While seeking a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore — or old back-of-the-book adult ads in the storage closet — we ran across bookmarked bound copies of Nashville Scenes dating back to the year 1990. It was like finding the keys to Marty McFly’s DeLorean. As we rifled through ads for Fountain Square and Faison’s and 328 Performance Hall, something caught our eye: an issue dated May 10, 1990, titled “A Master Plan: The 30 Things Nashville Needs and the People to Do Them.”
Using their combined Rolodexes — think origami iPhones — the Scene cabal known as the Committee of Insiders attempted to solve the problems of a city just emerging from the grinding halt of rusty political machinery. What did Nashville want that it didn’t have? What did it have that it didn’t want? As we read on, we were stunned in some cases to see how far we’d come — e.g., there was a time we wanted “a bakery”? Geez, guys, dream big. In other cases, we were floored by how little has changed: witness calls for improved public transportation, bike lanes, sidewalks and wine in grocery stores. (The annotated list appears here.)
So in this issue, a quarter-century later, we’re depositing a time capsule of our own: a new list of things (in utterly random order) that would make for a kinder, gentler, busier, livelier, more equitable Music City. We sent up the signal that summons the Committee of Insiders (it’s kind of like the silhouette of that New Yorker dude with the monocle) and sent out a public appeal via social media — something that wasn’t around in 1990 — for ideas big and small. We got back everything from an overhaul of the entire transportation system (see the comments here) to credit-card parking meters to an impassioned plea for the West Side’s own Olive Garden.
It made sense to us to run this issue the week — the day — Nashvillians go to the polls to effect sweeping change in city government. That’s why we vote: to shape the city’s destiny. That’s why we read newspapers, and write for them. So consider this an invitation to dream big, and crazy. You will read some of these ideas and go, “Hmmm.” You will read others and roll your eyes (though at least hear us out on the late-night library deal). You will fire back ideas that are more practical and less frivolous and may perhaps carry the seeds of true civic progress.
And then let’s meet back up here in 25 years, and see how that turned out.
The 30 Things Nashville Needs in 2015
1. Surf “Lake Palmer”
It’s going on a decade as a monument to the (literal) pitfalls of go-go development — an 85-foot-deep, limestone-walled mosquito resort that practically waves away scouting industries. Google Maps, however, sees this abscess in the municipal jawbone as something else: an actual body of water. Could this bug actually be a feature — an opportunity to create a civic attraction unlike anything else in the country, and reward some next-level ingenuity in transforming blighted urban space?
Where to start: David Powell at Hastings Architecture, a wizard at seeing something where others see nothing; Metro Parks Department, 615-862-8400; anyone with a napkin pitch for the Syfy original movie Sharkhole!
2. Better public transit
Look, we don’t have to have a zillion-dollar light-rail service or even a re-amped AMP (although they’d be cool). We can start with increased bus frequency, more cross-town routes and sidewalks that safely get riders to and from stops (more on that below). Heck, allow single transfers without having to pay another fare. Already snarled traffic is getting snarlier while the city keeps adding people. Many belong to a generation comfortable with and eager to use public transit — but first we have to stop thinking that it needs to make money (or even be cost-neutral). We can be bold without being big, but we have to start somewhere.
Where to start: Nashville MTA, 615-862-5950
3. A connector between Donelson and East Nashville
Donelson has Opry Mills, a movie theater and massive green areas. East Nashville has trendy eateries and nightlife. The natural line would be a bridge connecting the two sides of McGavock or Shelby Park to Spence Lane. Adding a bridge would turn a 20-minute commute into a five-minute one. Alternatively, a ferry once connected the two sides. Now that both banks have residential density, bring it back. We’d use it.
Where to start: Nashville Next, 615-862-NEXT or info@nashvillenext.net
4. New life for Greer Stadium
Sure, the Nashville Sounds vacated decades-old Greer Stadium, so anachronistic it was (gasp) privately funded. Despite its lack of amenities and ubiquitous funky smell, the old ballyard still has good bones. The playing surface is in notably great shape (a testament to the Sounds’ miracle-working grounds crew). Though nextifiers are desperate to develop the publicly owned space, a lease with supporter-owned Nashville FC — a fan favorite with growing appeal — could turn Greer into a top-notch soccer facility. Or maybe it can host big-time high school baseball games. Or maybe it can serve as another city-owned music venue. Just don’t let it become another joyless condo tower.
