Davidson West: Bellevue, Bordeaux, Green Hills, MetroCenter, Nations, N Nashville

[Bos2Nash]

1 hour ago, Dunkijo said:

Agree, this is the rendering from the listing so I am hoping it gets these improvements!

 

vs. what it is now

I hope that is what they do! That would be a wonderful upgrade!!

[ThunderOne]

18 hours ago, markhollin said:

Two adjoining 1 level storefronts at 4914 & 4916 Charlotte Ave. (both circa 1900, and each at 3,00 sq. ft.) have sold for a combined $875,000 to a LLC led by Josh Ritter of Larence Ritter Properties.  Hopefully this will be the start of revitalizing this block which is sorely in need of restoration.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/sylvan-park-retail-buildings-sell-for-875k/article_9fe96676-a3c6-11ec-a11f-0f6887fbda97.html
 

Here's a wider view of the block:

Seems like the lack of parking is why that area is underutilized, but then again, lack of parking is the standard in Nashville.

[BnaBreaker]

45 minutes ago, ThunderOne said:

Seems like the lack of parking is why that area is underutilized, but then again, lack of parking is the standard in Nashville.

Sorry... you think there is a lack of parking in Nashville?

[Thrill]

45 minutes ago, ThunderOne said:

Seems like the lack of parking is why that area is underutilized, but then again, lack of parking is the standard in Nashville.

Hasn't stopped Headquarters, Rhino Books, and some of the other businesses over there from thriving. I think the biggest issue is just the dilapidated store fronts and probably the intensity of automobiles on Charlotte. 

[ThunderOne]

.

Edited March 15, 2022 by ThunderOne

[go_outside]

5 hours ago, ThunderOne said:

Seems like the lack of parking is why that area is underutilized, but then again, lack of parking is the standard in Nashville.

There's a big, free public parking lot right across the street. I frequent that area and parking is rarely an issue.

[ThunderOne]

1 minute ago, go_outside said:

There's a big, free public parking lot right across the street. I frequent that area and parking is rarely an issue.

Ah, you're right, I forgot about that. I was just thinking you'd have to have a death wish to parallel park directly in front of the stores on Charlotte Ave

[colemangaines]

9 minutes ago, ThunderOne said:

I was just thinking you'd have to have a death wish to parallel park directly in front of the stores on Charlotte Ave

On that note, I think this highlights how out of place this strip of shops is on Charlotte. You have front entranced, sidewalk accessible stores with zero setback attached to a major four lane thoroughfare. I really like the look and feel of these shops, and Charlotte was probably much less intimidating when they were built, but it seems like a bad fit now.

[GregH]

I spend a lot of time in that area on foot and it's not so bad outside of the highest-traffic times. That strip has three relatively close options to cross the street with lights at 46th, 49th, and 51st. The McDonald's and Hugh Baby's turn-ins are the most dangerous parts.  I'm more concerned about the 31st-46th stretch where there are much bigger gaps in safe crossing points and I see a lot of people making questionable jaywalking decisions (and I am a generally pro-jaywalking person). Especially since there are a lot of new alcohol-serving businesses on either side of the street in that section, I'm worried a pedestrian is going to be killed sooner or later. 

[BnaBreaker]

1 hour ago, colemangaines said:

On that note, I think this highlights how out of place this strip of shops is on Charlotte. You have front entranced, sidewalk accessible stores with zero setback attached to a major four lane thoroughfare. I really like the look and feel of these shops, and Charlotte was probably much less intimidating when they were built, but it seems like a bad fit now.

In my opinion Nashville should be cherishing and protecting strips like it, and changing the street (at least the part the strip fronts) to fit the strip, not demolishing the strip and putting up another big residential brick offset from the street because said street is more like a highway these days.  In my mind that's what commercial strips should still ideally look like in an urban area in terms of form.  

[smeagolsfree]

One of my biggest gripes about Metro traffic or Transportation, whatever they call themselves now, is they are way too slow to react to the changing neighborhood pedestrian needs as they are happening. There are way too many studies and red tape needed to get things done, and in the meantime its possible several people could be hurt or killed. The council people in some of the districts are also slow to recognize a problem as well. 

