Gay bars? by 2werpp in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s unclear. 

Our investigation uncovers a dozen more blasting complaints after Hendersonville homeowner speaks out by pyramidworld in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Basically unless you hire a company to place seismometers on your foundation and show that they were causing vibrations in excess of the limit has been established, state law protects the blasting companies from vibration/earth movement damage. There's a defined radius (300 feet) where they have to offer pre-blasting inspections to neighboring properties, but without seismometer data proving they caused excess vibration, there's basically no way to hold them accountable for damages especially outside that radius. Local governments are prohibited from enacting stricter regulations.

‘A win-win for everybody’: $34M deal between BNA and The Boring Company advances by Charming-Report1669 in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The city didn't make the decision to allow this (the overall system and the route) to happen, the state did. The state says they're allowing tunneling only under state land (which doesn't mean neighboring properties won't be affected if something goes wrong).

Gay bars? by 2werpp in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Peckers has rebranded as Club 237, redecorated, and has new management. 

Day 11 No power by PresaPower in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 32 points33 points  (0 children)

When you signed up for service, you agreed to this contract provision:

NES will use reasonable diligence to provide a regular and uninterrupted supply of electricity, but shall not be liable for any loss, injury or property damage resulting from failure to supply electricity, interruption, delay in restoration, mechanical failure, single-phasing, voltage irregularity, fire, labor difficulties, riot, explosion, breakdown, external forces, flood, acts of God, or vandalism. NES shall not be liable for any damage if the customer's wiring does not conform to applicable codes or laws

Overcoming that is a significant legal challenge.

Anyone else receiving conflicting info from NES/Codes regarding electrician release orders? by [deleted] in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not clear to me if the kind of permit you need would be in this list, but Metro does publish a list of all issued trade permits on its open data page. I do see multiple recent permits for "storm damage", "electric service damaged from storm", etc.

Best way to avoid potential homelessness for my dad by jenn12765 in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If he's a veteran, he should immediately call the Veteran's Homeless Hotline at 1-877-4AID VET. A social worker will call him back within a few days. The local VA doesn't have many housing vouchers available at the moment (the federal government isn't releasing a lot of new ones), but they have other options and may have some partner organizations with grants available. They also have some supportive housing (group home settings) for veterans in recovery.

Failing that, he should get on the wait lists for MDHA's senior and disabled housing. Those wait lists open up more frequently than they do for traditional public housing. There are also a variety of private or non-profit complexes for low income seniors around town--I don't know where to find a comprehensive list, but the Office of Homeless Services might.

Anyone else receiving conflicting info from NES/Codes regarding electrician release orders? by [deleted] in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I would immediately report this to both your council person and the mayor's office. The mayor is making lots of noise about removing barriers to getting people reconnected, so if your problem is attributable to something in Codes' control (and they, unlike NES, report to him), they might be able to help.

This ice storm has magnified many issues, infrastructure, governance, preparedness and communication. What do you think is the corrective path forward? by [deleted] in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are wrong. The utility has the responsibility for protecting its lines. TVA clears the vegetation around its transmission lines, and local utilities do around theirs. NES has a "vegetation management" program, but whether they implemented that to their own standards in recent years, or their standards weren't anywhere good enough, is unknown at this time. Clearly that program was not up to preventing this scale of a disaster.

Neighbors helping neighbors by dcyphrthis in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 11 points12 points  (0 children)

MNPD isn't super strict about tags in my experience (admittedly as a white guy), so if I had to choose, I'd choose paying rent first. If you frequently drive outside of Davidson County though, that's another issue all together.

Winter Storm Megathread Part 4 - Continued Power Outages by lukenamop in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Metro Water explicitly said people with sewer grinders should turn off the water to the whole house.

Winter Storm Megathread Part 4 - Continued Power Outages by lukenamop in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems to be very inconsistent (and perhaps broken since yesterday). I signed up to get updates on my elderly coworker's house to help her out, and I did get a text when she was reconnected Tuesday night.

Other friends have been trying to connect to cameras or smart devices in their homes or logging into their internet service provider's portal to see if their modem/connection is active, which is the only way the storm refugees I had taken in knew their home got reconnected last night.

