Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory

[nashvylle]

Gross. 

[MLBrumby]

Agreed! I click on the likes (hearts) not always b/c I like an actual building but I like the photo being posted. But that design should not have been allowed on Main Street (perhaps a side street that needed a shot in the arm). Mix of exterior materials, aluminum framed windows and the trailer-park parapet all scream "Cheap!" But I'll be the owners will make a killing. So help me understand, the neighbors who don't want the church turned into a bar are only 1 block away, right? So where were they in opposition to this? 

[donNdonelson2]

Looks like a cheap college dorm from the 1970s. 

[grilled_cheese]

13 hours ago, nashvylle said:

Gross. 

It looks like the addition to a 100 year old high school that was added in the mid 2000s.

13 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

Agreed! I click on the likes (hearts) not always b/c I like an actual building but I like the photo being posted. But that design should not have been allowed on Main Street (perhaps a side street that needed a shot in the arm). Mix of exterior materials, aluminum framed windows and the trailer-park parapet all scream "Cheap!" But I'll be the owners will make a killing. So help me understand, the neighbors who don't want the church turned into a bar are only 1 block away, right? So where were they in opposition to this? 

Because those people suck booty hole and are incredibly dumb and vanilla.

13 hours ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Looks like a cheap college dorm from the 1970s. 

Looks like no street level activation either?  FML

[FatherLand]

A new doughnut and coffee place has opened up in the place of the former Mr. Hats on Gallatin and they appear to be open for business

[Nashville Cliff]

On 9/14/2019 at 8:34 AM, MLBrumby said:

Agreed! I click on the likes (hearts) not always b/c I like an actual building but I like the photo being posted. But that design should not have been allowed on Main Street (perhaps a side street that needed a shot in the arm). Mix of exterior materials, aluminum framed windows and the trailer-park parapet all scream "Cheap!" But I'll be the owners will make a killing. So help me understand, the neighbors who don't want the church turned into a bar are only 1 block away, right? So where were they in opposition to this? 

A lot of people in the area were opposed to it, not so much because of the design as because it will be one giant, non-stop, booze-and-coke-fueled bachelor/bachelorette party. A hotel without any adult supervision. Me? I just don't like the design.

[bwithers1]

3 hours ago, Nashville Cliff said:

A lot of people in the area were opposed to it, not so much because of the design as because it will be one giant, non-stop, booze-and-coke-fueled bachelor/bachelorette party. A hotel without any adult supervision. Me? I just don't like the design.

I attended the MDHA Design Review Committee for this one.  Note that the DRC's are not public hearings but are committee meetings, and public comments - including comments from the District Council Member - are not considered.  But I still couldn't believe that this one did not elicit more scrutiny from the Committee and it passed easily with me in the room and not happy about it.

One of my concerns was the prospect of an unsupervised hotel of this type inviting lots of potential problems, particularly at that specific location.  The design of the building actually makes the prospect of those problems much more likely.  The rear of the building presents some security concerns for the guests.  The front of the building does not address the street in an inviting manner.  Where is the entrance?  It's just a mess.  The materials came out better than I had anticipated, but otherwise, this building's design leaves so much to be desired.  I'll try to leave it at that.

[bwithers1]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 8:00 AM, smeagolsfree said:

I was referring to the Main and Forrest property.

Still the height on Main and Gallatin should be allowed to go 6 all along the corridor, and if truth be told, all the way to the Sumner county line. The more density you have along a major transit route the better things will be whenever we get transit and we will at some point. The more people that live within a block of that line the more folks that will use it. Its all about density and urban development.

As it stands not the crazy folks in northern Davidson will never allow affordable housing to be built on all the land that is vacant up there, and if the developers did, they would end up building McMansions no one could afford on 5 acre lots. Antioch is a disaster, so the next best option is to build up you transit corridors to their maximum effectiveness.

Most of Main Street and quite a bit of Gallatin out to Briley Parkway already has MUG-A zoning that allows at least five stories, and potentially more depending on the lot size.  For this particular property, there are height restrictions through the Lockeland Springs-East End Conservation overlay in order to help ensure that whatever is built on this site does not overwhelm the historic buildings on either side:  the Walnut Exchange Building (Marche, etc), the East Library and others. But otherwise there is plenty of underutilized or even vacant land along Main and Gallatin where 5+ stories can already be constructed without a zone change and without a dwelling unit density cap. 

Edited September 16, 2019 by bwithers1

[AronG]

On 9/12/2019 at 4:41 PM, bwithers1 said:

@AronG There are crosswalks at 10th/Main leading to this project from Marche/Five Points.  Can you please elaborate more?

