Sidewalk settlements top $655K

The Tennessean, Jan. 54, 2023- ... Seventeen individuals and builders received settlements after suing the city over a 2017 ordinance that required them to build sidewalks as part of their construction projects or pay fees into a citywide sidewalk fund. A federal appeals court effectively struck down the ordinance in May 2023.

Sidewalk settlements totaled $655,337.69 — about 13% of the overall amount. The majority of the approved settlement money will come from the Nashville Department of Transportation's sidewalk fund.

To receive a refund of money paid into the fund or the cost of sidewalk construction, property owners must submit a claim to Metro and the costs must have been incurred from May 10, 2022, onward (marking one year before the appeals court's ruling). It's not clear how many property owners are eligible to recover costs this way. (link)

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Metro Settles Claim, pays Nashville Rescue Mission and others $214K reimbursement for forcing public sidewalk construction.

by Rod Williams, Dec. 21, 2023- At this past Tuesday's Council meeting, the Metro Council passed aresolution settling the claims of the Nashville Rescue Mission and several others in an amount totaling of $213,966.13. The claim arose out of Nashville's sidewalk ordinance which forced property owners to build public sidewalks in front of their property when they substantially remodeled or developed their property. That policy, thanks to a lawsuit brought by The Beacon Center of Nashville, was ruled unconstitutional.  Nashville Rescue Mission got the largest reimbursement in the amount of $80,134.06. Metro Legal recommended the city settle the claims. (link)

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If you were forced to build a public sidewalk or a make payment to the in-lieu of sidewalk fund, you are eligible for a refund.

 by Rod Williams, Dec. 27, 2023- If you were forced to build a public sidewalk or a make a payment to the in-lieu of sidewalk fund, you are eligible for a refund. Follow this link to claim your refund. 

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Mayor Cooper thinks 3.78 miles of new sidewalk a year is something to brag about. If you live on Timmons Ave, expect sidewalks in 2122.

by Rod Williams, April 27, 2022 - In Mayor John Cooper's State of Metro address yesterday he said, "Nashville needs more sidewalks." We can all agree with that. We have been adding sidewalks at a snail's pass. 

Mayor Cooper seems to think we are doing a good job.  "This fiscal year, NDOT has added over 20,000 linear feet of new sidewalk," he said. "Total sidewalk completions are up over 10%. And costs are down. Brick Church, Cane Ridge, Maplewood, Herman, West Hamilton, and Andrew Jackson are projects getting done in the next 7 months. And we are adding a new crew to repair broken sidewalks and curbs faster."

"20,000 linear feet of new sidewalks?" One mile equals 5280 feet, 20,000 feet/5280 = 3.78 miles. Is that something to brag about? So, how many miles of sidewalks does Nashville need. I don't know. For the areas with really big lots, in areas that were rural and built without a subdivision plan, I assume they will just never get sidewalks. That still leaves a lot of areas needing sidewalks. Look at a map of Nashville and you will see very few sidewalks outside of the areas build after the era of streetcars. 

I don't know how many miles are needed, but I am guessing that if you live on Sutton Hill Avenue, or Grandview Drive, or Kline Ave, or Mcalpine Ave, or Timmons Ave, I wouldn't look for sidewalks before the year 2122. These areas are streets with pretty small lots and not that far from downtown.  If you live further out, for each mile further away add about a hundred years. I may be exaggerating but people should know what year, if ever, they can expect a sidewalk. 

This is ridiculous. We do not have to build sidewalks the way we do. When Nashville builds sidewalks, we build the best sidewalks possible with curbs and gutters and new drainage. A city must take into consideration the drainage and that is a major cost of new sidewalks. The city should not cause flooding to occur where it does not now occur.  So doing this requires some engineering. However one can build sidewalks that meet this requirement without new curbs and cutters. My daughter has been living in a nice neighborhood in Franklin while renovating the home they purchased in Woodbine. The street she is on has curbs and cutters with the sidewalks. When I visit her, we often take a walk. On the side streets in her neighborhood, there are streets with sidewalks but without the expensive curbs and gutters. It can be done.

Also, in Nashville, we make sure all of our sidewalks conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act. We are supposed to but I suspect we are too meticulous about our compliance. Sometimes it is better to get forgiveness than permission. Build it and if we failed to get a curb-cut right, fix it later. If we build it where the steepness of the slope did not allow compliance, then there surely must be exemptions from compliance. 

I am not an expert on the ADA compliance or the curbs and gutter issue, but I have seen sidewalks in other cities where they were many sidewalks that were obviously built to less exacting standards than our sidewalks. 

Also, we tear up and replace barely used sidewalks.  I walk. In my neighborhood of Woodland-in- Waverly and in the neighborhood west of 8th Ave, between 8th and 12th, I know of sidewalks that had very little wear and tear, sidewalks that were perfectly serviceable with only the occasional hairline cracks, that were replaced with new sidewalks. I walk these sidewalks. Why were they replaced with new sidewalks? Why? 

Another thing I would look at is who is getting the money. Metro has engineers. Are we paying outside subcontractors for engineering to design our sidewalks? We have lawyers. Are we paying outside legal firms to acquire the construction easements? I don't know, but these are questions to ask. Having observed Metro in action for many years, I know that we sometimes pad projects to help local professionals. I know it used to occur. I doubt things have changed. All of the lawyers and engineers who make campaign contributions are probably expecting a return. I don't know this, but it is something to investigate. 

