profiling and borderline unwarrented stops of many black residents -- stops that presumably would not happen in Green Hills -- are common occurences in North Nashville. (I have been unfairly stopped.)

The Ross piece was the first time the Nashville media exposed what seems like an established policy by the police department. I think Serpas believes minor traffic stops can prevent more serious crimes - a kind of "broken windows" approach applied to Nashville. That is, if he could increase the number of stops in high-crime areas -- stops based on minor violations (i.e. playing loud music, driving with a broken headlights, going 5 mph past the speed limit -- then it gives the police leverage to check driver licenses for warrents, past felonies, etc, and potentially make arrests. Accordingly, penalizing small violations in high-crime neighborhoods can prevent more serious crimes. I believe this is the police department's official policy. The research is, indeed, controversial and I have some problems with it. The challenge with this policy, if it is an official one, is that similar traffic/driving violations occur in middle-class and upper-middle class communities, but consequences appear to be much less. For example, if one goes to traffic court, an overwhelming number of the people seem to be African-American. It hasn't caused much public controversy because Serpas has been fairly saavy and sophisticated about courting established black leaders to back his policies (this is a common belief among progressive black activists). Moreover, there are some blacks, including working-class blacks, who are willing to support any policy -- even a policy that may lead to racial profiling -- as long as it can stop crime.

Further, a general concern among black activists is that some residents of Germantown, Salemtown, and Hope Gardens may receive different levels of treatment from the police because of the influx of whites (and some black professionals) who now leverage influence via the neighborhood associations. In other words, it's possible that the police department treats white residents (and even some black middle class residents) in North Nashville communities. I'm sure this requires some research, but a similar debate took place in East Nashville three years ago.

As I stated earlier, Ms. Ross is not perfect. I also know for a fact that her editors often scale back some of her articles, and as a result, the context tends to be sacrificed. Some of her original pieces (before they are chopped up by her editors), I've heard, have more context and nuisance. Based on my experiences with her, most of her articles about race are informed by previous conversations with people, often activists or residents directly affected by the problem. These individuals often approach her for pieces, which then must be approved by her editors. Her Salemtown article, most likely, did not come out of thin air. She probably was approached by someone -- maybe even someone in the Salemtown community -- to write the piece. Also, in terms of her article, the NAACP organized the town hall, which was a spin-off of CNN's Black in America meeting. They set the agenda, invited multiple speakers, etc. Her story was not based on an opinion, but reported the content of the town hall.

Sincerely,


Sekou Franklin

Neighborhoods Hardest Hit by Katrina Not Having the Happier Anniversary the Rest of New Orleans Is

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

With other hard-hit but more affluent New Orleans neighborhoods staging remarkable comebacks, the traditionally poor and predominantly African American Lower Ninth Ward remains in limbo. Nobody knows whether it is headed toward revival or ultimate collapse.

New Orleans has regained roughly 75 percent of its pre-Katrina population. For the Lower Ninth Ward, 20 percent of its former 14,000 inhabitants would be a generous estimate ....

In the Lower Ninth Ward, chest-high weeds separate the foundations of houses smashed by the waters or demolished afterward. Street numbers of long-gone houses are spray-painted on curbs. The few still standing bear the fading tattoos left by rescue teams after the great deluge ....

toward the Mississippi River, a cluster of functional, built-to-last brick-and-wood houses with solar panels nurtures the hope of a full recovery. The Make It Right Foundation, headed by actor Brad Pitt, is at work there.

Such charitable efforts, the constant presence of volunteers from all over the country, and the tireless work of neighborhood associations are the best source of hope

Entrepreneurbia: New Urbanist Folly of Zoning-Free Neighborhoods

Amy Traub looks at a suburban design competition winner based on a rather noxious mix of new urbanism and the unrealized myth of a "free" market:

And that idea is simple: get rid of the zoning regulations that prevent commercial businesses from operating in residential areas. Then, stand back and watch entrepreneurs transform suburban subdivisions into flourishing mixed-use areas.