I think that is also because they are part time employees stretched way too thin with their duties. I do think Metro should allocate employees such as codes and inspectors based on the population of the district and start work arounds that way.  At least it would be a way to start. Who knows if it would work or not?  I know that Metro probably has way too many chiefs and not enough Indians, not to be racist but using the old adage.

That is always a place to start in any business is to get rid of the middle managers as most of the time they are not needed. The big bosses need to get out and get their hands dirty and do some work instead of getting fat behind a desk and doing needless paperwork to satisfy the boss over that person.

You need a mayor yes, but I think you need a city manager as well. Things in Metro are not done efficiently!

[Pdt2f]

41 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

One of my biggest gripes about Metro traffic or Transportation, whatever they call themselves now, is they are way too slow to react to the changing neighborhood pedestrian needs as they are happening. There are way too many studies and red tape needed to get things done, and in the meantime its possible several people could be hurt or killed. The council people in some of the districts are also slow to recognize a problem as well. 

I think that is also because they are part time employees stretched way too thin with their duties. I do think Metro should allocate employees such as codes and inspectors based on the population of the district and start work arounds that way.  At least it would be a way to start. Who knows if it would work or not?  I know that Metro probably has way too many chiefs and not enough Indians, not to be racist but using the old adage.

That is always a place to start in any business is to get rid of the middle managers as most of the time they are not needed. The big bosses need to get out and get their hands dirty and do some work instead of getting fat behind a desk and doing needless paperwork to satisfy the boss over that person.

You need a mayor yes, but I think you need a city manager as well. Things in Metro are not done efficiently!

This literally is not a representation of Metro’s Codes dept. I’m a metro employee who has worked with various Codes units over the year. The problem is lack of funding. If they have enough inspectors (which is rare) they don’t have enough vehicles. There’s no point in having 100 inspectors if you only have vehicles for 50 of them, especially since the salary level doesn’t really factor in wear and tear on personal vehicles (yes Metro reimburses for private vehicle use but it’s laughably bad).  Inspectors are constantly leaving to take better paying jobs in the private industry due to Metro’s industry-low salary. There’s no more supervisors than what’s necessary for the functioning of the department, if anything they have a hard time filling supervisor positions due to the stress of the job and low salary. If the city wants quicker service and better results they have to be willing to pay for it. I don’t understand how people in this city can constantly gripe about Metro but then refuse to agree to tax raises to fund Metro on a level equal (or even just moderately lower) than cities of the same size. 

[Luvemtall]

@Pdt2fyour comments will arouse a few eyebrows , But your absolutely right. I’ve commented on this before, but it’s a hard sell.               ALL municipalities run on taxes collected, but that word “taxes” has been villainous from the beginning. ALL corporations run on revenue collected from their goods and services,to pay salaries,etc.  and in hopes of substantial profits. As we see exactly that now , with everything going up in price, corporations can and will increase the price to maintain profits. The only way to do that as a governmental municipality is to raise taxes. People will pay the price for their milk, gas, bread, cars, luxuries etc. it’s just looked at in a different way , it’s all in that word “taxes” if they can change that to “operations cost “or “municipalities fund “ maybe that would help. I find it sad , that people will pay whatever for unnecessary luxuries, but are unwilling to pay the price to keep their towns and cities at the level of goods and services that they expect and demand. 

[Pdt2f]

21 minutes ago, Luvemtall said:

@Pdt2fyour comments will arouse a few eyebrows , But your absolutely right. I’ve commented on this before, but it’s a hard sell.               ALL municipalities run on taxes collected, but that word “taxes” has been villainous from the beginning. ALL corporations run on revenue collected from their goods and services,to pay salaries,etc.  and in hopes of substantial profits. As we see exactly that now , with everything going up in price, corporations can and will increase the price to maintain profits. The only way to do that as a governmental municipality is to raise taxes. People will pay the price for their milk, gas, bread, cars, luxuries etc. it’s just looked at in a different way , it’s all in that word “taxes” if they can change that to “operations cost “or “municipalities fund “ maybe that would help. I find it sad , that people will pay whatever for unnecessary luxuries, but are unwilling to pay the price to keep their towns and cities at the level of goods and services that they expect and demand. 

