Nicholson

The 'Local' options for funding transit are on this slide from the 2020 Metro Nashille Transportation Plan:

Just subscribed - Big thank you to the admins, moderators, and contributors that keep this site going.

Farmers Market has an upstairs meeting room that can be reserved. If available it's great for meetings. Their office is closed today, but open T to F 9am -3pm

It's good to note Delisha Porterfield was opposed, and only voted in favor so that she would be allowed to make a "motion to reconsider." This was botched by Vice Mayor Shulman's confusion. Multiple CM's requests to be recognized created preventable chaos. Kathleen Murphy challenged Shulman's approval of Porterfield's motion to reconsider. Legal dept recommended a vote to resolve the dispute. It was left to the council to decide Shulman's approval of Porterfield's motion vs Murphy's challenge to Shulman (and not allow Porterfield's motion). The CM's supporting the stadium all voted against Porterfield's motion to reconsider, by way of voting for Murphy's challenge. Total poo show. *If the motion to reconsider had succeeded, the Metro Council would have been required to have another vote in June.

Motycka's piece goes into a lot of depth about how the deal might develop too. Metro Council will have to weigh in at some point. It would be great to see Bos2Nash's ideas, or something similar in the next round of negotiations. A few more highlights from Motycka: (I'm trying to resist copy/pasting the whole thing haha) "New York, Miami, or Los Angeles, the metropolitan tier Nashville likes to claim, do not pay for their stadiums—they make the billionaires do it... This is what happened in New York (MetLife, 2010, $1.7bn), Los Angeles (SoFi, 2020, $5.5bn), and Miami (Hard Rock, $350m renovation, 2015). To build Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for $1.9bn, the Raiders got $750m from Clark County backed by tourist taxes, the largest ever public commitment to a stadium. That deal has not turned out well for Las Vegas... The Tennessean has done little to find out essential information, like metro’s contractual obligations under the current lease, instead beating the drum for a new stadium, East Bank development, and a downtown riverfront. There are a lot of unknowns and a few knowns. The ability for Metro to service whatever loans it takes out for the Titans will be tied to a single Tiger Mart on Shelby unless more money starts changing hands quickly around the stadium. If this deal gets through—Metro Council would have to approve a lot of it, including a local counterpart to the state legislation—Metro’s financial wellbeing will be hitched to the East Bank for a generation... " _ _ _ Just noticed your post nashvylle, and IMO, it would be great to see the East Bank develop that way, but for about $1 Billion less by renovating the existing stadium. There's an opportunity cost for financing a new stadium, as opposed to other needs in the city. The Metro Nashville Transportation Plan approved in 2020, for example, has no dedicated funding source, and has a price tag just north of $1 Billion. Not that these are identical funding mechanisms, but there is some overlap. It might good to elaborate on transit funding options later, so if I do it'll be on the Transportation thread.

Eli Motycka's latest newsletter covers the new Titans stadium: https://publiccomment.substack.com/p/field-position?s=r Here's a highlight full of linked sources: "There have been attempts to misrepresent stadium benefits, like last month’s inflated NCVC World Cup economic impact study, but the economics are settled. One-off, high-profile events like the Super Bowl, the NFL draft, or an IndyCar race make the city look successful, but the numbers don’t work out in favor of residents. Publicly-financed stadiums are money pits where public officials throw away taxpayer dollars."

The Vision Zero survey closes on Monday, Aug 30th. https://bit.ly/3wUqhEo

Whoops - good catch. Here's Detroit from the same site.

