Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge

[nashvylle]

1 minute ago, think365 said:

More too little too late politics.   This has nothing to do with the people that were wronged.

what is your solution- not a rhetorical question, honestly curious. 

 

 

[think365]

39 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

what is your solution- not a rhetorical question, honestly curious. 

 

 

What "solutions" were presented?  How does the mayor's plan "right the wrong" for the people that were wronged?

[Nashvillain]

45 minutes ago, think365 said:

More too little too late politics.   This has nothing to do with the people that were wronged.

It is kind of like putting a band aid on an amputated leg (sorry for the gruesome analogy). But maybe it's the start of a larger process of restitution....

[markhollin]

Rutledge Flats (8 stories, 174 units) update: foundation being set and a bit of western will rising.

Looking SE from 3rd Ave. South, 1/2 block north of Elm St:

[nashvylle]

If we do this, let’s do it right. 
 

[donNdonelson2]

You want Nashville’s to top the “crookedest” street in the world?

[MidTenn1]

2 hours ago, nashvylle said:

If we do this, let’s do it right. 
 

Been there, done that....twice.

[markhollin]

Blue Parrot (3 story bar) update: More structural steel in place on 3rd level.

Looking SE from intersection of 4th Ave. South and Molloy St:

[Nash_12South]

This is a very slow moving construction site.

[PillowTalk4]

Creating a park over I-40 will not do anything to right the wrong that hindered an entire community and uprooted hundreds of people.  I like the idea of capping I-40, but lets not present this as an effort to undo the wrong that was done to the Black people whose livelihood was destroyed, who had to leave a community in which they had built their families and dreams around. 

My grandparents lived in that area where I-40 came through.  They obviously lost their home, which they owned.  It was the home my mother grew up in as well.    My parents held their wedding reception in that house.  We had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners there.   Easter Egg hunts in their yard.  And, just simple everyday family gatherings inside and out.  Even though I was very young at the time, I still have memories of their home, their beautifully  landscaped yard and the neighbors that made it a close knit community.   My grandparents could walk to the neighborhood grocery, dry cleaners, barbershop, shoe repair (that was a major business back then), flower shop and pharmacy.  They even walked to church every Sunday.  They attended Mount Zion.   Even though there was a seamstress and tailor in the area, my grandmother and one of her neighbors often sewed for other people.  Do alterations and sewing prom gowns and Easter dresses for the girls in the neighborhood.  Then there were the community block parties tat happened all over the area.  It was an area pretty much like any other area of town.  Except the residents were Black.  That was all that was needed to push an interstate through it without any thought about how it would impact the overall community. 

When I-40 came through that upended that way of life for my grandparents.  They ended up buying a home in east Nashville that wasn't quite as convenient.  My grandmother still walked to the neighborhood grocery store even though it was bit a further away.  Their new neighborhood didn't have a Jefferson Street.  Their new neighborhood was transitioning.  White people were moving out.  Blacks were moving in.  Most due to displacement.  Parts of Main Street and Gallatin Rd became somewhat of a boundary between Black and White neighborhoods in east Nashville at the time.  Some of the businesses along Gallatin Rd were not Black friendly when they first moved to the area.  So, it was different for my grandparents having to adjust to life in their new neighborhood in a way that they didn't have to think much about in their old neighborhood.

That is not something that capping I-40 with a park can fix.  Treating that area and the current residents like they matter is what is needed.  Ensuring that long term residents of that area aren't pushed out because of high property taxes is what's needed.  Encouraging business development along Jefferson Street leading up to the TSU campus is what's needed.   Not allowing developers to tear down everything in sight to build something new is what's needed.  Providing financial assistance to homeowners and businesses in the area to renovate their homes and storefronts inside and out is what's needed.  Provide incentives for young African Americans to buy and restore properties in the area.  Do the cap, but reconnect the streets to improve access to Jefferson Street.  Allow for green space, but also incorporate affordable housing into it.  That is what's needed.

[MLBrumby]

I'm getting the feeling that several "caps" or just bridges to reconnect many of those streets would do more for that area than a park. 

[MLBrumby]

1 hour ago, Nash_12South said:

This is a very slow moving construction site.

Because the construction workers have to keep backing up and stepping aside to let the other workers pass by.  Just slows things down. 

[nashvylle]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

I'm getting the feeling that several "caps" or just bridges to reconnect many of those streets would do more for that area than a park. 

But there is still a ton of risk of major gentrification after better connectivity which needs to be looked at. 

