Nashville Bits and Pieces

[BnaBreaker]

38 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

Charlotte is a beautiful city. One complaint I have heard is actually related to your compliment @GreenHillsBoy... everything is brand new and shiny and the city's history has been demo'd and lost. Don't know enough about the city to agree or disagree, just what I have heard. 

That's my impression too from past visits.  It's a lovely, clean city, but very lacking in architectural diversity and character, which is why I'd agree with @GreenHillsBoy that their skyscraper architecture is superior, but not their architecture overall.  I will fully admit though that that is a bit of a below the belt criticism since Charlotte had that diversity in the past, but was an even bigger victim of the urban renewal era than we were.  Plus, there are other areas that they are objectively superior, such as their mass transit system.  

[KJHburg]

Downtown Nashville has for sure preserved more of their historical buildings than uptown Charlotte.  In the face of rapid growth you better keep an eye on every historical building downtown.  Charlotte in late 1960s cleared a huge slum at the time but that took some historical buildings but more buildings were torn down just because they needed the land for high rises without a thought to preservation.  That being all said we  do have some historical buildings uptown they are just buried in an our skyline  Here are a couple of examples and now a vacant 1930s hotel is being preserved and renovated..  Charlotte has done a much better job of preserving historical homes in neighborhoods around the city center and we have preserved many of our old textile mills and several projects are underway now.  1.  First Tryon Plaza built in 1926 completely surrounded by taller buildings.  2. Iveys department store building 1920s converted to condos and a boutique hotel.  3. Latta Arcade again sandwiched in between high rises. Retail office gallery formerly a cotton brokers building built in 1914.

Our newer taller buildings dominate the skyline so these gems get lost.   As a fast growing city as Nashville is you need to keep a watch on your older buildings or someone will pop up and plan something bigger and taller on them. 

Edited June 20, 2018 by KJHburg

[BnaBreaker]

^Very nice... I hope those never get replaced, especially the Latta Arcade!  What a gem!

[nashvylle]

Charlotte is just an incredibly clean city. Even the historical buildings that were preserved don’t look historical. 

 

[grilled_cheese]

Metro passes substitute budget with no property tax increase and no raises for city employees.

[samsonh]

2 hours ago, grilled_cheese said:

Metro passes substitute budget with no property tax increase and no raises for city employees.

Next year's budget will be higher. One lean year and then back to normal. Reappraisals need to be done better next time. It is important to vote in these smaller elections for positions(property assessor) that no one really cares about for this exact reason. 

[GreenHillsBoy]

1 hour ago, samsonh said:

Next year's budget will be higher. One lean year and then back to normal. Reappraisals need to be done better next time. It is important to vote in these smaller elections for positions(property assessor) that no one really cares about for this exact reason. 

Couldn't agree more, it seems that almost everyone that challenged the assessment won the challenge and their assessments were lowered substantially.  I have no idea how or who allowed this, but it needs to be looked into and someone held accountable.   We do also need to STOP the payments to former council members who lobby, Jerry Maynard for General Hospital for one.  

[nashvylle]

52 minutes ago, GreenHillsBoy said:

Couldn't agree more, it seems that almost everyone that challenged the assessment won the challenge and their assessments were lowered substantially.  I have no idea how or who allowed this, but it needs to be looked into and someone held accountable.   We do also need to STOP the payments to former council members who lobby, Jerry Maynard for General Hospital for one.  

I believe all the the reappraisals were for large multifamily buildings (meaning wealthy developers paying for lower assessment) as opposed to individual residences.

IMO, our property taxes should be raised while still maintaining the lowest rate in the state. 

[Hey_Hey]

It wasn’t the reappraisals that were the problem.  It was appeals.  Currently, metro reappraises everything and then adjusts the rate downward to keep revenue neutral year over year. After that happens, the appeals are heard and revenue drops. What they should do is to reappraise everything, allow the appeals to happen then, and then set the property rates. That would be a more predictable way to judge the amount of revenue coming in.

[samsonh]

2 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

It wasn’t the reappraisals that were the problem.  It was appeals.  Currently, metro reappraises everything and then adjusts the rate downward to keep revenue neutral year over year. After that happens, the appeals are heard and revenue drops. What they should do is to reappraise everything, allow the appeals to happen then, and then set the property rates. That would be a more predictable way to judge the amount of revenue coming in.

Completely agreed.

