southsideJ

some of the people over at n.charrette started a great blog on transit for nashville. They posted a link to an excellent video on BRT in Bogota which was really amazing. I think it is especially interesting for us Nashvillians considering that Mayor Dean is planning to implement BRT here. The video really exhibits the ways in which this form of mass transit can be utilized as a more affordable but excellent option. The intergration of cyclists with BRT is especially exciting. We can only dream of having something so extensive here one day. It would be nice to see the city include the beginning of a really ambitious mass transit plan as part of the designing of the new convention center--something that helps this move this city towards being more walkable. I just visited the Highlands neighborhood in Louisville this weekend and came back a little depressed at how much more urban and walkable it was there than here. It was a super cool urban neighborhood--we really have nothing quite like it in Nashville. But it WAS just 15 years ago that urban renewal began here in Nashville--before that dt was a largely ignored/avoided. So, really, we are just getting started over in many ways. The next 15 yrs will be great--just hope we continue to work on becoming much, much (much) more pedestrian friendly. We still can become so much better.

I agree about the regionalization. Christine Kreyling did mention it in one of her earlier articles on MTC. I quoted the part on regionalization and linked to the article in a post several weeks ago: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...st&p=993907

^on that note: meanwhile, it looks like Cool Springs may be getting the Westin we never got.

Here's the link to the Scene article. I read it yesterday and found it fascinating. It made fair points on both sides, but it was definitely against the MTC development. It describes it as an attempt to build a second downtown just miles from downtown. I think Christine Kreyling sort of exaggerated to make her points. For example, the projection would be to have 40,000 people living/working in MTC . . . in 20 yrs. Its not like they would build it out and immdiately have 40k extra people and immediate overcrowding and all using one bridge, etc. It also states that it is one of the most rural areas in Davidson County but repeatedly points out it is just 5 miiles from downtown. So if it is only 5 miles from downtown Nashville, how rural can people expect it to stay? I mean realistically? But the article does make some great points. I thought the best point was this thought, near the end of the article, which gets at the larger issue at hand:

wow, i'm kind of surprised. show's what i know. thx for the info, richard.

So, Clark Construction Group has been awarded the contract to design/build the Convention Center. Do we know if they were selected partly based on renderings not seen by the public and there is already a general idea of what the design will consist of/look like? Or are they just starting fresh now? Just wondered if anyone has any insight. thx

adding to the above thought . . . i guess you guys disagreed with how i said some stuff and i disagreed with how you guys said some stuff. next time i will just send a pm. but i don't feel like i personally attacked anyone. as for the tower i think if the economy gets worse instead of better then it would be hard to imagine it being built. but if the economy recovers within a reasonable amount of time then i think it is very possible that this, like some other pending residential projects around town, will be built--just with a little delay. i don't think that's surprising at all considering how ambitious this project is. and i would agree with the argument that other types of development would be more appropriate for the world that we live in today, but I am still fascinated by buildings like this proposed one.

and i am one of those people who wants to read about the signature tower. but it was your post that has led us off on this tangent. i came on here to read about the news and perhaps get some details and instead there was stuff about how you continue to be proven right and stuff about instructing us to remember that we read it here first, not in the local media which seems all too willing to take whatever developers say without question or comment. so i appologize if i am supposed to PM someone to complain, but no one PM'd me before the global moderator got on here and put words in my mouth.

i never suggested that this or any other project shouldn't be subjected to due criticism. And at point did I display an emotional over-exuberance and defensiveness regarding this project? My post wasn't even really about Signature Tower--more just about how I found monsoon's posting attitude in this topic to be surprisingly combative and derogative of the Nashvillians and the Nashville media, esp. considering that he/she is a moderator.

what is particularly offputting about your posts in this topic is that they mostly seem childish and bitter. You have repeatedly stated that the Nashville media is gullible and ignorant and suggested that you understand the local real estate market better than they do. This is ridiculous and makes me doubt that you have little more purpose here than to stir things up and lash out at anyone who doesn't beilieve the building is a bad idea and will never be built. You almost seem to have more at stake than the people who would like to see it built. You don't even live in Nashville, do you? When was the last time you were even in Nashville? I don't remember anyone ever arguing that economics don't apply to Giarratana or that the building will get built b/c Nashville deserves it. And I don't remember ever reading an article on Signature Tower that didn't include the word 'if' when talking about if the tower actually gets built. I believe you even once scolded people on here once for discussing the Signature Tower in the Signature Tower thread. What gives? And you're a moderator?

*I posted this here b/c I didn't really want to start a whole topic for this and it seems to me to fit in with a transit discussion. Sorry if it is completely off topic.* I hope that, as Nashville continues to build bike lanes and trails, it will consider implementing something like what Paris and other European cities are doing with bike rentals for both tourists and citizens alike. It may sound unrealistic but I don't think some form of what they have in European cities is completely unrealistic for Nashville sometime in the near future. Another cool thing that Paris does that probably would only happen in Nashville in a dream:

that updated rendering is in ad in today's City Paper--the crown does sorta look almost like it is made of glass. Here's the pic from the ad-- versus an older rendering:

some pics of Bedford Commons in Green Hills:

If I understand that right, it sounds like a step toward the crown looking a little more like the Chrysler Building's crown?

lots of exciting projects are really beginning to take shape . . . now if we could see some dirt moving for the Sounds stadium . . . I still feel like that is one of the most important projects for this city. crossing fingers