Exactly. I remember back in 2020 when Metro was in the unfortunate position of having to raise property taxes. The alternative was massive cutbacks in services, including PD and fire, to the point where the city wouldn’t be able to function. Probably bankruptcy and being taken over by the state, a la Detroit or Birmingham, was in the future. People just didn’t believe it. I had neighbors who were just absolutely convinced, without evidence, that Metro had plenty of money but they were just wasting it on special interests. Like somehow the city spent so much money painting slogans on roads in east Nashville that they can’t afford to pay cops. Someone on 99.7 told them or something. Meanwhile I was having discussions with council members who were considering resignation if the budget wasn’t passed, and fiscal personnel in various crucial departments who were having to come up with various plans for how to deal with losing half of their funding. It’s insane. 
 

It’s like the owner of a McDonald’s refusing to pay more for employees, and then getting infuriated that the place is a disaster during the lunch rush when there’s only 2 people working and no burgers left. 

[smeagolsfree]

As I said Metro needs a City Manager to get the city out of the mess and take the responsibility of the day to day running of Metro. I think funds are not sent where they need to be sent and many government services can be farmed out. They are going to have to get with the plan and eventually do more tax increases. The price of everything is going up, so the taxes will have too as well. I think there should be a built-in increment increase on a yearly basis, so you do not have the huge increase that you had to have this past year. The tax increase will have to be tied to COL and inflation now.

I know they can't keep people in codes, can't collect garbage, can't hire enough police, fire and EMT personnel, so they are going to have to pay more. The fact now is that a lot of folks can go to Costco and make as much as a starting police officer in some of the outlying counties and will not have to out your life on the line stocking shelves.

The next thing is what they had to do years ago in other large cities and that is maybe to cut some services. I know that is not going to be very popular, but when you have labor shortages and budget shortfalls that is an alternative. Metro has been poorly run for a long long time.

[ThunderOne]

1 hour ago, Pdt2f said:

Exactly. I remember back in 2020 when Metro was in the unfortunate position of having to raise property taxes. The alternative was massive cutbacks in services, including PD and fire, to the point where the city wouldn’t be able to function. Probably bankruptcy and being taken over by the state, a la Detroit or Birmingham, was in the future. People just didn’t believe it. I had neighbors who were just absolutely convinced, without evidence, that Metro had plenty of money but they were just wasting it on special interests. Like somehow the city spent so much money painting slogans on roads in east Nashville that they can’t afford to pay cops. Someone on 99.7 told them or something. Meanwhile I was having discussions with council members who were considering resignation if the budget wasn’t passed, and fiscal personnel in various crucial departments who were having to come up with various plans for how to deal with losing half of their funding. It’s insane. 
 

It’s like the owner of a McDonald’s refusing to pay more for employees, and then getting infuriated that the place is a disaster during the lunch rush when there’s only 2 people working and no burgers left. 

Is there a document somewhere that outlines what the city is spending their money on?  I would like to take a look at it out of curiosity.  I tried to look at some point but gave up because whatever I was looking at did not offer the level of granularity I wanted to see.

Thanks in advance

Edited March 16, 2022 by ThunderOne

[Luvemtall]

Absolutely Smeags! A city manager is a must, and the built in increments is a good idea. People need to understand, that they can’t expect to cover everything and pay a decent salary to retain good employees, and keep taxes at yesteryears level. 

[Pdt2f]

10 minutes ago, ThunderOne said:

Is there a document somewhere that outlines what the city is spending their money on?  I would like to take a look at it out of curiosity.

Thanks in advance

I’m sure there is, but I have no idea where. I’m pretty sure the city budget is public record. 

[rookzie]

1 hour ago, ThunderOne said:

Is there a document somewhere that outlines what the city is spending their money on?  I would like to take a look at it out of curiosity.  I tried to look at some point but gave up because whatever I was looking at did not offer the level of granularity I wanted to see.

Thanks in advance

...
...

1 hour ago, Pdt2f said:

I’m sure there is, but I have no idea where. I’m pretty sure the city budget is public record. 

Many local governments, including Metro Nashville, house that information freely accessible on a Website, but that information often can be readily available in print as well ─ the latter format probably for a fee.  Local officials are legally required to have that information publicly available.

