rocky top buzz

Top Cat, I've heard the concern many times that our suburban growth is eating up all the farmland. I understand the sustainability issues, but farming is not a concern with most suburban growth. If you look at developement patterns around Nashville, you'll see that very little true 'farmmland' has been sold for suburban growth. Here's what I mean: most of the farms that have been turned into subdivision were old family farms that were no longer producing sizeable crops of anything. That is because the economics no longer worked for farming the land, and the economics has more to do with NAFTA than GNAR. We still have more than enough farmland in this country to provide for a growing population, and also, much of what we have is no longer truly developed on a farm. Cows, chickens, etc.. still need grazing land, but lettuce, tomatos, beans, and more are often grown in labs nowadays.

Actually, most of the people who work at Interchange City in La Vergne live in either Antioch or... Murfreesboro! Most people I know wjo live here in La Vergne either work in Smyrna or Nashville. So La Vergne being a part of a Rutherford MSA wouldn't really have an effect on murfreesboro wages.

Face it guys, it's either monsoon's way or the highway. If your opinion is different from his, he'll delete it. As for me, I'm with Barakat. This project continues to be hotly discussed here, but is going nowhere in the real world. We are sitting at about the same number of reservations, and the groundbreaking "date" remains 6+ months away, and keeps getting pushed further that way... ... kinda like the sounds stadium?

I'm not even going to touch number 2, as I think that's already been resolved As for number 3, the amenity level, that sounds correct. I have never flown SWA, but from what I understand, there is no first class? Compare that to JetBlue which is supposedly all first class? Has anyone here flown jetblue to support that statement? And would anyone support the statement that flying on SWA means flying on planes where you are cramped in and feel like the plane hasn't been updated in 20 years? If that's the case, we in Nashville should be hoping for expanded JetBlue operations, not SWA. (of course, as long as I have family working for Delta, that's the only airline I really need to stay here!)

oh, don't get me wrong, I do think it would be fun to take the train; it just seems to me they are pricing out the market. As for the minivan thing, yes, a lot of people around here drive minivans. But we could even say an SUV. Titan's games have a lot of tailgaiters like college, so yes, you typically have more people in a vehicle than perhaps at other NFL stadiums. Metro, are you in Atlanta? Because if so, tailgaiting down there is nothing like up here.

$20 a person? You can park a 7 passenger mini-van downtown for $10! That would be $140 to take the train????

So who's paying for the airport now, taxpayers? I'll say this: I know many people are not happy about the Titan's deal on the stadium, but at least they are locked into a 30 year lease. These people in Pittsburgh didn't even get a contract from US Air before expanding? Lexy, you know more about this than I do. Is it un-common for aiports to lease gates under long-term contracts? Does anyone know how much of MNAA's budget compes from taxpayers as opposed to revenue from the airports?

Now see that's what I was looking for the other day! Did they just put that up today? If so, maybe some insiders are on this site?

The gas tax is state mandated at 21.4 cents per gallon. Here's a link to how it is used: http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/GasTax/

Back to the renovations at BNA... Have any drawings been published showing what the changes are expected to look like? I read all this stuff about the renovations, but really, what is there to renovate on the actual concourses? Are they going to re-arrange gates? I was reading some info on flynashville.com, but it didn't seem to have the technical details I am curious about.

I agree that this argument is going in circles, so this will be my last comment on this particular point: I pay taxes at the pumps, and I have roads to use. I don't know how much of that tax $$$ is sent to less populated parts of the state, but that's fine with me because I may take a trip out in the middle of nowhere Tennessee and drive on their roads. Fact is, I pay taxes for roads and have roads to drive on. I pay taxes for a commuter rail line, but it would add about an hour to my commute to use that rail line. It does me no good. And if we can get one in my part of town, I wouldn't expect people in Jackson Tennessee to pay for it. This is all at the heart of a greater argument on taxation, and as long as success is taxed (income tax), people like me will complain.

Well, it was primarily business, but a good stay nontheless. I did find it interesting how large the PHILLIP MORRIS USA sign was. I guss they're not trying to hide out from the protestors

Just had to pop on and say I was in Richmond last week and ate at the Tobacco company. What a great restaurant! I've never actually seen in person someone selling cigars and cigarettes! That's been limited to old movies in my generation! Best prime rib north of Tennessee too

It's not a matter of whether it would save me $1 in taxes or $10,000 in taxes because it's my money. What matters to me is that I paid for something I can't use. I pay for roads (gas tax) and can use them. If I don't drive, I don't have to pay for the roads. It's like the 'bridge to nowhere' in Alaska. Are you supportive of that waste? After all, it's your tax dollars at work. Again,yes, I would prefer to have a train to work every day. I hate that this country dismantled our entire commuter rail system in favor of interstates. But when you look at when rail roads were originally developed, they weren't paid for by the government; they were owned by private companies who had to make a profit. Why can't the same hold true today?

