Will

And the benefits of autonomous cars are more apparent on city streets, where some studies have pegged as much as 30% of congestion is caused by people looking for parking spots during certain times of the day. Autonomous cars will be able to park themselves and come back when you call, almost eliminating the search for parking. We might need to figure out ways to enlarge drop-off areas, though.

Lexington BBQ is worth going off topic for. Coming from a W-S native.

On a manmade island surrounded by a forbidding moat filled with dangerous beasts ...

They can call the new one We Don't Need Your Permission Memorial Field.

How sure are we that this is a good deal for the taxpayers? It seems like Liff is getting the better end of the deal here. I wish the man well, but what he loses in parking spaces he's gaining in property value with the enhanced connectivity, so I'm not sure we should be paying him $2.6M for an easement. Maybe half that? Especially since this is for a vanity project that isn't doing anything meaningful for traffic concerns or street grid alignment.

This seems to be indicative of Mayor Barry's paternalistic, top-down governing style was also demonstrated in the tax hike for General Service District residents that her office proposed (and then deferred) this week. There was no indication that residents of these neighborhoods were asking for enhanced services. Rather, we were to believe that since they were already paying for trash collection anyway, the tax hike would be a "wash," even though residents would be paying more for USD services than they were paying for private trash collection. But hey, they would get streetlights! Who doesn't love streetlights, right? With the NYE thing, it's the same attitude - we know what's good for you, so just trust us. There was no public request or outcry for a change to the event, no evidence of security concerns, nothing to suggest it was in the city's best interest to change the venue.

That stat is misleading. The median price for a single-family detached home in Nashville is $267K. What it looks like they did is average that with the median for Williamson County, which is $452K, and presto, a "Nashville-area" home looks really expensive. Of course, if they factored in Cheatham, Sumner, Wilson, etc., the average would likely be lower than $267K. The article also only focuses on the supply of vacant raw lots, which is only a portion of the calculation for housing supply. I don't see the point of publishing such an article without including the larger context of multifamily units, rentals, existing lots, HPRs, etc.

There's one here.

What about a country tchotchke tax? 5% of every Johnny Cash shirt, cowboy hat, Porter Wagoner bobblehead, and pair of boots sold in Davidson County. Or just Lower Broad. We'd pay for this bad boy in no time.

Commentary from the Tennessean about the upcoming 2017 property tax reappraisals: http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/08/07/homeowners-prepare-higher-property-tax-bills/88045854/ Certainly something that those of us who live in Davidson County should be proactive about in communicating with our council reps and the mayor's office. Major value appreciation + new, inexperienced property assessor could make for interesting/expensive times over the next couple of years.

I bike to work daily and this is the reason I would not want to use a shared path at sidewalk level. That, and it would make bike travel much slower. I much prefer to be on the actual roadway.

I am no defender of property taxes but they are not the culprit for turnover in neighborhoods. In Nashville, very few people are ever "driven out" of their homes because of rising property taxes. Just review the list of properties that Metro auctions off every quarter or so due to tax nonpayment. The final auction list (early versions are always longer) is seldom more than 30 properties long, and a fair portion of them are in highly desirable neighborhoods. Furthermore, Tennessee currently offers property tax assistance to senior and disabled citizens, and Nashville offers a tax freeze program for senior citizens. Even if the government does auction your home because of unpaid taxes, you have a full year to scrape together the amount in arrears and redeem the property. The auction buyer by law must return the property back to you. So let's put that myth to bed. If anybody is being "driven out" of improving neighborhoods, it's renters. So we can talk about that, but let's not keep bringing up myths about homeowners being "forced" or "driven" to do anything other than voluntarily sell their homes.

Definitely important issues to understand for the RTA. Maybe Brentwood and other municipalities will decide they don't want to contribute to the RTA pot since they will always suffer at least a perceived lack of benefits compared to Nashville under a regional transit budget. If so, another approach would be some kind of Nashville congestion charge or priority highway lane pricing, which would be a very tangible incentive to alter commuting patterns and modes. People would hate it, but it could work.

Another flaw in the debate is that it's assumed that road commutes are somehow mandatory and that congestion is something that happens to perfectly unsuspecting people. The thing is, if you choose to live 30 miles away from work, you assume a risk that you will be delayed by any number of things, congestion included. You do that voluntarily, weighing the perceived benefits of living out there. Even if you choose a place way out in the quiet country that later becomes built up, you've assumed that risk too, unless you want to buy all the property along the roads you travel. If it's really that bad, change where you live, where you work, or how you work. We're all adults here and we have choices.

For example, Vanderbilt, the largest private employer in Mid Tenn, has offered employees free MTA bus fare to/from work as well as discounts on Music City Star for years. That would be a start.

24K departing passengers this Monday beat the single-day departure record by 15%. 16K bags processed also a record. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2016/06/14/nashville-international-airport-breaks-record-for.html

Amsurg moved into a new 230K building in Burton Hills last year. http://emcnashville.com/portfolio_page/amsurg-corporate-headquarters/

So with the current config, what's the largest aircraft BNA can accommodate for regular operations?

Strange that a 5th runway is even in the conversation given that many larger, busier airports get it done with just 3 (2 in LHR).

If Metro were to implement dedicated bike lanes on this greenway, this project could punch far above its weight in enabling scaled intown bicycle commuting around some heavily traveled corridors, possibly reducing local use of 440 at peak times. See London's "Cycle Superhighways" for an example of the concept. The great thing about this greenway is that it would offer a relatively flat, quick ride connecting several major arterial roads.

I shared a row with an AA customer service manager on a flight from MIA last week and he said there was a strong internal rumor that AA is going to start a LHR/BNA direct, but he didn't have any details of substance. RDU-Paris is especially weird since there is already a CLT/CDG direct.

Vanderbilt to build a new $115m residential college on West End to replace the current Barnard Hall, across the street from the West End UM Church. Apparently the plan is for it to address the street more than the current setup, which features a parking lot behind trees and a tall metal fence. More.

I'd call the style "collegiate correctional."

With the weather turning lovely, I'd like to offer a friendly challenge to folks on this board to commute by bike. Any able-bodied person can propel his or her bodyweight + the necessities for a workday using muscle power alone. No need for a gas-powered wheelchair just to get your own self to work and back. I bike to work daily year-round and essentially I get to opt-out of traffic jams through creative routing, use of sidewalks, turn lanes, etc. The benefits are numerous: -Reduced cost of commuting - by one estimate, every mile you live from work and drive by car costs you ~$800 per year, factoring in lost time and actual driving costs -Free unlimited parking outside the front door of (almost) wherever you're going -Better cardiovascular health -Less air pollution and dependence on fossil fuels -Potential to downsize to 1 car from a 2-car household, saving tens of thousands of dollars over the long term -Every time you travel by bike, you get stronger and more self-sufficient while everyone else around you gets weaker and more dependent! I would consider anything under 15 miles to be a very bikeable commute, though road conditions and topography can change that figure. Do you get hot/cold/sweaty/rained-on? Yes, yes, yes, and yes, but you are a grown-up American and none of those things is worse than being a slave to your car. Give it a try!

Sadly, Gannett, the Tennessean's owner, now dominates all major metro areas in TN except for Chattanooga: http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2016/03/18/big-media-grab-flagged-in-california-while-gannett-builds-tn-monopoly