Last week I got a 12-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper from Kroger. It cost me $9.99 without a coupon, and approximately $5 with. Last year, that same 12-pack cost me $7.99 without a coupon, $3.99 with. That’s a 25 percent price increase. I don’t know if Dr. Pepper’s medical school loans have hit some balloon payment or what, but good God. I mean, I paid it. But it sucks.
I keep hearing about how Mayor Freddie O'Connell’s transit plan is a regressive tax in disguise because it will increase my sales tax — I’ll go from paying 9.25 percent sales tax to 9.75 percent sales tax. (Or from 6.25 percent to 6.75 percent on groceries.) This means, if I don’t use coupons, my Diet Dr. Pepper will go from costing me $10.61, tax included, to $10.66 — an increase of 0.47 percent. That's a whole lot less than the 25 percent change in price I’ve seen in my Diet Dr. Pepper bill over the past year. Like, am I really supposed to care about a half-cent increase, because, oh no! It’s the government! At least the government put a sidewalk in front of the Bordeaux Kroger. I’m not seeing any evidence that my extra $2 per 12-pack is improving the Bordeaux Kroger or the lives of anyone who works there.
Digging into Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum, which will be on the ballot in November
I’m curious about the opposition to the transit plan. Like, who are these people who like sitting in traffic? I looked up the Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax. (Why is the F in "unfair" capitalized? I don’t know. These are wealthy people, but apparently they can’t afford spellcheck?) They just turned in their pre-general campaign finance disclosure form. (They are apparently pro-timeliness, but anti-grammar.)
It's great. Like, I genuinely laughed looking at who donated to the committee in October. A car dealer who lives in Manchester. (Manchester’s sales tax rate? 9.75 percent.) A service/repair company owned by a woman who lives in Franklin. (Franklin’s sales tax rate? 9.75 percent.) A person who lives in Brentwood. A person who obviously lives in Belle Meade. And a person who lives in the Viridian downtown, where there already is a lot of good public transportation.
Some anti-transit leaders have been attempting to tie the referendum to zoning changes the Metro Council has tried to implement. UnFair Tax's Emily Evans told the Nashville Banner, “There’s a deep suspicion in another crowd that it’s really just about affordable housing and zoning changes, à la the NEST program, and not really about transit.”
Is this other crowd also made up of a bunch of people who don’t live here?
Of all of the challenges Nashville faces, one of the most frustrating has to be how many people who don’t live here seem to think they should have an equal say (or if they’re the state legislature, more of a say) than the people who live here.
Boosters disclose $530K ad push against grassroots opposition
I mean, if the discussion we all think we’re having is about transit, but the actual discussion the rich and powerful are having behind the scenes is about zoning, why does someone living in Brentwood or Manchester or Franklin give a shit if someone puts duplexes behind where I live?
Whether or not I agree, I get why other people up here in Whites Creek would care. Putting in more housing could increase traffic density and change the nature of the neighborhood. I get why people in Bordeaux and Goodlettsville would care, because new people here are going to be crowding into your Krogers. That makes sense to me, that people who live here and use this infrastructure would have opinions on adding more people. But again, why does someone in Brentwood care?
I have a theory. It’s based on a conversation I had with a nurse back when I was in and out of doctors’ offices all the time. She was new at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and had just moved here. I asked where. She said she couldn’t find anything affordable in Davidson County, so she had to go down to Franklin. Think on that, Nashville longtimers: It’s now easier to find an affordable place to live in Franklin than in Nashville.
Advocacy leaders lay grassroots groundwork for the mayor’s Nov. 5 transit referendum
I was teasing the Scene's editor, Patrick, about what the Advice King in the newly launched Williamson Scene would be like. But man, I have my suspicions about the first question probably asked: “Dear Advice King, I bought my house here in Williamson County in order to signal my wealth and political power. And also for the schools, but mostly so that people who heard where I lived would know I’m better than them. And now rich people live in Nashville too! I spent a lot of money for this lifestyle. How can I regain my special social standing?”
It's truly as if the evil, alternate-universe Advice King Chris Crofton — Christopher Aloysius Croftoningham the Third — answered, “Just tank everything Nashville tries to do to make life there better, starting with transit, and soon everyone will once again envy you.” And they took that advice.
But who cares if the people of Belle Meade, Brentwood and Franklin would like Nashville to stay just how it is? We need the voices of people who aren’t from here, who benefit from our floundering, to be a lot quieter.
Vote for the transit referendum. If not for the good of the city, do it because it’s going to annoy rich people who don’t live here.
