I recently got an old bike fixed up and am ready to hit the roads and trails of Nashville. Does anyone have any tips for the beginner on good places to bike? I'm not in the best of shape so any tips for the beginner would be swell. Are there any areas I should avoid?

I don't think they own the majority of the land, but if they opt to build within current zoning then any other property owner can join in or have a parallel development. Remember, this started with Zeitlins, then the Mays brought some land in, so now others could throw in a few thousand more acres and push a subdivision through as the majority's will. My guess is that an alliance has formed among the large land holders (thanks, Sen. Henry).

I suspect that one large, planned subdivision would be preferred by the planning commission to many scattered and disjoined developments. And as one commissioner remarked, if the existing infrastructure does not support existing zoning then there would be taxpayer money involved in upgrades. It was only because the Mays were wanting to upzone did they have to pay for the infrastructure that allowed for the upzoning.

All I said was the environmental impact will be huge.

Not unlike the paving of Williamson county, achieved AD 1970 to AD 2030, only 60 years. Bells Bend is, of course, much more important than a whole county.

Many national environmental groups across the country are gearing up their legal teams for this fight which may end up in the United States Supreme Court of which Sotomayo will preside if confirmed.

A fight based on what, exactly? PR and the raw expendature of money by these groups on lawyers, or on actual law? < Serious question.

Has not enough land been wasted on increasing our carbon footprint?

No. Prove otherwise.

Do you really see a need for this type of development 20, 30, 40 years from now?

Maybe not, so prudence dictates we'd better get started now. And I've seen just the plan...

The future is small locally owned businesses. The campus call center and campus IT departments have moved to China, India, Mexico, and Brazil.

You know the future? That's great. I'm still trying to decide, "Deflation or inflation, recession or depression?" Economists all have good points behind their arguments. But I have seen the past 40 years, and I'm witnessing the policy-driven continuation of that past. The Census Bureau estimates 900,000 new people in the 10-county Nashville MSA by 2030, but only about 110,000 of that increase will come to Nashville. We could fit them all comfortably in thirty May Town type developments, taking less than 20,000 acres while locking up thousands more from development. We could fit half of them inside Davidson County. But we won't do any of that because we stumbled when taking the first step. Say goodby to another million acres of greenspace, Sid.

How much money are you planning to bet on your vision of the future, Sid? I don't think that developers, after years of discussions with prospective clients, would provide a site for these clients with a $100 Million investment if they weren't convinced they had a decent chance at doing well. And I doubt opponents would accuse the Mays of being greedy if they did not also see the financial windfall coming down the road for these investors.

Nota bene' (note well) that the Medical Mart is moving to the Central Business District of downtown Nashville.

Downtown is an excellent location, but what will that ultimately cost taxpayers? Probably much more than all of May Town would.

And, nota bene', this Sid guy has this theory that the future is in small, locally-owned businesses. The centrallized clustering of medically-related companies in Nashville that attracted the Medical Mart might decentrallize in the coming decades, as might the music industry (how hard is recording music? I mean, really?). Maybe even go to China or India, leaving an empty Medical Mart and a ghost town for Music Row. And arriving thusly at a dead downtown and already having dead suburbs, we should all probably get out now. So maybe we should stop the Medical Mart from getting out of the ground to begin with. That's your own development logic applied to the Medical Mart.

You want the city to kill May Town, which is an alternative to our land-hungry development patterns since WWII, but the city has no alternative to offer. None. So, it will be same-old, same-old. And it looks to developers to bring forward alternatives, only to place unsurmountable hurdles in front of their grand visions for public spectacle. So long as the felled tree falls in a Williamson or Sumner county forest, it makes no sound. But a scuttled May Town makes for one hellova firecracker!

Williamson county built up the way it did with cheap land and low taxes. Do not think for a moment that Bells Bend is the same situation.

No. It's in a much superior position, because it's actually in Nashville, which is a great town. It's location will support $4 Billion in development. $4 Billion in improvements will support a land value of about $1 Billion. Looked at that way, $23 Million for land and $150 Million for improvements to create a billion dollar piece of land is fabulously cheap. All from simply bridging the Cumberland River, as had been discussed for decades.

WilCo started as cheap land. As that cheap land was developed, and we lost hundreds of thousands of local farming acres, half-million dollar homes were built. When their land becomes too pricey, land in the next county gets developed. see apattern here? Because their housing stock is woth more on average than Nashville's housing stock, they can have a relatively low tax rate compared to Nashville. If more people living in half-million-dollar homes lived in Nashville, we'd all have a smaller tax burden to share. But they don't, and we have no alternative to bring them back. Our affluent enclaves are stagnant while our empty land is Antioched. We continue to ignore the "environmental destruction" at the fringes because we can do no other.

I'd take no comfort in knowing the future, if it could be known. I'm not very positive about it, right about now.

All I said was the environmental impact will be huge.

Not unlike the paving of Williamson county, achieved AD 1970 to AD 2030, only 60 years. Bells Bend is, of course, much more important than a whole county.

Many national environmental groups across the country are gearing up their legal teams for this fight which may end up in the United States Supreme Court of which Sotomayo will preside if confirmed.

A fight based on what, exactly? PR and the raw expendature of money by these groups on lawyers, or on actual law? < Serious question.

Has not enough land been wasted on increasing our carbon footprint?

No. Prove otherwise.

Do you really see a need for this type of development 20, 30, 40 years from now?

Maybe not, so prudence dictates we'd better get started now. And I've seen just the plan...