It would not have been prudent to invest in a concrete median or pedestrian island on Main Street if a transit line were to go there.  So much of the infrastructure along Main/Gallatin would have been updated with funding from the transit referendum, which failed.  Now that East Middle has moved back to the Main Street/Gallatin Ave campus, they are again eligible for a MNPD crossing guard.  The more urgent pedestrian safety project for me and D5 CM-elect Sean Parker will be to get the street lights repaired on Main Street:  the underground wiring was severed at some point and those are MDHA-installed light poles, not NES poles, and there is basically "no one" in charge of or responsible for repairing them. 

Hi Brett. Just grousing about the crosswalk at 10th & Main, which feels like frogger only you might die. Cars come flying down Gallatin and/or shoot through the extremely soft turns on and off 10th. The way metro makes the entire sidewalk corner ramp down to street level (instead of ramps for the crosswalks with a curb between them at the actual corner), I've even see cars cutting the corner *onto* the sidewalk, which is a nice feeling when you were just standing there.

There are lots of ways they could improve it. I'd add a median, decrease the turn radius on the corners, maybe raise the crosswalk just an inch to encourage traffic to slow down... I know funding's limited, I just wish we could get some kind of improvement along with a redevelopment like this one. With Cooper in, I assume transit isn't going anywhere for a while, but maybe we can at least encourage a few more of our airbnb'ers to get around on foot instead of gumming up the place with traffic.

That's hilarious about the light poles. That's one Cooper might actually come up with money to fix, just so he can get on the local news pounding MDHA again.

 

[Bos2Nash]

Even something "as simple" as this...

New Haven, CT just did this to help with crosswalk corners. I know Turbo Nashville has been working on items like this in different parts of the city.

[bwithers1]

19 hours ago, Bos2Nash said:

Even something "as simple" as this...

New Haven, CT just did this to help with crosswalk corners. I know Turbo Nashville has been working on items like this in different parts of the city.

Turbo did the corner at 11th/Gallatin, which could use some refurbishment now.  I could see something like this for the southwest corner of Woodland/11th where the sidewalks are so narrow and the trees that are in the sidewalks block pedestrian traffic and make the sidewalks inaccessible to wheelchairs.  We would have to take away the one-hour parking spaces (which are not monitored) in order to install something like what is captured in the above photo, but it would be worth it.  Five Points business owners call me to tell me that there is no parking in Five Points, but of course there is lots of parking, it's just not free parking.  Sigh. 

I'll take a wait-and-see approach to 10th/Main.  @AronGThe new traffic signal equipment and curbs are only four years old:  they were installed in late 2015 and so they meet the latest Public Works and ADA standards.  If cars are coming flying down Gallatin through this intersection they are running the red light that turns on before the pedestrian crossing signal is activated.  The Hunter's Station project is technically located in District 5, and so there may have been discussions with the prior CM (or not) about what level of pedestrian enhancements were needed.  I'm just not certain about that.

The information that I receive from Public Works is that raised crosswalks interfere with drainage, and so that is why they are not done unless you re-do the curb-and-gutter system entirely.  That's what I am told, anyway.  Public Works doesn't like the textured crosswalks, either, because they are a maintenance hassle. 

But again, traffic is supposed to be stopped by a red light when the pedestrian crosswalk is activated and I would have to check but there should be sign indicating to drivers that they must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk before turning.  If drivers are not doing that, I am not sure that raising a crosswalk an inch is going to change much.  At some point, this is a Nashville-drivers issue.  The pedestrian crossing islands are so expensive that we need to focus those first where the most pedestrian strikes are occurring.  One of the ones on Nolensville Road in front of Casa Azafran has been installed only a short time and has already been hit and damaged by drivers numerous times.  SMH. 

 

[AronG]

1 hour ago, bwithers1 said:

The information that I receive from Public Works is that raised crosswalks interfere with drainage, and so that is why they are not done unless you re-do the curb-and-gutter system entirely.  That's what I am told, anyway.  Public Works doesn't like the textured crosswalks, either, because they are a maintenance hassle. 

But again, traffic is supposed to be stopped by a red light when the pedestrian crosswalk is activated and I would have to check but there should be sign indicating to drivers that they must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk before turning.  If drivers are not doing that, I am not sure that raising a crosswalk an inch is going to change much.  At some point, this is a Nashville-drivers issue.  The pedestrian crossing islands are so expensive that we need to focus those first where the most pedestrian strikes are occurring.  One of the ones on Nolensville Road in front of Casa Azafran has been installed only a short time and has already been hit and damaged by drivers numerous times.  SMH. 