Building 3.78 miles of new sidewalks a year is nothing to brag about. We can do better.

For more of my reporting on the failure of our sidewalk expansion program, see the following: 

Only an idiot would require a sidewalk to be build like this. Why can we not sanely build sidewalks?

Perfectly Serviceable Sidewalks being Ripped up and Replaced with New Sidewalks!

Why are they tearing up perfectly good sidewalks?

Replacing good sidewalks with new sidewalks; no wonder we are broke.

Nashville has allocated $60 million for sidewalks. Only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks!!

Where the Sidewalk Ends

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What's on the April 3rd Council agenda: Requiring an annual sidewalk construction study, more $ out of reserve funds, $625,000 for production of "Nashville."

By Rod Williams - The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at 6:30 PM in the Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse.  If you are going to watch the Council meeting, you need a copy of the Council agenda and the staff analysis  or you really will not know what is going on. You can get the agenda and analysis at the highlighted links. 

Boards and Commissions
The first order of business is the call to order, prayer and pledge followed by consideration of mayoral appointments to boards and commissions. There are seven mayoral appointments to boards and commissions on this agenda for Council confirmations. The council normally rubber stamps whomever the mayor nominates.

Bills on Public Hearing
There  are only twelve  bills on Public hearing which is a small number. It has been running to twenty to thirty. Items on public hearings are all rezoning bills or related to planning and zoning policy.  Rezoning hearings bore me and I don't even try to form an opinion on the merits each rezoning bill before the Council.  Rezoning bills usually are of interest only to people who live near the proposed rezoning. People who don't care one way or the other do not show up, and with rare exceptions, the only people who speak in favor of rezoning bills are those who will benefit from the rezoning such as the property owner or the developer.  Opponents always make the same argument which boils down to one of these: 1) the change will result in stressing the infrastructure such as too much traffic on the roadway or overcrowd the schools, 2) will cause flooding, and 3) will change for the worse the character of the community. If you are interested in knowing what is permitted in different zoning districts, follow this link. The only bill on public hearing I find of interest are these: 

Bill BL2017-1029 by Councilman  Steve Glover would change the laws regarding "contributions" paid in lieu of the construction of sidewalks. If a developer develops a piece of property they are supposed to build a public sidewalk in front of the property. Sometimes when that would be the only sidewalk on a street, it makes no sense to build a segment of unconnected sidewalk to nowhere and the developer may instead of building the sidewalk pay a fee into a fund which is used to build sidewalks. It is called a "contribution" but of course it is not really a contribution but an option of build the sidewalk or paying a fee. This bill says that, that "contribution" would be for construction of sidewalks within the Council district, where the property is located rather than the "pedestrian benefit zone,"  in which the project is located. I don't have strong feeling one way or the other on this. Council district boundaries change every ten years. Also, I am unfamiliar with the boundaries of pedestrian benefit zones.

Bill BL2018-1122 would reinstate a requirement that the specific location of waste transfer facilities to be approved by resolution of the Council prior to the public hearing conducted by the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to consider such special exception requests. That is the way it was prior to August 2017. Unless there is a good argument for not reinstating this, then I think it should be reinstated. Waste transfer stations are often unwelcome in a community and my gut feeling is that this should be a decision in which the public should be allowed to have a voice.

Bill BL2018-1130 by Councilman Glover would  require an annual study of

sidewalk costs. The study would solicit input from all affected parties and include a public hearings. This is a good bill. I have observed almost perfectly good sidewalks ripped up and replaced yet streets that need sidewalks don't get them. It should be criminal how much money Metro waste on sidewalks to get such few sidewalks. Back in October, The Tennessean investigated Metro's sidewalk program and found that city allocated $30 million a year for each of the last two years for sidewalks and the city build only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks.  I suspect million of dollars goes to consultants. If I ran a news agency, I would follow up the initial Tennessean story and find out who got the money and what was their connection to city officials and political campaigns. Maybe knowing a report has to be made to Council every year, their will less blatant waste in the sidewalk program.

There are 18 resolution on the agenda and all are on the consent agenda at this time. A resolution stays on the consent agenda if it passes unanimously the committees to which it was assigned. Resolutions which receive negative votes in committee are pulled off of consent. Also any councilman may have a resolution pulled off of consent. Those remaining on consent are lumped together and passed by a single vote. Resolutions on the consent agenda are usually not controversial and tend to be routine matters, such as accepting grants from the Federal or State Government, entering into inter agency agreements over mundane things, appropriating money from the 4% fund, settling lawsuits, or approving signs overhanging the sidewalk. Unlike a bill which requires three votes of the Council to pass, a resolution only requires one vote of the Council.

Resolution RS2018-1123  appropriates $19.759 million from the 4% fund to various departments. This is normal and is for purchasing of things that ware out or for unexpected repairs. $1.5 million is for library material, $1.5 is for maintenance material and supplies for the parks department and .5 million for Metro General Hospital. Due to our fund balance falling below an acceptable level, I would think it wise to defer some of these expenses, such as purchasing new books for the library, until the new fiscal year.

