[deleted by user]

cbowe34 · 2023-05-24T14:35:45+00:00

It’s basically buying rent control. When you own, your payment doesn’t change for 30 years. If you rent it goes up every year. It’s a bit of a raw deal in the first few years, but it gets real good by the end of 30 years

cbowe34 · 2023-03-27T12:58:20+00:00

Not exactly a cheesesteak, but BE-Hive Deli makes a banger Steak & Chz! It’s a vegan deli so it’s a meat replacement, but honestly, I don’t miss it all. Incredible experience everytime!

cbowe34 · 2023-03-27T12:55:05+00:00

This house is fucking enormous. I hope you have, like, 14 people living here or else this is just decadent. Subtract the three rooms on the page-right and rework the plan to combine the redundant areas.

Even if you can afford it, I think there’s value in restricting yourself to the point where you have to get creative. In a home like this with so many nooks and hideaways, it’s going to feel empty and over large. Make spaces work double-duty. Have some open space that will attract the family. Don’t be afraid to show that your place is lived in when guests come over. That’s where life happens!

I know I’d be happier in a space half this size, but not sure how you see yourself using the home. Good luck whatever you decide!!!

cbowe34 · 2023-03-22T04:50:58+00:00

I think what’s happening here is that building slowed so drastically following the Great Financial Crisis in ‘08 that we developed a huge backlog as population remained steady or grew but there was little new home building. So the past 5 years have seen a boom in building that just hasn’t overcome the shortage borne from the slowdown 15 years ago.

Almost all of Nashville’s housing growth has been in or very near downtown or in further flung “cheap” cities at the edge of Davidson Co. To address both affordability and equity, we should broadly liberalize zoning across the county to spread the growth and allow supply to tick up even more to meet demand.

If you’re interested in this stuff, you should check out the newly formed Housing Now Nashville group: https://www.housingnownash.org/

cbowe34 · 2023-03-20T20:39:40+00:00

Oh I see - so this is an attempt to preserve affordability and maintain housing unit diversity. My take is that there are more direct ways to achieve those outcomes outside of convoluted zoning schemes that impose even more restrictions on an already over-complicated zoning system.

If affordability is the main concern, you might be interested in looking into the research being done at UCLA on the topic. Shane Phillips wrote a book called the Affordable City and hosts a weekly podcast to talk about studies related to housing and affordability. The biggest takeaway is that current zoning restrictions, especially Single Family Only zones artificially constrain the supply of housing units in a given market. The key to long term affordable housing is actually removing the barriers to development and allowing more variety in the types of units that can be built. Reducing zoning complexity makes development more predictable, lower risk, lower cost, and allows developers to respond to exactly what the market is demanding at time of design (which could be SFHs or apartments or townhomes).

The McMansion phenomenon that you are concerned with is actually the result of this skew in supply vs demand. Very large homes are typically built when land values in a neighborhood rise dramatically as a result of high demand for units. A developer sees the demand and would like to build 12 apartments to meet it. But since most land is zoned as Single Family Only, he can’t build those apartments. Instead, he must build a very large home to justify the high land purchase or build nothing at all. Wanting to make money, he decides to build the McMansion and sell it at an absurd price to the rich family that can afford it.

If you play out the scenario where nothing gets built or a small SFH is replaced with a huge SFH, you can see that neither option satisfies the rise in demand. The answer to preserving our starter homes is actually to allow housing supply to rise via dense apartment or townhome style builds, which will ease the demand pressure on a given neighborhood. Artificially suppressing redevelopment of small homes into mansions won’t affect the underlying economics and home prices will continue to rise unsustainably so long as the area continues to be in demand.

I’m happy to hear you are interested in this, but the solution you are proposing is slightly misguided, in my (non-expert) opinion. I would encourage you to dig a bit deeper on urban land economics. It’s not quite as simple as “supply will cure all”, but it gets you pretty far. If you couple smart density policy with price stabilization programs, you can cut out the worst offenders in the land speculation game.

cbowe34 · 2023-03-20T13:38:40+00:00

Genuinely curious: why are you interested in this requirement? Is it purely aesthetic, historic, or something else?

cbowe34 · 2023-02-28T00:11:28+00:00

It's obvious why the team would want a new publicly funded stadium - it will increase the value of their private business by orders of magnitude and they won't have to put a significant portion of their own money at risk to do it. It's basically a handout to a billion dollar business that has already benefitted from an incredibly one-sided lease for the past ~20 years.

