chelovek

What about the Johnson School site? Its at 2nd and Chestnut, right at the doorstep to Wedgewood-Houston, which many are touting as Nashville's Arts District. And MNPS is considering closing the existing Johnson School program down - http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/mnps-considers-closing-johnson-school-next-year A lot of NSA grads have set up shop in Wedgewood-Houston. Infinity Cat is a big one that comes to mind. There could be some pretty amazing opportunities for mentoring and internships with fort houston and other creative spaces just down the road. Of course the Ben West site would open up opportunities for really awesome collaboration with TPAC, the Frist, etc... I wonder how satisfied the NSA community is with their current location.

There is a public meeting about the division street extension on Oct. 2. Details here: http://www.nashville.gov/News-Media/Calendar-of-Events/Event-Details/ID/1343/begin/10-2-2013/Division-Street-Extension-Public-Meeting.aspx Re: the pedestrian bridge. I want to love it. There is room for improvement though. 1) The bridge is going to have to be pretty tall on the cummins station side not to block access to their loading docks. I worry that we'll end up with a nearly vertical approach like on the west side of the shelby street ped. bridge, which sucks for cyclists. 2) Bicycle access from 10th looks incredibly awkward. If you aren't coming from the direction of Demonbreun, you'll have to do a quick 180 across traffic to make the approach. The rendering has the ramp dumping onto the sidewalk, which will need to be widened and have a ramp added to be functional. Hopefully the engineering phase will flesh this out in a way that doesn't heighten bike/ped conflicts. Ideally, the road down to the loading docks would be to the right of the bridge in rendering rather than the left. This would allow for a much gentler grade off of the ped bridge, as well as access to be aligned with Lea, which is a dumb little street that should be turned into a neighborhood greenway by limiting auto access. It would help justify the expense of a $16mil bridge, imo, by establishing an active transportation corridor and not just a fancy looking bridge. Neighborhood greenways can be installed very inexpensively by adding curbs or planters at key intersections. The cynic in me says that this and the baseball stadium are the high profile projects that will hit the chopping block to make local expenditures on the AMP and riverfront redevelopment seem more appealing- a kind of engineered give and take.

It could be the newest climb nashville location.

I like the sulphur dell site. I love the connection to local history and the fact that it will cover up some of the unfortunate vacant lots in that area. I do think it will tie Downtown and Germantown together more. A few things I'll throw out there- 1) The titans stadium has brought almost zero redevelopment to the east bank. Limelight and Thai Phoo Ket are the only things that come to my mind. Can anybody conjecture why this is so and how a baseball stadium could be different? 2) One cool thing about the sulphur dell area is that it is well served by the music city bikeway and the downtown greenway. One hopes that the design of the stadium would improve these connections and play up the "healthy, active transportation to the sports game" angle rather than "drive here, sit on your butt, ingest a bunch of calories while a few pros sweat for your entertainment, and then drive home stuffed and slightly intoxicated." The latter is the feeling I get from the titans stadium with its sea of surface parking lots. 3) On that note, bike/ped connections into this area of downtown Nashville from the east side are pretty horrid. The Jefferson Street bridge is terrifying on foot or bike. Some improvements would be welcome and appropriate, since many fans would be coming from that direction. Another option might be to create a rails-with-trails connection utilizing the existing train bridge here: http://goo.gl/maps/KePlO . That would be particularly cool because it would be the flattest of all the bike/ped river crossings The steel bridge in Portland could serve as a model for that kind of bridge: http://theintertwine.org/sites/theintertwine.org/files/adventure_imgs/Steel%20Bridge.jpg

Amen to free transfers. There is no reason why the magnetic stripe cards that we use for our multi-ride passes, change cards, or simple proof of fare payment couldn't also be encoded with a timestamp. Swipe your card on another bus within 1-2 hours of that timestamp and you're good to go! I've asked about transfers at an MTA public meeting before and the rep made it out to seem like there was some enormous technical difficulty with implementing such a system, which is hard to take at face value since so many other cities allow transfers. Because of our city's geography and layout, as well as the design of our transit system, you pretty much always need to make a transfer to get anything done in town. For many people, having to pay two or three times for one trip is more than enough to permanently discourage transit usage. I would love to see a revenue projection that predicts how many fares would be lost from people not having to pay twice compared against how many fares would be gained by all of the new riders who might come on board with the implementation of a transfer system. I went back to school and, happily, my student ID is an unlimited bus pass. Not having to worry about paying for transfers, I use MTA way more frequently now. Of course... there is all that student loan debt

I think it is time for us to open our transportation firm. We've got it all- Right of way acquisition plans, rolling stock design and interior configuration, network expansion proposals. We just need a name and we can start going in for some big contracts Either that or we need to start being paid as consultants by the real deal firms. I wouldn't be surprised if they get on here to read the chatter.

A new one for me- maybe others have caught this already. This is at 22nd and Clifton, just behind the gas station at 22nd and Charlotte (ie just across the street from the sheds project). Noticed it this morning after giving blood at the red cross. Images are as follows: 1. project rendering; 2. partners; 3. existing surface lot. Click here for a big rendering.

Awesome! Next, let's get a bike/ped flyover to cross charlotte and another Gulch greenway section through the boyle properties to link up with the Music City Bikeway at Jo Johnston

I hope that whoever grabs those lots will continue the greenway that currently runs behind 11 north between charlotte ave and the church street viaduct!

