future for Briley Parkway

[Skyscrapergeek]

Don't make me make you run for mayor!

[L'burgnative]

First, thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. SSG, it does seem like we've met somewhere...

Vine, I have to respond to The Plan of Nashville, at least inasmuch as it seeks to destroy the inner loop. Except that your post brings it up, my dismay is directed at the authors of the document and not towards you. I'm actually glad you brought it up b/c I've wanted to vent about this for awhile now...

The idea that Billions in taxpayer dollars should be spent to destroy the inner loop of our interstate system is laughable over the top *ridiculous*. Look no further than Boston to see how bad the cost overruns can get for an overly ambitious project. But at least in Boston (as I understand it) there was a reason for the tunnel that most people could agree on: convenience and efficiency in interstate travel. The Plan of Nashville would have exactly the opposite effect both during AND AFTER construction!

In the case of The Plan, the motivating factors as I understand them are aesthetics and nostalgia. Connect the old neighborhoods torn asunder by the evil interstates and give us greenways. Lots and lots of greenways.

We'll need the green of the greenways b/c there won't be any green in our wallets if this thing were to happen.

The neighborhoods that would be reconnected so barely resemble today what they did decades ago, that by the time this project were finished it would be a new neighborhood that no living person would recognize from their past. The Plan of Nashville is a plan of madness. Okay, maybe ten people would be enthralled at how much it brings back their wonderful memories. Perhaps fifty people would still be alive to enjoy it. I'll stipulate to one hundred people for the sake of argument. There's nothing all the other neighborhood beneficiaries would get from this madness that they couldn't get by some other means. But every day tens of thousands of people would be grossly inconvenienced for the sake of that neighborhood-lovin' feeling. And there are plenty of options for creating greenways or tree-lined boulevards that don't destroy our economy.

As things are configured right now, we aren't just talking about relocating the roads. Hundreds (if not thousands) of businesses have located where they are because they rely on the excellent convenience and economic benefits of Nashville's interstates. Unlike many other markets, our great city has three major interstates that converge here. If you destroy the inner loop, you place a severe drain on those companies' ability to compete. You kill jobs. Thousands and thousands of jobs. Of the companies that can survive the transition and scrape together the money to relocate, where will they go? Many of them will relocate to a city that does not put their investments at risk with nostalgia- and aesthetics-based social engineering.

Of the companies that do not move out of town, they'll have to relocate to any Briley Parkway areas they can move into, destroying the property values of home owners who also used to like things the way they were. Widen Briley to about sixteen lanes. Put an industrial park next to the Wave Pool.

And if you really want to place the economic prospects for our city in a state of suspended animation, keep pushing the Plan so that decision-makers don't know if the value of their pending investments in our great city will be undermined by social engineering three years after they commit. Would Nissan have moved to Franklin if there were a chance that the interstate system would be displaced from where their corporate HQ is going? Of course not. People making business decisions need certainty; certainty is what our nation's economy relies on. If this proposal ever approaches becoming an actual project to upend our inner loop and the spurs that get to it from 24, 65 & 40, capital investments near downtown and mid-town will dry up during the twenty years it would take to complete it.

The divided neighborhoods are permanently divided and have been for decades. Aside from completely wasting decades of effort and the countless millions of dollars of civic investment to get our interstate loop to the level we have now, the cost of removing it would be far too outrageous to vindicate the motives of The Plan. The tsunami effect on our economy would be devastating to business owners and therefore to the jobs we need and to the tax base. And the grotesque widening of and industrialization of Briley would seriously devalue the homes in those neighborhoods.

Et tu, Plan of Nashville?? No compassion for the people of those neighborhoods??? Utopia for the core and an apocolyptic mad-max dystopia for the Briley outlanders!!!!

Don't make me run for Mayor.

Amen; without the innerloop and good access to towntown, downtown will die.

[smeagolsfree]

tistic,

Very good and valid points. I have not been a fan of the Plan of Nashville since it was first published. The thoughts of some of the things proposed were absolutely mad.

I am glad to see that more than just a few of us have the vision to realize a lot or most of what has been proposed as far as traffic is a pipe dream or nightmare in this case.

[vinemp]

This is a response to all entries responding to my previous post.

You seem to have missed the point of that particular argument. The goal of making I-440/Briley into our major limited-access bypass is to free up city blocks for development and inner-city traffic.

Some key ideas to ponder:

Traffic inside the city vs traffic going through (bypassing) the city

When is there "gridlock" other than at rush hour? You do realize that there will be always be heavy traffic when thousands of people use the same few routes for travel at the same time, right? Why not give people options?

I would also like to point out the "bigger is better" motif in some of your posts. More lanes would only lead to more cars on the highways; therefore, the "gridlock" you so fear would most likely increase proportionately.

Now...

Clearly, this proposal has no more to do with nostalgia than any other part of the resurgence in urban core development we are experiencing.

1.) A city is supposed to be pleasing to the eye as well as navigable and livable.

2.) The tax revenue from the resulting development in the areas now occupied by inner-city interstate seems a compelling enough goal in and of itself.

3.) People are not stupid. If we are allowed more choices in available routes to travel in the city, we could also choose different times for travel.

In addition, the "inner loop" is that which surrounds downtown and does not include I-440. (I believe I specifically noted which highways comprise the "inner loop".)

Again, I refer you to the cities that have successfully realized such reform.

In general, I recommend reading The Plan of Nashville . I did want to encourage a healthy dialogue; however, it seems that has been temporarily inhibited by misconception.

[franktown]

Does anyone know if there's a future for a Northern 840, so it would be a full loop. I've also heard different stories about its status as an interstate, will it be one when completed?

[Lexy]

Does anyone know if there's a future for a Northern 840, so it would be a full loop. I've also heard different stories about its status as an interstate, will it be one when completed?

It is a dead proposal. It is just not feasible, nor needed, at this time to build the northern leg of 840. I know that some communities may build their own bypasses (like Gallatin and Portland) that would eventually lend themselves to be "tied" into a future 840 highway, but no mass road construction like that on the southern portion is scheduled for the state that I know of.