I am a walker and living where there are few to any sidewalks, it makes it a challenge.  I read the below article and realized that much of that gentrification and in turn modernization is something occurring up here in the north, well if you define the north as Nashville, Tennessee.

I moved here never being here before, reading only what I heard about a city that defines itself "Nowsville" over the other "NashVegas" which dominates the largest sector of industry as it incorporates the country music scene. And for one whose country music taste is firmly rooted in the 70s, I have no interest in what defines that genre today. I walk by the historic Ryman and my first show was Bill Maher. I have been to the Grand Ole Opry and while I loved the retro dressing rooms, that was the extent of my experience - a standard tour.

What I am interested in is the complex nature of this city and its history of slavery, the Civil War and the slow move to integration. When one tours the Hermitage, again on a mix of Bourbon tasting, actually Tennessee whiskey, to celebrate Jack Daniels 150 year old anniversary, you realize the juxtaposition of what is old with new. Andrew Jackson's former home is awash with tragedy that is both about his own life and that of those who serve them. Sipping an expensive drink and walking in slave quarters having to duck my 5'4" head, I did not feel good about any of it.

And there are many historical markers that exist in Nashville and the borders that discuss civil war battles next to civil right battles of note. I went to a fund raiser to preserve Ft. Negley, built by slaves for the soldiers of the civil war. I can walk up there and feel the souls of the dead of all colors.

On Friday I was at a school of the arts, sort of a Fame school as a comparison and its location is on the former grounds of the Tennessee School for children who were orphans. I thought at first it was a former military complex, much like Sandpoint in Seattle was but then I asked and was told that it was this former orphanage and that there had been a major fire which many were killed. It overlooked the most glorious field and was just a few miles from my home and yet I knew that the art that decorated the halls, the glorious dance I observed in the class I was in was all needed to cover the odd feeling I got that it was a type of institution that once you were in you never left until your time was up. As like all historical sites they too have a "center" of sorts open to talk about the history of this campus that now houses the school of the arts and the requisite STEM school adjacent.

Nashville's schools are a horror that seem no different that the one of its past. Highly segregated, almost militaristic and utterly chaotic which explains the hundreds of private schools that have glorious campuses and programs that offer education and options that one pays for with a check from a state who has no funding agenda for their public schools and the charters that siphon money from them.

So when you meet Nashvillians they are open to the idea of building transit, sidewalks and infrastructure to support the growing population but there is an equally marginalized and disenfranchised population that see no purpose or point. My neighborhood to the south of me is largely Latino and Asian and they have a thriving retail and business sector that has one of the few express route buses that run the corridor. I have seen East Asian markets (The Patels), Latino and of course Asian markets, adjacent to a Piggly Wiggly, and modern coffee shops.

The other sector, North Nashville, too has an express bus that bypasses the streets that mark Fisk and TSU, predominately black colleges, and races up to the Sylvan Park area that begins around 46th. The blocks of 16th to the 26th are neglected and overlooked with the first integrated park, Hadley Park, that is a gorgeous green space of which I was told not to walk through and repeatedly told that the neighborhood is not safe. I decided to quit subbing there for a myriad of reasons, my safety both inside and outside the schools was all I needed to remind myself that again the schools here are a myriad of shitty to not so shitty and that is the best there is.

I realized that I cannot make this my long term home, I came here to find my creative soul and that is already happening. Irony I am blogging less as well I have no access to computers at schools to fill down time, and that when I am home I am reading about writing, reviewing my scribbles and thinking about writing my first book and finally putting pen and keyboard to note.

I am not alone in my interest and love of Nashville and its complex history but when you speak to those most affected by segregation and racism - and that frankly is black people - they see nothing good coming. They almost repeat the same script when talking about the transit plans for one.  One woman I spoke to who had relocated here from L.A. had said that Davidson County (where Nashville resides) does not have the wealth and power, that the wealth that Williamson County does, the fact that the County, City, State and Federal offices are all well located within walking distance of where we sat was not important.  Even the whole county vs county shit that I hear here is something distinctly Southern so I knew she was not originally from Los Angeles.   She had done her "research" (aka her experience) and they in Williamson don't care about Davidson.  Of course implicit within in that is the idea that black, poor and other races live in Nashville, the rich and the white live in Williamson. Everyone I meet tout "their" schools, "their" community as the one with all the power and skill. And that is true in any state that the suburbs have for years built better infrastructure as the ones in the cities that take all the push but have no ability to push back.  And the minute you refer to anything is "they" "theirs" in those vague pronouns it is the code for white vs black.

Then I had the same almost word for word conversation with another woman at the campus of MTSU (also privileged to have an amazing Greyhound level commuter express daily to and from the area which she seemed to know nothing about) regarding transit only with the bizarre addition that transit is not necessary as that most people commute on bikes, scooters, hoverboards and walk so that transit is not an issue in Nashville. Really? I have seem a few bikers, there are few to any bike lanes, I have never seen anyone on a skateboard or otherwise and we have no fucking sidewalks (other than in the downtown core) so walking here is to say the least a challenge. And yes we have some sidewalks where I live and we also don't. I can walk to Ft. Negley and only partially on a sidewalk.

