Jamie Hall

While I respect the history of Music Row and recognize its importance to Nashville and the music industry as a whole, does the average visitor to Nashville ever say, "I have to visit Music Row as part of this vacation"? I often hear comments from locals that the area should be preserved -- and that's a valid concern -- but I never hear exactly what the end goal should be. Should it stay as it is indefinitely? Should it be designed to attract tourism and serve as more than just a row of small offices?

Any idea of how much of the River North property has actually been bought by this group of developers and how much is still left to purchase?

Wow, they're definitely not dragging their feet on this project. Seems like it's zooming along in spite of all the rain.

Maybe another perk to all the new construction along Broadway is that the street lighting will finally be consistent. I noticed recently how many of those old rusted-out street lights are still scattered between the newer black lampposts all along Broadway. Case in point: See photo above.

I had this same thought a couple of days ago when Facebook suggested a Nashville history group as a possible interest. I clicked the link and scanned a few of the group posts and comments -- they were overwhelmingly wistful of the "old days" and against most growth of any kind. Among the complaints I read: Nashville is now too big, there's too much traffic, too much crime, too much construction, and too many people moving here who don't speak "American" (yes, that was the word one poster used). I opted to not join the group or read any further, because I know that with some folks, their mind is made up. And I try to remember that as I get older, it is harder to adjust to change, especially when it happens fast. So I try to stay respectful of people who feel that way. But in dealing with people who do feel that way about Nashville growth, I wish I knew a way to convince them that a lot of things happening here are for the best and not a negative. I could use numbers and statistics and all that. But would it make any difference?

Based on the Ariat website, it does appear to be a high-end retailer. Certainly not cheap. This seems like a pretty solid gain for Nashville -- definitely a step above the usual boot shops downtown.

Gaylord really missed a chance to have Flo Rida perform at the grand opening ceremony.

Valid point, and I realize the earlier comment was maybe in jest, but imagine the draw and immediate buzz generated by downtown's first bar associated with a female singer. A Reba or Carrie Underwood or Shania Twain influence would be an interesting twist to the mix downtown. Seems like now would be as good a time as any for it to happen.

Isn't Nashville's downtown active enough now to support a dine-in-only McDonald's or other fast food chain?

I like the imagery of the outdoor palm trees, but can those things survive extended cold weather? I thought there was a reason palm trees are found mostly in warm locations.

I could swear I've seen it mentioned elsewhere recently that Amazon is testing this idea in other cities.

I'll cross my fingers that Amazon's influx of 5,000 new workers will finally push TDOT to fix the disaster that is the Broadway/I-40/I-65 interchange. That beast will only get worse until then.

I'd really like to see Dollar General scatter 3-4 more of its DGX concept stores in the downtown-Gulch-Germantown areas. Seems like it would be a great fit and probably better positioned for foot traffic than the prototype DGX store on West End. And I think this has been mentioned on here before, but IKEA says it's about to build 30 smaller stores in urban centers. Seems like a great potential addition to the new River North project near Top Golf.

As I understand, the Tennessean/Gannett folks are vacating in April. A friend who's still there posted photos of their new future offices in the Palmer building on West End, and they still have to do a lot of construction there before move-in.

As an aside: Good to see another safe-thinking pedestrian wisely using the available crosswalks available throughout our city. <sarcasm noted>