Where to start: Metro Parks, nashville.gov/Parks-and-Recreation.aspx
5. Affordable Housing No. 1: Shore up the Barnes Housing Trust Fund
Cities like Austin and Seattle have robust housing trust funds whose revenue sources don’t burden their taxpayers. Knoxville, a much smaller and less urbanized city than Nashville, has a dedicated source of some $6 million annually in its Housing Trust Fund. That’s several times more than what we have for the Barnes Fund. How about a tax on pedal taverns?
Where to start: Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, 615-905-6624
6. Get rid of PSC Metals
We said it 25 years ago and we’ll say it again: Scrap the scrap-metal riverbank. Only in Nashville would folks make wisecracks about public art but drive past this every day without complaint. So pretend it’s some Stefon lookalike’s giant taxpayer-funded hipster installation titled “Confederate Oppressors of the New Atlanta.” Under all those mountains of mangled car parts lies prime riverfront property. We can do better.
Where to start: The next mayor. Show us what ya got.
7. An MFA program in fine art
That’s right: Nashville, a city whose creative industry has shaped its traditions more than most, doesn’t have a master’s program in fine arts. An MFA would quell the migration of the many Nashville-based artists who leave the city in order to pursue higher education, attract ambitious artists to the area, and help broaden and heighten the city’s visual culture.
Where to start: Joseph Kline, president of Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, whose former president Ellen Meyer spoke of pursuing the idea before she left earlier this year. Also Vanderbilt University, whose MFA in creative writing has proven both worthy and successful.
8. More late-night dining options
While our food scene has made huge strides (finally, fast food doesn’t win Best of Nashville every year!), we’re still in dire need of late-night eateries that serve more than burgers, bar food and pizza or don’t have “waffle” in the name. Right now, if you want to grab something to eat after seeing a movie in Green Hills at 9:30 p.m., your options are pretty much the Cheesecake Factory and Fox’s Donut Den. Pho, Korean barbecue tacos, tapas — come on, rock our worlds.
Where to start: What do you say, Strategic Hospitality — maybe a 24-hour diner in our future?
9. Make the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival our hometown New Orleans Jazz and Blues Fest
Between Nashville Jazz Workshop’s Cave and the Schermerhorn’s small but substantial series, jazz holds down a place in the Music City landscape. Put some civic muscle behind the burgeoning Jefferson Street fest, however — get some big sponsors on board, bring more national headliners, boost the entertainment offerings and attractions — and watch this event do a world of good in uniting the area’s gentrification-wary communities.
Where to start: Sharon Hurt at Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership, 615-726-5867; hell, shoot the moon with AC Entertainment, whose Big Ears Fest in Knoxville is a model of adventurous booking.
10. Citywide wi-fi
Yes, Google Fiber is coming, and that’s very exciting. What would be even better? If Nashville had its own citywide wi-fi, and Internet access were billed as a utility like power and water. Not only could that make Internet access faster, more reliable and even more affordable to many residents, just think of how much citizen morale would go up once folks didn’t have to deal with Comcast anymore! It’d be like living in a goddamn Disney cartoon.
Where to start: Kristine LaLonde and Yiaweh Yeh, Mayor’s Office of Innovation, 615-880-3353
11. Recycling upgrades with glass and composting
Your recycling standards are pathetic, Nashville. Curbside pick-up only one day a month, and residents can’t put glass bottles and jars in the bins? Al “Greenzo” Gore lives here, for chrissakes! We can do better. Look at San Francisco’s impressive 80 percent diversion rate, where all but 20 percent of their waste is recycled or composted. The city makes it really easy for residents to participate, too — next to nearly every public garbage bin there is also a compost and a recycle bin. (Related: It’s also time to kick the Styrofoam habit.)
Where to start: Metro Public Works, 615-862-8750
12. Upgrades to The Belcourt
The Belcourt has more than demonstrated its worth to the community, its fiscal responsibility and its impact on the city’s social, artistic and intellectual life. It’s time to treat the 90-year-old theater like what it is: a cornerstone of the city’s arts. The programming has rightly put the historic neighborhood movie house on the map with filmmakers and fellow exhibitors. Now what’s needed are upgrades to the facility, starting with the bathrooms and lobby space. Not because we need another tourist destination — it already is one — but because it’s ours.