To have any of this in Nashville the people who are in most in need are the least supportive. They have been so marginalized, subjugated and removed from the process that any of their true concerns or issues are ignored. Even my local gay bar the local fly announces that it is unsafe in Nashville. There is truth to that if you again are a part of marginalized minority groups (and yes we have a problem with intraracial crime), I know of little hate crime directed to gays.  But one need only to look to Florida and think you can define that as terrorism or not, so I get the fear factor in the South when you are "different."

And you hear the phrase repeatedly, "this is how it has always been." And when I counter with the question, "It has?"  and then ask if they still use horse and buggies (and we have Amish nearby and yes they are even Lyft drivers!), talk on a dial telephone and wish they could vote, they have no response.  How can you speak to someone so resigned to what ostensibly is both elitist and racist.

At times even I feel as if I am speaking to a child when I am talking to an adult about issues that affect the growth and purpose of Nashville. I finally realized just smile, nod and shut up. And that includes its schools. I cannot teach in them, the district does not enable it and in turn Teachers leave less than adequate lessons, leave largely busy work and when you try to make it a teachable lesson you actually see first hand how poor the basic skill set the students possess. I watched kids struggle with writing a basic sentence about how their faith/non faith compares and contrasts to Islam despite literally telling them repeatedly (and using strictly Christianity as the example as well this ain't the Bible belt for nothing)  about the Koran vs the Bible, God vs Allah, and formal vs informal prayer; then taking the text they we read aloud to find the information.   They simply did not get it. Wow just wow. I can account only some of it as being the sub, but in reality one child simply did not get it and yet complained when I spoke to him one on one telling his peer I was talking to him like he was stupid.  Did I?  He was embarrassed and angry and frankly so was I.   But he had so many behavioral problems which also are illustrative of comprehension I am sure I was less than effusive and supportive.   I wondered had I become the person I feared, a racist? No I am just sad and tired of seeing this repeatedly and I am not apologizing nor excusing this as I had nothing to do with it from its inception nor can I change it.

I can try with regards to that what affects me and those who may appreciate it.  And that is transit and having my hood declared a silent zone from the constant trains that run behind my home.  You have to hear it to believe the train horns that run 24/7 and yes I got "this is how it has always been." And when I counter with federal law that allows for such and point to the rich hood the Gulch as the example, the shrug and the good luck is the best I get.  Even that is from white people so on this I think this is a class, Southern and lazy thing.  Maybe it explains Williamson county, they aren't lazy and resigned?

So can change come to the South without resentment and anger? I don't think so.

A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta

By RICHARD FAUSSET
THE NEW YORK TIMES
SEPT. 11, 2016


ATLANTA — Could this traffic-clogged Southern city, long derided as the epitome of suburban sprawl, really be discovering its walkable, bike-friendly, density-embracing, streetcar-riding, human-scale soul?

The answer is evident in the outpouring of affection that residents here have showered on the Atlanta BeltLine, which aims to convert 22 miles of mostly disused railway beds circling the city’s urban core into a biking and pedestrian loop, a new streetcar line, and a staggeringly ambitious engine of urban revitalization.

Even though just a small fraction of the loop trail has been completed, Atlantans, in one of the purer expressions of America’s newly rekindled romance with city life, have already passionately embraced the project. And like any budding romance, it is full of high hopes — for an Atlanta that is more racially integrated, less congested and, in a change refreshing to many here, more focused on improving the lives of residents rather than just projecting a glittering New South image to the rest of the world.

It’s not just Atlantans who see something that is potentially transformative.

“It’s the most important rail-transit project that’s been proposed in the country, possibly in the world,” said Christopher B. Leinberger of the George Washington University School of Business, who follows urban redesign projects and has for years called Atlanta “the poster child of sprawl.”

More than 30,000 people have taken a three-hour bus tour of the proposed loop; the answer to “Have you taken the tour?” has become a kind of litmus test of Atlanta civic pride.

“It was just an idea, really,” Ryan Gravel, who first submitted the BeltLine idea to city officials in 2001, said recently. “I never imagined we’d actually do it.”

Last year, more than 1.3 million people used a completed two-mile path along the loop, the Eastside Trail, which opened in 2012, and a second, three-mile section of the path is under construction on the city’s historically African-American west side. On Saturday, tens of thousands of residents strutted their way along the existing trail in the annual BeltLine Lantern Parade, begun in 2010, that borrows much from the culture of New Orleans.

To hear the parade organizer, Chantelle Rytter, describe it, the Atlanta pageant might as well be a jazz funeral for the death of the city’s old reputation, which she sums up in three words: “Soulless parking lot.”