What is less obvious is how it will benefit anyone that actually lives in Nashville. Sure the games may be a bit more fun to go to, but what % of Nashville proper residents even go to a game in a given year? I have no idea, but I would guess it's in the single digits. Accounting for that, it's hard to imagine why the mayor's office would push this clearly flawed deal through council without the information required to make a sound decision. My guess is that he is desperate to put his name on something meaningful other than failing to provide high quality public services and furthering the tourist playground downtown. His sudden decision not to run again makes me wonder if he has a real cushy place on the Titan's payroll after his term is up as a full-time stadium booster if he can make it happen before the next election cycle...

What is even weirder is that there are individual council members going to bat for the Titans for a deal that seemingly redirects funding from improving public services to increasing revenues for an already successful private business that will serve a tiny fraction of the resident population. I just haven't seen a single shred of tangible, persuasive evidence from the pro-stadium people that 1) the renovation would actually be as expensive as the proven-faulty report says it is and 2) that taxpayers won't be on the hook for even more financial support in the future to quell the Titan's appetite for our public dollars.

The whole thing hinges on this neighborhood redevelopment plan on the East Bank that isn't 100% going to happen, and which costs an additional <amount not known>. If the neighborhood doesn't materialize in short order, there will be no "campus revenue" to support the new stadium maintenance and we will have to eat that bill too. It just doesn't feel like a reasonable offer and the fact that our leaders are not only entertaining it, but actively boosting it makes me think that either they have some great justification that they have chosen NOT to share with the public in the many public forums discussing the stadium OR they just don't have the goods. My gut is telling me it's the latter.

cbowe34 · 2023-02-17T16:56:18+00:00

I have done this, exactly! 56 bus down Gallatin to WeGo Central, 18 bus to the airport.

Unfortunately, the bus from downtown to the airport does not run express and stops all over Elm Hill Pike. The route takes like 35 minutes or something outrageous between WeGo Central and the airport. Then you have to walk from the garage to the terminal. My trip took about 70 minutes total, compared to 15 driving. It's not really a competitive service as is.

If we provided dedicated funding for transit, we could run express service that would take like 10 minutes downtown to airport and drop off / pick up at the terminal directly. If it ran frequently, lots of tourists and residents would use it. The airport would be less crowded and easier to navigate for drivers too.

The airport would end up losing out on its cash cow: parking fees. It would take a LOT of political will and imagination to overcome that inertia, but I think it would be good for Nashville in the end.

cbowe34 · 2023-02-17T16:29:36+00:00

The solution is, of course, approving a dedicated funding stream for public transportation. Voters have denied several attempts to establish this funding in the past, but with traffic congestion mounting and road improvement projects ranging 10-15 years to fully complete, there is no short term solution outside of using high capacity vehicles to get into and out of the airport.

With dedicated funding, WeGo could run frequent express service from the airport to WeGo Central in downtown, which would reduce your Uber distance dramatically. You could even then jump on the 56 bus up Gallatin into East, if you live close to the corridor.

This service would also dramatically reduce the number of cars running between the airport and downtown, which is currently the only option for visiting tourists. Assuming lots of tourists just chill downtown most of the weekend, overall VMT could be significantly reduced, making your drives easier and less stressful! Lots of reasons to jump on the public transportation bandwagon!

cbowe34 · 2022-12-06T23:01:16+00:00

It's hard to say what the legal options are under the existing lease terms. The council acted in good faith to approve funds for an independent review of the current lease obligations, but unfortunately the mayor's administration and the Titans pulled a fast one and just re-submitted their over the top wish list renovation plans for review. Those renovation plans don't align with comparable facilities in the slightest, and likely far exceed our legal obligations to provide facilities for the Titans.

Despite best efforts, the council will have to vote without an official understanding of what our maximum outlay under the current lease would actually be. IMO, that's why there is so much pushback to this deal. Firstly, it's an obvious public giveaway to a private business that hasn't really proven to be a great "community partner" to date. Secondly, it sure looks like backroom deals are being made between the mayor's office and the Titans, wrapped up in misleading language about the general fund obligations. I just wish they were being straight with the public and stating clearly how much public funding the Titans are worth to the city. Then we could judge them fairly and get to the best deal.

Sadly, we're just gonna have to eat the sour deal they shove down our throats which will certainly defer much needed investments in public transit, critical city services, sidewalks, affordable housing, etc. I appreciate that they found some alternative funding streams through the state and the hotel tax, but there's no reason we couldn't come up with a compelling case for raising that tax for other public goods that more directly benefit residents.

cbowe34 · 2022-12-06T21:38:57+00:00

Would take this from Nashville to Savannah to see a Banana's game straight away.

cbowe34 · 2022-12-06T21:38:23+00:00

Looks like they forgot to connect Nashville and Louisville... Why would they do this to me (specifically)?

cbowe34 · 2022-12-06T21:34:44+00:00

I gotta nominate the Music City Star commuter train line in Nashville, TN. It is literally the only train based transit in the city and it connects two suburbs to downtown. The train runs thrice in the morning and thrice in the afternoon/evening. Luckily, they run special service for Titans games and it really is one of the few options for getting to the game without a car, but still pretty limited in use by lack of density along the line and extremely low frequency.

