Economic Conditions - Nashville, TN, U.S., Global

[DDIG]

24 minutes ago, Nash_12South said:

Metro lifted the mask mandate for outdoors, which to me is welcomed news.  Better for walking in the neighborhood and downtown. I have been wearing them, but only while walking 12th or downtown, not the neighborhood side streets. I'm also within 4 days of being 2 weeks past shot 2...... Am I the only one for whom current conversations with friends inevitably ends up on where everyone is in the vaccine process? Maybe I'm just old...... 

We've been slow to react to scientific data (not just Nashville but everyone). The data came in last summer that getting COVID from surfaces was next to impossible, CDC finally acknowledged that this week. The data also exists that the threat of getting COVID outdoors is negligible. I'm glad we've adjusted for that, but I also saw on twitter apparently Nashville changed indoor mask mandate from 12 to 2 years old. There's no reason a 2, 3, 4, etc. year old needs a mask, that troubles me.

 

[smeagolsfree]

The only time I ever wore them outside is when I was around a bunch of other maskless, brainless wonders. I am actually surprised some of These folks actually know how to breath in order to catch it in the first place.

[12Mouth]

7 hours ago, DDIG said:

There's no reason a 2, 3, 4, etc. year old needs a mask, that troubles me.

Why are you troubled? This is recommended by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics.

[Nash_12South]

On 2/18/2021 at 4:19 PM, markhollin said:

With 72 more Tennesseans passing away today, we have now surpassed the 11,000 death plateau due to Covid-19 at 11,057.  Here are the trends:

First death: March 1st

1,000th death: July 29th (151 days)

2,000th death: Sept. 12th (44 days)

3,000th death: Oct. 22nd (39 days)

4,000th death: Nov. 18th  (27 days)

5,000th death: Dec. 7th (19 days) 

6,000th death: Dec. 19th (12 days)

7,000th death: Jan. 2nd: (13 days)

8,000th  death: Jan. 12th (10 days)

9,000th death: Jan. 26th (14 days)

10,000th death: Feb. 3rd  (8 days)

11,000th death: Feb. 17th (14 days)

The good news is--that like nearly all of the rest of the nation--the infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates are slowing down.  We need to remain vigilant in all the protocols, and get as many people as possible vaccinated over the next 5 months.

 

12,000th death: April 9th (51 days)

[DDIG]

On 4/9/2021 at 10:14 PM, 12Mouth said:

Why are you troubled? This is recommended by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics.

WHO disagrees, and specifically dissuades against it: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19

And so do many others. Beyond the common sense nature of keeping a mask on a tiny 2 and 3 year old. But anyway not interested in an argument on this, most people are set in their ways.

[OnePointEast]

53 minutes ago, DDIG said:

WHO disagrees, and specifically dissuades against it: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19

And so do many others. Beyond the common sense nature of keeping a mask on a tiny 2 and 3 year old. But anyway not interested in an argument on this, most people are set in their ways.

Do you know if masks are still mandatory on two year olds when on a plane from any major airline?

[Nash_12South]

48 minutes ago, OnePointEast said:

Do you know if masks are still mandatory on two year olds when on a plane from any major airline?

A quick look at United, Delta and Southwest says, yes, still required for 2 and older.

[12Mouth]

12 hours ago, DDIG said:

WHO disagrees, and specifically dissuades against it: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19

And so do many others. Beyond the common sense nature of keeping a mask on a tiny 2 and 3 year old. But anyway not interested in an argument on this, most people are set in their ways.

Yeah - I'm not going to get in an argument of CDC vs WHO...I just don't think we should be troubled when our leaders are following CDC guidelines, particularly when these are backed up by numerous other well respected medical groups. I think that this is generally a good thing and the patchwork of inconsistent policies across the country sometimes following them and sometimes not have caused a lot of confusion. I have two kids in preschool who have been wearing masks with no problems for nine months and they are just fine.  But, agree to disagree. 

[DDIG]

11 hours ago, 12Mouth said:

Yeah - I'm not going to get in an argument of CDC vs WHO...I just don't think we should be troubled when our leaders are following CDC guidelines, particularly when these are backed up by numerous other well respected medical groups. I think that this is generally a good thing and the patchwork of inconsistent policies across the country sometimes following them and sometimes not have caused a lot of confusion. I have two kids in preschool who have been wearing masks with no problems for nine months and they are just fine.  But, agree to disagree. 