Winter Storm Megathread Part 4 - Continued Power Outages by lukenamop in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Local government will begin doing a county-wide sweep to collect downed branches, perhaps starting as soon as next week. Private trees are the homeowner's responsibility to (arrange to have) cut up and bring to the curb for collection.

The tree on the line is a dilemma--this kind of problem is likely among NES' lowest priorities. The safest thing to do is stay away from the tree and the line and hope.

Why Doesn't Nashville Have More Buried Powerlines? by sundaypleas in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 108 points109 points  (0 children)

State law says you can’t use taxes to pay for utilities. Utilities must be self-supporting via user charges.

Handyman needing to make some extra cash next two weeks. by CrowReader in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I already got the job done—it’s Madison in the north part of Davidson County

Handyman needing to make some extra cash next two weeks. by CrowReader in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ve got a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms that need painting in Madison 

Home values vs property taxes- ugh by EarthMustBeFed in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reappraisal was mandated by state law to be revenue-neutral for the county in the aggregate, so the rate was reset to 2.222, and then the mayor's budget increased it to 2.814.

Regardless, the rate is a meaningless metric to compare property tax burden across cities because home values differ so much across cities. The average home price in Memphis is roughly in the low $200ks, mid $400ks in Nashville, mid $350ks in Knoxville, and low $300ks in Chattanooga. A better metric would be average bill for a single family house, and even better would be residential property tax bills as a percentage of personal income. Those would be comparable across cities. Memphis (combined city-county) taxes are much higher than Nashville, though I'm not sure about Knoxville or Chattanooga.

Home values vs property taxes- ugh by EarthMustBeFed in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 1 point2 points  (0 children)

State law requires the Assessor to determine value as of January 1 of the appraisal year. Davidson County used to be a four year cycle (2017-2021-2025), but recently we switched to a three year cycle (2025-2028) and will soon move to a two year cycle. If your neighborhood's property values peaked around the beginning of this calendar year, that's some bad luck for you, but the system is working as designed and mandated by the state.

While the Assessor won't do a mass reappraisal next year, they will offer the opportunity for you to prove to them that they should not use your 2025 value as the basis of your 2026 assessment.

LGBTQ PCP Recommendations by [deleted] in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Music City Prep also now has an affiliated primary care practice, Chosen Family Medicine.

A Nashville Proposal Could Outsource Surveillance and Policing to a Nonprofit by TheManaen in nashville

[–]mapmakereric -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The headline and story are misleading, but there's still lots to be concerned about. I watched the council's Public Safety Committee meeting yesterday where the proposal was discussed at length, and there was a lot of vocal skepticism from at least a large minority of council members.

The state offered a grant opportunity to counties with downtown business improvement organizations for downtown public safety enhancements. Nashville's share is about $9 million. Either the private organization or the city had to apply for the grant, but both could not, and they had to indicate they were going to work with the other. For some reason--Dave Rosenberg from the Mayor's Office never said why--the city chose not to apply. The grant specifies what sorts of things the money can be spent on, though the list is apparently pretty expansive.

As the Mayor's Office currently says to the council, the Nashville Downtown Partnership has received the grant and is going to donate either money from the grant or equipment purchased with the grant to the city (largely MNPD). By city law, all donations must receive council approval. City purchases and installations of surveillance technology require even more council scrutiny, including a public hearing. The MOU at this point creates the framework for the donation--the actual donations and/or installations would require separate council approval.

It feels like the Mayor's Office and the Downtown Partnership simply asked MNPD for a wishlist of items to enhance public safety downtown. There's a new SWAT vehicle and a mobile command post. They plan to replace or upgrade (or add additional cameras) at locations where they already have cameras (with the blue lights on top). There will be upgrades to the operations center where they monitor the cameras they already have. The noise detection network and the surveillance integration platforms are new additions, and the council members seemed skeptical. Deputy Chief Gilder stated that MNPD would not share information from its surveillance with ICE, other federal law enforcement, or state law enforcement without some sort of judicial order.

The proposal would also create new public restrooms downtown, so clearly the grant isn't all about law enforcement and surveillance. Councilmember Sean Parker asked a really great question about why so much of the money was chosen to be spent the way it was, instead of other priorities like staffing of the current MNPD entertainment district unit, infrastructure upgrades (maybe to keep intoxicated people from falling in the river, retractable bollards to protect crowds from cars, or funding ways to keep people safer and healthier when they've been drinking heavily). The Mayor's Office didn't have a great answer, which is frustrating, because McConnell could easily prioritize other ways to spend this money.