$2 million for bikeways and $3 million for greenways in the budget that just passed. Hope its not all just paint!

I also live 50 feet from there. Hi neighbor! I like when the grass grows up- makes it more fun to ride my mountain bike in a circle there. I've thought about setting a picnic table out or cutting a little pump track just to see what happens. You're right, it sometimes seems like metro has forgotten that it even owns that lot. If there was anything there to give this lot character, it could be a cool community park.

Celebrate that news at one of the 115 Nashville Bike Month events this month! http://www.nashvillebikemonth.com/

I would love to see the regions bank surface lot at 21st Ave and Wedgewood rebuilt as a garage with ground floor retail. Or an anything with ground floor retail. It would really help define that intersection. Hillsboro Village feels like it ends at Wedgewood/Blakemore to me, mostly because of that ugly surface lot.

MTA currently has the lower sections of the Clement Landport for lease on their procurement website: http://www.nashvillemta.org/Nashville-MTA-procurement-list.asp Considering what is down there, it seems like parking is really all that would go in. The top deck is currently used for parking and seemingly nothing more. Its not really even park-and-ride since no busses stop on the viaduct (that I am aware of).

Since we're all sharing, heres one i put together a while back. Nashville Rail Master Plan by adamscarroll, on Flickr more details on flickr

And here is a rendering of the new Renasant Bank across the street at the NE corner of WE and 19th. Sorry about the camera flash! If you stop by the bank you can check out the rendering in the lobby. They also have cookies.

Here's a higher res version of that pic from my cell phone. I can't wait for this project to finish so they'll stop parking heavy equipment in the f'ing bike lane! The ground floor landscaping needs to mature to cover up the blank walls around the parking garage and this project will be pretty handsome.They painted the vinyl siding on the back of the building and its not as much of an eyesore now.

Not too long ago there was a banner hanging on it that said "Make Offer." Hard to say though. I bet the land is worth quite a bit.

I use that bridge frequently. A few of the steps on the napier side feel like they are about to fall off. It is in very bad condition and will become unsafe if some basic maintenance isn't performed soon. If I ever have the money to buy a house, it will be this one: http://goo.gl/maps/6GBxH What a beautiful old building! Although it needs a lot of work. Several of my students live in the Napier homes, including a few refugees who have been resettled there. They are good students with hardworking parents and they are as unhappy about the real and perceived safety issues in their neighborhood as anybody else in this city, but what are you going to do? Nashville's housing projects are full of kind, ambitious, honest people doing what they can to get by. Unfortunately, it only takes a few desperate or opportunistic criminals to make entire neighborhoods feel unsafe. One big issue I have with our large housing projects (I live in edgehill) is that there are very few economic opportunities nearby. Before it was bulldozed and turned into a housing project, edgehill was a mixed income neighborhood full of small businesses, groceries, pharmacies, and other places where people can get a decent job and work to get ahead. Look at edgehill now, and the napier homes too for that matter- acres of strictly low income housing with very few businesses nearby. Many of my neighbors don't have a car (I don't either), so their employment options become limited to places that can be accessed with transit if you can afford a pass, or places you can get to on foot. For some people, the choice to become engaged in illegal activities is an easy one to make because there aren't a lot of legitimate alternatives around. Another thing I'll say is that for all the negative activity that goes on in housing projects, at least in edgehill, there is a very tight and supportive community that is a HUGE asset and keeps everything from devolving. The fact of the matter is that its extremely rough to live at the poverty line and also try to raise kids, get an education, or work your way up in the world at your job. My neighbors help each other out because you've got to if you want to get by. Those connections are super important. In theory I think its a good idea to start looking for ways to mix incomes and land uses into our outdated housing projects, but it needs to be done in a way that doesn't disperse or destroy the relationships that already exist between neighbors. For many people in my community, these relationships are the only real wealth that we have.

Its about LRT and Detroit, but it talks about some of the reasons center lane is in demand for rapid transit.

I've always thought that the gulch would be a good spot for a stand alone apple store. my room mate who works there says no way- they'll put something on the east side if anything. whatever i guess.

sedum flower heads do frequently turn brown in winter. it is perennial, so I wouldn't be too worried. Also, the air exposed part of the plant may whither and fall off over the winter. As this organic matter decomposes it will provide nutrients back into the roof planters. That is, if it doesn't all get blown away during the 50mph gusts we are experiencing tonight

Portland has operated a point to point aerial tram as part of its public transportation network since 2006. It was built largely due to emergency vehicle access and parking issues for OHSU, a big hospital up in the hills. OHSU funded the majority of the project and as a result its employees, patients, and visitors can ride for free. Monthly public transit passes are also honored. Otherwise it is 4 bucks for a ride. Soon after the tram opened a permanent bike valet service opened at the base of the tram because there were too many dang people riding bikes to work and not enough places to park. Nice problem to have. Because it is a point to point system, the tram's usefulness is limited to people making trips between the OHSU campuses at the top and bottom of the hill. Nevertheless, it always seemed to be pretty busy. It was a must-visit attraction for my guests from out of town (but I also made them ride the sweet buses, streetcars, and light rail because I am a transit nerd).

FYI, KVB roundabout is open. I took it for a spin this morning.

The employees wear different shirts now. Beyond that I haven't noticed any change.