This is fine. On the flipside I have a kid in daycare that does not require masks. Open since August with no outbreaks in the school. I think its advantageous for developing kids to be able to read the faces and emotions of their classmates.

[ruraljuror]

10 minutes ago, DDIG said:

This is fine. On the flipside I have a kid in daycare that does not require masks. Open since August with no outbreaks in the school. I think its advantageous for developing kids to be able to read the faces and emotions of their classmates.

You're right of course that it's advantageous for developing kids to read the faces and emotions of their classmates.

Similarly, it would also be advantageous for developing kids to read the faces and emotions of their teachers too.  Do the teacher's at your kid's daycare wear masks? I'm curious, if your kid's teachers do wear masks, would you prefer they didn't in order to maximize child developmental opportunities? 

I think it's also worth noting that the WHO doesn't seem to actually dissuade against the using of masks on kids. It appears to me that a better framing of the WHO's position is that they are declining to recommend masks for kids under 5, and their decision is mostly based on the belief that it would be nearly impossible to keep the masks on the kids in a way that would be very effective, so there's little point in trying especially given the cost and PPE shortages in various parts of the world. For the WHO, the matter comes down to practical issues more than a theoretical ones, and the WHO explicitly defers to local guidelines because they can be more more specifically tailored to the needs of a given area than the WHO guidelines, which are designed to be considerably more broadly applicable. 

That said, as far as practical solutions go, for kids who don't have access to masks and/or are not accustomed to wearing them, there is no better practical solution than just keeping them off airplanes through the duration of the pandemic whenever it is at all possible. 

[Nash_12South]

This seems to be going off topic.......

[ruraljuror]

8 minutes ago, Nash_12South said:

This seems to be going off topic.......

Which part of my post are you referring to? 

Or are you referring to the posts before mine that cover mask mandates on kids/airplanes and WHO guidelines?

Edited April 13, 2021 by ruraljuror

[Nash_12South]

The mask discussion, in general, seems not about Nashville Economics. The mask debate is interesting but, as I get told from time to time, maybe it's better in the Coffee House. 

[ruraljuror]

18 minutes ago, Nash_12South said:

The mask discussion, in general, seems not about Nashville Economics. The mask debate is interesting but, as I get told from time to time, maybe it's better in the Coffee House. 

I think that's a fair point, in general, but your decision to insert yourself here and nip this topic of discussion in the bud today seems a bit inconsistent since you seemed to think it was relevant and worth your time literally 24 hours ago when you took it upon yourself to update the board regarding Delta, Southwest, and United's child mask-wearing policy.  

And to be clear, I'm not attempting to reference your mask post from yesterday as a gotcha moment to highlight some kind of perceived malevolent hypocrisy on your part or anything. We're all going to be a little off-topic from time-to-time, as you noted. In fact I happen to think that's a good thing as it allows for conversations to naturally evolve, but I also think (and your actions imply that you would agree) we should do a little self-policing on the topic drift so that the moderators don't have to constantly step up and play the role of babysitter when we stray too far from the core thread.

That said, we probably shouldn't elevate the self-policing so far to such an extent that we're trying to constrain topics that we ourselves were happy to discuss just one day prior without at least giving it a second thought. If I'm excessively devouring the latest issue of Rolling Stone in the magazine aisle of Barnes & Noble, and I hear someone say "this isn't a library"  - before I've even acknowledge the source of the comment, I'm going to immediately recoil and put the magazine back as the minor feelings of guilt start to seep in that someone had to take time out of their day to correct my behavior, even though nobody really got hurt through my infraction. If I close the magazine and put it back on the shelf only to then discover that it wan't actually an employee who made the library comment, however, but instead it was another customer who had been thoroughly perusing the magazines of their choice in that very same aisle not moments before, I'm still probably going to feel those guilt pangs, but the aftertaste is going to be very different, you know what I mean?

And to be clear, this kind of inconsistency is something we're all guilty of for the most part too. It's human nature to indulge our own tangents and whims blindly while expecting others to hew more closely to the rules, and I can't count the number of times I've seen people on this board say "take it to the coffeehouse" for discussions they'd been readily discussing mere posts before. In fact, it's practically an epidemic. 