Hi Brett, thanks for the info. Gotta say it seems insane for me that we have to wait for "pedestrian strikes" (aka dead people) to guide our street design, but I guess that's Nashville in 2019. The factors that induce drivers to hit people are super well-known, and as much as we all like to blame Nashville drivers, unfortunately it has much more to do with the pushback you describe from Public Works. Those guys are trapped in a mentality from 30 years ago, when 98% of street design was about maximizing car throughput for suburban commuters. When we can't even put in a crosswalk without it getting smashed up, it's the most blatant possible evidence that we've created a violent safety hazard in our public spaces and need to revisit the design choices that got us there. It's not like this is some kind of mysterious problem; the solutions have been documented repeatedly by organizations like the NACTO (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/). But right now Public Works cares more about easy maintenance than our dozens of dead pedestrians every year, and they continue to ignore modern urban design guidelines and best practices unless there's specific pressure on each project.

I know the systemic problems are out of your control, but I hope you'll use the influence you have on D6 design choices to push things in the right direction. Eastland and Chapel was one example where Public Works started with an incredibly ignorant design, and still only managed to get it about halfway fixed based on pushback. We'll eventually join the rest of the urban areas of the world in designing our intersections for people instead of cars, but until then every project is an opportunity to improve neighborhood safety. 

[37206dude]

26 minutes ago, AronG said:

Hi Brett, thanks for the info. Gotta say it seems insane for me that we have to wait for "pedestrian strikes" (aka dead people) to guide our street design, but I guess that's Nashville in 2019. The factors that induce drivers to hit people are super well-known, and as much as we all like to blame Nashville drivers, unfortunately it has much more to do with the pushback you describe from Public Works. Those guys are trapped in a mentality from 30 years ago, when 98% of street design was about maximizing car throughput for suburban commuters. When we can't even put in a crosswalk without it getting smashed up, it's the most blatant possible evidence that we've created a violent safety hazard in our public spaces and need to revisit the design choices that got us there. It's not like this is some kind of mysterious problem; the solutions have been documented repeatedly by organizations like the NACTO (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/). But right now Public Works cares more about easy maintenance than our dozens of dead pedestrians every year, and they continue to ignore modern urban design guidelines and best practices unless there's specific pressure on each project.

I know the systemic problems are out of your control, but I hope you'll use the influence you have on D6 design choices to push things in the right direction. Eastland and Chapel was one example where Public Works started with an incredibly ignorant design, and still only managed to get it about halfway fixed based on pushback. We'll eventually join the rest of the urban areas of the world in designing our intersections for people instead of cars, but until then every project is an opportunity to improve neighborhood safety. 

I agree, Public Works is generally in the habit of ignoring best practices that are well established in other cities.   The overwhelming majority of even new pedestrian and bike infrastructure in Nashville is dangerous by design.

[grilled_cheese]

https://nashville.eater.com/2019/9/17/20870448/sean-brock-red-bird-audrey-east-nashville

[Gracie]

On 9/14/2019 at 8:34 AM, MLBrumby said:

Agreed! I click on the likes (hearts) not always b/c I like an actual building but I like the photo being posted. But that design should not have been allowed on Main Street (perhaps a side street that needed a shot in the arm). Mix of exterior materials, aluminum framed windows and the trailer-park parapet all scream "Cheap!" But I'll be the owners will make a killing. So help me understand, the neighbors who don't want the church turned into a bar are only 1 block away, right? So where were they in opposition to this? 

Can we not get some better design guidelines? This is just the worst in so many ways.

[Edgefield D]

Sorry if this is a duplicate, but here are the plans for Shotgun Willie's BBQ at 4000 Gallatin Pike in Inglewood.

 

https://epermits.nashville.gov/download.aspx?id=243025

[bwithers1]

On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 10:06 AM, AronG said:

Hi Brett, thanks for the info. Gotta say it seems insane for me that we have to wait for "pedestrian strikes" (aka dead people) to guide our street design, but I guess that's Nashville in 2019. The factors that induce drivers to hit people are super well-known, and as much as we all like to blame Nashville drivers, unfortunately it has much more to do with the pushback you describe from Public Works. Those guys are trapped in a mentality from 30 years ago, when 98% of street design was about maximizing car throughput for suburban commuters. When we can't even put in a crosswalk without it getting smashed up, it's the most blatant possible evidence that we've created a violent safety hazard in our public spaces and need to revisit the design choices that got us there. It's not like this is some kind of mysterious problem; the solutions have been documented repeatedly by organizations like the NACTO (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/). But right now Public Works cares more about easy maintenance than our dozens of dead pedestrians every year, and they continue to ignore modern urban design guidelines and best practices unless there's specific pressure on each project.

