Armacing

It doesn't go far enough, really. The should be giving the houses to the homeless, not renting them. There is probably plenty of government-owned land in NOLA that could be subdivided into micro-lots and deeded to the homeless.

Great article! We should definitely not be placing pre-conditions on people's right to have housing. I would argue New Orleans would be better served simply giving houses and land to homeless people rather than renting it for them. Deed it to the people who need it as a one-time cost rather than a recurring expense. Plus, a thorough investigation of the factors that make housing expensive in NOLA would be warranted as well, in my opinion. Same goes for every other city. Sometimes high prices are driven by regulations rather than the market, and that is a problem that can be easily addressed.

Be that as it may, there is no disputing the fact that even the poorest property owner would be forced to help pay for extravagant public projects such as stadiums, arenas, amphitheaters, and convention centers. All facilities that (arguably) could be built and operated by private companies. Wow, good find. And yet, a large number of people would rationalize this as "OK" somehow in their mind. That's the sad part.... that people support the trampling of other peoples rights and freedoms for the sake of... what? Convenience? Money? Aesthetics? Probably money, when it comes right down to it. I know there might be a few aggrieved neighbors, but I am convinced that the root of this opposition to AirBNB comes from the vested interests of the hotel lobby in this town.

Agree with the need for more affordable housing. The oppressive zoning, codes, and generally high burden of property taxes in Davidson county has made it hard for developers to justify affordable housing developments. If only the citizens of this county were allowed to build their own houses using the traditional building methods that they wish to employ.

Thanks for that info! It's amazing to see the way the Gluch is filling in so rapidly. Hopefully we get something tall on the site of the planned Buckingham tower.

This may be a dumb question, but what is being built at the smaller site shown in the photos above, that corner lot on 11th & Pine?

I think this move by Amazon (to cancel the NY HQ) adds credibility to their stance that they are doing what's right for Amazon. In case any council members/city administrators in Nashville were under the mistaken impression that Amazon will tolerate a certain level of abuse because they have to be here, that belief must now be completely dispelled. Seattle learned this lesson recently (payroll tax failure), now New York learned this lesson. The question is, are we smarter than them?

Done!

Let's keep this park in historical perspective: Metro paid $1 million to acquire the land, and they also demolished existing buildings there to build this park. So that was mistake # 2. They should have left the land in private hands. Supposedly the purpose of the park was to "revitalize Church Street". Yeah... how's that working out? As it exists today, the park doesn't convey a sense of revitalization in my opinion, but rather it creates an atmosphere of urban decay. Why do I say the park was mistake # 2? Because Church Street Center was mistake # 1.

How hilarious/awesome would it be if Tony's 60-story tower is complete before this courthouse is?

I tend to think the court system is more appropriate for disputes arising from egregious land misuse, especially the types that are negatively impacting the ability of the neighbor to enjoy the use of their own property. I think we could safely do away with zoning entirely, while at the same time setting up a new property dispute court system to handle any increase in the volume of disputes that make it to court. I am convinced that if it wasn't for restrictive zoning/codes, this type of development would be very wide spread and growing in popularity. Just a simple survey of what is already being discussed on the internet shows you the enthusiasm for tiny houses has been growing steadily since the great recession of 2008.

Agreed. In the spirit of discussing issues of importance to urban development, I would be very interested in hearing your opinion about the impact of zoning, codes, property taxes, and other government mandated restrictions on land use as they relate to he cost of housing and, ultimately, homelessness.

Still waiting here for your responses.

We're waiting for you in the coffee house, friend. Hurry up and get in here, my coffee is getting cold

Fear not fellow posters, the comments were not deleted. They have been moved to the coffee house and I re-named the thread "Zoning and Affordable Housing". I actually found an interesting article about the relationship between zoning and the cost of raising young families that I linked in that thread. Even the "news feed purists" might like that article.

So a discussion about overly-restrictive zoning has no place in a forum dedicated to "Nashville's urban development"? Good to know...

I wasn't even looking for this and it came through my news feed: https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/01/family-planning-day-care-costs-zoning-cities-children/580279/

I, for one, would like to welcome our new termite overlords! Just kidding... I would like to go inside one of these buildings to see what it's like. It would be cool if there were all kinds of exposed beams high quality woods.

The commonwealth arrangement is pretty favorable for PR, in my opinion. But if the people there want to be truly integrated into the US, they need to become a state. PR is already the most prosperous Caribbean island, by far. But becoming a state would catapult them up to mainland US standards of living in a few decades. This would be due to massive investment from the US because of all the well-established legal conventions that American companies are used to dealing with. I hope PR becomes a state in the near future.

Here is an article with several examples mentioned. I found this using google. This has more to do with codes than zoning, but the same logic applies: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-11/single-mother-arrested-for-grass-after-not-mowing As opposed to a hypothetical that does occur? let me guess, you don't engage in discussions surrounding hypothetical scenarios, right? That must make life simple.

It's just a completely different world view that many people are never exposed to. All the people on this board are of above-average intelligence, in my opinion. I think many of them realize, perhaps at a subconscious level even, that discussing that "obvious fact" puts them in an untenable position, rhetorically speaking.

Kind of amusing that this got moved to a separate thread, but whatever. It just goes to show you that "in a time of universal deception, telling the truth is considered to be a revolutionary act". By the way, I'm not taking credit for that wording, I'm paraphrasing a quote that is widely attributed to Gorge Orwell, although there is a possibility he never said it. Also amusing: The discussion had veered so far off topic as to contemplate the bodily stench of homeless people without objection from the audience, but heaven forbid someone bring up the subject of "Zoning" in a discussion about urban development. That is a bridge-too-far!

I pretty much agree with your opinion about what we should do to help make housing more affordable. The key is to keep things in perspective. Sometimes public discussion can devolve into an echo chamber of people repeating whatever they hear on TV, so I like to throw out contrary opinions to advance the discussion conceptually. So I did take it to the extreme, although it is a logical extreme, but I will concede that it rarely reaches that level of excitement in real life. For the record, I am in favor of Tony's 60-story building. I would enthusiastically argue for his right to build a 500-footer on any of the various pieces of land he owns around town, regardless of what the planning commission has in mind for the skyline. So that is the flip side of the same argument, I think. That is a cool idea. Although, this thread had already taken a deep-dive into the Nashville homeless problem long before I came along. I think it makes sense to discuss that topic, considering the unique nature of this proposal. I would say even Tony G. framed the project within the context of the homeless issue.

Absurd because you don't like them? If you see something that is logically wrong, feel free to point it out.

Nope, not a troll. I'm actually a Libertarian. Can I assume from your response that you have no response to my argument and you concede the point?