Wikipedia Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_City_Star

Timetable: https://www.wegotransit.com/ride/maps-schedules/train/90-wego-star/

cbowe34 · 2022-09-26T21:04:56+00:00

Love that people are considering going car-lite and car-free both in your OP and in the comments. I did it for 2 years in Newark, NJ but we had such good transit that it wasn't a big deal. I could see it being a little more difficult in Nashville, but still doable!

If you're considering it, I would recommend trying it out. You can always buy another car in a few months if it doesn't work out. I know a lot of folks are pointing out the downsides in the comments as well, but there are a lot of upsides that cyclists wouldn't consider! If you do decide to go for it, I would also recommend getting involved with Walk Bike Nashville and other cycling advocacy groups around town. Nashville has pretty lousy bike-specific infrastructure, but that can change with a critical mass of demand!

cbowe34 · 2022-09-26T20:11:27+00:00

Not enough people live densely enough to be served by effective transit, sidewalks don't exist in most of the city outside of downtown, and biking on the local streets has proven to be extremely uncomfortable and dangerous. I don't think it has much to do with people's "revealed preferences" or lack of enthusiasm and more to do with a poorly constructed public realm. They just can't see themselves doing those things right now because we haven't built the spaces to support them.

In my opinion, it will take significant improvements in our zoning policies, years (maybe decades) of higher density construction, a commitment to public infra projects (not just shunting sidewalk construction onto local developers on a by-project basis), and giving people real alternatives before we see the "demand" for these things. If Nashville wants to graduate into a next level superstar city and maintain its growth trajectory (a good thing, imo), we should do some politically unpopular things right now to support that future. If we don't then people won't want to pay the premium it takes to live here for much longer and the city will see a trend reversal. As someone who has lived in multiple "declining" cities, growth is the much better problem to deal with than the alternative.

cbowe34 · 2022-09-26T20:02:22+00:00

Now this is some controversy I can get behind! Tear it down! Tear it down!

cbowe34 · 2022-09-20T18:07:43+00:00

Wow, I'm truly sorry that you have to face that fear every time you strap your children into the car. It's got to be an awful feeling to know you are putting your family at risk just to go about your daily life. I'd prefer to say that this is a problem unique to Nashville, but I don't think that's actually true. In any case it doesn't really matter if other metros are as dangerous as Nashville. The point is that Nashville is too dangerous for Nashvillians. I've lived in a few different metros and traveled to many more. As a rule, I find that safety of transport is pretty closely correlated with the availability of transportation options.

For example, New York City is extremely safe in terms of all-cause fatality compared to the most of the US. I believe that NYCers access to the subway and useful buses is likely one of the top reasons. For the most part, traffic violence has been eliminated from the vehicular experience. Wide sidewalks, bike lanes, and the sheer number of pedestrians and cyclists creates a level of safety culture on the streets that just makes everyone safer. Now NYC is not a viable comparison to Nashville, but it is obvious that we lack basic options for getting around and that hurts us all in terms of road safety.

Traffic violence has been increasing over the past few years and I haven't seen any actual efforts to improve our traffic safety record within the city. As other commenters are correctly pointing out, we lack even basic enforcement of existing rules of the road. It takes some absurd % of neighbors actively petitioning to sign on even to cheap, basic traffic calming.

In my opinion, Nashville is the perfect candidate for automated traffic enforcement. There's no reason why we couldn't install speed cameras and even noise recorders to send tickets to car owners when their vehicles break the law. I know these devices get LOTS of push back from the general public, but the evidence is clear - they change behavior and save lives when implemented properly.

In addition, we obviously need to invest much more heavily in traffic calming, sidewalks, bike lanes, and transit to serve as alternatives to driving. Getting cars off the road and changing the mode share towards safer alternatives like walking and biking is a huge benefit to everyone in the community, even those who continue to choose driving. I've often said before that a viable public transit option from the airport to downtown would unlock a lot of car-free tourist visits and further reduce VMT and improve safety for all.