Resolution RS2018-1124 is a supplemental appropriation of $2,516,400, largest amount going to the Sheriff's Department for salaries. This supplemental appropriation reduces to  3.18% for the GSD General Fund and 3.93% for the USD General Fund.  According to a policy approved by the Council in 1989 and by Office of Management and Budget in 2005, the minimum fund balance percentage should be no lower than 5% of the total operating budget. This is an indication of Metro's mismanagement.

Resolution RS2018-1125 awards three economic development incentive grant

Council to award $625.000 production grant

agreements from money already appropriated for that purpose. The grants are $50,000- Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum (Rolling Stones exhibit), $325,000- The Country Music Film Project (Ken Burns documentary), and $625,000- Music City Productions ("Nashville"). While I am a big fan of music and especially country music and love Nashville's identity as "music city," I question if this is a wise use of limited resources especially considering the needs of our schools and the shrinking reserve fund balances which could endanger our bond rating. Since the money is already appropriated however, it may not be wise to impound the money at this point, but this may be the type of thing the council should carefully consider before doing it again.

Bills on First reading: There are 16 bills on first reading. First reading is a formality that gets bills on the agenda and they are not considered by committee until after they pass first reading. They are all lumped together and pass by a single vote except in rare circumstances. I do not read them until they get to second reading.

Bills on Second Reading: There are 19  bills on second reading These are the ones of interest:

Bill BL2018-1111 would put under the purview of the Board of Ethical Conduct and the Standards of Conduct those who violate executive orders regarding rules of conduct. Currently this board only has authority to act on those who violate a section of the Metro code concerning standards of conduct. Concern is expressed that this would put too heavy of a burden on employees to defend themselves against complaints filed with the board. At last council meeting it was discussed and then deferred one meeting. To understand the arguments on both sides of this issue you may want to watch the video of the March 20th meeting at timestamp 1:29:18-1:51:15.    

Bill BL2018-1140  will create a South Nashville Central Business Improvement District. A district such as this creates a governing body which may impose additional taxes on businesses within the district for project within the district.  Such project may include building parking facilities, promoting the district, beautification and improvement projects in the district and more. The initial additional tax levy will be 55 cents per $100 of assessed value of real property and estimated initial projects will cost approximately $10.948 million. This district would consist of approximately 266 acres, whose boundaries are approximately Cane Ridge Road to the West, I-24 to the East, Target Drive to the North, and Old Franklin Road to the South. There are other such districts like this, including the central business district. 

Bills on Third Reading:  There are only four bills on third reading and all are approved zoning bill

To watch the Council meeting, you can go to the courthouse and watch the meeting in person or you can watch the broadcast live at Metro Nashville Network's Government TV on Nashville's Comcast Channel 3 and AT&T's U-verse 99 and it is streamed live at the Metro Nashville Network's livestream site and you can watch it live on Roku. You can catch the meeting the next day (or the day after the next) on the Metro YouTube channel. If can stand the suspense and just wait, I will post the video on this blog the day after or the day after that and provide commentary.

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What to do about Mass Transit and traffic congestion

by Rod Williams  - All of the candidates for mayor have issued statements or published position papers addressing the issue of mass transit and traffic congestion.  Polls of what Nashvillians care about list mass transit and traffic among the top issues. The long hard-fought battle to stop the AMP caused people to focus on the issue of mass transit.  And, people’s own personal experience of dealing with Nashville traffic has elevated the issue. I have lived in Nashville most of my adult life and I remember when we could brag that Nashville was a “15-minute city," meaning you could get anywhere you wanted to go in fifteen minute. That changed a long time ago.  Traffic is a serious issue and good big cities have mass transit. It is fitting that traffic and transit are important  issues.  Below are my thoughts on the issue.

I want to see Nashville develop a system of mass transit that uses the private sector to the largest extend possible.  I would like to see us transition from a public mass transit system to a private mass transit system.  I would like to see us do things never done before.  We should break new ground. We should be known as the city with a great transportation system primarily dependent on the private sector to provide the service.  We should privatize mass transit.

By “privatized” I mean both fully privatized non-governmental transit, and public-private-partnership and out-sourcing, private companies hired by government to provide transit services.  As an example, Uber is a fully private operation with no government subsidy and minimal regulation.  Airport-hotel express bus service is private form of mass transit. A private-public partnership may be that a company builds a light rail line and operates it, for instance from the airport to downtown, and we lease the rail line for 75 years.  Some turnpikes are built like this.  Hiring a private firm to provide a service is the way the state often houses prisoners and the way we pick up most of the city’s garbage.  

We need to seek a unique solution:  If I were mayor I would seek out consultants who have experience in successful cost effective mass transit relying on private providers.  If we cannot find a consultant with a track record of doing this, we could do it ourselves.   I would call Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Grayline, Megabus, and others to the table and ask for RFP’s for moving masses of people efficiently.  These app-dispatched type companies like Uber and Lyft are relatively new.  They have made lots of money and have lots of money to invest and they may be looking for opportunities to grow.  Brainstorm with them. Invite them to help us solve our transit problem.
 

Look at Megabus: For $10 one can go from Nashville to Atlanta on a Megabus.  Would Megabus want to take over a Nashville Express bus services?  Or, maybe Grayline?Remove prohibition against private companies competing with the MTA.  At this time probably no company would want to provide a purely private bus service but we should remove the impediment if one did want to.  We should change the environment to one that welcomes private solutions, competition and innovation instead of a climate that penalizes private solutions. 

