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More Accolades for Nashville


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Boom town: Nashville's Fourth of July fireworks named No. 2 in the U.S.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/07/boom-town-nashvilles-fourth-of-july-fireworks.html

 

Nashville trails only New York City's "Macy's Fourth of July Spectacular" on this year's list.

This year's local show (put on by Pyro Shows of Tennessee) will include more than 30,000 fireworks and will run for 27 minutes, making it the longest fireworks display in Nashville's history and the largest display in the South, according to the release.

 

I'm looking forward to this years festivities....seems like it gets bigger and better each year.

Nashville-4th-July-Fireworks.jpg

 

Music-City-fireworks21.jpg

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Last years show was not that great, but that was only because of the weather. I used to avoid going downtown till about 5 years ago. Now I will turn down all plans if they prevent me from seeing the show. Park at Two Rivers park and then ride bikes downtown with some friends. Easy to get downtown, and MUCH easier leaving since we can just pass all the traffic. 

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Last years show was not that great, but that was only because of the weather. I used to avoid going downtown till about 5 years ago. Now I will turn down all plans if they prevent me from seeing the show. Park at Two Rivers park and then ride bikes downtown with some friends. Easy to get downtown, and MUCH easier leaving since we can just pass all the traffic.

That's a great idea! That's a fun ride too. I'd be a little apprehensive about riding through Shelby Bottoms at night though.
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That's a great idea! That's a fun ride too. I'd be a little apprehensive about riding through Shelby Bottoms at night though.

Understandable which is why I usually only do it if I am riding with about 5 or so people. But honestly most years I have done it there is always lots of other people with the same idea so the greenway is not completely vacant.  I have parked at West End and rode from there before as well. 

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Where do you lock your bikes up downtown? Or do you stick with them? I would be afraid to leave my ride alone in that crowd.

I just keep it with me, I don't trust anybody or any lock for that matter. I usually just watch them from one of the bridges and avoid the Riverfront side where all the people are. It may be a mess this year since both sides of the Riverfront are under construction. Each year they blockade a bigger radius also. A 3-4 years ago you could watch from Pedestrian bridge or the parking lot right below it.

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I was just reading a little thing about the fireworks show and noticed something;

 

"Where to park

• For $10, those headed to Music City's July 4th: Let Freedom Sing can park at the Music City Center parking garage or at LP Field lots A, B, D, E and N. The Seigenthaler Pedestrian and Woodland Street bridges will close at 8 p.m. and will reopen at the conclusion of the fireworks show."

 

The Seigenthaler Bridge? Is that a new name for the Shelby St. pedestrian bridge? When did that happen? Who is Seigenthaler?

Edited by nashvillwill
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John Seigenthaler was the longtime editor of the Nashville Tennessean. He was also an important Civil Rights activist in the 60's and a close friend to the Kennedys. 

 

As much as I admire his life of service and devotion to freedom of the press, I would still rather have the Bridge named the Shelby Street Bridge.

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John Seigenthaler was the longtime editor of the Nashville Tennessean. He was also an important Civil Rights activist in the 60's and a close friend to the Kennedys. 

 

As much as I admire his life of service and devotion to freedom of the press, I would still rather have the Bridge named the Shelby Street Bridge.

 

He also founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt and remains a national leader on first amendment rights.  

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They renamed (not honorary) the bridge the last week of April. I know it is an honor for Siegenthaler, but I also feel it is a disgrace to the Shelby family. Nice to know that any naming of a public structure is only temporary. Why don't we just rename these structures every ten years? Maybe Demonbreun can be next?

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I checked to be sure and you're right that this is an actual renaming of the bridge, not an "honorary" renaming.  Here is the ordinance.  http://www.nashville.gov/mc/ordinances/term_2011_2015/bl2014_695.htm

 

As I mentioned, though, this bridge was originally the Sparkman Street Bridge, and was apparently renamed to "Shelby" at some later point.  The Shelby Ave connection was literally severed with the re-routing of Shelby Ave from that bridge to the Gateway (now KVB) bridge several years ago.  The pedestrian bridge obviously still goes to Shelby through a circuitous route, though.

 

I would have been more in favor of the "honorary" designation.  But at least Nashville hasn't sold the corporate naming rights on this bridge the way that Chicago did so many public spaces.  That may be a good funding strategy for public works projects but it can get really tacky in a hurry.

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Nashville jumps four spots to # 10 in annual ranking of top meeting destinations

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2014/08/nashville-jumps-four-spots-in-annual-ranking-of.html

 

Gonna be hard to pass those heavy hitters in the top 9, but I think we can move up another spot or two - give New Orleans and Dallas a run for the money

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Nashville jumps four spots to # 10 in annual ranking of top meeting destinations

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2014/08/nashville-jumps-four-spots-in-annual-ranking-of.html

 

Gonna be hard to pass those heavy hitters in the top 9, but I think we can move up another spot or two - give New Orleans and Dallas a run for the money

 

Agreed that we can potentially beet New Orleans and Dallas. *Possibly* Atlanta, but further down the road for that one.  The others are just not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

 

An interesting thing I noticed: of the top 10, Nashville has the lowest number of hotel rooms, but the third highest number of "committable" sleeping rooms, beating out even New York, Chicago, and DC. What's the difference in the two?

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Agreed that we can potentially beet New Orleans and Dallas. *Possibly* Atlanta, but further down the road for that one.  The others are just not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

 

An interesting thing I noticed: of the top 10, Nashville has the lowest number of hotel rooms, but the third highest number of "committable" sleeping rooms, beating out even New York, Chicago, and DC. What's the difference in the two?

This means that the hotels have contracts with the city to set a number of rooms aside for convention availability. So for instance, if the Omni received TIF from the city, Nashville may require that they block off a certain amount of rooms for spillover from conventions. This guarantees room availability. A hotel may tell you they are sold out, but they may have a certain number blocked at all times for large conventions. A lot of time this is only done during certain times of the year. I spent 7 years in the biz. I cannot tell you how  many times we had 50-150 rooms empty we could not sell.

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This means that the hotels have contracts with the city to set a number of rooms aside for convention availability. So for instance, if the Omni received TIF from the city, Nashville may require that they block off a certain amount of rooms for spillover from conventions. This guarantees room availability. A hotel may tell you they are sold out, but they may have a certain number blocked at all times for large conventions. A lot of time this is only done during certain times of the year. I spent 7 years in the biz. I cannot tell you how  many times we had 50-150 rooms empty we could not sell.

That's actually sad to hear.  Kind of a waste.

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This means that the hotels have contracts with the city to set a number of rooms aside for convention availability. So for instance, if the Omni received TIF from the city, Nashville may require that they block off a certain amount of rooms for spillover from conventions. This guarantees room availability. A hotel may tell you they are sold out, but they may have a certain number blocked at all times for large conventions. A lot of time this is only done during certain times of the year. I spent 7 years in the biz. I cannot tell you how  many times we had 50-150 rooms empty we could not sell.

 

That really sucks.  I mean, if you're running a hotel, and there's not a convention in town, or if there is a convention in town and it's already as booked as it's going to be, you're getting completely screwed.

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