She added: “There’s a different way to live now because of the BeltLine.”

Such enthusiasm for what is, for now, little more than a glorified sidewalk says much about the social trends that are reinvigorating urban America. The current decade has been one of population growth for many of the United States’ largest cities. But Atlanta previously experienced decades of population loss because of suburbanization and white flight.

The tide has turned significantly in recent years. Planners now say Atlanta’s population, which stands at about 463,000, could double in the next 15 years. Many of the new residents could end up living along the BeltLine.

In a study this year, Mr. Leinberger and a colleague, Michael Rodriguez, showed that areas they identified as “walkable urban places” in the nation’s 30 largest metro areas were gaining market share over car-dependent suburban areas for “perhaps the first time in 60 years,” and earning higher rental premiums.
Photo
People played kickball at a park on a trail on the BeltLine’s south side. Credit Dustin Chambers for The New York Times

The High Line in New York, which turned an elevated stretch of Manhattan rail line into a linear park, is perhaps the best known of the nation’s urban infrastructure makeovers. Chicago’s has also converted an old elevated track into a greenway, christening it the 606. Miami’s Underline is reimagining 10 miles of underused land under its elevated Metrorail system as an art-lined “urban trail.”

Still, many say Atlanta’s plans stand out.

Private investment along the entire proposed route has surged to $3 billion. Foundations and private donors have given more than $54 million for paths, parks and other amenities. Home prices have risen in formerly overlooked working-class neighborhoods where the BeltLine is set to expand.

Candidates in the 2017 mayoral race, meanwhile, are turning BeltLine promises into central elements of their campaigns.

“If you like the BeltLine now, you’re going to love it when I’m your mayor,” says the campaign website for Cathy Woolard, a former City Council president.

The BeltLine idea was submitted to city officials in 2001 by a former Georgia Tech graduate student, Ryan Gravel. He grew up in the Atlanta suburbs, but had spent a year studying in Paris, where he got around without a car.

On a weekday afternoon in late August, as a packed BeltLine tour bus made its way through both charming historic neighborhoods and blocks plagued by drugs and crime, a guide called Mr. Gravel a “rock star” of urban planning.

“It was just an idea, really,” said Mr. Gravel, now a planner in Atlanta. “I never imagined we’d actually do it.”

Mr. Gravel and other advocates maintain great expectations. Upon completion in 2030, they say, the $4.8 billion project will connect 45 neighborhoods — rich and poor, black and white — thus easing old divisions of class and race. Organizers say it will promote healthy living and reduce obesity, and will provide new jobs, affordable housing, performance space, areas for urban farming and public art, as well as 2,000 acres of new and upgraded parks.

For all its economic success, locals have long known that Atlanta has had numerous unmet needs.

Mark Pendergrast, an Atlanta-born author, in a forthcoming book about the BeltLine, notes that the city, by at least one measure, suffers from the worst income-inequality gaps of any major American city; soul-deadening sprawl and commuting times; and neighborhoods that have been chopped up by highway construction and mangled by misguided 20th-century “urban renewal” projects.

For Joe Peery, 54, a commercial artist and longtime Atlantan, the BeltLine feels like a shift in the way the city conceives its big dreams. In the past, he said, Atlanta disappointed him with its big projects. The 1996 Summer Olympics struck him as corporate and cheesy: “a huge money grab,” he said. In contrast, the BeltLine lavishes attention on the neighborhoods where — as Mr. Peery and Ms. Rytter, the Lantern Parade organizer, would both agree — Atlanta’s low-key soul resides.

“If not for the development of the BeltLine, I would have been driven out of here,” Mr. Peery said.

Mr. Gravel is surprised that the existing BeltLine has become such a gathering spot — a place to promenade, take outdoor yoga classes, and wander in and out of trendy restaurants.

But he and others know there are challenges ahead. Much of the project’s future funding will hinge on whether voters will approve, in November, two citywide ballot measures that will raise sales taxes by a total of nine-tenths of a cent.

Gentrification fears are also widespread. The city has built only a small fraction of the 5,600 affordable housing units it promised along the loop, largely because the recession from 2007 to 2009 depressed property values and lowered the revenue from a tax-increment funding plan.

Officials at Atlanta BeltLine Inc., the quasi-governmental agency overseeing the project, have pointed to other plans they hope will keep low-income residents along the BeltLine. But some residents are skeptical in a city that has torn down nearly all of its traditional public housing complexes in recent years.

“Instead of helping poor people around here fix up their property, they’re going to give them pennies on the dollar and they’re going to move,” said Lena Shepard, 79, a shopper at a west side grocery store along the BeltLine.

But Shudarrian Butler, 30, a barber working nearby, was looking forward to the new path. Maybe more whites would come to this neighborhood, he said. And maybe that was a good thing.

“It may blur that racial line a little bit,” he said. “Maybe we’ll learn to live amongst each other.”