Those donations ought to buy a blowout tonight at the Adventure Science Center

"I scored $500,000 in donations, politicized the flood and beat a homeless guy.
This is one historic election party!"

Historic?

Leave it to the flacks to overspin the case.

Neighbors for Progress poses as community-based, but is fed by outside donations

Astroturf. That's what it seemed to me beginning late last year when the same small number of representatives from self-styled "neighborhood" organization, Neighbors for Progress, appeared at council meetings during Fairgrounds discussion. Then, they could only muster 35 supporters during the pivotal council public hearing against 3,000 advocates for racetrack preservation.

While the mainstream news media continued to spin Colby Sledge et al. as a neighborhood group, I continued to insist that NFP looked like an extension of Davidson County Democrats who had a financial interest in selling the Fairgrounds to private developers. While their website promoted a community-based movement committed to installing a park, in a pinch they were getting help from very powerful people including a lawyer last minute to try and derail their opponents before the referendum.

Not even handing out t-shirts could make them grassroots

So, now I'm not surprised at all that the media has finally dug up NFP's financial ties to partisan politicos (nor am I surprised that the embarrassing media reports are coming so late in the game to minimize the damage):

Campaign efforts of the fairgrounds area organization Neighbors for Progress aren’t funded by actual fairgrounds neighbors.

Rather, the group’s modest amount of money has come from former Mayor Karl Dean strategist Will Pinkston, investor John Cooper and a political action committee dubbed Building Nashville Together, financial reports submitted to the Davidson County Election Commission last week reveal.

The organization, which supports Dean’s vision for redeveloping the 117-acre property, has made only one political play during Metro’s election season: issuing a negative campaign mail-piece against District 24 Councilman Jason Holleman, who is trying to fend off challenger Sarah Lodge Tally and her army of pro-Dean supporters. Holleman has questioned the mayor’s handling of the fairgrounds issue.

“I think the disclosure demonstrates that Neighbors for Progress was a political attack operation, not any kind of neighborhood organization,” Holleman said.

Pinkston, a former aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen who briefly worked on Dean’s re-election team, contributed $1,000 to Neighbors for Progress. Cooper donated $700. Building Nashville Together contributed $1,500.

Neighbors for Progress is not very effective at organizing people so they have to rely on organized money given by some very powerful people in the Democratic Party, many of whom have ties to Mayor Karl Dean. Colby Sledge admitted to the City Paper that they cannot muster any influence without the help of these partisan sources. That admission does not allay my perceptions about NFP.

By the way, Building Nashville Together is a 527 organization whose chair is a former campaign manager for Jeff Yarbro, who is closely tied to Karl Dean, too. BNT has been paying people to canvass neighborhoods for Dean-friendly candidates for Metro Council, no doubt to grease the wheels on future projects like the Mayor's Fairgrounds "redevelopment" scheme.

Paid out $10,000 helping Deaniacs like Tanaka Vercher and CM Anna Page

If you can't organize people to help you at the grassroots you can always buy some influence to mobilize the voters you believe you need. And money spent now may just flip future council votes to Karl Dean.

Salemtown's Fehr School is nominated for the "Nashville Nine"

Last year after I publicly wondered how Salemtown's historic Fehr School building could be left off the Nashville Nine list of endangered properties, the president of Historic Nashville, Inc encouraged me to nominate it this year. Today I followed his suggestion and here is how I answered their questions:

If this site is endangered, what is the nature of threat?

The Fehr School is currently being used by the Metro Action Commission for government assistance, and there are plans that have been discussed with the Salemtown neighborhood association for renovations and alterations to the 87-year-old building. Under the previous Mayor plans were discussed with the association for selling to private developers. In both cases preservation has not been given priority.

Neighborhood leaders are concerned that drastic renovations or alterations could compromise the historic character and integrity of the building.


What is the historical significance of the site?

Besides being almost 100 years old, the Fehr School building was at the center of the Nashville Movement to desegregate public schools 60 years ago. In September 1957 the building was surrounded by segregationist protesters who formed gauntlets against African American families who walked their children to school to help desegregate Nashville Schools. Fehr School also survived segregationist bomb threats.


Documentation?

