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Cool Springs Lands Another


ATLBrain

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In my morning scan of news from the region, I found this in the Tennessean. Healthways is moving from Green Hills to a new HQ building in Cool Springs. Obviously, the migration hasn't ended.

I thought the reason the company will have a green space was downright funny: to encourage employees to walk. I doubt I was the only one who found this bass-ackward logic too funny to continue reading. Force all of your employees to drive for miles and miles (especially those from Wilson, Sumner, Robertson, et al) and make them get into their cars at lunchtime to go to the drive-thru at the fast food places littered all around the mall. (Not to mention that they will be contributing to traffic and poor air quality). Then the company has the gall to hope their employees use a little patch of grass. :rofl:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=25266

"You are so Nashville if you move your company's HQ to Franklin and hire Earl Swenssen to design the building."

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"You are so Nashville if you move your company's HQ to Franklin and hire Earl Swenssen to design the building."

ewww, i can't stand that guy. that could be partially because my dad is with a competing firm haha. but also because they did the batman building (sorry to those who like it, but it's not that attractive).

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The one thing I don't understand on this site is that I see alot of pro-DT and alot of anti-Cool Springs opinions. I too want to see DT nashville thrive, but I want Cool Springs to thrive too. I own property in that area and I happen to like Cool Springs. Not for its architecture or highrises, but for the fact that it has some of the higher end stores and restaurants. Why can't we have an improving DT and an improving CS? I think they're both great for the area. Let's get a Nissan HQ in CS and a ? HQ in nashville. Share the wealth.

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In my morning scan of news from the region, I found this in the Tennessean. Healthways is moving from Green Hills to a new HQ building in Cool Springs. Obviously, the migration hasn't ended.

I thought the reason the company will have a green space was downright funny: to encourage employees to walk. I doubt I was the only one who found this bass-ackward logic too funny to continue reading. Force all of your employees to drive for miles and miles (especially those from Wilson, Sumner, Robertson, et al) and make them get into their cars at lunchtime to go to the drive-thru at the fast food places littered all around the mall. (Not to mention that they will be contributing to traffic and poor air quality). Then the company has the gall to hope their employees use a little patch of grass.

The only upside to this hilarious, vomitous lie is that it demonstrates a growing public consciousness that intelligent people associate the suburbs with "being a fat ass", and consequently "Healthways" felt the need to impale itself on its own backwardsness by offering a limp fib about their intentions to move.

$100 says the CEO and his band of merry men all live out by Cool Springs, in giant styrofoam cartoons of Tuscan high-falutin' villas with the long-term prospects of a leprosy epidemic, and that is the real reason they are forcing their employees to sit on their stickshifts all the way to No Place, USA--everyday, for the rest of their oil-addicted lives. This is corporate and cultural suicide at its most Elmer Fuddish.

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The only upside to this hilarious, vomitous lie is that it demonstrates a growing public consciousness that intelligent people associate the suburbs with "being a fat ass", and consequently "Healthways" felt the need to impale itself on its own backwardsness by offering a limp fib about their intentions to move.

$100 says the CEO and his band of merry men all live out by Cool Springs, in giant styrofoam cartoons of Tuscan high-falutin' villas with the long-term prospects of a leprosy epidemic, and that is the real reason they are forcing their employees to sit on their stickshifts all the way to No Place, USA--everyday, for the rest of their oil-addicted lives. This is corporate and cultural suicide at its most Elmer Fuddish.

NT - I desperately needed a laugh this afternoon, and you provided it. Thanks a million.

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NT - I desperately needed a laugh this afternoon, and you provided it. Thanks a million.

Wow it definitely seems this board is mostly anit-suburbs. But it is correct that a company's top management's residential location tends to dictate the location of the company offices. The healthcare company's have tended to favor the burbs because many of the start-up investors etc. live in Brentwood.

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Richard and titanhog welcome to the board -

I think many on UP look at Cool Springs v. D'town as a zero sum game that requires a winner and a loser. In the case of Nissan they are wrong but in the case of Heathways they seem to be on point. A leading corporate citizen located in a close-in neighborhood is leaving for a 'burb. Taking with them workers and taxes. It is their right to do so and Nashville must do a better job of recruiting and keeping growing companies.

Richard you are correct that many times it is proximity to the market that drives the outward migration. One of my clients that specialized in PR and lobbying for the healthcare industry is looking to move from d'town to Brentwood to be closer to their customers.

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Why can't we have an improving DT and an improving CS? I think they're both great for the area. Let's get a Nissan HQ in CS and a ? HQ in nashville. Share the wealth.