Perhaps a more punitive tax for new homebuyers when buying from an individual or family who has lived in an area for generations. 

[GregH]

I think that would end up hurting the existing owners more than anything. I think gentrification is a real tough battle and there's not much intervention that can be made that isn't going to filter down to having negative impacts on incumbent property owners. There really aren't many immediate "bad guys" to go after, the problem stems from decades of racism and official neglect and the existing low levels wealth and political power of the long term residents.

[rookzie]

5 hours ago, PillowTalk4 said:

Creating a park over I-40 will not do anything to right the wrong that hindered an entire community and uprooted hundreds of people.  I like the idea of capping I-40, but lets not present this as an effort to undo the wrong that was done to the Black people whose livelihood was destroyed, who had to leave a community in which they had built their families and dreams around. 

My grandparents lived in that area where I-40 came through.  They obviously lost their home, which they owned.  It was the home my mother grew up in as well.    My parents held their wedding reception in that house.  We had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners there.   Easter Egg hunts in their yard.  And, just simple everyday family gatherings inside and out.  Even though I was very young at the time, I still have memories of their home, their beautifully  landscaped yard and the neighbors that made it a close knit community.   My grandparents could walk to the neighborhood grocery, dry cleaners, barbershop, shoe repair (that was a major business back then), flower shop and pharmacy.  They even walked to church every Sunday.  They attended Mount Zion.   Even though there was a seamstress and tailor in the area, my grandmother and one of her neighbors often sewed for other people.  Do alterations and sewing prom gowns and Easter dresses for the girls in the neighborhood.  Then there were the community block parties tat happened all over the area.  It was an area pretty much like any other area of town.  Except the residents were Black.  That was all that was needed to push an interstate through it without any thought about how it would impact the overall community. 

When I-40 came through that upended that way of life for my grandparents.  They ended up buying a home in east Nashville that wasn't quite as convenient.  My grandmother still walked to the neighborhood grocery store even though it was bit a further away.  Their new neighborhood didn't have a Jefferson Street.  Their new neighborhood was transitioning.  White people were moving out.  Blacks were moving in.  Most due to displacement.  Parts of Main Street and Gallatin Rd became somewhat of a boundary between Black and White neighborhoods in east Nashville at the time.  Some of the businesses along Gallatin Rd were not Black friendly when they first moved to the area.  So, it was different for my grandparents having to adjust to life in their new neighborhood in a way that they didn't have to think much about in their old neighborhood.

That is not something that capping I-40 with a park can fix.  Treating that area and the current residents like they matter is what is needed.  Ensuring that long term residents of that area aren't pushed out because of high property taxes is what's needed.  Encouraging business development along Jefferson Street leading up to the TSU campus is what's needed.   Not allowing developers to tear down everything in sight to build something new is what's needed.  Providing financial assistance to homeowners and businesses in the area to renovate their homes and storefronts inside and out is what's needed.  Provide incentives for young African Americans to buy and restore properties in the area.  Do the cap, but reconnect the streets to improve access to Jefferson Street.  Allow for green space, but also incorporate affordable housing into it.  That is what's needed.

Thanks, PillowTalk4.

We needed (and still do need) someone who actually sacrificed personally from the displacement.  I was fortunate that the roulette ball didn't settle on my number, although I do recall family friends who did lose their homes and business property to the interstate.

It's no point in my repeating what I stated in a much earlier post that the decision to revise the interstate route into the Black neighborhoods of the North Nashville district was based on property values, and therefore that indeed it was discriminatory along racial lines.  Federal court proceedings and transcripts also revealed that the intentions among the decision-makers also was just outright racist in motive.

The Metro government could learn much by studying and following the revitalization of the H-Street Corridor in NE Washington DC, the local government of which is based on the ward system.  While far from being perfect, the efforts by the district ANCs (Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners) seem to have instituted multiple measures to effectively bolster both affordable and desirable housing for those who need it the most and who are native to that sub-district and both incentives and regulatory measures to keep in check against the adverse effects of gentrification and its exclusion.  Instead of being razed and replaced, large sections of 120+ year old row houses owned and inhabited by Blacks have been retained by overlay and rehabilitated to retain existing residency, while concurrently allowing and incentivizing the construction of upscale enterprises.  The DC H-Street Strategic Strategic Development Plan categorically restructured redevelopment for retail, entertainment, and urban living ─ all three interlaced along spatial boundaries within that community.