Remove the requirement for a 'certificate of necessity' before one can operate more cabs or start new cab companies.  The only logic for restricting supply of taxis is to protect those already in business from competition. Taxis are not mass transit, but they complement mass transit.  For one thing, they get people out of their private car and once one has become accustomed to not driving their private car, then other forms of transportation may also become more attractive.  Also, if one takes a bus from Murfreesboro to downtown, often one must still get somewhere else.  Taxis can take you the few blocks or miles from the end of the bus line to where you need to be.  Also, taxis do not need to park downtown for 8 hours at a stretch and if we had more taxis in use there would be less demand for more parking.

Look at how we pick up garbage:  I was in the Metro Council when we changed the way we pick up garbage. The city picked all up of it, it was a more labor intensive process and garbage cans were manually lifted instead of mechanically lifted and service was twice a week instead of once a week. We transitioned to a once-a-week, mechanical-lift, uniform-garbage-can system.  Metro still designs the routes and supervises quality but most garbage is now picked up by private companies.  This has saved metro a lot of money.  Garbage workers were some of the lowest paid employees in the city but disability claims and retirement was very expensive. Metro employees and the public resisted the transition to private companies collecting the garbage but the transition to the current system happened and it has worked well.  During the transition, Metro public works “competed” with private companies. The cost of metro picking up garbage was established counting all cost in order to measure and compare the deal we were getting from private firms.  If Metro could “bid” lower on a route than a private company, Metro continued the route.  Eventfully, private companies took over most to the routes. The city simply could not pick up garbage as cheap as a private company. 

My Thai observation #1: It doesn’t matter the color of the bus.  I did not know what I was observing at the time but as a young man I spent 15 months in Thailand. I was in the Air Force and I lived off base and enjoyed my experience.  I learned how to take the local buses and get around.  I noticed that on a bus route that I used, I sometimes caught a brown bus and sometimes a green bus, but the bus followed the same route and regular schedule regardless of the color of the bus.  It was only years later when doing some research on transportation that I realized that the local government set the routes and allowed private companies to bid on the routes.  On the same route,  one time the bus may be one owned by one company but the next bus may be a bus owned by another company.

My Thai observation #2:  It is not a taxi and it is not a bus. Often instead of catching a bus, I would catch another type service.  In Thailand, they were often mini- pickup trucks that had a top but open sides with benches facing each other on each side of the truck bed.  Later I realized this type service is called a “jitney” and operates in many countries, but we do not have it in America.  It is a service that operates on a relatively fixed route but can deviate a block or two off the route to drop someone off at their home or place of work.  With modern phone apps and almost everyone having a smart phone, I think an Americanized version of jitney service could work in Nashville.  Obviously, Instead of pick-up trucks however I would envision vans or very small busses. 
 

The Nashville Star has been a failure and not a model to follow. This 30-mile line starting in Lebanon was projected to move 750 per day but on average it only moves 550 people a day.  The fare box only covers only 15% of the cost of a trip on the train.  With an operating budget of $5.1 million, that is not a sustainable model.  Also it gets very few cars off the road.  If 550 people a day are taking the train, some of those would be riding with a spouse, or car pooling or riding a bus or not working downtown. So if we consider 75% of those riding the train would be driving a car that is only 413 cars taken off the road in that 30 mile stretch of I-40 or Lebanon Pike.  That is an insignificant number.

We do not need to widen roads. There may be bottle necks that could be improved, but widening roads is like solving a weight problem by buying a bigger belt.  Sitting in traffic is one of the “cost” that will result in people being willing to use mass transit and also influence people’s decision about where they live and work.

Not everyone minds their long commute. People like to talk about their horrible commute, but some people are accustomed to it and value the independence of their car and do not want to ride mass transit.  I think I would hate it myself, but some people have told me the ride home gives them time to unwind. They do not find it nerve wracking. They want to listen to their music or choice of talk show or sports and do not want to share that choice and they want to stop off at the grocery store on the way home.  Don’t assume people want to give up their car.  We are not now maximizing the use of vanpools and car pools and the express bus services. If we are not now maximizing alternative options, they why should we assume other options would get people to give up their car? There may not be as much demand for mass transit as some assume. Equal to the challenge of how we move people is selling people on the idea of using mass transit.  Don’t assume that if we build it, they will use it. 

Not every bus has to be the same.  Some millennial and young professionals may want luxury seats and Wi-Fi and a smooth ride. Recent immigrants living out Nolensville Rd may be happy with a school-type bus and lower priced service and greater frequency of service may be more important than a luxury ride. Let entrepreneurs have a chance to provide different models and see what works. What works on one route may not be the same as what works on another route.

Mass transit and planning for development should coincide.  I have traveled quite a bit in Europe and in some other countries. A visitor to Europe may think the walled cities with big cathedrals and cobble stone streets are quaint and that everyone lives like that. If you take a train from one city to another in many of these countries, however, you will find that much of the population live clustered around railway stops at different points along the route.  One may pass through miles of sparse development or pasture and farmland and then come to a railway stop and there will be a population center with multi story apartment buildings around the train stop.  Should we build a light rail line or develop a Bus Rapid Transit route down Nolensville Road or some other major corridor, then land use planning should allow high rise, high density development of apartments clustered around the transit stop. 

