How about some hospitality for Nashville?

Jay Voorhees is perplexed with the hospitality industry's sense of entitlement. Why is it fine for them to go rogue on the convention center matter?

Isn’t the discretion to tax solely at the hands of our elected representatives who are considering the overall needs of the city rather than at the hands of a specific industry who is looking for public assistance to enhance their businesses?

Okay, I know that it’s a naive and idealistic question. Government works hand in hand with business to create opportunities for those businesses. However what I find troubling is that we have a firmly established tax that has been in place for 30 years without hindering the hospitality industry which that industry is demanding is only used for their purposes without any concern for the broader needs of the city. Nashville is much more than tourists and hotels, and it would be nice to hear the hospitality industry address how they fit into the fabric of the entire city, not simply their little fishbowl which represents a portion of our economy.

But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised, for WHEN has the hospitality industry (including, and maybe especially Gaylord) as a whole EVER done anything that considers the character of our city beyond turning into a plastic tourist trap?

Jay goes on to point out that the commercial growth that the industry brought also came at a stern price to local businesses with unique character. More after the jump.

Local media fails to deliver important news

Bruce Barry on the information blackout of the poll of Nashville voters that WSMV released in a late Friday news dump last week:

unless you watch Channel 4 (or read Pith or other blogs), you would know nothing about the poll because other news organizations in the city have ignored the WSMV-commissioned survey. Four days have gone by since the poll came out, and there has been no concrete mention of its findings in either The Tennessean or The City Paper nor on the news websites of any of the other local TV stations. Only the Nashville Business Journal picked up on the poll, six paragraphs into a story posted Monday.

It is predictable that any information that ever came out about public backlash or considerable opposition to the new convention center would be marginalized or boycotted by the mainstream media.

Short notice on latest North Nashville convention center public forum

I just received this announcement from CM Erica Gilmore a few minutes ago:

Metropolitan Black Caucus

host

A Public Forum on Governmental Minority Contracting

Metropolitan Police Department-North Precinct

2231 – 26th Avenue, North
Nashville, TN 37208

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Panelist: Michelle Lane (Mayor’s Office), Roxanne Bethune (MDHA), Amber Gooding (Airport Authority), Almetta Bonds (NES)



Sponsored by the

Metropolitan Black Caucus

615 862-6780

UPDATE: Tennessean's Michael Cass tells me that this forum was announced last week.

An age when tourists become more important than water

Yesterday I pointed out that had Music City Center actually been existing this past weekend and holding its capacity of conventions (boosters say it will be able to manage 3 at one time) with Saturday's water main breaks, the results might have been catastrophic. As you can see from this News 2 report, the broken mains and resulting flooding shut down sidewalks, streets and businesses while amounting to big losses Saturday, Sunday, and Monday:

Several downtown blocks remain shutdown Monday after multiple water main breaks over the weekend.

Broadway between Third Avenue and Riverfront Park is closed, along with Second Avenue from Commerce Street to the north and Demonbreun Street to the south.

Sonia Harvat, spokesperson for Metro Water Services, told News 2 Sunday the utility will hire a company to lay replacement pipes but that will take a few days and businesses in the area could be without water for at least another day.

"There are still people without water," said Harvat, referencing businesses like BB King's and the Wildhorse Saloon. "As a matter of fact, all of the businesses on Second Avenue were without water all [Saturday] and into [Sunday] morning."

CM Mike Jameson told Pith in the Wind today that the initial estimates for replacing the century-old mains are in the millions:

"They fixed it and then it rebroke. These are pipes that were put in, I kid you not, beginning in the 1890s. The most recent pipe we have there is a vintage 1910. So they're going to replace the whole thing. We're talking about from First Avenue up Broad to the courthouse and then both directions of Second Avenue. The initial estimate was we can get this done in about four weeks. Now they're beyond three months. Initial estimates were at $4 million. Now they've just stopped calculating."

The real problem here is that the industry-influenced courthouse culture has put growth ahead of instrastructure. That's like putting the cart before the horse. They're willing to build a high-tech tourist box on top of a horse-and-buggy-era water system without a second thought to consequences if the weather turns as bad as it has since Christmas.

Nashville has neglected its infrastructure for decades and now the chickens are coming home to roost for Downtown businesses. But I can guarantee you the merchants won't see the lesson in these losses. They'll somehow twist it into a case for the Music City Center. That's misguided and brash when the problem that needs fixing is the infrastructure hidden under their feet. Nashville leaders have somehow turned priorities inside out by placing growth ahead of infrastructure as if cosmetic surgery can be performed on a boneless, frameless bag of skin. This weekend showed the folly of such an approach.

