Economic Conditions - Nashville, TN, U.S., Global

[smeagolsfree]

I think a lot of us are glad he is a former councilperson. He needs to realize his  crap stinks as bad as everyone elses and when you start throwing rocks some are bound to come back and hit you. Davis needs to be careful someone does not decide to look under a few of his rocks.

[titanhog]

This could get interesting.

https://fox17.com/news/local/covid-19-emails-from-nashville-mayors-office-show-disturbing-revelation?fbclid=IwAR0SpV8h0Zrw1JTtW7G2ObXFAn58CvS32Z4Wo7HtghIOIuSqTOh4DOr9ND8

The coronavirus cases on lower Broadway may have been so low that the mayor’s office and the metro health department decided to keep it secret.

Emails between the mayor’s senior advisor and the health department reveal only a partial picture. But what they reveal is disturbing.

The discussion involves the low number of coronavirus cases emerging from bars and restaurants and how to handle that.and most disturbingly how to keep it from the public.

On June 30th, contact tracing was giving a small view of coronavirus clusters. Construction and nursing homes causing problems more than a thousand cases traced to each category, but bars and restaurants reported just 22 cases.

Leslie Waller from the health department asks “This isn’t going to be publicly released, right? Just info for Mayor’s Office?

“Correct, not for public consumption.” Writes senior advisor Benjamin Eagles

A month later the health department is asked point blank about the rumor there are only 80 cases traced to bars and restaurants.

Tennessean reporter Nate Rau asks “the figure you gave of “more than 80” does lead to a natural question: If there have been over 20,000 positive cases of COVID-19 in Davidson and only 80 or so are traced to restaurants and bars, doesn’t that mean restaurants and bars aren’t a very big problem?

Health department official Brian Todd asks 5 health department officials: Please advise how you recommend I respond. BT

The name at the top of the response is clipped off but you may find the answer unacceptable.

“My two cents. We have certainly refused to give counts per bar because those numbers are low per site."

We could still release the total though, and then a response to the over 80 could be “because that number is increasing all the time and we don’t want to say a specific number.

Neither the health department or the mayor’s office would confirm the authenticity of the emails but councilmember Steve Glover had a metro staff attorney inquire. Here’s the official answer:

“I was able to get verification from the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Health that these emails are real” answered the staff attorney.

Glover says this is Metro Nashville orchestrating a cover up. "They are fabricating information. They’ve blown there entire credibility Dennis. Its gone i don’t trust a thing they say going forward ...nothing."

Glover says he has been contacted by an endless stream of downtown bartenders, waitresses, and restaurant owners. Why would they not release these numbers?

"We raised taxes 34 percent and put hundreds literally thousands of people out of work that are now worried about losing their homes their apartments etcetera and we did it on bogus data. That should be illegal!" he says. 

Again, we weren’t told by the mayor’s office this wasn’t true. We were told to file a freedom of information act request. 

Which allows us now to ask the question.why are you keeping this from us? Why would you even want to? Its just the real numbers and what could possibly be an honorable motive?

 

[donNdonelson2]

1 hour ago, titanhog said:

This could get interesting.

 

WOW! If all this is true, we could see another mayoral resignation. (Or might I say, we SHOULD see another?)

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, donNdonelson2 said:

WOW! If all this is true, we could see another mayoral resignation. (Or might I say, we SHOULD see another?)

Yeah...I don't know what's going to happen with this news.  But I do know a certain segment of people in the city probably just hate him more.  IMO...he's a dead man walking.   No way he gets reelected.

[Nash_12South]

Well, Thursday has generally been announcement day for changes in our restrictions so maybe the city will go to 75% at restaurants and 50% at bars, part of the original Phase 3 guidelines which we left in early July. We should know in a few hours.

[shanky]

What would be mayor's motivation for suppressing this information?  I'm not one to embrace conspiracy theories but there has to be more to this.  It's simply not in his best interests politically and as a general rule that's what a politician cares about the most.  