Where to start: Stephanie Silverman, Belcourt executive director, 615-846-3150
13. Safer biking
Now that bike lanes and bike-sharing systems like BCycles are becoming more commonplace, you’d think public awareness of bike safety would follow suit. But it hasn’t, and bikers and motorists around here maintain downright Balkan levels of mutual mistrust. At the very least, we need a smart campaign to teach drivers that bicycles are vehicles too, and that the three-foot rule — the minimum amount of space you should give a cyclist while passing — is mandatory. Is this the time to ask for more bike lanes?
Where to start: Walk Bike Nashville, 615-370-7252
14. Sidewalks
This is still an issue after 25 years? Here’s a way to fight obesity and a sedentary lifestyle while improving neighborhoods and increasing pedestrian safety. They’re urgently needed to connect residential areas to schools and commercial districts (and within commercial centers such as Green Hills).
Where to start: Your district Metro Council member, Metro Public Works
15. Late-night library
Check this out: What if Nashville Public Library’s main branch on Church Street stayed open after 6 p.m. on Fridays? And stayed open maybe as late as, say, midnight, hosting events, providing a low-cost date destination or nighttime family outing, and giving teens a safe meeting space to hang out for readings and discussions? Oh, to live in a city where you’d hear a parent say, “I’m concerned about all that time you’re spending at the library.”
Where to start: Kent Oliver, director, Nashville Public Library (who would probably appreciate us noting that most branches throughout the city are open until 8 p.m. multiple days of the week)
16. Spread the development love outside downtown
We’re the first to admit the city has affordable housing issues, but there are plenty of neighborhoods beyond the city core where middle-class families can own a slice of the dream. Case in point: Bordeaux, with its river-bluff views and attractive tree-lined streets 15 minutes from West End. Residents outside downtown pay taxes like everyone else. Start developing these areas so they’re part of the city, not satellites left adrift.
Where to start: Metro Development and Housing Agency, 615-252-8400
17. Amtrak!
Passenger train service left Nashville with the discontinuance of the Chicago-to-Miami Floridian in 1979. Nashville is one of the largest cities in the country without Amtrak, and if only for romantic reasons, the nationalized rail should return. A resumption of the Floridian would tie Nashville to the great western runs out of the Windy City and the New Orleans-bound Crescent via Birmingham. Bringing back the L&N’s old Cincy-to-New Orleans Humming Bird would also add Louisville back to Amtrak’s route book. Trains and train songs both used to come out of Music City. It’s high time they return.
Where to start: Tennessee Department of Transportation, 615-741-2848
18. A contemporary-art-collecting institution
The Frist changed Nashville’s art game for the better when it opened in 2001, but we still need a contemporary art center that is also a collecting institution. A permanent collection helps relieve pressure to host blockbuster programs that sacrifice ingenuity for mass appeal. More importantly, it would magnify the worth of collecting art — something Nashvillians have been relatively slow to embrace.
Where to start: Harmony Korine, the Nashvillian with the baddest contemporary collection and a perfect space to work with in the Bill Voorhees building on Eighth Avenue South
19. Daycare
Families looking for affordable daycare so both Mom and Dad (or Mom and Mom or Dad and Dad) can keep working after they become parents are often coming up empty — and if you have to trade in your first-born to get a seat, why do you need daycare? For a city this size, we need more creative daycare options.
Where to start: Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development, to lead the charge for extensive on-site daycare
20. More urban groceries
And not some food boutique where you pay $10 for the artisanal hand-milled Tuscan-corn variation of Doritos, either. Just places where folks in sections of North, South and East Nashville identified by the USDA as “food deserts” can get fresh, unprocessed foods, which promote lower rates of obesity and heart disease. Fight for your right to parsnips, Nashville.
Where to start: Metro Council representatives, who can seek incentives to draw stores to these neighborhoods
21. A restored Roxy Theater
Cities and towns across the country are seeing the value in restoring historic theaters, with our own Belcourt and Franklin Theatre fine examples. The old Roxy, opened in 1936 in East Nashville’s McFerrin Park community, has stirred up major interest from neighbors who hope to stave off property flippers. It’ll take some doing — the facility’s in dire need of repair — but it could be a common meeting ground and citywide source of pride.
Where to start: savetheroxy.org
22. More Chinese food
Both Lucky Bamboo on Charlotte and Chinatown in Green Hills have devoted customers, but two Chinese places do not a wealth of options make. (We read that in a fortune cookie.) Bring us high-grade Hunan, Shandong and Szechuan as well as at least one late-night joint that dispenses amazing cheap spicy noodles and pot stickers in wire-handled cardboard boxes.