If the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests had buckled down while times were good with the proverbial weather fair, we might have a state-of-the-art retrofit for our water system providing a strong foundation for a convention center with low risk of catastrophic failure under duress. Having a football stadium, hockey arena, and new convention center are little solace when your water goes out for days thanks to our reliance on technology developed in the late 19th Century. And failures sure as hell won't satisfy unlucky tourists who happen to visit Nashville at the time.

But now we are forced to pay to make repairs; and on top of those expenses, Nashville will pay for water damage and worker overtime and for any other extra expense that might have been avoided had we committed to attend to our crumbling infrastructure. In the meantime, Metro Council is moving to approve the Music City Center, which will sap money that could be used to cover the cost of our infrastructure losses. Everything is backwards.

Union leader: public opposition to new convention center consistent with membership's views

Mark Naccarato, political and communications coordinator of SEIU Local 205, responded to the WSMV poll showing strong opposition to Music City Center:

The results of the Channel 4 poll are consistent with the results of an automated poll we did of our union's members who work for Metro Nashville, though our poll found that city workers were much more against the project than the general population. The WSMV findings are also consistent with a poll that Nashville's Priorities did as well. The supporters of the Music City Center can no longer claim that these are push polls or aberrations. There is a steady pattern here and, if anything, opposition is growing to the project as more and more people learn about it.

We think that the most fascinating numbers are those who say that they would be less likely to vote to re-elect a council member who voted for the MCC. While this is certainly the sentiment we've been hearing at the community meetings over the last month or so, it is still shocking to see such a wide cross section of the public willing to punish their representatives for voting for the $1 billion project ... The elected representatives need to know that the public is against this.

Support for Music City Center slips to small minority of voters in latest independent poll at WSMV

The latest results of a WSMV poll released on Friday indicates that support for building a new convention center is only expressed by one-quarter of Nashville voters:

The scientific poll found that 26 percent of those polled supported Nashville's plans to build and finance the Music City Center. Fifty percent rejected the idea. Twenty-one percent were undecided. The remainder were unfamiliar with the issue.

An early 2007 poll showed support for a new convention center 10 points higher with opposition basically identical to the latest poll. Given the $400,000 PR spin paid out of Metro funds over the last year, I think that it is remarkable that support for Music City Center remains low and apparently sinking. Imagine how low the support might be if the various lobbyists, ad men, and consultants had not been paid to change public opinion on this high-ticket item in the middle of a recession. So far the list of spin merchants includes McNeeley, Pigott, & Fox (who pocketed the $400,000), Cooley Public Strategies, and Seigenthaler Public Relations.

But the bad news for Music City Center does not end with plummeting public support. A huge majority of voters in the poll, 72%, support the idea of delaying construction in order to hold a referendum on MCC. Even though a referendum would cost a little less than what Metro paid a private PR firm to market MCC, voters believe that having one is important to the municipal process. That seems to me to vindicate Nashville Priorities' calls for a referendum on MCC.

Not the circuit the Mayor prepared for

Genma Holmes followed Mayor Karl Dean's appearance on Nashville radio station 92Q this morning to take questions on his convention center plan. During her live tweets she observed that "The Big Station's" audience phoned in some hard questions on jobs, schools, taxes, and revenues for minority community development for which the Mayor seemed unprepared. Here's how Genma summed it up:

No cred in selling MCC

While I have a legion of concerns about the Music City Center proposal, one aspect continues to stick out like a sore thumb to me in reflecting on last week's North Precinct public forum. In making their case on Wednesday to a group of about 100 people, MCC boosters argued that Nashville's success depends on us building on what we already do well, tourism and convention hosting, and that funding a new convention complex so builds.

But a few minutes later that same team noted that when the old convention center was built in the 1980s it was new territory. They asserted that it was a bold act that Nashville had never attempted before intended to clean up blighted Lower Broadway. They also noted that it didn't do well the first few years.

However, this second point crosses purposes with the first. The proposed Music City Center isn't bold and it isn't addressing a community quality of life problem. It won't be breaking new ground. It won't be going where no Nashvillian has ever gone before.

The proposal is conservative and conventional. Even the proposed green roof capping the box is optional. Boosters tell us the revenues will eventually trickle down to the community, but its main purpose is to line the pockets local industry and to keep politicians in power.