[Jamie Hall]

Couldn't one argue that there were only 80 cases linked to restaurants and bars as a result of effective safety precautions? Also, those 80 cases would appear to be Davidson County residents; how many additional cases would have been linked to tourists and not included in that number? Would that number at least be doubled? Maybe tripled?

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the big issue here, especially considering that the only person on record complaining about it is the City Council's official conspiracy theorist, Steve Glover.

[titanhog]

1 minute ago, Jamie Hall said:

Couldn't one argue that there were only 80 cases linked to restaurants and bars as a result of effective safety precautions? Also, those 80 cases would appear to be Davidson County residents; how many additional cases would have been linked to tourists and not included in that number? Would that number at least be doubled? Maybe tripled?

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the big issue here, especially considering that the only person on record complaining about it is the City Council's official conspiracy theorist, Steve Glover.

The problem is the appearance of "keep the information on the down low" part of the story.  Why they did that...if they did...is the issue.  Could end up being a nothing-burger...but it sure doesn't help the optics any.

[Nash_12South]

Mayor announcing - that local public High School sports can resume late next week, as long as they are outdoors.

Bars (with food) can go to 50% and 50 people per floor and 50 people outside (seated), (if that meets 50%) starting tomorrow.

Titans can have 10% at 10/4 home game, 12.5% at the next home game and 15% at the next. Hopefully 20%+ by the end of the season The big thing is that the rules have to work and be enforced. Masks all the time but eating and will be enforced.

We should go back to Phase 3 - October 1, whatever that will look like as we are sort of already there in many areas.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Nash_12South

[MLBrumby]

Sorry, but those allowances for the crowd at Nissan seem like they're pulled out of his AR$$. 

Regarding masks, I walked into the nearby Publix yesterday for their $5 sushi (at the back of the store near seafood) and got all the way back to self-checkout before I realized I wasn't wearing my mask. I actually wear it all the time and it's become second nature of sort (unfortunately).  I felt naked, and tried to rush the purchase. Of course, that only slowed things down more. As I fumbled around with the scanner and then the keypad, I glanced around at the workers and expected one of them to come up and ask me to leave, but they didn't. As I walked out, I had a sense that I'd broken out of someplace and they were going to come after me to get my sushi. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by MLBrumby

[titanhog]

45 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Sorry, but those allowances for the crowd at Nissan seem like they're pulled out of his AR$$. 

Regarding masks, I walked into the nearby Publix yesterday for their $5 sushi (at the back of the store near seafood) and got all the way back to self-checkout before I realized I wasn't wearing my mask. I actually wear it all the time and it's become second nature of sort (unfortunately).  I felt naked, and tried to rush the purchase. Of course, that only slowed things down more. As I fumbled around with the scanner and then the keypad, I glanced around at the workers and expected one of them to come up and ask me to leave, but they didn't. As I walked out, I had a sense that I'd broken out of someplace and they were going to come after me to get my sushi. 

You're gonna get a knock at your door at 3am.  FBI coming to haul you in. 

[DDIG]

2 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

Mayor announcing - that local public High School sports can resume late next week, as long as they are outdoors.

Bars (with food) can go to 50% and 50 people per floor and 50 people outside (seated), (if that meets 50%) starting tomorrow.

Titans can have 10% at 10/4 home game, 12.5% at the next home game and 15% at the next. Hopefully 20%+ by the end of the season The big thing is that the rules have to work and be enforced. Masks all the time but eating and will be enforced.

We should go back to Phase 3 - October 1, whatever that will look like as we are sort of already there in many areas.

The Titans, who you can watch on TV, can have 10% capacity (a made up number!). 

MNPS sports can't have any fans,  sorry parents with seniors!

Don't bother with the fact that none of this makes sense and outside wearing a mask is extremely low risk, it is SCIENCE.