We need greater density to make mass transit successful.  We should discourage rezoning of neighborhoods to single-family-only, should encourage zoning that allows auxiliary living units on residential properties (mother-in-law apartments) and increase density along major corridors, at mass transit hubs, or major transit stops.  This would also increase the supply of affordable housing. 

Express bus service is a “public good."  It is a given that getting more people to take buses from Murfreesboro to Nashville, or Gallatin or Clarksville to Nashville is a public good.  When someone takes the bus it makes the road less congested for the rest of us.  It reduces the demand for widening roads, reduces commute times for other drivers and cuts pollution by reducing idling cars.  It reduces poverty by making it possible for low-skilled workers to get to jobs, it increases disposable income and spurs economic growth by allowing people to spend more of their money on other goods rather than transportation.  Yet ridership is low. (I do not know the number, but know it is low. We need the numbers in order to say:  “X number of people commute from Murfressboro to Nashville everyday, yet only X percent takes the express bus service.”)  

Regional transportation is also a State public good. Metro should not pay the lion’s share for regional transportation. The more people who take the Murfreesboro to Nashville bus, the more it helps the State, since it reduces traffic on the interstate highway. We need regional support and state financial support for efforts to increase mass transit.  Our Nashville legislative delegation should advocate for regional transit to get TDOT support for every vehicle that is taken off a state road due to someone using mass transit. 

Express Bus service is a bargain.  One can take a bus from Murfreesboro t o Nashville for $4 for one trip or 20 trips for $70. That is only $7.50 a day!  To park at the 701 Church Street garage is $5 for one hour, $8 two hours, and a $13 daily maximum if one can find a place to park.  So to take the bus for a month is $7.50 x 20 days= $150 a month; to take a car is $150 parking (assume one leases a space by the month), gas $200 (assume a tank a week at $50 x4= 200) maintenance and oil changes assume $50 a month, and assume the wearing out of a car used mostly for work $400 a month. (Assume a $20,000 car for 5 years plus interest). So the cost of taking the bus is $150 a month and the cost of driving is $800.

So, how do we get more people to take the bus? Assuming it is a pubic good and we want more people to take the bus, and it is a bargain, why won’t people take the bus? It could be that it is inconvenient to be at the bus stop on time, one may want to stay in town to have dinner, one may have to pick up the kids or stop at the grocery store and the bus does not take you to the door of your business.  Other people may not take the bus because they just love their car, and you would have to pay them to take the bus.  However, many people do not know of the option of express bus service or have never even considered it.  One thing government does not do well is advertise its services and most of the time with good reason.  Most government services do not have to be advertised because people have to have them, want them or not.  Other services are government monopoly and people have no choice of provider. For other services, if more people use the service such as libraries or parks we will have to build more libraries or parks. However, getting people out of their cars can save money and solve a problem. We need to “sell” people on using the bus.  We need billboards and ads touting the benefit of taking an express bus service. Any RFP for a private company to take over an express line should include a proposal for advertising and increasing ridership and perhaps provide an incentive for increasing ridership.  Even if we do not privatize the line, we still need to advertise.

Use Technology, synchronize lights, and build roundabouts and pedestrian passageways: My favorite bad example of uselessly sitting at a traffic light is Craighead and Bransford.  The light takes forever to change with traffic going neither direction.  Often I have been tempted to run the red light. This would be a great place to build a roundabout or turn the light to flashing red and flashing yellow after 8PM unless there is a function at the Fairgrounds.  I am sure this is only one of a thousand examples in town. I have traveled in Europe and I know roundabouts take some getting used to but they are safe and keep traffic moving. Also, by reducing idle time, they improve air quality and reduce air pollution.  All lights should be automated to be timed to move traffic most efficiently.  On super busy roadways with pedestrian traffic, we should construct pedestrian bridges or tunnels.  This will increase safety of pedestrians and reduce the light timing necessary for pedestrians to cross the road.  This would not be something for downtown where we want to encourage pedestrian traffic and slow traffic, but I am sure there are some areas where this would be beneficial, such in Greenhills. I have seen these used European cities. It works.

Make the city more walkable by stopping building sidewalks stupidly and require new developments to have a “pedestrian plan,” just as they must now have a traffic plan, a lighting plan and a storm water plan. I have examples of poor planning and building sidewalks stupidly that I could show you.  It seems as if some streets were designed to ensure people never walk. 

Most people do not work downtown.  A lot of people do, but I have never worked downtown.  If we moved masses of people from Murfreesboro to downtown, then how we would they get them to their jobs which are scattered throughout the city and the region?  Before we focus on a massive investment of a Murfreesboro to Nashville route or similar routes we need to figure out how to get people where they want to go once they get downtown.  Private paratransit could help accomplish this. 

We must realize that it is difficult to retrofit a city build mostly after the advent of the car to accommodate mass transit.  Cities with really good mass transit are cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston.  These are all cities that had large populations and were built prior to the advent of the automobile.  We should not over promise on mass transit. Atlanta has a large rail system but its job centers are not clustered, making that rail system less useful.  