[nashvylle]

4 hours ago, Hey_Hey said:

It wasn’t the reappraisals that were the problem.  It was appeals.  Currently, metro reappraises everything and then adjusts the rate downward to keep revenue neutral year over year. After that happens, the appeals are heard and revenue drops. What they should do is to reappraise everything, allow the appeals to happen then, and then set the property rates. That would be a more predictable way to judge the amount of revenue coming in.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but how can metro expect to increase revenues year over year if they adjust rates down to keep revenue neutral? 

Edited June 20, 2018 by nashvylle

[samsonh]

54 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but how can metro expect to increase revenues year over year if they adjust rates down to keep revenue neutral? 

New properties are built and existing properties are sold.

[Hey_Hey]

23 hours ago, nashvylle said:

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but how can metro expect to increase revenues year over year if they adjust rates down to keep revenue neutral? 

In an effort to keep tax revenues stead and predictable, the state has mandated that counties collect the same gross amount of money from existing structures before and after a reassessment has taken place.  The reason for this is that there tends to be a boom/bust cycle with housing values.  If it weren't kept steady over time, for 5 years a city/county may be flush with cash because housing prices have skyrocketed but then the next five years their revenue may be down 25% because of a housing market correction.  That makes planning for governments very difficulty. 

What that means is that the entire county will reassess all the properties inside county as to their actual value in a reassessment year.  They will then calculate the average percentage increase or decrease across the entire county.  Now that they have the actual values of all the properties in the county and the average increase/decrease of a property in the county, they will adjust the tax rate down (if the market is up) or adjust the tax rate up (if the market is down) so that gross tax receipts are the same year over year.  Because of this, a house can actually increase in value and see a decrease in taxes. In order to see an increased tax bill after a reassessment, a property would have to have appreciated faster than the county as a whole (think 12South, Edgehill, Lockeland Springs).  If an area appreciates more slowly than the average then they will actually see a tax decrease (think Forest Hills, Bellevue, West Meade). For Nashville's 

An example:

Tiny County has 999 houses (333 in the north, 333 in the middle, and 333 in the south).  The average value of the houses in the county from the 2013 reappraisal was $100,000 and resulted in total receipts of $999,000 ($1000 per house) because the tax rate is 1% of total value.  In 2016 the areas had seen impressive growth and the average house price increased by 25%.  No new houses were built and no houses were added onto. Now the average house value is $125,000, but the county will still be able to only collect $999,000.  Therefore, they have to adjust the rate lower in order to keep revenues flat. The new rate would be 0.8% of total value $125,000 x 0.8% = $1000; $1000 x 999 houses = $999,000.  While the average county increase was 25%, the houses in the north did not increase at all because of toxic fumes from an oil refinery that had been built. The average tax bill went from $1000 to $800. In the middle, the houses increased an average of 25%, so the average value is now $125,000 and they continue to pay $1000 per year.  In the north, the houses increased a whopping 50% because Amazon opened HQ0.1 there. The average value of a house in the South is now $150,000 and they pay an average of $1200 per year.  

As time goes on, the county commission realizes that they need to raise more tax revenue to upgrade the schools. Despite a rise in property values, the total amount collected has remained flat because of the state law that mandates flat revenue levels. In order to raise additional money, they determine they need to raise the rate back to 1% of total value so that they can increase revenues again.  That will raise total revenues by 20%, with those in the north paying an average of $1000 (1% x $100,000), those in the middle paying an average of $1250 ($125,000 x 1%) and those in the South paying $1500 ($150,000 x 1%). 

22 hours ago, samsonh said:

New properties are built and existing properties are sold.

Tax revenues are added to the total collected when new properties are built or when existing properties have a building permit pulled for an addition.  The sale of a house does not yield a reassessment or increased taxes until the next regularly scheduled reassessment period. 

[grilled_cheese]

I'm glad that's not confusing at all.

[Nathan_in_DC]

Spent my first weekend in London after moving to the UK. I spent a couple days here last year but this is the first time I've really been able to dig in to the city and explore. I'm consistently impressed with the transit system, as the busses, Underground, and intercity rail is amazing (on the train back to the Midlands now, as a matter of fact). The museums, architecture, and culture are second to none, too, even compared to DC. The museums are kind of spread out across the city it seems, unlike our own capital, but this adds to the charm a bit. Drawbacks are the lack of any semblance of a grid system, no air conditioning on transit, and gaggle of tourists. This sounds bad, but little ruins an experience of quietly contemplating a sculpture, historic site, or painting more than a tour bus offloading 100 loud Chinese tourists and their yelling guide. The locals I spoke to really get annoyed by them, since groups that big completely dominate wherever they are and they rarely spend money in the local economy. 