[Rockatansky]

10 hours ago, titanhog said:

This could get interesting.

https://fox17.com/news/local/covid-19-emails-from-nashville-mayors-office-show-disturbing-revelation?fbclid=IwAR0SpV8h0Zrw1JTtW7G2ObXFAn58CvS32Z4Wo7HtghIOIuSqTOh4DOr9ND8

This report is a load of hogwash. The numbers were reported on in August. There's been no cover up.

[DDIG]

17 minutes ago, Rockatansky said:

This report is a load of hogwash. The numbers were reported on in August. There's been no cover up.

It seems like none of our reporters can get the story quite right. There's more to it than hogwash.

When Cooper shut down all bars beginning of June he said bars were causing unprecedented spread. Then later on he made the downtown hotspot map dark red even though the zip-code case count didn't support it. 

So what are the real things we learned? When in June he blamed the bars those emails showed that only 22 cases had been tied to bars and restaurants - hardly seems like his statements were supported by data. YES, the Lookout reported it on August 4th and the city gave them, however they went two months telling us how bad it was without showing any numbers. They maybe didn't cover it up, but they probably weren't in a rush to let the numbers get out considering it didn't back the data driven response they were promising.

 

4 hours ago, Jamie Hall said:

Couldn't one argue that there were only 80 cases linked to restaurants and bars as a result of effective safety precautions? Also, those 80 cases would appear to be Davidson County residents; how many additional cases would have been linked to tourists and not included in that number? Would that number at least be doubled? Maybe tripled?

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the big issue here, especially considering that the only person on record complaining about it is the City Council's official conspiracy theorist, Steve Glover.

The issue of trust comes into play. The Mayor absolutely said there was unprecedented spread happening at bars and restaurants. He went on to call downtown the epicenter of COVID in Nashville. He without question never had any data to back this, which is troublesome for someone who has pledged this entire effort is data driven. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by DDIG

[henburg]

This Twitter thread by Phil Williams of News Channel 5 is worth reading in regard to the FOX 17 story. I've embedded some of the most pertinent tweets, but there's more if you want to read it...

 

 

That's not to necessarily say it's nothing, but I think that it's important to look at this through a critical lens. Not to mention, I think that we can all remember some of FOX 17's past efforts in the name of investigative journalism.

Edited September 17, 2020 by henburg

[DDIG]

8 minutes ago, henburg said:

This Twitter thread by Phil Williams of News Channel 5 is worth reading in regard to the FOX 17 story. I've embedded some of the most pertinent tweets, but there's more if you want to read it...

 

 

I think that we all can remember some of FOX 17's past efforts in the name of investigative journalism, so I think it's important to look at this through a critical lens.

See my post above. Fox 17 definitely did not categorize it right, but what was learned should not be entirely thrown out. Namely for the two months before those numbers came out in August, the Mayor pointed his finger at bars and restaurants as the cause of unprecedented spread with zero data supporting it.

[fxvol]

I just received a message from my sister, who is very well connected in Metro politics, that the feeling now is "Cooper is toast." She attended a meeting of politicians and political influencers at 11:00 this morning and some heavy hitters are planning to fund another recall effort via another petition. They feel the most recent attempt was under capitalized. She said she will believe when the checks clear. Entertainer John Rich is now floating the idea of organizing a $2 billion class action lawsuit by downtown businesses and their employees against Metro Govt.

She's been told that Gov. Lee is now denying Cooper's $80 million funding request from the state, and that Cooper has lost his credibility and the trust of the electorate and is considering resigning as opposed to fighting a second recall attempt.  Word coming from a long-time staffer inside the mayor's office is that Cooper is often angry, often slamming an open hand on a table during fits of rage, frequently berates staff members, especially the bearers of bad news and runs his office by fear. This staffer is thinking of quitting. Dreads going to work. If Cooper resigns, who takes over the reigns of Metro Govt. Jim Shulman? Does anyone here know what kind of mayor he would be?

