Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Phillips Cautious Optimism About a New Park at the Fairgrounds
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:00 AM
- Doesn't that look like more than 1/3 to you?
The Metro parks were, in some very fundamental ways, the saving grace of our city during the flood. They flooded instead of neighborhoods, and they held the mountains of our broken homes. I know people complained about how dirty the parks were and for how long, but I repeat — that space could have been neighborhoods.
And we saw what happened to neighborhoods too near our waterways.
In a perfect world we'd have parks and greenways along all our waterways to act as a flood buffer.
The only thing that concerns me is that it looks to me like more than a third of the fairgrounds flooded, according to the city's own map. I know that's prime real estate, so just turning it all into a park is a pipe dream.
But I hope the city works with developers to ensure that there are only parking lots near the creek.
Let's learn from our past.
Comments (10)
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THE FAIRGROUNDS WAS NOT MAKING ANY MONEY AS THE MAYOR CLAIMS SO IF BECOMES A PARK IT WILL MAKE TONS OF MONEY WRONG THE TAX PAYERS WILL FOOT THE BILL FOR THE UPKEEP
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It will be a nice place for all the HCA employees to walk during their lunch hour. Karl Dean's reckless ambition is what Imperialism looks like on a local level. He claims the right to take and sell whatever public properties he deems suitable. The meetings to discuss the future of the fairgrounds were a sham from beginning to end. It would be fitting to name a parking lot in his honor in the future. (complete with commemorative plaque explaining what used to be there).
Parking lots=increased runoff=greater risk of flooding. The buffer should be green and growing and/or the parking lots should have porous surfaces with berms. But what pol or developer in this county (state) ever gave a rat's ass about flooding as long as they made money.
On the radio this morning it was said that while the city wants to develop the land but there are no takers so far. I personally think they should have built the new convention center on the fairgrounds that way they would not have had to steal...I mean exerise emenent domain over... any land.
From my understanding, in attempts to better route the creek in the '50s they built concrete walls lining parts of it. Unfortunately during heavy rains this only serves to move the water forward faster until it swells around Craighead, Bransford & Nolensville Rd, making the flooding worse. I'm hoping part of the restoration will include removing the walls, thereby lessening the damage during flooding.
I hope this doesn't seem like spam, but if you're interested, here are some pics of the creek: http://www.southnashvillelife.com/2010/06/…
JennieNash, that's an excellent point. Often, letting waterways shrink and expand and move around some and soak into the surrounding area does help with flooding tremendously. I hope that is strongly considered.
stellabardo! I hear you, but I think the best we can hope for is a lot of park space and then porous parking lots and then buildings.
It seems to me that the problem you're going to have with that land is that the obvious street front for businesses is Nolensville Road, but you can't put businesses there, because that's where the flooding creek is.
So, yeah, it's going to take someone with a little vision to imagine how to use that space in ways that will draw people in and actually improve the neighborhood.
I don't know that using acreage that cannot legally be built upon anyway as a "park" is really such a magnanimous gift to the city (a gift the city already owns). How about using the entire Fairgrounds as a park instead? That could actually add to the attractiveness of a very under-"parked" section of town.
Heh, as long as I can open my windows without adding a NASCAR soundtrack to whatever movie I'm watching (3 miles away!), I don't much care what they put there instead.
Is it large enough to develop an "amusement" park? Nashville seems to have given up on that idea. It certainly needs something to return the city to being a true family vacation destination.
BTW, I'm just kidding about the old fairgrounds being used as a site for an amusement park. It's not large enough for a world class amusement park without buying up 100's of acres of land around it. And, if it's in a flood zone then it would have the same issues as the old Opryland Theme Park. Maybe the Sounds should consider the area as a possible site for a new stadium or it could be used to build the amphitheater the mayor is suggesting. When there are no concerts open it as a city park.
Keep On Raci'n at the Fairgrounds speedway!!! Put up special sound deadening walls around the track (Simular to the ones found along side many interstates) so people wont bitch and complain or piss and moan about the noise, Bunch of damn whiners!
Don't let this track die and turn into a park like so many have in the past from the community acting like a bunch of snot nosed little kids whining because they noise is too loud when there is an easy solution to the issue that dosent involve re development or track demolition and the track can still remain operational with the sound deadning walls surrounding the track so the little whiners that live in the area wont cry because of the noise.
If anything the track should be added to the national historic registry of historical places as a historical site given all the history of the track.
Not be destroyed or converted into something its not when it has a real and lasting history in the Nashville area that needs to be preserved not thrown away.
Just like the racing shouldent end at the track when there is alot that can be done to keep it operational for not only this generation but for future generations asawell and to limit the sound during a race (the sound deadning walls, cirtian kind of mufflers on the cars, lower volume from the PA announcers or live radio broadcast of the PA announcers for the fans in attendance during a race to limit the track noise during a race)
See there is plenty of other alternatives to keep the racing alive and going at the track so the little whiners that live near the track wont complain about the noise, They where the ones that moved there to begin with and the track was and has been there long before most of them even moved there so, Why should the track get penilized and shut down when its not even the tracks fault that the people moved there to begin with?
They knew there was racing and some noise there when they moved there, Cant blame the track for the stupid people that moved in around the track when the track was holding weekly races well before they moved there, How stupid are these people anyway and furthermore what did they expect...Morons!!!