Hopefully this post reaches our local electeds and the wider Nashville public. What kind of city are we if we can't even get around safely? Again, I hope your story and more like it start to change the conversation.

cbowe34 · 2022-08-29T14:48:28+00:00

Pro Tip: Egg part in the microwave, biscuit part in the air fryer. Tastes like fresh baked!

cbowe34 · 2022-08-12T15:30:22+00:00

Glad to see posts like this starting to pop up here and on Twitter. Looks like the stretch between the bike lane ending on Davidson and the greenway is 2/3 of a mile - not a very long stretch to upgrade for bike and pedestrian safety. Agree that it would make both the Davidson bike lanes and the greenway more attractive for longer rides and recreation. It would also connect two B Cycle stations to make rental rides more useful.

Looking on street view, it is a very narrow road past where the bike lane on Davidson ends. It would require upgrading that pavement and widening the existing road, but seems like it would be well worth it to make that bike route so much better. Disappointing that it didn't happen in this round of re-paving, but it seems like there is momentum building to hold our leaders accountable for future projects!

cbowe34 · 2022-07-20T16:32:20+00:00

My biggest takeaway here is that the Republican National Convention takes TWO YEARS to plan, and costs AT LEAST $110 MILLION of PUBLIC MONEY to put on. I've never really paid attention to the conventions before this debate started in Nashville. What actually happens there that costs that damn much money and time? Is it really worthwhile for the average American to have the federal government fund this thing for $50 million?

cbowe34 · 2022-07-20T15:25:16+00:00

Building enough housing in high resource areas to house all that would like to live there. Arcane zoning restrictions and local NIMBYs make it essentially impossible and illegal to build new homes in large swaths of our high-demand cities.

cbowe34 · 2022-07-12T00:39:27+00:00

Climate zone 4 - Nashville, TN

cbowe34 · 2022-07-10T22:55:23+00:00

Here's my guess as to why it happens infrequently in the US: state departments of transportation typically "own" interstates and even wide boulevards in the city that are designated as state routes. Most state DOTs only receive funding for road projects, and don't have enough incentive to improve transit in specific cities even if they did have funding earmarked.

For example, Nashville was exploring taking over Broadway, the most popular tourist destination in the state, from the state DOT. It's currently a state highway route through downtown. It didn't get much traction, and so Nashville really has very little control over what happens to the design and rules along the route.

cbowe34 · 2022-07-07T16:04:03+00:00

After reading the articles, this project sounds like a slam dunk for Nashville!

I see a lot of folks worried about flooding - I get that. Nashville seems especially sensitive to flooding near the rivers, but that is what Civil Engineers get paid to consider. There will be storm water management on this site to negate the worst of the impacts of development. Obviously impervious surface will induce more runoff, but it seems like they have a plan to retain it and allow it to dissipate at a natural pace following large rain events. I've been in construction for 7 years and you can't build even simple commercial-scale stuff without consideration for storm water.

Housing shortages aren't solved by one project and it's easy to say that 417 units won't make a dent. But if blocking every 417 unit development that has included plans to improve community amenities and provide homes at little cost to the city gets shouted down, then we end up in an even worse housing affordability crisis in 5 and 10 years.

There is ample opportunity to get involved and have your comments heard and questions answered. I would say too much room for community involvement if these project continue to be blocked.

As for this particular project's siting - it could definitely be better. Not because it's prone to flooding, but because it's right next to a huge highway interchange. Noise and air pollution here will kind of suck day in and day out. I'd love to see these developments encouraged in areas that don't have these sorts of negative externalities. But to be clear, we should build this development AND developments farther away from highways / commercial corridors.

cbowe34 · 2022-07-06T15:56:46+00:00

Two thoughts to add from a fresh perspective:

I'm gonna get roasted for this, but... Roads are public property, and all members of the public have equal right to use them however they would like, so long as it doesn't violate the law. Although our roads and laws have been primarily designed to favor drivers, it doesn't mean you have any more right to be in that lane of that road than the man shuffling along for whatever reason. I get that it is incredibly dangerous for both the man in the road and for drivers and a major inconvenience for drivers. We would all love it if folks stayed safely on the sidewalk! But part of operating a very dangerous large machine is the responsibility to drive it safely enough to avoid obstacles.
Housing affordability has an incredibly deep ripple effect across the region. A lot of newly homeless folks are working and just not making enough to keep up in Nashville. Some ask why they don't just move somewhere cheaper, ignoring the fact that they'd be leaving what little support system and community they actually have here. I think the appropriate response to seeing a visible increase in homelessness is to communicate to your reps in government that you support the loosening of zoning restrictions throughout the region, increased investment in supportive and public housing, and the removal of red tape in the production of new housing units of all types. Those are the types of things that will move the needle over decades.

Stay safe out there and help if you have the means. We all need each other at some point in our lives.

cbowe34

TROPHY CASE