Realize the future may be here before you know it and needs may change. It was not that many years ago that everyone did not have a smart cell phone. That technology has changed much of how we live from how we find places, connect with people, and decide the routes we take.  The demand on our roads and use of one’s own car may decrease. More people may work from home. UPS, Federal Express, pizza delivery and running to another office to deliver a set of document may be done mostly by drones in five to ten years.  To go somewhere, you may click an app on your phone (or key bob type device or whatever) and a driverless pod rushes to your house and takes you where you want to go. We will still need roadways but some problems may take care of themselves and it is difficult to plan for a future 75 years down the road when technology we have not even dreamed of yet, may appear at any time. 

This originally appeared in this blog on  July 15, 2015. In the mid 1980's I Iead an effort with my friend Roger Bissell to stop a proposed special tax to support mass transit. During that process I studied the issue of transit in some depth. Also from my service on the Planning Committee of the Council and work with an engineering firm I had more exposure to traffic planning issues. I believe the time is now to develop a primarily private forward- looking transportation system. With new technologies emerging we do not need to build the system of the past. Nashville could break the mold and do something cutting edge if we had the right leadership. Rod Williams

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Nashville has allocated $60 million for sidewalks. Only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks!!

Writing in The Tennessean today, reporter Mike Reicher reports the city allocated $30 million a year for each of the last two years for sidewalks and the city build only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks. You can read the story here.

"At that clip," says the writer, "it would take more than a millennium to line all of Nashville’s streets." The amount of new sidewalks built in the last two years it only slightly more than build in previous years at a lot less money. The article gives the city's officials and apologist an opportunity to explain the failure to build sidewalks but there is no good way to sugarcoat such a disastrous failure.

I knew we were spending a lot on sidewalks and I knew we weren't getting much for it but I had no idea we were doing such a poor job building new sidewalks.  I have seen perfectly serviceable sidewalks with only hairline cracks, sidewalks I walk on, on a regular basis, get ripped out and replaced.  I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it was this bad.  

It seems impossible to waste that much money.  It seems like to waste that much money one would have to do it on purpose. This should be criminal. Mayor Barry should be impeached.  There should be a through investigation. If money was misappropriated someone should go to jail. The council should hold hearings and the public should be outraged.

Thanks to the Tennessean for exposing this waste. Now, what if anything will be done about it?

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Perfectly Serviceable Sidewalks being Ripped up and Replaced with New Sidewalks!

If you have been waiting for years for sidewalks and can't get them, you should be outraged!

Driving home from work yesterday I saw sidewalk work being done on White Avenue.  Today I walked over to take a closer look. I live in this neighborhood just two blocks away.  I routinely walk these sidewalk.

THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE REPLACED! For long sections there are not any cracks at all. They are smooth and unbroken. Some sections might have small cracks, but they are smooth and perfectly serviceable.  This has been going on for years all over town, yet people without sidewalks can't get them.  I have seen it time and time again. Instead of expanding sidewalks, the city routinely replaces perfectly serviceable sidewalks with new sidewalks.

Building new sidewalks of course is much more expensive and difficult than replacing sidewalks, but that is not an excuse for ripping up good sidewalks and replacing them with brand new sidewalks.

New sidewalks on White Ave

This is the other side of White Ave  looking North.
As soon as they finish the east side, they will
rip up and replace these sidewalks

This is the other Side of White Ave looking South
in a few days this sidewalks will get
get ripped out and replaced with new sidewalks.

Come see it for your self.

If you want to see this waste of money in progress, this is in the Woodland-in -Waverly neighborhood south of Wedgewood and east of 8th Ave South. Here is a map.

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Public Meetings on the future of Nasvhille transit system, Scheduled for Aug. 11 and 12. My Plan for Transit.

Public Meetings Scheduled for Aug. 11 and 12, Join Nashville MTA/RTA for a public discussion on the future of Nashville’s transit system at the East Park Community Center on Tuesday, Aug. 11, and the Downtown Nashville Public Library on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

Nashville MTA/RTA will present a draft of the project’s guiding principles and potential improvement solutions for the system for your review and input. We need to hear from you as we make decisions about what strategies we should consider to improve the region’s transit system. We hope to see you there. Tuesday, Aug. 11 5:30 to 7 p.m. East Park Community Center 600 Woodland St. (Accessible by bus routes 20, 25, 26 and 30) Wednesday, Aug. 12 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nashville Public Library Main Branch 615 Church Street (Accessible by bus routes 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8) Be sure to visit our events page for more upcoming events. If you’d like to have a Nashville MTA/RTA representative come to a meeting in your community, you can request a Transit Talk.

I have a detailed plan for transit improvements that I am forwarding to MTA/RTA. You can find my complete essay on the topic of transit at this link:  What to do about Mass Transit and traffic congestion . Here are some bullet point highlights:

• Use the private sector to the largest extend possible.
• Seek a unique solution and think outside the box. 
• Create an environment that welcomes private solutions, competition and innovation instead of our current system that penalizes private solutions and innovation.
• The Nashville Star has been a failure and is not a model to follow.
• Not everyone minds their long commute- Don’t assume people want to give up their car and don't over promise.
• Mass transit and planning for development should coincide and we need greater density to make mass transit successful. 
• Promote what we already have. Express Regional bus service is a  bargain. Advertise.
• Use Technology, synchronize lights, build roundabouts,  pedestrian passageways and make Nashville more walkable.