I know the systemic problems are out of your control, but I hope you'll use the influence you have on D6 design choices to push things in the right direction. Eastland and Chapel was one example where Public Works started with an incredibly ignorant design, and still only managed to get it about halfway fixed based on pushback. We'll eventually join the rest of the urban areas of the world in designing our intersections for people instead of cars, but until then every project is an opportunity to improve neighborhood safety. 

@AronG What happened with Eastland/Chapel was that a handful of folks went to extreme lengths to either demand every possible pedestrian/bike/what-have-you known to creation be installed all at once or to kill the project entirely.  I literally had to resurrect the project from the dead that neighbors in Eastwood had worked together on for years because a few advocates had pretty much killed it and I would not let a handful of folks kill a project that benefits so many.  And it has.  Yes, it is improved over the original design.  I had to work with Public Works quite a bit to get the improvements that I did.  Thanks for noticing that.

There is a point at which Public Works and Metro Departments decide that they are simply going to move extremely finite time and funding resources on to where people DO want infrastructure investments and have reasonable expectations about what those are within the time and budgets that we have available.  Let me give everyone a practical, life-experience-based tip:  if you give Public Works an indication that you don't want something because it doesn't have XYZ bells/whistles, then often they will take you seriously and move on to other projects and you won't get anything.  My approach is often quite the opposite:  I keep working at something from as many angles as I can and looking for opportunities to revisit a problem that needs solving.  Then often if I can get a project on a list, I work hard to see what additional details I can get incorporated within the scope of work or to expand the scope of work slightly.  I have more success at building projects collaboratively and with community support from the minimum upwards than my colleagues who take the opposite approach and demand best-in-class and browbeat people whose help they actually need to get anything done.  Some CMs who have taken that approach have gotten little or nothing done in terms of physical infrastructure upgrades. 

For instance:  I am still working on the Eastland Ave sidewalk project from 16th to 17th and every single time I talk to the engineers I remind them that if we can ever get the property owners past their objections to building a sidewalk in the public right of way that we already own across their yard, that I want the sidewalk project to incorporate a crosswalk at 16th/Eastland to serve the bus stop.  Will the crosswalk have every bell/whistle known to humanity?  No.  Absolutely not.  But it is better than what we have.  If I can get a couple of property owners over the potential loss or relocation of their landscaping that happens to be planted in existing public ROW.  I am also advocating to have something added to the existing crosswalk at 17th/Eastland but again, property owners on Eastland have raised objections to that possibility. 

So I am advocating to get what I can, where I can, when I can, because those assets will benefit the public for generations.  But it is not nearly as easy as it looks.  I have more success working at projects and seeking add-ons while-we-are-at-it with a collaborative approach between Metro Departments than asking for everything under the sun first and being rude or dismissive to staff, raising the ire of property owners and stakeholders whose support I need anyway, and then criticizing the Departments' intelligence or acumen because things do not meet absolutely best standards.  Is it better than what was there (nothing)?  Probably.  Can I work collaboratively with people over the two years that it takes to get even the smallest things done to make them even better?  Yes - probably. Can I then continue to build on projects with short-term and long-term goals?  Yes.

For Eastland/Chapel, I had car drivers telling me that the traffic signal would cause huge backups and that they would simply drive around the signal anyway down Franklin (which has four-way stop signs at Chapel, and Setliff, btw).  I also had everyone in the world tagging me on FaceBook and every other social media platform for two years plus emailing me about cars almost hitting pedestrians, etc.  That went on every day for about two years (is it done yet?  is it done yet?  is it done yet?  what's happening with that?  is it done yet?  why isn't Metro doing anything?  is it done yet?  is it done yet?) until it was finally installed.  I have heard almost nothing since then in the form of safety complaints other than occasional drivers who misbehave, just like what happens everywhere.  I actually receive a lot of positive feedback from neighbors on Chapel Ave who express to me that they now feel safe crossing Eastland to visit restaurants and businesses that they can see from their house.  Fannie Battle Day Home parents are thankful for the stop light that helps them get to their childcare facility.  Business owners are happy with the infrastructure upgrades.  I would say that the problem of crossing Eastland at Chapel safely was solved by most people's standards to the extent that we could get it done with that amount of ROW and with that budgetary limitation.  We can always revisit it in the future.