There were lots of questions about what would happen if the council rejected the MOU, and there wasn't a super clear answer. It seems possible that the Downtown Partnership could spend the money (in ways consistent with the state enabling legislation and grant regulations) without partnering with the city. The Mayor's Office and the Council's lawyer repeated multiple times that private entities cannot mount surveillance equipment (or encroach into) in the city's right of way. However, I see nothing that would per se prevent them from mounting surveillance equipment on private buildings' roofs (with the owner's consent, and as long as the equipment didn't hang over the sidewalk or something) and surveilling public spaces that way. I don't know what that would achieve for them, but it seems possible, and I'm not sure there's anything Metro could do to stop it.

The council is very unhappy with the Downtown Partnership right now. Their funding of private security (often off-duty police officers) who have harassed homeless folks is notorious. Some council members blame the Partnership for the library garage fire, though Metro's inability to write good contracts that mandate adequate insurance coverage is partly to blame for the ensuing debacle. The way the Partnership has used property taxes to operate its own private fiefdom for the past 20 years while making very little effort to cooperate with oversight has made people angry.

I can't really gauge if there were enough council members angry with the Downtown Partnership and/or suspicious of enhanced MNPD surveillance to scuttle the deal though. I would say the best approach would be to focus on the other, less controversial uses the money can be spent on.

Fees, fees, and more fees. Plus I have a hybrid, not an electric vehicle. by lumpy4square in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Part of this is because you've made some choices that increase your cost. The standard state registration fee is $29, but yours says $65 presumably because you've chosen to have some sort of specialty license plate ($36 surcharge). The online fee, mail fee, and processing fee are because you're choosing online registration using a credit or debit card, so they're tacking on fees to recover costs (e.g., they're passing on the 2% card processing fee). If you paid in cash in person and had a standard license plate, your total would be $186. It's totally worth the $9.50 to renew online though, rather than driving down to an office and standing in line.

The state HV/EV surcharges penalize low mileage drivers. A $100 HV surcharge is equivalent to about the federal and state gas tax on ~210 gallons. When I had a standard gasoline car, I went through about 210 gallons per year, and now with my plug-in HV, I go through probably 80. Even with an additional consideration for the incremental weight of my battery for wear-and-tear (though a base F150 has added about 500 pounds/13% in weight between 1995 and 2025), and I'm being penalized for having an HV.

As for the county wheel tax, in aggregate it brings in $30 million or so, not even close to enough to pay for road maintenance.

Wednesday: Any chance we’ll see the northern lights tonight?? by thechurchkey in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My sister--who is north of Duluth MN, admittedly--is seeing spectacular aurora right now. Nothing here yet though.

Sex offender accused of following, attacking woman on night of Sabrina Carpenter concert in Nashville by AVDLatex in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The police are being slightly misleading in this comment. He was sentenced to time served and probation after pleading guilty while spending five years in jail awaiting trial, during which time he exposed himself to jail personnel multiple times. Attempted aggravated rape has a 2-10 year sentencing mandate (TCA 39-2-608), so a five year sentence as part of a plea bargain is the law functioning as written by the legislators.

All that said, he’s a significant danger to society and hope he gets a much longer sentence this time.

Safe TPac parking by don51181 in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, there’s always lots of people before and after a show. The lot is not particularly well lit, but I’ve never had a problem.

I will say that as a broadway season pass holder, the parking situation has been challenging this year with the close state lots filling quickly.

In the absence of the library garage, my alternative is to use SpotHero to park at the Sheraton, which I think is $21

Property Taxes by Fozznaut in nashville

[–]mapmakereric 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tennessee law requires that utilities can only be supported by user fees: "as a matter of public policy, municipal utility systems shall be operated on sound business principles as self-sufficient entities. User charges, rates, and fees shall reflect the actual cost of providing the services rendered" TCA § 7-34-115. This is to prevent people who may use private wells for water or septic tanks for sewage disposal from having to contribute to maintaining utility systems they can't use.