Last year, before I had to put my cat down, my grocery bill was about $100 a week. After she died, it dropped to about $70 or $80. Then Trump got elected, and he started making choices to piss off the world and ruin our farmers, and my grocery bill is now regularly again $100 a week — if not more.
If Nashville drops its grocery tax from 2.25 percent to 1.75 percent, it means very little. I mean, I think taxing groceries is immoral, and we should get rid of as much of it as the state will let us — but it is a gesture. It saves me 50 cents a week from my days as a cat owner. But I lived in a sad utopia for a while where I was saving $25, and 50 cents a week does not come remotely close to fixing the problem — that grocery prices have risen so much so quickly that it’s as if I have a whole other mouth to feed. Who cares about 50 cents? Give me back my $25.
And the city can’t do that.
Everyone knows that there’s an economic crisis in Nashville that doesn’t easily map onto conventional metrics. On paper, we are booming. We’re attracting business. We’re getting a Super Bowl. Buildings keep going up. But as we all know, the people who make Nashville Nashville can’t afford to live here. This is an expected turn of events. Lots of cities get too expensive for working people who then have to leave. But lots of cities also then develop elaborate systems of trains and light rail and public transportation so that people who can’t afford to live in the city can afford to commute in. We don’t have that.
Which means that we all know we’re playing a game of chicken with an economic reality: Tourism is a huge economic engine for the city, and tourists come to drink in our bars and listen to live music. Every day it becomes economically unviable for some musician or bartender or Uber driver to stay here, and so they leave. But for right now, there are still enough young dreamers to fill their spots. The amount of time they can be here before it is untenable grows shorter, but they’re still coming. That cannot last. If we can’t find meaningful ways to address affordability in the city, we will lose the artistic base of the city.
Pushback may lead to a change in terms
Now, come with me over to the website for the Honky Tonk School — the booking agency for Tootsie's, the cornerstone bar of Nashville’s tourism district — to read the most horrific bleak thing you’re going to read about Nashville all day. (You may remember that fellow Scene contributor Margaret Littman wrote about this back in 2023.) This is from the page of instructions for how to audition to get on the circuit of musicians who play at places served by the Honky Tonk School. This is a thing they put out for everyone in the world to see, and they do not die of shame, nor are they struck down by a vengeful god of music:
Please be courteous to the house band by not breaking or over-adjusting any of their equipment. Do the best you can with the tools present. The energy and vibe you bring is much more important than showcasing your personal tone preferences.
Remember that the house band is working for tips and lending their gear to you for free. They'd appreciate any gratuity you throw in the band's tip jug. Even better, get the crowd to tip the band. They'll be grateful for it.
The people who provide the music and the gear — the gear that allows many of the bars downtown to have talent that attracts people from all over the world — do so for free. For tips. Forget that kid in Omelas. Our city’s prosperity rests on people, for free, backing up and lending their equipment to people dreaming of being a working musician in the city, while sitting in the bar of one of our most successful businessmen.
I have an idea for improving the city. What if businesses pay their workers? You know what I bet would lessen the sting of grocery prices more than a slight tax cut? Having a paycheck that lets you pay for groceries.
You know how restaurants have to pass health inspections and post their scores? What if all businesses in town had to pass a basic “Are you paying everyone who works for you?” inspection every so often?
Oh hell, dear reader, what if the city went further than that? What if, in order to run a business here, you had to show the city that you are paying your workers enough to live here? You want permits, changes in zoning, hooking into our infrastructure? Show us that your workers live in Nashville, or could afford to live here if they choose not to.
And then let’s see the list. Which businesses are being good corporate citizens and which are not? If the problem is that people aren’t making enough money to live here, let’s make that the problem of the people who aren’t paying them enough money to live here.