Reading between the lines, personally, my take is that Gov. Lee has been very displeased with Cooper's arrogance and tone-deaf style, and he now is seizing the opportunity to help Metro Nashville change the course that Cooper has charted for the city. 

[downtownresident]

33 minutes ago, fxvol said:

I just received a message from my sister, who is very well connected in Metro politics, that the feeling now is "Cooper is toast." She attended a meeting of politicians and political influencers at 11:00 this morning and some heavy hitters are planning to fund another recall effort via another petition. They feel the most recent attempt was under capitalized. She said she will believe when the checks clear. Entertainer John Rich is now floating the idea of organizing a $2 billion class action lawsuit by downtown businesses and their employees against Metro Govt.

She's been told that Gov. Lee is now denying Cooper's $80 million funding request from the state, and that Cooper has lost his credibility and the trust of the electorate and is considering resigning as opposed to fighting a second recall attempt.  Word coming from a long-time staffer inside the mayor's office is that Cooper is often angry, often slamming an open hand on a table during fits of rage, frequently berates staff members, especially the bearers of bad news and runs his office by fear. This staffer is thinking of quitting. Dreads going to work. If Cooper resigns, who takes over the reigns of Metro Govt. Jim Shulman? Does anyone here know what kind of mayor he would be?

Reading between the lines, personally, my take is that Gov. Lee has been very displeased with Cooper's arrogance and tone-deaf style, and he now is seizing the opportunity to help Metro Nashville change the course that Cooper has charted for the city. 

Hopefully ole bushy brows leaves sooner rather than later, although it’d be nice to have a mayor actually serve out a full term. 

[MLBrumby]

1 hour ago, fxvol said:

I just received a message from my sister, who is very well connected in Metro politics, that the feeling now is "Cooper is toast." She attended a meeting of politicians and political influencers at 11:00 this morning and some heavy hitters are planning to fund another recall effort via another petition. They feel the most recent attempt was under capitalized. She said she will believe when the checks clear. Entertainer John Rich is now floating the idea of organizing a $2 billion class action lawsuit by downtown businesses and their employees against Metro Govt.

She's been told that Gov. Lee is now denying Cooper's $80 million funding request from the state, and that Cooper has lost his credibility and the trust of the electorate and is considering resigning as opposed to fighting a second recall attempt.  Word coming from a long-time staffer inside the mayor's office is that Cooper is often angry, often slamming an open hand on a table during fits of rage, frequently berates staff members, especially the bearers of bad news and runs his office by fear. This staffer is thinking of quitting. Dreads going to work. If Cooper resigns, who takes over the reigns of Metro Govt. Jim Shulman? Does anyone here know what kind of mayor he would be?

Reading between the lines, personally, my take is that Gov. Lee has been very displeased with Cooper's arrogance and tone-deaf style, and he now is seizing the opportunity to help Metro Nashville change the course that Cooper has charted for the city. 

Arrogance and tone deafness seem to run in the family.  Maybe you guys can get a two-fer and throw his good-for-nothing brother out of office too.  But you have a chance to do that at the ballot box in less than 7 weeks. 

Oops... stupid me! I misread the meaning of the word "dread" above. So I deleted it. Funny thing about this scandal with the mayor is it's blown wide open on social media. And I don't have a lot of conservative news feeds. But nationally, Cooper's name is now mud. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by MLBrumby

[Nash_12South]

I'm not a Cooper fan, at all, but, but a little context of what was going on in July may be useful. We were in Phase 3 which still had a lot of rules on crowd sizes, no standing ect. and the bars were generally ignoring all of them. The city had no leverage other than shutting them down. If the numbers were low locally its in part because most of the people seen, all over the US on the news, ignoring the rules, were out of towners. They were here for a few days and left. There was lots of negative coverage of Nashville then. 