Speaking of epidemics...now I guess we're back on track. 

 

 

 

[Nashvillain]

Ruraljuror is my mother#$%ing hero

Also, how about that Nashville economy eh? 

[Nash_12South]

Update to reopening. Some takeaways from todays new conference. - There will be more loosening at 40% vaccinated which given that we are at 35.64% would be soon. It sounds like walk-in vaccinations are becoming available at MCC due to lots of unfilled appointment slots. There was also talk about how much longer to have the larger restrictive  requirements as we are reaching a point where pretty much anyone wanting to get vaccinated can do it. All the restrictions were put in place largely because we had no vaccine. 

[Nash_12South]

Mayor Cooper announced this morning on WSMV that with the new property appraisals will come a reduction in the property tax rate, essentially rolling back the 34% increase (from last year) almost entirely.  I'm not an accountant, but this sounds like good news.

https://www.wsmv.com/news/mayor-john-cooper-announces-major-reduction-to-nashville-property-tax-rate/article_73a2c936-9ea4-11eb-ba52-27ce9fe487c9.html?block_id=994460

[DDIG]

3 minutes ago, Nash_12South said:

Mayor Cooper announced this morning on WSMV that with the new property appraisals will come a reduction in the property tax rate, essentially rolling back the 34% increase (from last year) almost entirely.  I'm not an accountant, but this sounds like good news.

https://www.wsmv.com/news/mayor-john-cooper-announces-major-reduction-to-nashville-property-tax-rate/article_73a2c936-9ea4-11eb-ba52-27ce9fe487c9.html?block_id=994460

It is a little tricky with the property reappraisal coming and I'm a little confused and skeptical about what is going on. He's only been on morning TV, haven't seen any more in depth analysis from Tennessean, NBJ, etc.

Edited April 16, 2021 by DDIG

[downtownresident]

26 minutes ago, DDIG said:

It is a little tricky with the property reappraisal coming and I'm a little confused and skeptical about what is going on. He's only been on morning TV, haven't seen any more in depth analysis from Tennessean, NBJ, etc.

From the Tennessean: https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/7250993002?__twitter_impression=true

Sounds like the reappraisal is going to set the certified rate close to the 2019 rate. Of course, this will be revenue neutral, so the overall tax burden won’t decrease. 

[samsonh]

14 minutes ago, downtownresident said:

From the Tennessean: https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/7250993002?__twitter_impression=true

Sounds like the reappraisal is going to set the certified rate close to the 2019 rate. Of course, this will be revenue neutral, so the overall tax burden won’t decrease. 

Yeah this is a non event, unclear why people are excited about it. Reappraisals are revenue neutral so the rate was always going to go down. 

[downtownresident]

1 minute ago, samsonh said:

Yeah this is a non event, unclear why people are excited about it. Reappraisals are revenue neutral so the rate was always going to go down. 

Political sleight of hand, given possible income tax referendum. 

[DDIG]

4 minutes ago, samsonh said:

Yeah this is a non event, unclear why people are excited about it. Reappraisals are revenue neutral so the rate was always going to go down. 

Seems like a dirty / odd trick to take credit for something that was going to happen anyway by law.

[Nash_12South]

I don't pretend to understand this process, but if the mayor and council do nothing, last years 34% increase would go away with the new appraisals?  I get that taxes cannot go up from the appraisals, but isn't the 34% increase already in effect? Wasn't the tax rate at the end of 2020 higher than at the end of 2019? And if we go back to the 2019 rate, it's a decrease?  Again, I don't claim any accounting understanding.  

Edited April 16, 2021 by Nash_12South

[samsonh]

2 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

I don't pretend to understand this process, but if the mayor and council do nothing, last years 34% increase would go away with the new appraisals?  I get that taxes cannot go up from the appraisals, but isn't the 34% increase already in effect? Wasn't the tax rate at the end of 2020 higher than at the end of 2019? And if we go back to the 2019 rate, it's a decrease?  Again, I don't claim any accounting understanding.  

The rate would decrease, but a lower rate on a higher appraisal will make the bills basically the same. 

[Armacing]

On 4/13/2021 at 12:34 PM, ruraljuror said:

"take it to the coffeehouse"

Speaking of the coffeehouse,  did you give up on the Politics 2020 thread in there?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Armacing