As a serious proposal, this leaves a lot to be desired. Consider that the marquee business is a single-family home turned nightclub. I may be raising my family in Manhattan, but even I don't want thumping music next door until 3 a.m. every night. And who wants to wake up to find their neighbor's house suddenly transformed into a medical waste disposal firm, or a dog kennel? In general, it's a good thing zoning regulations exist. The answer isn't simply to "abolish poorly conceived zoning laws," but to conceive better ones, laws that allow for mixed use areas, denser development, and the infrastructure to handle it (a significant weakness of the Entrepreneurbia design, as several commenters pointed out) without necessarily letting a disco spring up on every corner.

I'm perpetually arguing with doctrinaire conservatives on one side and progressive urbanists on the other about the wisdom of easing residential zoning restrictions or boxing out neighborhood feedback in order to allow commercial enterprise in residential zones. The assumption from my opponents seems to be naive and overly optimistic: boutique shops, hip restaurants, and coffee bars will magically emerge as if every neighborhood could be Germantown or 5 Points.

The market reality is that every neighborhood cannot be trendy and otherwise innocuous. There will still be niches for unpalatable businesses like car washes, pawn shops, and convenience stores. I have yet to see new urbanists flocking to the idea of designing for those kinds of establishments. Yet, once zoning rules and public feedback requirements are relaxed, and as we open residential zoning to mixed-use and commercial development, the genie is out of the bottle. We have to accept any kind of business that chooses to locate next to our home. If its a used book store, great. If it's a quick-sacked, brown-bag liquor store, not so much.

Part of the problem with living in Salemtown is that we live right next to a neighborhood that already has an established restaurant line-up and a growing mixed-use boutique culture. Relaxing residential zoning here may promote the same. However, I believe that relaxation is just as likely to invite less than desirable lower tier businesses because the restaurant and boutique market is already saturated a few blocks down. Germantown's über-popular Monell's recently filed for bankruptcy, which reinforces my perception that there may not be much more room for new neighborhood restaurants, wishful thinking aside.

In the final analysis, developers and entrepreneurs who want to relax residential zoning to allow mixed-use should have to make their case to neighborhoods and under the strictures of sub-area plans. That is the only way to insure that undesirable businesses don't encroach on residential quality of life.

Tennessean Reporter Owes the Problem of Racial Profiling More Than She Gives

Janell Ross is at it again. Nearly one year ago Ms. Ross trotted out a Tennessean story full of unsubstantiated anecdotes about an unnamed market in Salemtown or Germantown near which paranoid whites sicked the police on African Americans merely due to race. Not only was it disputable; it was marred by factual errors.

So, you'll excuse me if I take Ms. Ross's piece on racial profiling in this morning's Tennessean with a grain of salt. It likewise seems less about North Nashville neighborhoods and more about her own presupposed narrative about what happens in the community. Her focus on alleged racial profiling by police in North Nashville seems flawed and her past missteps merely reinforce my perception.

The problem of racial profiling is real and those who fight it deserve stronger evidence than anecdotes, apples-to-oranges comparisons, and reporters who approach neighborhoods with their own preconceived and erroneous agendas. The opponents of racial profiling deserve data ironclad by reporters who mine it objectively and make relevant comparisons between communities.

A better method of exposing racial profiling would be to investigate directly the actual traffic stops as they occur on the streets. However, the risk in doing that is the reporter may discover that the traffic stops may be more bonafide than a superficial glance at the statistics suggests.

For instance, if Ms. Ross ventures around the Salemtown neighborhood many mornings before 8:00 she will find police standing with radar guns curbside near the corner of Rosa Parks Boulevard and Hume Street stopping cars along one of the most heavily used rush hour corridors into Downtown. Why are they not out casing local gambling houses? Because they are trying to prevent speeders from racing through a 3-block area where 3 crosswalks serve K-4 kids walking to 2 schools.