If MCC were a bolder, more inclusive proposal that spread dividends around widely and more evenly then I would be inclined to support it. But the very contradiction of building on what we've done best as opposed to doing something new and unpredictable is a reason why MCC is hurting for credibility.

Man of the people

According to the Tennessean, CM Mike Jameson values the public input he gets from forums unlike any other leader:

Councilman Mike Jameson, who represents parts of downtown and East Nashville and is highly skeptical of the proposal, said he doesn't understand why some of his colleagues aren't meeting their constituents in a public forum. He and a few other council members will hold a joint meeting Tuesday night, while the full council will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

"These are the sorts of things council members do," Jameson said. "I hold them to rezone coffee shops. There are Norman Rockwell paintings depicting community meetings."

I've got a suggestion for those other CMs interviewed for the story who say they aren't holding public meetings because they are more likely to attract outsiders instead of constituents. Perhaps if you developed public forums as a habit like CM Jameson instead of a one-shot, special event, then the constituents would outnumber the special interests in these more controversial meetings. No excuses.

It clicks with what I experienced

Michael Cass's report of last Wednesday's convention center public forum at the North Police Precinct fits my perception of how the meeting went:

The meeting in North Nashville ran smoothly, with those on both sides of the debate, who seemed nearly evenly split, calmly asking questions and offering their points of view. Several representatives of the construction industry argued that the project would create jobs for minority-owned businesses. But other people wondered why there wasn't more of a political appetite for redeveloping Jefferson Street and North Nashville.

Indeed most of the support expressed came from attendees who self-identified as working in industry that would directly benefit from building the Music City Center. I was disappointed to hear Steve Turner, challenger for Salemtown's General Assembly district house seat, speak enthusiastically in favor of the MCC without acknowledging community concerns. While I don't vote on single issues, this definitely cools any energy I might have in advocating Mr. Turner's run.

On the other side, long-time Germantown resident Berdell Campbell gave her well-received comments against MCC, referring almost sermonically to what we were told the project would cost originally in comparison to the skyrocketing costs now.

District 19 CM Erica Gilmore, who co-sponsored this meeting of about 100 constituents, deserves our heartfelt thanks. The word on the street is that she is undecided if not playing her hand close to the vest. I hear that most of the opposition to MCC in 19 is north of Jefferson Street, while she's getting pressure from Downtown merchants to vote for MCC. Please take a moment to send her an email (erica.gilmore@nashville.gov) and encourage her to slow this process down until we can be assured that the Metro budget is not raided to pay for it. There is no reason to ram MCC through until we can begin to see light at the end of our recession tunnel.

Music City Center über allen: kein Schteine aber ein Cole

UPDATE: GoldnI has some choice words for knee-jerk anonymous commenters who pose self-righteously indignant over using this recurring internet meme to express beliefs about the Dean administration's single-minded commitment to MCC. Morality can be such a convenient matter for some:

The issue of whether these Hitler "Downfall" parodies are offensive has been beaten to death. Plenty of Jewish blogs and news sites (this one included, a year ago) have examined the issue. I can't speak for everyone, but the conclusion I came to is that one of the best ways to fight back against anti-Semitism is to show Hitler and his followers as people to be mocked, not feared. Let's not forget that mocking Hitler actually occupies an important place in Jewish comedic history.

There's a difference, of course, between accusing your political opponents of being Nazis just to score cheap points and merely inserting their names into a well-used Internet meme, even if one of them happen to be Jewish. Would you say that in the Tebow video above, the person who made that is seriously accusing Georgia fans of being Nazis?

Richland West End Neighborhood Association bans listserv discussion of convention center

Convention center critic, Mike Peden, sent me a notice from a Richland West End association officer that expressly prohibits discussion of the Music City Center proposal:

In keeping with our policy, the RWENA Listserv monitors will take all necessary steps to remove and prevent future posts regarding the Convention Center issue. If neighbors wish to discuss this issue privately or in any other forum, they are welcome to do so, but not on the RWENA Listserv. The ROWENA BOD has not taken a position in the Convention Center discussions and debate of such topics is an inappropriate use of the RWENA Listserv.

Mike tells me that not only have discussions of other municipal issues been allowed, but the day after this ban notice went out, someone posted a messsage to the RWENA listserv encouraging members to "boycott" the petition requesting a referendum on the convention center proposal with the point "We need a new convention center".