Motown's love for the automobile... Where Did Our Love Go? ^ from dailydetroit.com - 'Detroit's Modern Day Parking-Lot-A-Palooza' ^^ from Oklahoma University, Institute for Quality Communities Institute for Quality Communities Institute for Quality Communities

Back in the Amp days, the TN State Senate attempted to do an outright ban of BRT, which then-Gov Haslam said he would veto, so that stricter approach failed. Here's a Wired article that gives a good overview. Appraently BRT does need the state to sign off, so it's more difficult but not impossible. Gov Lee has made statements about his support for multi-modal improvements to transportation. The State legislature is probably more supportive now than they were 2014. Back then even Douglas Henry, a democrat, voted in favor of banning BRT. As for parking conflicts, there is currently no on-street parking on the stretch of Gallatin Pike in the Transit Now BRT study area - Briley Parkway to Rivergate Mall. The Metro Nashville Transportation Plan has BRT on Murfreesboro Pike, from a new downtown South Transit Center, to the airport, and continuing on to Hickory Hollow. This will likely not be built until Nashville approves dedicated funding for transit. One possible step in that direction is the Nashville Department of Transportation, currently being formed.

BRT could be installed along a Gallatin Pike, from Briley Parkway to Rivergate Mall, with low cost / quickly implemented Tactical Urbanism methods. It could serve as a pilot corridor to showcase a successful example to the rest of the city. Out of respect for this forum, I would like to offer the following info strictly for discussion purposes: Here's a Tennessean OpEd I wrote on behalf of Transit Now Nashville that outline BRT on Gallatin Pike: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2020/12/11/bus-rapid-transit-nashville-would-solve-intractable-problems/6512660002/ The OpEd is a condensed version of this longer report: Quick Win for Better Bus Service

There I fixed their logo.

We have to walk before we can run, but I definitely agree that transit should be the top priority of implementing the Transportation Plan. The community feedback stage of the plan said the same, with transit being everyone's top priority by far. I'd love to see a more ambitious plan too, but IMO, Nashville needs a higher capacity proof-of-concept first. If we build a true Bust Rapid Transit corridor (not BRT-lite), along Murfreesboro Rd from downtown to the airport, as outlined in the Tansportation Plan, it could set the example for the city. Here's a good Streetsblog article about building BRT faster using Tactical Urbanism: Bus Rapid Transit Should Be Built More Rapidly From the article: "...the perfect should not be the enemy of good, fast transit now." Cincinnati and Boston both built temporary, tactical-urbanism style, pilot BRT corridors that went on to become permanent. Nashville's biggest obstacle to subastantial transit improvements is the lack of dedicated funding. We're the only city our size in the country that doesn't have this. Another attempt to have a rederendum for that might be 2024. Until then, there's a lot that can be done to improve the situation.

It's pretty exciting that Nashville is getting on the Amtrak map, so I think the Tennessean was just capturing that positivity. Upcoming council vote could move Nashville's transit plan forward | Opinion Burkley Allen Guest columnist https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2021/04/01/nashville-transit-plan-could-move-forward-metro-council-vote/4824624001/ A few highlights: - Traffic is returning to its old miserable state, and will get worse, accelerating Nashville's need for mobility options. - Tuesday, April 6 is the third and final reading of RS2021-794 A resolution approving a Memorandum of Understanding to transfer solid waste disposal responsibilities from the Department of Public Works to the Department of Water and Sewerage Services along with the related operational activities, personnel, and equipment. - This is a step towards Public Works having a stronger focus on the implementation of the Metro Transportation Plan. For a palate cleanser, here's some funny memes: ^This one's from #NUMTOTS on Reddit ^This one's from @music****** on IG

Tennessean coverage of the Amtrak proposal: 'OMG': Amtrak service from Nashville to Atlanta is now in Biden's transportation plan, too Daniella Medina Nashville Tennessean https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2021/04/01/amtrak-nashville-routes-atlanta-biden-transportation-plan/4839151001/?fbclid=IwAR0WutHaFyuRvXQTfx2azfCUTdzH9ia-BZ5DTQOs8HQttXDeO7dPhOhwIMg Here's an article they did from a year ago that includes a poll for which route people want the most: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2020/01/15/where-would-you-want-amtrak-routes-nashville-take-you/4480828002/