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Mayor Announces “Open Streets Nashville” to Take Place Saturday, June 27 in Gulch

First Ever Festival to Celebrate Walking, Biking to be Held in Partnership with Walk/Bike Nashville

 

Metro Government press release, 5-22-2015,  NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Mayor Karl Dean invites Nashvillians to spend Saturday, June 27 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the

city’s first-ever Open Streets Nashville festival, set to take place in the Gulch neighborhood. Open Streets Nashville is hosted by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with Walk/Bike Nashville. Mayor Dean announced the new initiative today during his finale walk as part of 100 Miles with the Mayor.

Open Streets festivals open stretches of city streets to people and close them to cars, encouraging participation in physical activity and healthy recreation. Open Streets Nashville expects to bring the Open Streets festival to many more of the city’s neighborhoods to promote a healthier city that is friendlier to walkers and bikers.

“With Open Streets Nashville, we invite everyone to experience the Gulch without any car traffic and enjoy this city street in a whole new way,” Mayor Dean said. “Through this event, we hope to encourage physical activity, promote street life, feature local businesses and highlight the environmental features of removing car traffic from a neighborhood when more people walk or bike.”

Open Streets Nashville will be a free event that is open to the public. Walkers, cyclists, families, musicians, dancers and community members from around Nashville are invited to attend and bring their bikes, strollers, skateboards, non-motorized scooters, hula hoops and dogs on leashes. Businesses will be invited to open their doors and expand into the street and sidewalk. Mini-stages, booths and tents will be erected along the route featuring games, music, food and fun activities. Metro Transit Authority will offer free bus rides from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to anyone attending the festival.

The event will begin at 11 a.m. on 11th Avenue South under the Church Street Bridge with a ribbon-cutting celebration commemorating its transformation into a half-mile Complete Street. The 11th Avenue South Complete Street project added a short stretch of greenway and a mini-park under the Church Street viaduct. It features a multi-use path with dedicated bike lane and sidewalk, ample green space and six Cross Fit stations.

Following the ribbon cutting celebration, one mile of 11th Avenue South from Charlotte Avenue to Division Street and Division Street from 11th Avenue to Eighth Avenue will be closed to car traffic. It will only be open for attendees to walk, bike and enjoy event activities for the entirety of the festival.

For more information about the event as an attendee, sponsor or participating organization, visit www.openstreetsnashville.org.

During today’s 100 Miles with the Mayor walk, Mayor Dean led participants over downtown bridges and through LP Field. The walk capped of his successful 100 Miles with the Mayor campaign that had him walk, bike and paddle 100 miles across Davidson County to promote healthy living and highlight infrastructure investments made throughout Nashville in terms of new sidewalks, greenways, bikeways, community centers and other investments to encourage active living. Today’s partners included the Tennessee Titans and Music City Sports Festival. Presenting sponsor of the 100 Miles campaign was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.

“The 100 Miles with the Mayor campaign was about promoting healthy living by leading walks and bike rides on the sidewalks, greenways and bikeways we have invested in throughout Nashville,” Mayor Dean said. “We couldn’t have done it without the support of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, and all the neighborhood groups and other organizations that came out to walk, bike and paddle with us.”
Open Streets Nashville builds on the success of other community-wide health campaigns hosted by Mayor Dean, including the Mayor’s Challenge 5K Walk/Run, Mayor’s Field Day and Walk 100 Miles with the Mayor.

About Open Streets Nashville
Open Streets Nashville encourages participation in physical activity and healthy recreation by opening streets to pedestrians and cyclists while closing them off to cars. Other Open Street festivals have taken place around the country with Los Angeles and New York implementing the first ongoing festivals. The first-ever Open Streets Nashville will be presented by Mayor Karl Dean and Walk/Bike Nashville in the Gulch on Saturday, June 27 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. For more information about Open Streets Nashville, visit http://www.openstreetsnashville.org/.

My Comment: Oh crap, some more of that Agenda 21 stuff - Just kidding. By the way, what happened to all the people warning us that everything from shady sidewalks to traffic calming and traffic roundabouts where part of the Agenda 21 conspiracy to kill 96% of the world's population by poisoning  us with aspartame and fluoride? Agenda 21 fear mongering was all the rage among my wingnut friends and made inroads among reasonable mainstream Republicans, even earning an anti-Agenda 21 plank in the national GOP platform and an anti-Agenda 21 resolution passed by the State legislature.  Then, about as suddenly as it appeared, it all but disappeared. I wish some of them were still around to read NashvilleNext.

I like the logo. I bet it did not cost $47,000 and it is a lot better than the new State of Tennessee logo. I wonder who designed it and how much it cost. I hope it was designed in-house and did not cost anything additional.

I have not taken part in the mayor's 100 mile program but starting April 1, I started my own self-improvement campaign which includes losing weight, drinking less, and getting in shape. One reason, I am putting this in my blog, is that if I have publicly announced it, I am more likely to have the will power to keep it up. 

We Tennesseans are generally unhealthy and overweight.  While it may not be the mayor's primary job to be our motivation coach and get us healthy, I think it a commendable thing he has done.

About sidewalks, I want more sidewalks.  I wish however, that instead of ripping up perfectly good sidewalks and putting in news sidewalks, like the city recently did on 10th Avenue South, I wish the city would build new sidewalks where we currently do not have sidewalks.  We probably spend enough money on our sidewalk program; we just waste most of it.