Because you can't have it both ways in this country. Either your downtown suffers due to blood sucking pawns like Cool Springs, or the burb's suffer at the expense of the downtown. I would rather have the burb's suffering myself. A healthy, urban, vibrant, and growing core is far more important than some rogue suburb that gets off by thinking the metro area OWES it something. I hate Cool Springs myself. If for no other reason than the pathetic, fake, and insulting architecture and the endless miles of sprawl and stoplights. Oh and it's "winding country roads" piss me off too. LOL!!!! :shades:

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Because you can't have it both ways in this country. Either your downtown suffers due to blood sucking pawns like Cool Springs, or the burb's suffer at the expense of the downtown. I would rather have the burb's suffering myself. A healthy, urban, vibrant, and growing core is far more important than some rogue suburb that gets off by thinking the metro area OWES it something. I hate Cool Springs myself. If for no other reason than the pathetic, fake, and insulting architecture and the endless miles of sprawl and stoplights. Oh and it's "winding country roads" piss me off too. LOL!!!! :shades:

Next time try not to hold anything back so much. There's another way of looking at Cool Springs especially now that folks are more attuned to the new urbanism, or as I like to say, new suburbanism. Cool Springs has become and Edge City and it comes close to being the high density node that Cumberland Region Tomorrow is always talking about. Brentwood's focus on not having any major commercial development has basically created the green space in between Davidson County and Cool Springs. That Southern Land Development's Westhaven seems so out of place when you come up on it. But imagine what people will think in 50 years. Some of Nashville's "urban neighborhoods" are really second and third ring suburbs from decades ago.

If your really want to get into the sprawl discussion, look Mt. Juliet/Lebanon area. Class A office buildings in their gleaming sameness aren't going out there. Instead, it's massive warehouses that are nicely landscaped. State Route 840 created that.

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Richard and titanhog welcome to the board -

I think many on UP look at Cool Springs v. D'town as a zero sum game that requires a winner and a loser. In the case of Nissan they are wrong but in the case of Heathways they seem to be on point. A leading corporate citizen located in a close-in neighborhood is leaving for a 'burb. Taking with them workers and taxes. It is their right to do so and Nashville must do a better job of recruiting and keeping growing companies.

Richard you are correct that many times it is proximity to the market that drives the outward migration. One of my clients that specialized in PR and lobbying for the healthcare industry is looking to move from d'town to Brentwood to be closer to their customers.

What's interesting is that traffic in Green Hills just sucks unless you know the back way into the area. Green Hills doesn't need to decorate for the holidays, it already has a long string of red, green and yellow lights flashing a different times. And by different I mean there is one strip in Nashville where the lights are timed. Cool Springs can be just as frustrating during parts of the day, especially lunch time. Brentwood is the same way. It took me 20 minutes just to move a mile one afternoon as I tried to get out of Maryland Farms.

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It seems to me that some of you know of some Utopia that I'm not aware of. I've traveled all of over this country and have to yet to find a place I like more than the Nashville area. Not just Nashville, but the metro area. Yes...there are places with beautiful mountains or beaches, great weather, and even wonderful architecture...but as a whole...Nashville has many incredible attributes. It's metropolitan, yet rural. The people are genuinely nice. Good paying jobs can be found. It's surrounded by beauty. Compared to most, the Nashville area has alot going for it...

But some of us don't want to live in a condo DT. I rent office space near DT...I eat near DT...I buy gas near DT...I shop and go to the movies quite often in Davidson County. I also live in the suburbs. I wanted to live on a lot larger than a postage stamp. I like living "in the country", even though it is becoming less like the country. I want all the best for Nashville....I hope it grows and the DT core continues to improve. But I also love the Cool Springs area. I don't want every area to be like Cool Springs, but it's great to have a place like that in the metro area. I come on this forum because I am purely excited about the growth of the area...and I am in no way knowledgable about the nuances of architecture. Just know that some of us like the area outside of the DT core and are proud to call ourselves "Nashvillians."

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It seems to me that some of you know of some Utopia that I'm not aware of. I've traveled all of over this country and have to yet to find a place I like more than the Nashville area. Not just Nashville, but the metro area. Yes...there are places with beautiful mountains or beaches, great weather, and even wonderful architecture...but as a whole...Nashville has many incredible attributes. It's metropolitan, yet rural. The people are genuinely nice. Good paying jobs can be found. It's surrounded by beauty. Compared to most, the Nashville area has alot going for it...