Historical research has been archived on the events at Fehr School. A summary of the research can be found at these links:

http://bit.ly/rsWqsD

http://bit.ly/qJBNpI


Is there a community commitment or affinity group for saving the site? Are there long-term goals for the site? Briefly state the goals, if they exist.

Salemtown Neighbors has started a petition to try to leverage historical protections for the building.


What is the threat to this property?

Redevelopment and/or "re-purposing" to reorient the building away from the street and away from its educational context. Tear-down seems more remote, but there is nothing stopping demolition as things stand. Given Nashville's tear-down proclivities, we should do everything possible to shield Fehr against them.


How could the threat be eliminated (more money, change of ownership, education, etc.)?

Historic zoning to protect the facade. Rededicating the building to educational purposes. Re-framing Fehr as a living museum to the Civil Rights Movement.


What effect placement on the endangered list have to this property? Does the property owner support listing?

Few people outside of North Nashville's older African American community and Civil Rights historians know of Fehr School's legacy. Bringing more attention to it will bring more support for preserving it.

Metro Action officials told the Salemtown association at a summer meeting that they supported placing the building on the Historic Registry.

Please join me in spreading the word and maximizing attention on preserving the Fehr School building for the historical treasure that is. It is a monument to one of Nashville's most significant eras.

Deep Thought: making campaign promises she cannot ethically keep

If Sarah Lodge Tally honestly agreed to abstain from all votes regarding the new convention center because her law firm represents Metro in the real estate litigation, how would she have any power at all to fulfill her promise that she will support the new convention center on the Metro Council?

Sarah Lodge Tally's employer scratches Nashville Business Coalition's back; NBC scratches Tally's back

Ah, campaign finance and political action committees. And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world":

Sarah Lodge Tally's law firm PAC contributed $2,500 to NBC PAC a month ago

2 weeks later NBC donated $1,000 to the Sarah Lodge Tally campaign

Miller & Martin lawyers had already made many individual donations to their colleague, Sarah Lodge Tally, during the reporting period from April to June this year. The rich get richer.

Sarah Lodge Tally and her law firm benefit financially from her support of Music City Center construction

Sarah Lodge Tally rose a bloody big stink about CM Jason Holleman not supporting the Music City Center and lest we think it's all about fawning on Hizzoner, the Tennessean reports that she has some flesh in the convention center game beyond political ambition:

A candidate in a high-profile Metro Council race could have a conflict of interest on some matters involving the Music City Center, which she has criticized her opponent for not supporting.

Attorney Sarah Lodge Tally, who is challenging Councilman Jason Holleman in District 24 in West Nashville, works for Miller & Martin, the law firm handling convention center land acquisition for the Metro Development and Housing Agency. Miller & Martin has collected $1.6 million in legal fees from the city

The stand of Sarah Lodge Tally looks even less principled now.

The Metro Charter already set the Fairgrounds specifically apart from other public property

CM Emily Evans responds to constituent questions about the Fairgrounds referendum at her blog:

Some have raised the rather specious argument that the question of the Fairgrounds does not rise to a level of importance necessary for inclusion in the Metro Charter. They are, of course, ignoring the fact that the reason we have a State Fair in the first place is because we are directed to do so by the Metro Charter.

Compare this to a quote that Dean supporter and McNeely Pigott & Fox spinmeister Katy Varney attributed to the son of a Metro Charter architect:

The charter was not set up to address specific issues, but rather it is the overarching instrument that sets forth the process by which decisions are made by our elected officials ....

Regardless of how we feel about the future of the fairgrounds, it is a mistake to change the charter to apply rules to one place that are not in place for any other Metro property.

Given that the Metro Charter as drafted already made specific exceptions for the Fairgrounds that it does not make for other Metro property, how is it inconsistent with the Metro Charter to amend further exceptions for the Fairgrounds into the charter? Distracting us from the merits of the Fairground referendum with a logical fallacy like an argument from authority is not just bad form, but Varney's appeal is also undermined by her own authority's argument, which is itself inaccurate at best, deceptive at worst.

Journo-a-journo on "West Town" neighborhood

Charles Maldonado, who is headed out of Nashville to write for a New Orleans publication, calls out the Tennessean's Bill Lewis for undoing the distinction between advertising and reporting in this morning's edition.

Here's how Lewis gives a leg-up to realtors and brokers who would otherwise have to pay for exposure as wide as the newspaper's readership:

Homeowners and real estate agents are holding a neighborhood-wide open house today that will showcase 15 homes for sale.