I am pleased with the growth of greenways. At one time communities opposed greenways when proposed along a stream or other pubic property adjoining private property in their neighborhoods.  Attitudes have changed and now most people seem to welcome them. I hope the next mayor and council will continue the greenway program. Among the new councilmen who will be elected, I hope there is a strong sidewalk advocate who will become a sidewalk expert and crusader and will consistently challenge our currently wasteful sidewalk program and force public works to aggressively expand sidewalks to streets that do not now have them.

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Why are they tearing up perfectly good sidewalks?

Why in the world are they tearing up perfectly good sidewalks and curbs on Wedgewood Avenue between 12th Ave and 28th Avenue and replacing them with new ones. This is an area not far from my house and is part of my regular exercise route. I walk those sidewalks almost every day. The ones being torn up are not even cracked. They have already made the existing sidewalks meet the ADA standards. They did the same thing on 10th Avenue South. The ones on 10th had some wear. There were some cracks, but they certainly did not need to be torn up and replaced.

The Tennessean or one of the news channels needs to investigate this waste. A member of the Metro Council needs to call for hearings. I am all for sidewalks. I want to live in a walkable city. I like greenways, and bike paths and sidewalks, but why instead of tearing up perfectly good sidewalks and putting in new sidewalks do they not extend sidewalks to parts of town without sidewalks? This is just nuts! I would like to know how many millions of dollars have been wasted building sidewalks stupidly. (For more on how we build sidewalks stupidly.)

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Sidewalks to nowhere

This is not Nashville, but it could be.  I love sidewalks and bike paths and green ways but do we have to build sidewalks so stupidly?

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Where the Sidewalk Ends

Nashville builds sidewalks stupidly.

In the last few years Nashville has spend millions of dollars building and repairing sidewalks. I don’t think they got a lot of bang for the buck.

About five days a week I run, walk, or run and walk about three to four miles, depending on the route I take. I have observed the sidewalk program in my neighborhood up close.

A lot of Metro’s sidewalk budget was spend making the sidewalks comply with the American’s with Disability Act. Now, I don’t know what metro had to do and what they did that was beyond the requirement of the act. Anyway, they have rebuilt the sidewalks at almost every intersection in the city to make the sidewalks wheelchair accessible. I seldom see anyone in a wheel chair using the sidewalks but the new sidewalk curb cuts are great for riding bicycles. One can now zip along the sidewalks on a bicycle and cross streets with ease. Until someone stole my bicycle off my front porch last fall, I often rode by bicycle on the new sidewalks and enjoyed them.

One thing that I observed is that the same sidewalk curb cuts were often build, dug back up and rebuild again. At the intersection of 8th Avenue and Wedgewood the sidewalks at all four corners were rebuild. The construction company came out with jackhammers, backhoes, concrete trucks and a work crew of 8 to 12. They build the sidewalk and then about six weeks later they came back tore it all out and build it again. I can only guess that it was not build to specifications. I hope the second rebuilding was at the contractors expense and not the city’s.

Another thing I found interesting was that all of the construction was not done in one pass. Someone would come out and paint big “X’s” on the sidewalk segments to be replaced. By a segment, I am speaking of those squares of sidewalk concrete about 4 x 4. On my morning run I noticed that the X’ed section had cracks in them and were the worse segments. They weren’t really badly deteriorated but were defective. A few days after the sidewalk segments were marked, the crews with jackhammers and backhoes and trunks would come out and replace the identified segments.

What perplexed me was that a few weeks after the replacement segments were build, someone came along and marked new segments and the crews came back out and replaced more segments. Sometimes the new marked segments were right next to previously rebuild segments. I don’t know why they did not identify and replace all of the defective segments at one time.

Here are some other observations that I thought I could illustrate best with pictures. From my observations I have deduced some Metro Sidewalk Construction Principles.

Sidewalk Construction Principle #1: Just build it; Don’t worry about maintaining it.

This is one of the new sidewalks. It really is. The new sidewalk is beneath these tree samplings that overhang the sidewalk and beneath about four inches of dirt and gravel. The first picture is looking east on Wedgewood and the second, the same sections of sidewalk looking west. This is about 200 feet of new sidewalk. I would think that if you can’t do better than this there is no point in building it. How about getting some jail house inmates to cut these trees and shovel off the sidewalk?

Sidewalk Construction Principle #2:
Don’t fix all of it, save some work for another day.
I don’t know why this section of sidewalk on Wedgewood was not replaces. Some of the sections that were replaced only had minor cracks and yet this badly deteriorated segment was not.

Sidewalk Construction Principle #3: Make those curb cuts wheelchair accessible, don’t look what is beyond.
Look at this: The curb cut is wheelchair accessible, but then the trashcan and sign and light pole obstruct it. Not only could not a wheelchair negotiate this obstruction, you could not even squeeze a baby stroller past these obstructions. The second picture is the same block about 150 feet south, again it is not wheelchair accessible.

Sidewalk Construction Principle #3: If you can’t build for wheelchair use, then don’t let a pedestrian use it.
What you are looking at here is a planter island protruding out into the path of the sidewalk. The sidewalk abruptly ends at the planter but then resumes on the other side of the street. Sometimes geography will not allow the required slope and area of level sidewalk prior to the curb cut. I would think that it is better to build a sidewalk rather than block a sidewalk, even if a wheelchair cannot use it. But, what do I know, I'm just a pedestrian taxpayer.

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