MorganRehnberg

I walk along Division every day on my way to/from work, and this is spot on. It’s consistently shocking how few people are on the sidewalks given the literal thousands of units I’m passing. One problem, I think, is that the retail variety is really… strange? Almost every building in the Gulch seems to have a fitness place and/or some kind of salon. The new Modera Gulch literally has two fitness places side-by-side. I don’t understand how it makes economic sense to have so many repeated businesses, but I guess the initial projections are making sense for them.

I went to an East Bank walk around with a couple council members and the topic of the placement of the affordable housing near the scrapyard was a major point of concern among many of the constituents there. Also concerns about making sure the pedestrian bridge extension is easily accessible to/from the new boulevard for people on bikes.

First sections of the new east sidewalk open!

Hopefully the really good pedestrian experience here will encourage similar transformations on other neighboring streets. The core portion of Church St. is already basically like this and it’s the nicest downtown street. Building a mini grid of them would be awesome.

Interesting chart posted on Reddit today. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/ITVjxRK3IP

The sidewalk situation in this area has been incredibly frustrating. You have to cross to one side to get past Prime, then switch over to the other to get past 1010, only to have to walk in the street to avoid NY. This whole situation doesn’t feel like it’s in spirit with the ordinances regarding keeping right of way for pedestrians.

Every time I walk through Bankers Alley from 2nd Ave, I hope that this project is still moving forward. Continuing to extend the span of connected, pedestrian-first spaces downtown will be great.

I walk by this building frequently and I think it does a nice job of feeling like two buildings from the sidewalk. The connection between them is set back quite far, the stick out into the sidewalk in different ways, etc.

Walked by today and they were actively working on the blocks closer to Broadway.

I can’t tell from the renderings—is the bank a separate building in front, or are they going to build the bank part first and then build the rest of the structure around it?

Some of the final brickwork going in on the northern blocks. Love the width of the sidewalk, but the offset planters and trees seem to result in no real expansion of space for walking.

It’s 31 minutes walking from Ascend to the farmer’s market., according to Apple Maps. That’s a more than reasonable distance between major parks. Lots of residential is being added to downtown, and we should definitely be aiming for close access to real green space (everywhere in Nashville, not just downtown).

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think Ascend Amphitheater is a real waste of valuable space. Downtown badly needs a big urban park, with actual trees, grass, etc. on the downtown side of the river. The space where Ascend is, plus the surrounding “park” (mostly concrete and a flat green square) could be that space. The maps around the area show a walking loop running through the amphitheater that “may be closed for concerts,” but I’ve basically never seen the gates actually open. It sucks that such a huge piece of irreplaceable, city-owned real estate sits locked up most of the year. I hope that once some of the residential projects fill in to the south over the next 5-10 years, there’s a conversation about creating more of a real park in that area.

They certainly don’t seem to be in a hurry to complete the road work and reopen the road. That’s got to be about the best argument for pedestrianizing 2nd Ave you could make.

Looks like they are getting ready to hang a light on 8th near the Paseo development. There’s not a cross-street right there, so I wonder if it will just be a flasher. It’s a much-needed spot for a cross-walk.