Homes range from a restored 1899 Victorian at 4800 Illinois Ave. to new construction, such as a 2006 cottage at 4906 Illinois Ave. Prices in the neighborhood range from the $90,000s to about $260,000, says Kay Hunter, a Realtor with the Realty Association. A number of vacant lots have signs promising future construction of new single-family houses ....

Potential investors overlooked the neighborhood, says Alice Walker, president of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, who helped organize the open house ....

That’s changing as momentum builds in Historic West Town and small neighborhood businesses move in along Charlotte Pike, she says.

“That’s what makes urban living so great. You have your own little neighborhood,” says Walker.

Indeed, there is very little in this article that has to do with broader issues of community development or cultural legacy. Everything is reduced to the economic development tools that Realtors and real estate brokers use to make money off neighborhood life.

Here is Maldonado's response to the Tennessean pieced together from his Twitter stream:

Okay, the Nations or Historic West Town or whatever is a perfectly fine neighborhood. No reason to be scared by it or anything .... But it still has plenty of problems. And this article which declares its "rebirth" in a nonquote, is barely distinguishable from an ad .... Furthermore, the name. Just because there's like one house from the (extreme late) 1800s, that a realtor pointed out to the paper .... That doesn't actually make this neighborhood as a whole historic. Basically it's an ordinary suburban neighborhood .... Lots of post-War tract housing. And plenty of houses wherein whatever "historic" elements there once were have been renovated into oblivion.

Isn't speculation on real estate part of what brought us a bubble and then the housing crisis of the past half decade? It seems like a contradiction of the journalistic mission for a newspaper to aid and abet wealthy special interests that inflate expectations and buying frenzy without regard to facts or local history.

Maldonado points out that this story simply gave real estate developers the benefit of the doubt without any digging behind the image that they project for the commercial purpose of selling property. Bill Lewis was helping out the privileged few more than he was doing the local community favors, especially if home values are artificially driven up with contrivances like "historic". The more influence Realtors have, the more likely they are to do what they want regardless of what's good for all West Town residents.

Canadian legal blogger observes Nashville-IQT deal was news to them, role of social media in Mayor's about-face

According to Canada's online legal magazine:

According to news coverage that developed after the shutdown, it was revealed that the City of Nashville, Tennessee, had granted IQT a US$1.6-million incentive to build a new 60,000-square-foot call centre and headquarters there to employ 900 locally. One of the conditions of receiving the grant was for IQT to explain to Nashville officials its business strategy in Canada. I guess instead of explaining their strategy to ensure the award of the grant they just decided to get rid of the “obstacle”. In addition to the abrupt shutdown of their Canadian operations, IQT Canada said they filed bankruptcy papers. However, a records search by government officials revealed no official filing of bankruptcy.

Due to the media coverage and social media attention on Facebook and Twitter, the City of Nashville has chosen to withdraw its $1.6 million promise to fund IQT Solutions’ new operation in Tennessee.

Davidson Co DA declares that Neighbors for Progress lawyer's slur of "illegal conduct" has no merit

What a monumental waste of time it must have been for the District Attorney's office to have to consider a request from the Neighbors for Progress lawyer to investigate unfounded "illegal conduct" allegations about Davidson County citizens who organized to legally leverage a referendum on Fairgrounds demolition.

From the beginning Democratic hack and former journo Colby Sledge and his NFP organization have slung mud at the intentions and the actions of those of us who supported the movement to stop Mayor Karl Dean's take-over of the planning process for the State Fairgrounds. They generated innuendo and gossip about Fairgrounds supporters coming from outside the county and being bankrolled by racers. Once it became obvious that the referendum had enough popular support to be put on the ballot, they trashed Fairgrounds supporters during the Election Commission process, and the latest false charge of "illegal conduct" was just part of the pattern of lies to stop a movement that is determined to stop Karl Dean's bulldozers.

Hence, the DA's refusal is further evidence that Neighbors for Progress's case for stopping Fairgrounds supporters never had merit and their ulterior motive has been to help Karl Dean prevail by any means necessary. But they just keep losing:

District Attorney General Torry Johnson said a review of the petitions determined that no further investigation should be conducted.