I believe that my accomplishments advocating for funding for public infrastructure improvements for District 6 compares favorably with that of any CM in the county.  District 18 has a highly engaged community that actually participates in community meetings and also has two universities who have Institutional Overlay Districts that require them to add a lot of infrastructure at their own expense.  So lots of great things are happening in D18 thanks to the universities.  And the D18 neighborhoods also participate and work to get what they can in a well-coordinated manner.  It still takes years and lots of persistence, but many helpful hands participating in the process make the work lighter.  Districts 17 and 19 have some good projects that have been implemented or are underway.  But our friends in the advocacy community need to understanding that in Metro where we have one or two people doing what an entire office building floor full of employees would be doing in other cities, the perfect is often the enemy of the good.  Working to keep at least basic infrastructure projects moving along requires an exhausting amount of coordination, communication and persistence on the part of the CM who must also answer thousands of emails about Short Term Rentals or whatever the topic of the day is, respond to constituent service requests every day, attend lots of meetings that often go to midnight and also work a day job.  Then the advocate community wants to come in and criticize everything but don't want to be part of actual solutions and sometimes communicate in a method that alienates the Departments and the general public and even the very members of the community who have participated in the process of deciding upon a solution that Public Works and Planning can actually fund and install given time, funding, and ROW constraints. 

It is not that Metro Government waits for pedestrian strikes to do things:  it is that the areas where pedestrian strikes ARE occurring are where resources are focused before we divert resources to where things hypothetically might happen which is kind of everywhere and this county covers over 500 square miles.  The areas where patterns of pedestrian strikes are occurring and where problem intersections exist are the priorities.  Fix those first.  Then move down the list.  But drivers crashing into pedestrian islands on Nolensville is a driver problem.  Drivers also plow over cherry trees on Riverside Drive repeatedly.  A driver drove through the front of 3Crow in the middle of the afternoon, and last week a driver drive through the front of Urban Juicer on Gallatin near my house.  WTH?  I am with you about infrastructure design being important, but driver behavior is also important.  We in Metro do not have the multiple billions of dollars that it would take to fix all of Nashville's infrastructure to make it idiot/accident-proof.  We just don't.  So we need everyone to use basic Drivers Ed skills and pay attention to their surroundings.

Metro Council does not control Metro Departments, but we can advocate.  That's all that we can do.  Thank you for your support.  If you or anyone else wants to run for District 6 and gain practical experience of getting things like this done I could use an intern and the seat will be open in 2023.

[OnePointEast]

Whatever happened to the development across the interstate from the Opryland hotel?

[grilled_cheese]

Quote

Plans for the proposed new pub and restaurant, Eastwood Assembly, at 714 Gallatin Ave. appear to be cancelled based on the large “FOR LEASE” sign that appeared on the property this week. As reported in last week’s News Roundup, several residential neighbors were voicing opposition to the project and were organizing in an attempt to halt it.

https://www.theeastnashvillian.com/friday-news-roundup-september-20/

[smeagolsfree]

9 hours ago, OnePointEast said:

Whatever happened to the development across the interstate from the Opryland hotel?

Moving slowly and in the hands of Highwoods.

[OnePointEast]

1 hour ago, smeagolsfree said:

Moving slowly and in the hands of Highwoods.

Thanks @smeagolsfree. I would have thought they would have started by now. Any word on a timeline on it? Also, isn't Highwoods doing the Tennessean location?

[smeagolsfree]

They are. As far as the project across from Opryland, it looks as if they are doing the apartments first as that is the only thing I have seen any movement on. Remember Highwoods is a national player and they have lots of spending power and can do multiple projects in multiple cities at the same time.

[LA_TN]

On 9/21/2019 at 8:52 AM, smeagolsfree said:

They are. As far as the project across from Opryland, it looks as if they are doing the apartments first as that is the only thing I have seen any movement on. Remember Highwoods is a national player and they have lots of spending power and can do multiple projects in multiple cities at the same time.

Highwoods is short on cash, currently, due to buying the brand new 33 story Bank of America tower in Charlotte last month. To help with that purchase, they are selling all assets they own in Memphis and exiting that market. They are also selling some assets in other markets. While Highwoods is doing fine financially, they likely have a short-term cash flow issue, so don't expect great things from them for a bit

[markhollin]

Alliance Bernstein has made another donation to East Nashville-based Martha O'Bryan Center to support expansion of the center's efforts to coach students as they transition to college or other postsecondary programs.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/09/23/alliancebernstein-doubles-down-on-education.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

[WebberThomas4]

https://epermits.nashville.gov/#/permit/3715453?page=1&searchText=1716 Greenwood ave&searchCode=ADDR&searchType=permit&orderBy=permitNumber DESC

New permit application for 1716 Greenwood Avenue (https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/20493489/fall-start-eyed-for-east-nashville-mixeduse-project). This is for interior demo of the church. They are still working to get approval of their SW Grading plans. I’m really excited that Vintage South Development is part of this team now. 

@bwithers1 Can you share anything about this?