Where to start: The Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville, whose annual Chinese New Year feasts at Lucky Bamboo help show Nashvillians what they’re missing
23. The National Museum of African-American Music
Those who say “Why here?” are ducking the obvious answers: 1) We can get it done; 2) Nashville has a rich musical heritage extending from the Fisk Jubilee Singers to DeFord Bailey and Ted Jarrett to Mike Floss, so why not here; and 3) we can get it done. As it stands, it’s pushing toward a 2018 opening as part of the transformation of the old Nashville Convention Center, and organizers have raised more than half the projected $40 million cost. Tell us you wouldn’t stop in this museum, properly funded and realized, in any city in the country.
Where to start: Brittany Chase, National Museum administrative analyst, 615-301-8724
24. A solution to Green Hills/Hillsboro traffic congestion
Uh-huh — and while we’re at it, let’s just solve climate change, sort out the East Bank and get Deacon that kidney. But the impassable nightmare that is peak Green Hills and Hillsboro Village traffic will have to be settled in our lifetimes ... right? (Although if rising leases keep driving desirable businesses away from Green Hills — see many non-chain restaurants moving in? — the problem may one day take care of itself.)
Where to start: “The Mole Man,” broadcasting 2-4 p.m. Saturdays on WVOL-1470 AM — you’re not going anywhere, so enjoy the music
25. Housing for homeless teens
Permanent solutions to youth homelessness might include expanding Section 8 housing, but there are important intermediary steps to take. Start by dedicating funding for programs like Launch Pad, a targeted shelter program organized by professionals who serve the special needs of young people — especially LGBT youth — which go beyond those of homeless adults.
Where to start: The next mayor, the Metro Homelessness Commission
26. Affordable Housing No. 2: Inclusionary zoning
It’s likely coming, thanks to a 31-4 Metro Council vote charging the Planning Commission to come up with a proposal that won out over heavy opposition from the Chamber and apartment and Realtor groups. So here’s a chance to make it work beyond high-development areas such as the Gulch. And while we’re on the subject: If we could use tax-increment financing to back the Music City Center, why not use it — or other public funding sources — to get banks, civic boosters, community leaders and housing advocates on the same page here?
Where to start: Metro Council members and the Metro Planning Commission, who can craft the specific bill that makes the provision both mandatory and countywide
27. Upgrade Metro parks
From the decrepit house at Lock Two Park near the end of Pennington Bend to the shamefully neglected Potters Field at 18th Avenue North — an area that could use a nice neighborhood walking area — parks across Nashville are long overdue for attention, as Betsy Phillips discovered in her epic project to review every single Metro park on the Scene’s Pith in the Wind blog back in 2010. We’ve created a playground for tourists. How about providing one for residents?
Where to start: Metro Parks
28. Weave immigrants into the city fabric
Whether they hail from Africa, Asia or Latin America, immigrants are homeowners, entrepreneurs, parents, students, transit riders, taxpayers — and neighbors. What’s needed are leaders who can craft public policy going forward that focuses not on isolating these communities but integrating them. Take a look at the energy that surrounds Casa Azafran to see the transformative effect this could have across the city.
Where to start: Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, tnimmigrant.org
29. Another all-ages venue
Music City’s got plenty of places to see live music ... so long as you’re at least 18 years old. What we need is a 100 percent all-ages music venue where teens can play and see shows, volunteer and learn valuable skills relevant to the music industry — something the Christian-focused Rocketown doesn’t offer.
Where to start: For examples of some amazing spaces, check out The Vera Project in Seattle (theveraproject.org) and The Smell in Los Angeles (thesmell.org). And to learn more about how to build a successful, inclusive all-ages music venue, visit All-ages Movement Project on Facebook.
30. The next John Seigenthaler
With the editor’s job newly open (as of press time) after Stefanie Murray’s departure this week, The Tennessean has a chance to reset after infuriating newsroom cuts, declining morale and toxic levels of Gannett poisoning that hindered the good work being done. Get someone passionate, learned, pugnacious, devious, invested in the city and brilliant who’s adept at smiling and nodding at corporate bullshit, then does whatever the hell he or she wants.
Where to start: We’d say Steve Cavendish, except he just took the editor’s job at the Washington City Paper (aka the David Carr slot) and a third recent move might drive his wife Jen to murder. So how about another Nashville City Paper alum: former editor Stephen George, a huge talent just a phone call away in Louisville? And there’ll never be a better opportunity for perpetual what-if candidate Bruce Dobie — the architect of that Scene list 25 years ago.
Email editor@nashvillescene.com