One other big hit on London is any building built in the last 40 years it seems. So much of it is either brutally Orwellian or just obnoxious. A prime example being the Shard, which I snapped a picture of while waiting on the train at London Bridge Station. At least one of these monstrosities hasn't really made an appearance in Nashville yet! 

Edited July 1, 2018 by Nathan_in_DC
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[titanhog]

14 minutes ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

One other big hit on London is any building built in the last 40 years it seems. So much of it is either brutally Orwellian or just obnoxious. A prime example being the Shard, which I snapped a picture of while waiting on the train at London Bridge Station. At least one of these monstrosities hasn't really made an appearance in Nashville yet! 

Maybe they should have named it The Shart? 

[MLBrumby]

Great summation of my favorite city. And I completely agree with your assessment of the new buildings there. Very disappointing... I haven't been to Shanghai, but the photos I've seen show also similarly ugly new architecture. Yes to Nashville, or Chattanooga not yet getting those "monstrosities", although I've seen 1 or 2 in some of our peer cities (not naming). I know ATT ("Batman") is beloved in Nashville, but I only like it from 1 angle (the pointed sides).  The broadside view (IMHO) is gimmicky and cheats on height. 

London is a city to wander. I actually like that it does not have a grid... and use the Thames to get my bearings. My most recent trip there was a week spent (quasi on business... and quasi to take our kids with us). Everyday, we walked 8-10 miles (no JOKE) and of course were exhausted. We stayed at the Crown Plaza near Blackfriars (thank you Amex points!) in the middle of everything. So we walked and walked and walked. I imagine if you live there, you'd become very aware of the distance pretty quickly, but as tourists we were too busy looking at the sites to even notice. 

The museums are spread out, and even in odd ways sort of "tucked" away from the major thoroughfares. I recall thinking the British Museum seemed off the beaten path. And I too was annoyed by the tourists. One woman from Japan by way of Belgium even harassed me because the Brits never returned the Elgin Marbles. I politely told her THREE TIMES that I'm not British. But she was obsessed. The guard at the door had to come over and ask her to stop harassing the visitors. Still love the place; but so glad I don't live there. 

 

[Guest]

The thames is an easy guide, at lest on the west side. One of our best adventures in London was taking the family on a walkabout from Richmond to Westminster along theThames footpath. The path led us through the idyllic enclaves and, ancient pubs, rowing clubs, breweries, bustling Chelsea and Fulham, and finally Westminster.

[titanhog]

Sorry if already posted...but Nokian Tyres (Finland) is moving its North American HQ here (after building a huge new plant in Dayton, TN).  Behind paywall.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/07/02/tire-company-hq-rolls-into-nashville-to-keep-tabs.html

[bigeasy]

I wonder if that is because we kept Bridgestone in town? I think they own almost 20% of Nokian.  

So we will now have Bridgestone, Hankook, and Nokian.  Are there other tire (tyre) companies in town?

[volsfanwill]

I just returned from London. it was my first visit.  I did a lot of walking and used the subway a lot.  I am great with directions. but if it had not been for google maps i would have gotten lost constantly.  I did get the feeling that the locals didn't mind tourists like us.  (a couple) or in family groups, but it was obvious they didn't care for the big groups on buses.  those annoyed me too. 

[markhollin]

Dell technology company is adding 225 new employees to its Nashville campus this year as more companies are upgrading technology equipment. The company has hired 75 people since January and plans to add more than 150 new inside sales professionals in 2018. The company has 1,600 Nashville employees.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/07/02/dell-grows-nashville-office-225-employees/751293002/

[dmillsphoto]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Dell technology company is adding 225 new employees to its Nashville campus this year as more companies are upgrading technology equipment. The company has hired 75 people since January and plans to add more than 150 new inside sales professionals in 2018. The company has 1,600 Nashville employees.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/07/02/dell-grows-nashville-office-225-employees/751293002/

Speaking of which... if anyone needs a job... shoot me a pm...

[Pdt2f]

12 hours ago, titanhog said:

Sorry if already posted...but Nokian Tyres (Finland) is moving its North American HQ here (after building a huge new plant in Dayton, TN).  Behind paywall.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/07/02/tire-company-hq-rolls-into-nashville-to-keep-tabs.html

I don’t have a subscription, does it say anywhere how many employees they will have at their HQ? Any hint about where they might be looking for the office space?

[markhollin]

^ ^ ^ A total of 1,600 employees in Nashville at this moment.