I made a couple of attempts to contact RWENA leaders, including emailing their president. My attempts have gone unanswered so far. RWENA members are welcome to comment at Enclave on this issue. Maybe we can crowdsource what's going on at RWENA since I can't seem to get info from the leadership.

Those robust, weakling real estate markets

Paul Krugman underscores the stupidity of opposing smart growth in Metro areas in the name of "free" market dogma:

someone will surely raise the claim that this shows that you mustn’t have “smart growth” policies because they cause housing bubbles. Can I say that this is deeply stupid? On one side, we’re supposed to believe that markets are efficient and wonderful; on the other, we’re supposed to believe that anything which constrains buildable land — which, you know, sometimes happens for entirely natural reasons — will send markets into wild irrational swings. Those poor, fragile, omnipotent markets, able to handle anything except mild government intervention…

CM Buddy Baker ignores debate, won't have community meeting on convention center proposal

According to Charlotte Park leaders commenting on the Nashville Neighborhoods list, Dist. 20 CM Buddy Baker says he will vote for the Mayor's convention center proposal and he has failed or refused to schedule a public meeting to consider community comments or questions.

On the ruins of "developers' credit-bubble hubris"

In New York City there's a move afoot to take housing in former working class communities like Flatbush back from wealthy serial flippers and make it affordable living space for dwellers left behind in the recession.

Gulch business group/Metro "unit" lobbies Metro CM Gilmore for convention center

This afternoon, 24 hours before the event, Dist. 19 CM Erica Gilmore sent out an announcement to her constituents about the community meeting she is co-hosting with Dist. 2 CM Frank Harrison at the North Nashville Police Precinct regarding the proposed convention center.

Less than an hour later, a board member with the Gulch Business Improvement District, a non-profit that promotes business in the Gulch, replied to CM Gilmore expressing the organization's support for the new convention center:

Thanks for the invite.

I am on the board of the Gulch Business Improvement District and we discussed this matter collectively as a board last month and we definitely support the new convention center and believe it is a definite asset to our city.

What is your and Councilman Harrison’s position on the new convention center?

Thanks,

Michael Lindseth
NextGen Properties, LLC

According to a June 2009 audit of the Gulch Business Improvement District, the organization is considered a "component unit of Metro" due to its fiscal dependence on Metro government. GBID was established "to administer special assessment revenues collected by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County ... under a memorandum of understanding with Metro."

Lindseth's reply to Gilmore was also copied to CM Harrison, CM Jason Holleman, State Senator Thelma Harper and a host of Gulch business leaders. That group included:

• Dirk Melton of MarketStreet Enterprises, which takes credit for forming the obviously well-connected GBID
• Tommy Pierce, founder of A+ Storage
• Brenda Buffett of Buffett Design Studio
• Burgin Dossett, VP of Crosland Tennessee
• David Bohan of Bohan Advertising
• Loretta Owens, Executive Director of The Housing Fund, which developed the Gulch's Laurel House Apartments; current CM Erik Cole is a board member

Not sure yet whether CM Gilmore replied to the Gulch business/Metro "unit" interest group.


UPDATE: More from the 2009 audit regarding GBID's dependence on Metro government:

The Organization receives substantially all of its revenue from its agreement with Metro through local government special assessments. Should Metro discontinue this arrangement, the Organization would no longer be able to continue its operations without obtaining alternative sources of revenue.

Quote of the day

Southern Beale responding to news that convention center booster groups are hosting a pep rally to precede the Music City Center public hearing at the Courthouse on January 11:

Why do I get the feeling that this will look a lot like the “Brooks Brothers Riot” of GOP congressional staffers which shut down the 200[0] Florida recount?

Cul-de-false-sense-of-security

Fast Company blog notes to the chagrin of developers that cul-de-sacs may be going the way of 8-track car players:

Earlier this year Virginia became the first state to encourage walkable neighborhoods by limiting the use of cul-de-sacs. State rules now require that subdivisions have through streets connecting them to adjacent residences and shopping areas. Developments that ignore the new rules will be denied snowplowing and other state services. Research shows that neighborhoods with more street connections and intersections reduce car use. Some of the country's most progressive-minded cities, including Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas, have also made it difficult to build new cul-de-sac subdivisions.

Jump to the blog to read more, like how the suburban cul-de-sanctum is practically an urban myth.

Voodoo economics

Deep Thought

Mayor Dean's vision is not so much a convention center as it is a conventional center.