I think that's the bad thing about MTSU is that not even the majority of Murfreesboro consider themselves fans of MTSU. I think most people like myself hope that they are successful, but I'd rather stay home and watch UT on the TV than go to an MTSU game. I think winning will help, but look at how Louisville got so successful: they played on Wednesday and Thursday nights. If MTSU would play on weeknights, they would get the students to the games who normally go home for weekends. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't MTSU's undergrad student body alone almost fill the stadium? You get an exciting atmosphere full of college studnents, and you'll get the community interested. I also hate MTSU's conference. Who cares about Louisiana-? and UNT? I don'tknow how to solve that problem. If you move up to, say, conference USA, you're going to get killed over the next several years. And to move down would mean back to I-AA, and I don't think the University wants to do that.

I am pro-rail too, but your comments are off base. First off, you say roads don't turn a profit, and we spend billions with $0 return? I can tell you this: I pay a gas tax everytime I put gas in my tank. If that tax doesn't cover the cost of roads, then the govenor needs to present that to us as a reason to increase the gas tax (of course, I would counter that we have HUGE surpluses across the board, so if he raises gas tax he needs to lower the sales tax). As far as the return on investment, what would our economy look like if we didn't have quality roads (see economy of Mississippi, or even places in Eurpoe that rely heavily on Mass transit and have unemployment rates of about 15% compared to our 4%). People like Bill Hobbs and Phil Valentine aren't complaining about the concept of commuter rail, they are complaining about the way this particular line was initiated. Most of the people on this board agree with that too. Is there anyone on here who lives in Wilson County? Has anyone seen a measurable improvement in their commute time? If we agree that there is no real improvement in commute time, then we are saying that we as taxpayers are subsidizing relaxation time for about 300 people. They get to relax in the AM instead of fighting traffic with the rest of us. How is that fair?? Why do we have to pay for this for them, and we don't get the benefits? We should make the rich people in Williamson county subsidize my relaxation time, right???

I agree; I like assigned seats. If I want to sit next to someone else, I can always switch seats on Delta Everyone on hear keeps mentioning that as Nashville grows, so will our airline service, but what I don't think everyone understands is that as Nashville grows, so will Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, NYC, LA, etc... So service will continue to grow at those airports as long as they continue to add capacity. Makes sense economically. I agree that our best bet is to have a smaller airline move to BNA and become sucessful here.

I understand MEM has a hub, and that's why I think the comparison from a business aspect is important. If I own a business where my employees travel all over the country, I'm going to want the most destinations. I don't care about the short hop destinations. If I can drive there in 4 hours, that's probably more efficient than flying anyway (assuming you'll get to the airport 2 hours before flight. Be on the plane for an hour, then spend 30 minutes getting off the plane and collecting your bags). I'm thinking of cities that you may do business in but aren't huge cities (and don't have disney world). Examples: Richmond, VA Jackson, MS Jacksonville, FL Corpus Christi, TX Albequerque, NM Portland, OR Columbus, OH Buffalo, NY I could go on, but my point is that these are major business centers that we can't get to direct. The more time an employee spends traveling, the less efficient for business. I know we'll never be what Atlanta is, and that's fine. But I think we should be able to compete with our local and peer cities across the nation. At least we have SWA.

I can't think of any major (or even minor) destination in NA that you can't get to non-stop if you fly out of ATL. So that begs the question, why would any airline duplicate that from Nashville when we are only a 30 minute flight from ATL? Or best hope is that Delta's presence grows at BNA, and then we can get some "direct" flights. How do destinations from BNA match up to Memphis and Charlotte? I would use that as my gauge to determine how successful we are.

When I travel, I always try to connect through Atlanta, but that's where I grew up and I'm very familiar with that airport. I can certainly understand why people would hate connecting through there. especially if your flight leave and take off from gates at the end of the terminal. That's a LONG walk!

Well so far, UNT has been the main obstacle to winning the Sun Belt. What bowl game might might MTSU get if they run the table?

Are you saying that Frontier will be the hub that will fly Nashvillians to Europe, Asia, and south America non-stop? I find that hard to believe; clarify?

LA, you said the TIF financing was denied? I don't remember hearing that. I thought Tony was quoted as saying 'If the TIF doesn't get approved, the signature wouldn't be built?'

metro makes a good point. Last December they annouced a groundbreaking date of January 2007. Now it's moved to June 2007? That of course begs the question, why was it moved? What did the contract with the hotel say, and will this now break that contract? Smyrna was told that Target would be building a new store off Sam Ridley parkway beginning spring 2006. Now it is Fall 2006, and no sign sits on the property announcing the Target, and no dirt has been turned. Is there a sign on church street touting the location of the tower? I am quickly falling into the category of pessimist on this project. B

"Rover" is the name of Nashville Humane Society's nuter-mobile. Personally the thought of riding the nuter-mobile is frightening to me!