"The Election Commission is very stringent in its review of these petitions and they determined that there were more than enough qualified signatures provided that they didn't even need to rely on any of these forms the ‘Neighbors for Progress' group found questionable

Leader of the Fairgrounds referendum effort, CM Jamie Hollin, called Neighbors for Progress's latest efforts nothing but "gutter politics." That's exactly what they are conducting despite their claims to be community-based. It seems more like a party-type campaign of mud-slinging.

Miffed East Nashville residents, jilted by Kroger, risk accusation of "class war" by the pinheads

When it comes to the class-based prejudices of wealth, some things never change:

Green Hills Kroger customers have applauded improved features such as a meat grilling station, beverage center and expanded seating area for Wi-Fi access, but Eastland Kroger customers view the upgrades to the grocery in one of the wealthiest parts of town as an insult.

“Kroger should make more of an investment in this thriving neighborhood,” said Elizabeth Bush, who lives on Woodland Street. “They have a vast group of folks who would shop there if they would fix the store. It doesn’t matter what your income is, you deserve fresh food” ....

The minor projects at East Nashville-area grocers still do not compete with the $1 million project that will be unveiled in a re-grand opening at the Abbott Martin Road location today, said District 6 Councilman Mike Jameson. The enduring issues with customer service, cleanliness and limited food options continue to keep a growing number of East Nashvillians away from their neighborhood store.

If East Nashville cannot siphon the channels of wealth flowing to West Nashville, economically diverse North Nashville is even farther out of the loop.

Maybe a couple of you Megan Barry supporters can help me out here

I'm a recovering supporter of Megan Barry, so I may not be able to be objective about this, but can someone remind me of how in the last 4 years CM Barry has been "protecting neighborhoods"? Defining herself primarily as beholden to business I get. But in what ways can she claim to have protected neighborhoods as she does in her campaign ad?





Whether I get a response or not, a clue to answering my query may be found in a separate ad where Barry says she is "involved" in her own neighborhood:





So, I guess she's been there for her neighborhood, but I'm still unclear as to how she has protected anyone else's neighborhood. I've documented relevant parts of her voting record at length here on Enclave and I don't see protection in her votes. And frankly, a lot of community leaders are involved in their neighborhoods but that does not set them apart as having council power to influence QOL.

The North End is saturated with magnet options, yet the Nashville Civic Design Center recommends another one

Except for one minor detail, this proposal by the Nashville Civic Design Center sounds sublime:

The Nashville Civic Design Center proposes a new magnet elementary school in the Lafayette neighborhood and a magnet arts school in the Sulphur Dell neighborhood. The schools would share an axial relationship, as their sites are flanked by 4th and 5th Avenues (Avenue of the Arts). These locations would provide the schools with close proximity to downtown art and science museums, as well as many other educational institutions throughout the city. Additionally, the locational advantage of the proposed schools addresses goals from the city’s Schools Strategic Plan, namely “to market and promote relevant and engaging extracurricular activities for students risk of dropout”, and to “select and use technology in developmentally appropriate ways to promote active learning, improve student engagement and individualize instruction.”

Megan Barry's budget committee failed to vet Arriola's budget for the rest of the Council

I appreciate that you all do the marriage licenses.

-- At-Large CM and Budget Chair Megan Barry setting the tone
for last May's powder-puff budget hearing with John Arriola

NewsChannel5 investigative reporter Phil Williams has been effecitvely stalking and running down the continuing controversy of County Clerk John Arriola. His latest coverage is a tally of council members who are and are not willing to vote on a memorializing resolution (that is, a resolution that is a nonbinding expression of the council's wishes) requesting Arriola's resignation.

Some impressive multi-million dollar returns on their $10,000 investment in "Karl Dean for Mayor 2007"

Courtesy of MDHA, Tower Investments already stood to score almost $15 million for land they conveniently owned right where Mayor Dean planned to build the Music City Center. Now we know that Nashville's housing authority seriously undervalued the land for a project that was touted by McNeely, Pigott, and Fox's hired spin doctors (also overseen by MDHA) as vital to Nashville's prosperity. If only Metro could have it both ways. But they cannot: a jury judged that the market value of Tower Investment properties is double what MDHA was willing to pay.

Crane Watchdog is once again delving into the details of the deal-makers, and they show us another nice catch:

Cast my ballot yesterday

Only 2 votes cast.