Whenever I see the officers as I drive my kid to school, they seem to be stopping speeders headed from I-65 to Downtown in droves. I'm sure that area alone consistently feeds the traffic stop statistics with high numbers. Would I prefer that the police be out apprehending the visitmusiccity.com's new convention center lobbyist as he frequents area gambling houses? Not if having the traffic stop saves a single child's life as she walks to school.

These are the sorts of details that Janell Ross ignores. She should either compare these District 19 traffic stops to similar contexts in other districts or she should factor out traffic stops that obviously do not constitute racial profiling. But she cannot do either by interviewing Erica Gilmore or a social psychologist from California.

As for my council member's comments, I don't know which neighborhoods CM Gilmore is speaking about with regard to police sitting at traffic stops on the periphery but not entering the center, but I see the police patrols in cruisers in Salemtown (which according to Metro is 83% African American) on almost a daily basis. I see cops on bikes and horses patrolling alleys and streets around 2 or 3 times a week. Again, Ms. Ross's reportage does not fit with my experience in a North Nashville neighborhood. Given last year's botched story, I am not surprised.

Explain to me how this does not constitute lobbying of Metro Council by McNeely, Pigott, & Fox

According to Channel 4 News, MDHA released e-mails from powerful PR firm that seem to sustain claims that the firm lobbied rather than advised Metro Council on behalf of the plan to build a new convention center:

The e-mails show it was clearly the PR firm's intent to get the project approved by council, even though some elected officials opposed it.

On June 27, 2008, partner David Fox wrote, "We all worked very hard for a long time to see the Music City Center become a reality." He invited MDHA's Phil Ryan and others to a meeting to "help continue the forward momentum."

Fox mentioned "the celebration" when MHDA was chosen to oversee the project -- a decision some in council now regret, blaming MDHA failure to cap the PR firm's spending.

The e-mails show the partners at the PR firm, who were billing MDHA $285 an hour, wrote speeches and presentations for Ryan -- in March 2009, for example, writing a sheet of questions and answers about the project for Ryan to send to council members.

Advisers don't invite, celebrate, or write talking points sheets for 3rd parties.

It's Now or Never

Chris Vance opines that Barack Obama is running out of time to be a catalyst for progressive change and is likely to become a diminishing-returns replica of Bill Clinton:

The Obama presidency won’t be doomed if the public option and cap-and-trade fail to pass. If the normal trends of the business cycle prevail and the economy recovers before 2012, Obama will probably be re-elected. But like Bill Clinton before him, Barack Obama will have lost his chance to become the historic liberal change-agent he aspires to be. Republicans will likely eat into the Democrats’ huge congressional majorities in 2010. Obama’s moment is now.

Housing Market's New Normal

Economist Krugman says that while we won't see a reinflation of the previous housing market bubble, housing prices seem to be stablizing on the way to recovery.

More of what's wrong with local media

The SouthComm Nashville beat reporter spends around half of an article on CM Mike Jameson's political career (six years or so on Metro Council) talking about Dean administration initiatives of the last two years.

He also repeats the descriptive opinions of Mayor's Office vendetta against Jameson as fact:

Dean supporters ... dislike his flair for the dramatic.

He writes as if it is objective fact that Jameson has a dramatic flair to dislike.

The City Paper has been through something like three Nashville beat reporters in the time Jameson has been in office. Where does Johnny-come-lately Nate Rau get off assuming the Courthouse communications bias du jour without reviewing the entire council career of Mike Jameson? Repeating the Dean meme, "Jameson-is-grandstanding," and bending it toward idle speculation about the opportunism of a future campaign must keep reporters out of the Dean dog house, too. (Note that, with Rau, whenever Jameson doesn't criticize Dean initiatives, it's because he's in the Mayor's dog house).

This is more shoddy, shilling SouthComm reporting that looks like a veiled hit piece designed to frame subtle interpretations of an erstwhile Karl Dean supporter who chose to oppose on principle.