Additionally, all public offices are also required to submit their financial statements to independent review in a report called a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR.  A CAFR ─ casually pronounced as "KAFF-ur" ─ provides detailed information concerning the office’s financial management, and gives insight into the finances of a city or county.   A CAFR is essentially a city "report-card", so people can see how public funds are being managed by the government.  So in that respect the report should be granular, mostly in tabulated reference format.  Usually the current-period statement will be accompanied with archived reports of preceding years ─ typically 3 to 5.

For Nashville, one can start here on the Web: https://www.nashville.gov/departments/finance

Site navigation can be done either with the left-floating "Navigation" menu or with the cascading "bread-crumb" (hierarchical '>') elements below the heading.

Many governments have adopted a fiscal year as July 01 to June 30, or Oct 01-Sep 30, but it does vary.  Frequently the period is subdivided as quarterly or and/or monthly.  I've never bothered to look over the reports for Nashville, but I have pored over and "scoured" those of a few places like Detroit, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Cincinnati, and OKC.

[ThunderOne]

21 hours ago, rookzie said:

...
...

Many local governments, including Metro Nashville, house that information freely accessible on a Website, but that information often can be readily available in print as well ─ the latter format probably for a fee.  Local officials are legally required to have that information publicly available.

Additionally, all public offices are also required to submit their financial statements to independent review in a report called a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR.  A CAFR ─ casually pronounced as "KAFF-ur" ─ provides detailed information concerning the office’s financial management, and gives insight into the finances of a city or county.   A CAFR is essentially a city "report-card", so people can see how public funds are being managed by the government.  So in that respect the report should be granular, mostly in tabulated reference format.  Usually the current-period statement will be accompanied with archived reports of preceding years ─ typically 3 to 5.

For Nashville, one can start here on the Web: https://www.nashville.gov/departments/finance

Site navigation can be done either with the left-floating "Navigation" menu or with the cascading "bread-crumb" (hierarchical '>') elements below the heading.

Many governments have adopted a fiscal year as July 01 to June 30, or Oct 01-Sep 30, but it does vary.  Frequently the period is subdivided as quarterly or and/or monthly.  I've never bothered to look over the reports for Nashville, but I have pored over and "scoured" those of a few places like Detroit, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Cincinnati, and OKC.

Thank you!

[GregH]

The Pepperfire hot chicken at 5104c Centennial is finally open.

[smeagolsfree]

On 3/11/2022 at 11:18 AM, markhollin said:

Sky Nashville (3 & 4 stories, 123 units) southwest of the I-40/I-440 split is now fully underway. New renderings and info at NashvilleNowNext here:

https://nashvillenownext.com/2022/03/11/site-clearing-starts-at-the-sky-nashville-development-near-sylvan-heights/

I can now say with 100% certainty this is not happening. The person is not a developer and a land banker only. The story will come out Monday. As you know a few of us have always had doubts about everything this guy has proposed. Nothing special is going to go here either. Do not get your hopes up.

[CenterHill]

15 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

I can now say with 100% certainty this is not happening. The person is not a developer and a land banker only. The story will come out Monday. As you know a few of us have always had doubts about everything this guy has proposed. Nothing special is going to go here either. Do not get your hopes up.

Good lord.   The partial excavation and removal of vegetation, allegedly done without permits or financing, is criminally irresponsible.   The runoff from each heavy rain is going to create serious environmental issues for adjacent property owners.   I do hope Metro nails this person and requires some sort of mitigation to stabilize the site.   

[smeagolsfree]

WW is still trying to talk to the new owner, but it will be SFH!

 

Now is a good time to take some pictures form the hill now the trees are gone.

[markhollin]

Sylvan Summit site sells for $15.5 million.

The new owner is an LLC affiliated with Baird Graham, who owns Nashville-based home development company BGC Construction. Graham plans a 64-home development on the noticeably elevated West Nashville site some call Howard Hill.

Hill 33 LLC, the chief manager for which is Ardavan Afrakhteh, was the seller. Afrakhten had previously eyed an October 2018 groundbreaking for Sky Nashville.

Graham said preliminary site work is underway at the 4.75-acre site, a main address for which is 3301 Trevor St. Images are forthcoming.

Local architect Zach Provonchee is designing the 64 free-standing single-family homes, which will range in size from about 1,800 to 3,500 square feet.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/sylvan-summit-site-eyed-for-project-sells-for-15-5m/article_efb54cc2-a94f-11ec-8f28-83267d9b074d.html