No real choices for Mayor and Vice Mayor and neither Dean nor Neighbors deserve my vote (I voted for Dean last time around). The at-Large incumbents have behaved like either tools or tanglefoots. The at-Large challengers have not presented any viable alternative. They look to be either cookie-cutter conservatives or selectively progressive Deanie babies. The "good enough" this time was not to waste votes on those who have not represented my interests.

Silly stuff a politically-motivated restaurateur says

Hillsboro Village godfather Randy Rayburn opened mouth and inserted foot in support of council candidate David Glasgow, who to my knowledge has not separated himself from the powerful restaurateur's pubic fallacies:

Just a reminder ...[about] a reception ... for David Glasgow who is running against Berkley Allen in District 18 ....

I would remind you that we don’t need a strident, vociferous, engineering version of Emily [Evans] on our Council opposing Mayor Dean’s policies and programs. Our business community has known for years that she equates being supportive of business and economic development programs as being anti-neighborhood interests. We know that Jason Holleman helped recruit her and lobbied to move her into District 18, as he and his Crafton/Evans cohorts have done in several other races. We don’t need a new member of the Anti-Dean Gang to slow or thwart our city’s next four years. There will be new, unanticipated challenges along the way. We need to limit their head count numbers now.

Thank you for considering your efforts to hold this seat. David was appointed by Mayor Dean in 2009 to the Tourism Board where he has become an even stronger supporter of our Mayor.

Sounds like Mr. Rayburn fancies a submissive council to the point that it informs oddball conspiratorial connections he sees between non-conforming council members who have different voting records. (Crafton and Holleman in the same boat? Really?) He was apoplectic enough in 2009 at CM Evans' criticism of the Music City Center project to try to disqualify her opinion because she had not created jobs like he said he had. The recent attack on Burkley Allen sounds like more of the same foolishness.


UPDATE: I was sent this screenshot of one of Randy Rayburn's Facebook comments to Emily Evans in 2010 where he quotes John Wilkes Booth's infamous assassination exclamation. Why?

Business logic: to bury, forget and ignore in order to promote growth

Reading this piece from Mississippi on opposition from Bay St. Louis business leaders to commemoration of the town's 2005 Katrina flood tragedy left me considering a couple of things. First, business growth evangelists will stoop to snuff out historical landmarks that people choose to commemorate in the name of a buck. The Gulf coast giants of industry want some simple state highway markers that show the high-water mark removed for fear that they discourage businesses from relocating to undeveloped properties near the markers.

Let's think this logic through for a moment. They are concerned that prospective entrepreneurs are going to make informed decisions to relocate to other areas in Bay St. Louis that would not be under the 2005 high water mark should another Katrina-like hurricane visit Mississippi. They are concerned that relocating companies may not want to take the irrational risk of catastrophic flood damage if they do not have to. They are willing to deny flood survivors the catharsis of pilgrimages to historic landmarks in the name of placing unknowing businesses in jeopardy. So, why aren't these titans of commerce relocating to the flood-prone areas themselves?

A promise Convention Center Authority PR Manager Holly McCall could not keep

This project [convention center construction] is not going over budget.

-- Music City Center Authority PR manager (former journo) Holly McCall
less than 10 months ago

Now, the Music city Center is way over budget; it'll have to pay $15 million more than it planned for this land. That cost is not in the budget of the project.
The spokesperson for the Music City Center, Holly McCall, said they'll have to do some number crunching. McCall said the Convention Center Authority will meet with the management team to assess the impact on the budget.

-- WSMV, last night

North End residents may recall that this is not the first time Holly McCall has failed her own word regarding convention center construction. A year ago she failed to follow through on a promise to Hope Gardens residents and other neighborhood leaders to release to the public the Metro lease for the Greyhound bus terminal, sending it instead only to CM Erica Gilmore. She had already admitted in a community meeting that she did not publicize the lease earlier to the affected community because she was not required to do so.

We've seen Ms. McCall's rather selective and convenient code of transparency when it comes to releasing information on convention center business. I have no doubt that her experience as a former journo will help her spin the budget overage such that earlier promises will appear not to be broken. And we are likely to get half-truths and carefully worded flackery that fails the nobler notion that public officials should be accountable for overspending public dollars.