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Looking NE from 20th Ave. North, 1/2 block north of West End Ave.

I didn't grab a picture, but the demo is already happening. The Taco Bell was a pile of scrap as of noon today.

Looking east from 20th Avenue and State Street. 1805 Church is the on the left of frame. LOCAL Midtown is on the right of frame. There are still a lot of parking lots and old low-rise buildings ripe for redevelopment in this area between West End and Charlotte Pike.

Looking east from 20th Avenue and State Street. LOCAL Midtown is on the right of frame. 1805 Church is on the left of frame.

There was a tragic general aviation plane crash tonight, along I-40 East in West Nashville, behind Costco. The eastbound lanes of I-40 were completely shut down Monday night. It does not appear that there were any survivors. Flight tracking data: https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/CFBWH/history/20240305/0019Z News coverage: https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/plane-crash-reported-near-i-40-east-in-west-nashville/ Video from passerby before emergency crews arrived: Needless to say, this is an extremely sad situation. I’m sure there will be a thorough investigation, but tonight our prayers are with the victims’ families.

If we design our streets for the comfort of semi trucks, the streets will be uncomfortable and unsafe for bicyclists and pedestrians. Sure, 10’ lanes will require semi drivers to drive more slowly and cautiously. As long as they can get where they need to go, I don’t see why that is such a bad thing? We all need to share the road, which requires compromises from everyone.

I appreciate CM Sean Parker pushing for slightly narrower lanes (TDOT’s current plan is 12’ lanes). https://x.com/seanforfive/status/1744406502633246883?s=46&t=esxz5S9AONY_ADGiyzx4fw Hopefully TDOT narrows the lanes somewhat and uses the extra space for wider sidewalks/street trees.

I agree that there are big hurdles, but I see real signs of hope. After all, Nashville elected two walkable city, transit nerds as Mayor and Vice Mayor. Several of our new Council Members are highly motivated by this issue. Even TDOT is making small nods to bus transit in their “choice lanes” proposal. It won’t be easy or quick, but a walkable, bikable, transit-friendly Nashville is possible.

I want Nashville to be a healthy, safe, affordable place to live for everyone. A healthy city is one where people are encouraged to walk and ride bicycles as part of their daily routines. It's a city where the air is not choked by car fumes and streams aren't polluted by tire dust. A safe city is one where people can walk or bike without risking their lives. Painted bike lanes on the shoulder of a 45 mile per hour road with cellphone-distracted F-150 drivers speeding past are (obviously) not safe. An affordable city is one where people don't need to spend roughly $900/month for a car just to accomplish basic tasks. In affordable city, you can ride your $500 bike to the grocery store. You can walk to the coffee shop. Or you can ride reliable mass transit for a small price. I also want to touch on what it means to be a city designed for everyone. Elderly people often cannot drive. People with certain health conditions cannot drive. And—here's a huge a group—CHILDREN cannot drive. I want my daughter to be able to bike to the park one mile down the road without getting killed by a car. Most kids in Nashville cannot safely walk or bike to a park to play kickball with their friends. They are stuck. Over the past 60 years, Nashville was designed for cars above all else. We got stroads and strip malls. Pedestrians were an afterthought at best (lol at the NES poles placed in the middle of sidewalks across the city). But Nashville has entered a new era of supercharged growth, and we have a unique opportunity to build a better city for our children. I reject the defeatist attitude that Nashville's transportation is forever frozen in the 1970s.

The lack of a protected bike lane is frankly embarrassing.

The Tennessee Lookout has a new article detailing the Fallon Co.'s proposals and the mathematical difficulty of meeting the rosy revenue projections that Mayor Cooper and Titans lobbyists used to sell the stadium deal. See East Bank developer proposal hints at potential struggle to keep revenue, housing promises.

This site previously housed a Sam's Club, a Sam's club gas station, and the associated enormous parking lot. I'm glad we traded that extremely inefficient land use for 322 units of housing. A huge upgrade in my opinion!

I'm thrilled that they're including a decent amount of residential. Although it's only six stories, I'm sure this project will face a ton of SFH pushback a la Belle Meade Plaza. Here's a preview of what we'll hear: This will make traffic way worse! Not enough parking! Not enough above-ground parking! What about the historic theater?? [Which ceased theater operations 30+ years ago and was already partially demolished in 2006] This is inconsistent with the residential character of the neighborhood. We want more retail, which serves the community, not apartments! [New apartments don't serve existing homeowners, which are the only community members who matter.] What about existing tenants? We love the FedEx Office Print and Ship Center and will be devastated if it moves. Blasting will damage surrounding buildings. Construction will be loud. Construction traffic will make traffic way worse. (As you can tell, I'm looking forward to those community meetings!)