I think we ought to to be in Phase 3 now, but we may never understand the possible good, healthwise, we did in slow walking reopening. Again, I think Cooper is toast, but I don't think keeping the low numbers from the public was nefarious.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Nash_12South

[Rockatansky]

.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Rockatansky
Sometimes its best I keep my mouth shut.

[DDIG]

15 hours ago, fxvol said:

I just received a message from my sister, who is very well connected in Metro politics, that the feeling now is "Cooper is toast." She attended a meeting of politicians and political influencers at 11:00 this morning and some heavy hitters are planning to fund another recall effort via another petition. They feel the most recent attempt was under capitalized. She said she will believe when the checks clear. Entertainer John Rich is now floating the idea of organizing a $2 billion class action lawsuit by downtown businesses and their employees against Metro Govt.

She's been told that Gov. Lee is now denying Cooper's $80 million funding request from the state, and that Cooper has lost his credibility and the trust of the electorate and is considering resigning as opposed to fighting a second recall attempt.  Word coming from a long-time staffer inside the mayor's office is that Cooper is often angry, often slamming an open hand on a table during fits of rage, frequently berates staff members, especially the bearers of bad news and runs his office by fear. This staffer is thinking of quitting. Dreads going to work. If Cooper resigns, who takes over the reigns of Metro Govt. Jim Shulman? Does anyone here know what kind of mayor he would be?

Reading between the lines, personally, my take is that Gov. Lee has been very displeased with Cooper's arrogance and tone-deaf style, and he now is seizing the opportunity to help Metro Nashville change the course that Cooper has charted for the city. 

Been rumblings of this for awhile. Gets back to Cooper's core problems. He has ZERO allies. He immediately alienated business community. He had some meetings with the State early on that left them going - what is wrong with this guy? He has zero political capital, zero coalition support. This on top of being a socially awkward guy that is difficult to connect with and someone who doesn't listen to advice. There have been long running rumors about the way he treats his staff - meaning he can't even count on them for allegiance. 

Seems like the first recall attempt was a trial run. If they put some serious money and coordination behind the second it will get real.

[DDIG]

2 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

I don't think keeping the low numbers from the public was nefarious.

My thought is why not be transparent? Don't use the words "record number of clusters from bars" when in reality you are talking about 19 cases. Say openly what you believe, "While we aren't able to contact trace many cases to bar at this time, we believe that bars remain a significant threat for transmission and that we will never be able to capture true numbers due to people who go to bars from outside the county lines."

It undermines public trust to do otherwise.

Edited September 18, 2020 by DDIG

[Nash_12South]

10 minutes ago, DDIG said:

My thought is why not be transparent? Don't use the words "record number of clusters from bars" when in reality you are talking about 19 cases. Say openly what you believe, "While we aren't able to contact trace many cases to bar at this time, we believe that bars remain a significant threat for transmission and that we will never be able to capture true numbers due to people who go to bars from outside the county lines."

It undermines public trust to do otherwise.

I totally agree. Cooper and the city look justifiably awful. I just think we are where we are in large part because the Broadway bar owners didn't even seem to pretend to be working within the guidelines. When one side won't play by the rules I get why the other side didn't see playing fair and transparent, as workable. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Nash_12South

[Jarno]

1 hour ago, DDIG said:

My thought is why not be transparent? Don't use the words "record number of clusters from bars" when in reality you are talking about 19 cases. Say openly what you believe, "While we aren't able to contact trace many cases to bar at this time, we believe that bars remain a significant threat for transmission and that we will never be able to capture true numbers due to people who go to bars from outside the county lines."

It undermines public trust to do otherwise.

I think the one thing we learned from this Covid pandemic period is that we don't want the government calling the shots when it coming to how we live our lives.  They started  saying their executive actions were the laws spending money at an unprecedented rate, sneaking in unrelated agendas.  And my favorite, Cooper says he will allow fans at the Titans games and practically takes a bow, while screwing 90% of the tickets holders out of going.