But some of us don't want to live in a condo DT. I rent office space near DT...I eat near DT...I buy gas near DT...I shop and go to the movies quite often in Davidson County. I also live in the suburbs. I wanted to live on a lot larger than a postage stamp. I like living "in the country", even though it is becoming less like the country. I want all the best for Nashville....I hope it grows and the DT core continues to improve. But I also love the Cool Springs area. I don't want every area to be like Cool Springs, but it's great to have a place like that in the metro area. I come on this forum because I am purely excited about the growth of the area...and I am in no way knowledgable about the nuances of architecture. Just know that some of us like the area outside of the DT core and are proud to call ourselves "Nashvillians."

well said. i do share you love of the area also. one thing that worries me though is what happened to atlanta. i think that this is what most of us here at the forum are afraid of. we don't want to see traffic for miles and miles. i for one don't want to see certain areas to separate itself from the city and become less personable to the city as a whole. nashville is known to be a friendly city, and if we keep having people leave the downtown core, than we might slowly lose that.

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Next time try not to hold anything back so much. There's another way of looking at Cool Springs especially now that folks are more attuned to the new urbanism, or as I like to say, new suburbanism. Cool Springs has become and Edge City and it comes close to being the high density node that Cumberland Region Tomorrow is always talking about. Brentwood's focus on not having any major commercial development has basically created the green space in between Davidson County and Cool Springs. That Southern Land Development's Westhaven seems so out of place when you come up on it. But imagine what people will think in 50 years. Some of Nashville's "urban neighborhoods" are really second and third ring suburbs from decades ago.

Um...in 50 years people will wonder how a nation full of relatively well-educated people could produce systems of living which require a 24/7 intravenous supply of imported petroleum to function even at a halting minimum. Then they will probably shrug and get back to manual beet farming in the post-Energy Crisis agricultural wasteland that Cool Springs will become once gasoline hits $10 per gallon. Which it will.

The common post-professional anti-New Urbanism argument--which can only connect the dots between Seaside and Cool Springs with cynicism and simplified thinking--is only as compelling as the "better idea" which has not yet materialized. A walkable, mixed-use community made of durable materials and built on a grid is inherently more efficient and livable than the cul-de-sac, arterial-road, single-use, foam-core obesity farms which Cool Springs and its countless clones represent. The ceaseless motoring, and the erection of a "public" realm which is truly nothing more than an ethereal medium through which one passes--as a spaceship passes through a nebulous dust-cloud--represents a significant enough shift from the (also stupid) Green Hills suburb that they are not even comparable. For one, Green Hills can be saved. The H. G. Hill Center is already on the way. Cool Springs is *screwed*.

Maybe the real reason Healthways moved out to the tenth-ring suburbs is that all the resident motorists are committed to expensive open-heart surgery after living sedentary, machine-dependent lives as the soft gooey innards of gas-chugging prosthetic "shells". Either that, or the company wants to take advantage of the countless less-than-successful suicide attempts the region is bound to produce once gasoline prices go high enough up as to render those McHouses worthless, and mother's role switches from perpetual chauffer to marooned (and possibly abandoned) lunatic, with nothing but junior's PlayStation to fill the hours between Fox News Gas Price Editorials, while the electricity flickers on...and then off again.

Healthways made a stupid decision.

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I have no problem with Cool Springs developing. I have a problem with how they develope. It is very spread out and wastes a huge amount of space. I don't have much of a problem with the architecture or other aspects of the buildings, it's the huge parking lots, winding main roads, and wavy sidewalks that bother me. I would rather see a more efficient use of space in Cool Springs so that not so much land is torn apart by spread out development. I find new housing and commercial developments to be unattractive and detremental to the landscape. I want to see more compact urban design. Williamson county is beautiful, but I'm finding that a lot of my favorite spots are becoming over-run with this type of development. :(

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Ah New Towner where have you been keeping your alarmist self? Even the most hypothetical worst case models do not show $10/gallon. At around the $4-$6 dollar models show governments dialing back oppressive taxes and usage plummeting. Alternative fuels become competitive and R&D picks up into Hydrogen and coal gasification. Really only another world war (traditional/mechanized) could produce such a long-term spike by artificially constraining supply.

As for "obesity farms" it seems that modern society in general has more to do with that trend. This table from the American Obesity Associations details:

Table 1. The impact of modern society on increased inactivity

Location/Type of Activity Effect of Modernization Impact on Obesity

Transportation Rise in car ownership

Increase in driving shorter distances

Decrease in walking or cycling

At Home Increase of modern appliances

Increase in processed foods

Increase in consumption of convenience foods

Increase in television viewing, and computer and video game use

Decrease in manual labor

Decrease in active recreational time

In the Work Place Increase in sedentary occupations due to technology

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I had NewTowner on modpreview for two weeks, but he is now off able to post freely again. I will ask that all previous issues be forgotten and a new page started in regards to NT, he has agreed to be less inciteful in the future, so I will ask everyone not to goad him. He really is trying to stay out of trouble and has been willing to work with me to do so.

I think thats fair a request in light of his efforts.