Here are the original plans Fraport released in 2019. I don't see a Five Daughters listed here, but it may have been announced and cancelled at some point between this original 2019 plan and now. Central Terminal Concourse C Concourse B Concourse D Baggage Claim

In addition to the new international arrivals facility and marketplace (which will deservedly be the topic of conversation here for the next few days), BNA premiered several new concessions between gates C-1 and C-2 on Monday, including Hattie B's and—my personal favorite—Slim & Husky's Pizza. Photos via the BNA (@flynashville) Instagram page:

We now have at least one cargo e-bike enthusiast on Council. At-Large CM Quin Evans Segall rode her cargo e-bike to Metro Council orientation today. https://x.com/quinevanssegall/status/1705208824104141181?s=20

Nashville would be essentially donating the (extremely valuable) land. We can't afford that because we need that land to help pay for the $2.1 billion(!) Titans stadium. If the State wants Nashville to do things that will bankrupt the city, we need to politely decline.

FWIW, as cool and sexy as they may be, I don't think we need more East Bank "landmarks." The Titans stadium and the park facing the river are already huge landmarks for the East Bank. I would rather focus on vibrant, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods rather than more "landmarks." Residents want wide sidewalks, safe streets, shady tree canopies, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, convenient transportation, playgrounds for kids, dog parks, etc. "More landmarks" is far down the list of priorities. Even if we wanted to, I agree with @smeagolsfree that we just can't afford to sacrifice more tax revenue for TPAC. We genuinely need all the tax revenue we can get out the East Bank if we're going to come close to covering our stadium obligations.

To that end, consolidating the city and county governments was one of the smartest things Nashville/Davidson County ever did. Downtown and the suburbs are forced to work together because they're all one city. It's one of the key features that makes me so optimistic about Nashville's future. Think of how difficult it is to coordinate public transit with Williamson or Rutherford county. Now imagine if we had those same coordination problems with Bellevue or Donelson. Our consolidated government is a huge advantage. Memphis—and the constant battles with its Shelby County suburbs—is a contrasting example.

TDOT has provided some Transportation Modernization Act updates. From NewsChannel 5: TDOT staff are currently studying which corridors across the state to recommend building choice lanes. They will run alongside normal lanes of traffic, and drivers can access them with a fee. Transit operators like buses will be allowed to use the lanes free of charge . . . . TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley says the choice lanes will all be new construction, and no current lanes will be converted to their purpose . . ."We've got wide right-of-ways if you think about it from here (Nashville) to Murfreesboro or here to Franklin, there's still a lot of room in many of our locations," he said. "And when you think about even downtown you can build up (over the current roadway). So there's a way to engineer a solution to be able to do these choice lanes just as other states have" [Emphasis added]. Per the article, TDOT will present the full plan on December 1.

Agreed. The question isn’t whether it runs on rails or rubber. The question is whether it has dedicated right of way. This will be challenging downtown, and I’m curious to see how the eventual transit proposal handles that.

In a recent interview, Mayor O'Connell seems to agree with this BRT-centric approach.

We agree on some points, but I want to push back on your concern that the State would unfairly funnel Cocke or Campbell County taxes to Nashville. In reality, the subsidies work the other way around. In 2021, Nashville generated between $1.22 and $1.80 billion more in State tax revenue than the State spent back into Nashville. Nashville and its surrounding MSA subsidize the rest of Tennessee's counties, 79 of which (out of 95 total) take more funding from the State than they contribute. (See full analysis here.) We are a long way from needing to worry about unfairly taxing rural counties for Nashville's gain.

505 Church experienced a fire this morning. The fire began on the 27th floor and, although the fire suppression system extinguished that fire, water from the suppression started an electrical fire on the 24th floor. Nashville Fire Department crews extinguished that second fire. See below: According to NewsChannel5, the building's fire alert system did not alert all residents immediately. Instead, "firefighters had to knock on all 528 units to evacuate people..."

After this election, we also have Angie Henderson as Vice Mayor and Quin Evans-Segall as an At-Large Council Member, who are both knowledgeable walkability/transit advocates. I'm eager to see their leadership.