Mayor Karl Dean keeps on with his insistence that the Tennessee State Fairgrounds needs to be redeveloped to have development ready land so companies can move into Nashville.
There is plenty of other land around to be developmed. Private land, which with even tax incentives, wouldn't cost taxpayers as much. Then the Nashville chamber chimes in, giving the message that we need development ready land and is supporting the mayor in wasting our taxpayer dollars on this fantastical adventure.
That's amazing because of all of the Republicans
at the Chamber. Since when did Republicans want to spend taxpayer dollars when private solutions are available and work better? Meanwhile, the chamber leadership is talking out of both sides of their mouths. They have all these initiatives for small business, all this effort to build membership through small businesses, and they are trying to stick is to the little guy whether a flea market vendor or a small race team.
Dean mentioned Gov. Bill Haslam's "jobs, jobs, jobs" but what the mayor left out is that the new governor has also said small business is the job engine of the economy. All Dean and the chamber are doing is supporting big business over small business and what probably will happen is the small businesses go away and the big ones don't come.
Sadly, Dean and the chamber will be able to get away with this because there will be no retribution. No one has the balls to run against Dean.
You nailed it. This is big business vs small business. The chamber crowd will support Dean's re-election with a limitless supply of money, and do not give a crap about the hundreds of tiny businesses that thrive at the fairgrounds or the thousands of people who shop there, attend races, etc.
ReplyDeleteUnless a mayor royally screws up something, i.e. Boner, the chamber is always on the side of the sitting mayor. Nashville is still a small town with a lot of small town thinking, too. It's still small even with 600,000 people. Those in leadership generally do whatever they want. The council barks and barks but then rolls over like a submissive dog. I'm afraid that's what's going to happen here. There are council members who have stars in their eyes that redevelopment of the fairgrounds is some sort of magic wand being waved over the area and that's just going to magically transform. The State Fair is fine where it is now. Too hilly? Exercise wouldn't be a bad thing for a lot of Tennesseans. The mayor moved too quickly on this, trying to ram it down throats. They should give the private group a long-term lease on the track. Then maybe the track gets some minor league NASCAR races in there to augment the superspeedway. And having an urban track isn't unheard over. There's one in Winston-Salem that is near neighborhoods and is used for multi-purpose. Indy for crying out loud has a couple near neighborhoods and they are successful. Brickyard 500 and Indy 500, dirt track racing etc. If the city actually treated as an asset worth marketing, it might do OK. Talk about cheap entertainment for the masses.
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