This seems to work much, much better than Metro Nashville's rubber-stamp practice of application for rezoning, public hearings, and granting permits to a developer, as it sees fit.  The plan also included a much improved transit plan, not only with increase in bus routes and frequencies but also a startup streetcar project.  A desirable but often overlooked aspect of urban planning for a depressed area is that it has to attract people from all over, while retaining the historically native demographics and ethnographics, in order that it may be deemed a success.

Edited April 23, 2021 by rookzie

[think365]

4 hours ago, PillowTalk4 said:

That was all that was needed to push an interstate through it without any thought about how it would impact the overall community. 

 

There was plenty of thought on how it would affect the community.  The interstate was intentionally used to destroy it.  This was  a racist policy done in almost every city in the U.S. with a black community.   

[LA_TN]

2 minutes ago, think365 said:

There was plenty of thought on how it would affect the community.  The interstate was intentionally used to destroy it.  This was  a racist policy done in almost every city in the U.S. with a black community.   

Absolutely. The puzzle to me is, it seems like one would want to put the interstate through your own neighborhood, so you have easy access to it! So why stick it off away from where you need it most? And full circle back to quote above...

[PillowTalk4]

5 minutes ago, think365 said:

There was plenty of thought on how it would affect the community.  The interstate was intentionally used to destroy it.  This was  a racist policy done in almost every city in the U.S. with a black community.   

Trust me I know this fact.  I should have been a more direct in that statement.  I-40 destroyed several Black neighborhoods along its path.  As did so many other interstates, highway, bypasses, etc. throughout this country.  This cap that is being discussed only addresses the disruption to Jefferson Street.  But, lets not forget that Blacks homes and additional businesses were destroyed as I-40 pushed through the westside of downtown and the southside side.  I-65 and Ellington Pkwy did the same on the eastside.  My father's family lived on Main Street in what I think might be the last home remaining on the north side of Main Street.  It's now owned by First Baptist Church East Nashville.  As a kid, he had friends that lived in the area east of I-65 up to where Ellington Pkwy. comes through.  He said the area had a mix of homes and light industrial type businesses.  Because of segregation, kids in that area had to catch a city bus or walk to Pearl High School.  They couldn't go to East High School.  So,  yeah, I know the impact of the interstates was intentional and reached beyond Jefferson Street.

[PillowTalk4]

28 minutes ago, LA_TN said:

Absolutely. The puzzle to me is, it seems like one would want to put the interstate through your own neighborhood, so you have easy access to it! So why stick it off away from where you need it most? And full circle back to quote above...

Interstates were driven by commerce more so than convenience for moving about within a city.  The side benefit to interstates was it made leisure travel easier as well.  Development followed interstates.  Except in predominantly Black neighborhoods.  Interstates also contributed to the growth of the suburbs.

[rolly]

On 4/21/2021 at 5:55 PM, Nashvillain said:

To set an example...?

One wears a mask to protect reduce spread.   He's in no danger while having his photo taken.  
It's a political reason he's wearing it. Not a medical reason.  It just looks ridiculous and yet another reason people that gesture this way are taken less seriously.

[markhollin]

Ryman Auditorium's tiny new outdoor stage is  complete.

Looking SE from SunTrust east patio:

 

[downtownresident]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:38 AM, MLBrumby said:

Because the construction workers have to keep backing up and stepping aside to let the other workers pass by.  Just slows things down. 

The city recently wrapped up some major stormwater work on Molloy / Almond / KVB in that area(complete with extended road closures), so that probably set them back a bit. 

[markhollin]

Molloy St. straightening project update.

Looking west from intersection of Molloy St. and 2nd Ave. South:

[markhollin]

Towne Nashville (5 stories, 329 units) update: Superstructure continues to rise.

Looking south from Rosa L. Parks Blvd. at Buchanan St:

Looking NW from intersection of Rosa L. Parks Blvd. and Garfield St:

Looking NE from Garfield St., 1/2 block east of Nassau St:

[dmillsphoto]

A minor contribution to a topic I'm glad to see didn't get heated, but for anyone who wants a deep dive into the racial discrimination not just in the interstate system but the intricate complexity with which Black Americans have been subjugated to regarding neighborhoods, home ownership, etc, I highly recommend The Color of Law. The book is the most thorough and, frankly, heartbreaking look back on the last hundred plus years of policy, law, and stupefying jurisprudence that I have ever read.  Anyway, as always, thanks @rookzie and his intimate historical insight and thanks to @PillowTalk4 as well.