The future is small locally owned businesses. The campus call center and campus IT departments have moved to China, India, Mexico, and Brazil.

You know the future? That's great. I'm still trying to decide, "Deflation or inflation, recession or depression?" Economists all have good points behind their arguments. But I have seen the past 40 years, and I'm witnessing the policy-driven continuation of that past. The Census Bureau estimates 900,000 new people in the 10-county Nashville MSA by 2030, but only about 110,000 of that increase will come to Nashville. We could fit them all comfortably in thirty May Town type developments, taking less than 20,000 acres while locking up thousands more from development. We could fit half of them inside Davidson County. But we won't do any of that because we stumbled when taking the first step. Say goodby to another million acres of greenspace, Sid.

How much money are you planning to bet on your vision of the future, Sid? I don't think that developers, after years of discussions with prospective clients, would provide a site for these clients with a $100 Million investment if they weren't convinced they had a decent chance at doing well. And I doubt opponents would accuse the Mays of being greedy if they did not also see the financial windfall coming down the road for these investors.

Nota bene' (note well) that the Medical Mart is moving to the Central Business District of downtown Nashville.

Downtown is an excellent location, but what will that ultimately cost taxpayers? Probably much more than all of May Town would.

And, nota bene', this Sid guy has this theory that the future is in small, locally-owned businesses. The centrallized clustering of medically-related companies in Nashville that attracted the Medical Mart might decentrallize in the coming decades, as might the music industry (how hard is recording music? I mean, really?). Maybe even go to China or India, leaving an empty Medical Mart and a ghost town for Music Row. And arriving thusly at a dead downtown and already having dead suburbs, we should all probably get out now. So maybe we should stop the Medical Mart from getting out of the ground to begin with. That's your own development logic applied to the Medical Mart.

You want the city to kill May Town, which is an alternative to our land-hungry development patterns since WWII, but the city has no alternative to offer. None. So, it will be same-old, same-old. And it looks to developers to bring forward alternatives, only to place unsurmountable hurdles in front of their grand visions for public spectacle. So long as the felled tree falls in a Williamson or Sumner county forest, it makes no sound. But a scuttled May Town makes for one hellova firecracker!

Williamson county built up the way it did with cheap land and low taxes. Do not think for a moment that Bells Bend is the same situation.

No. It's in a much superior position, because it's actually in Nashville, which is a great town. It's location will support $4 Billion in development. $4 Billion in improvements will support a land value of about $1 Billion. Looked at that way, $23 Million for land and $150 Million for improvements to create a billion dollar piece of land is fabulously cheap. All from simply bridging the Cumberland River, as had been discussed for decades.

WilCo started as cheap land. As that cheap land was developed, and we lost hundreds of thousands of local farming acres, half-million dollar homes were built. When their land becomes too pricey, land in the next county gets developed. see apattern here? Because their housing stock is woth more on average than Nashville's housing stock, they can have a relatively low tax rate compared to Nashville. If more people living in half-million-dollar homes lived in Nashville, we'd all have a smaller tax burden to share. But they don't, and we have no alternative to bring them back. Our affluent enclaves are stagnant while our empty land is Antioched. We continue to ignore the "environmental destruction" at the fringes because we can do no other.

I'd take no comfort in knowing the future, if it could be known. I'm not very positive about it, right about now.

I don't think they own the majority of the land, but if they opt to build within current zoning then any other property owner can join in or have a parallel development. Remember, this started with Zeitlins, then the Mays brought some land in, so now others could throw in a few thousand more acres and push a subdivision through as the majority's will. My guess is that an alliance has formed among the large land holders (thanks, Sen. Henry).

I suspect that one large, planned subdivision would be preferred by the planning commission to many scattered and disjoined developments. And as one commissioner remarked, if the existing infrastructure does not support existing zoning then there would be taxpayer money involved in upgrades. It was only because the Mays were wanting to upzone did they have to pay for the infrastructure that allowed for the upzoning.

Good question.

If the May family owns the majority of the land in Bells Bend.. i guess it would be up to them, right? For the most part? They could stick with the current zoning and build single family homes.. or.. maybe work out a deal for something better?

There's a good chance of that in the future. That's the tough thing about this...it WILL be something other than it is right now...and will it be something better or worse than MayTown?

MTA is adding state-of-the-art global positioning systems and computers to each bus.

"The dispatcher can see who the driver is, what route it's on, how many people are on the bus and whether it's early or late or on time," says GPS contractor Dave Rucker.

"This would be a 100 percent picture of what all the buses are doing all the time. It will literally change the way we manage the bus system," says Bob Baulsir with the MTA.

By September, every bus and MTA vehicle will have the GPS technology.

In the next six months, MTA officials say video screens will be installed at Music City Central and a few select routes. The screens will tell riders to the minute when their bus is scheduled to arrive.

Maytown's Metro Council sponsor... plans to defer the May Town Center rezoning plan indefinitely when the council meets next week.

But.. he still wants the Mays to complete the 250-acre land transfer to TSU, as they promised to do with no strings attached.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090701...010400/-1/RSS05


I just hope this does not mean we end up seeing 500-600 single family homes...

GRASSLAND COMMUNITY — Country superstar Alan Jackson's landmark property on Moran Road has been listed for sale at $38 million, becoming the highest priced residential property for sale in the Nashville area.

Jackson's estate, known as Sweetbriar, sits on 135 acres along the Harpeth River. The 19,000 square foot home includes six bedrooms, seven full baths and two half baths, along with a nine-car garage. There is a full basketball court and a boathouse. Two ponds are on the property.