Thanks everyone. :)

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I had NewTowner on modpreview for two weeks, but he is now off able to post freely again. I will ask that all previous issues be forgotten and a new page started in regards to NT, he has agreed to be less inciteful in the future, so I will ask everyone not to goad him. He really is trying to stay out of trouble and has been willing to work with me to do so.

I think thats fair a request in light of his efforts.

Thanks everyone. :)

RK, you're a very nice guy, but sometimes you treat us as though we're your very special kindergarten class.

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RK, you're a very nice guy, but sometimes you treat us as though we're your very special kindergarten class.

With all due respect to you RK, I have to agree. You have got to understand that the antics with NT on here is truely all in good fun. I, too, get the feeling on here sometimes that I am being watched 24/7. It makes for a very uncomfortable feeling when posting and quite honestly, I am 26 years old. I think I can mind my P & Q's well enough. Ease up a bit. A good moderator is one that you never know is there (not that you are a bad one). They do their job and nothing is made about it.

New Towner, while incitful as you call it, is a contributer and does offer up a very entertaining and inspiring view point on here. He is a fine person that means well I am sure. I doubt he needs to be slapped on the wrist like it sounds has happened. Let him post, and if he threatens someone with bodily harm or starts cursing like a sailer...then deal with him. Otherwise, he is fine with what he does. And I am fine with it.

My apoligies if this seemed brash and all. I certainly mean nothing personal about it. But I get a little preterved by the "over" moderation on this particular board at times. I am not asking for it to be as open as SSP, but a little ground to move on would be nice.

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What can I say I try to be fair, and thats the best I can do. I have rules and guidelines I have to enforce, but I try to give you all as much leeway as possible. Note I do not lock threads for not being formatted properly, for being in the wrong forums, etc other mods do, rather I allow posters to fix formatting, I move threads for folks, etc. I also give posters all sorts of leeway, when I could just suspend them, ban, or otherwise moderate them. I don't think some folks realize how much I do try to keep a real 24/7 big brother atmosphere from developing. The whole UP site gets criticized for what some folks have issues with, its not just this forum.

As for NT he asked for me address what he perceived as goading. Being fair to him I did.

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RK

Did I goad him? I thought I was responding to his comments? There were no personal attacks I was only trying to question his hyperbole.

Nonetheless you are The Mod and I know you have a hard job that is underappreciated so no problem I will try to tone it down.

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I have no problem with Cool Springs developing. I have a problem with how they develope. It is very spread out and wastes a huge amount of space. I don't have much of a problem with the architecture or other aspects of the buildings, it's the huge parking lots, winding main roads, and wavy sidewalks that bother me. I would rather see a more efficient use of space in Cool Springs so that not so much land is torn apart by spread out development. I find new housing and commercial developments to be unattractive and detremental to the landscape. I want to see more compact urban design. Williamson county is beautiful, but I'm finding that a lot of my favorite spots are becoming over-run with this type of development. :(

As long as people are willing to shop, live and work in the suburbs, they will continue to exist. It is a form of freedom to make that choice. I presonally don't agree with it but I'm not going to stop anyone who wants to live that way. One way of discouraging such development is to quit widening the interstates and adding interchanges. The roadbuilders would hate that but then maybe they could transition into being mass transit builders. Imagine what you'd have if the money spent to build 840, widen 40, 24 and 65 was spent on a commuter rail. Has anyone been to Portland lately? The city has a very coordinated mass transit system. Commuter rail that connects to an efficient bus system and street car system. Topography helps encourage that but still, the city put into a place a growth circle around the city to prevent further development up the hills around Portland.

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As long as people are willing to shop, live and work in the suburbs, they will continue to exist. It is a form of freedom to make that choice. I presonally don't agree with it but I'm not going to stop anyone who wants to live that way. One way of discouraging such development is to quit widening the interstates and adding interchanges. The roadbuilders would hate that but then maybe they could transition into being mass transit builders. Imagine what you'd have if the money spent to build 840, widen 40, 24 and 65 was spent on a commuter rail. Has anyone been to Portland lately? The city has a very coordinated mass transit system. Commuter rail that connects to an efficient bus system and street car system. Topography helps encourage that but still, the city put into a place a growth circle around the city to prevent further development up the hills around Portland.

Totally agree. No one could ask for a more reasonable statement than this, without being rude and unreasonable.

One thing, though: you said that as long as people are "willing" to blah blah in the suburbs, the suburbs will continue to exist. You are leaving out an increasingly likely contingency--what happens when people are willing, but not able? Americans need to be a little more honest with themselves and each other about the sustainability of an oil addiction that makes a heroine craving look like a hankerin' for Girl Scout Cookies.

But I still think your post rocks.

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