The Buzz is back after being on holiday and wishes everyone a Happy New Year and all the very best in 2022! At least after you’ve dug out of the snow, that is. The (officially) 6.3 inches of snow recorded in Nashville on Thursday crushed the record set back in 1977 of a measly 4 inches. This being Middle Tennesse, however, means tomorrow promises a downright balmy high of 46°. With rain in the forecast for Sunday, it looks like the snow-cation will be over in time for the Monday commute. Sorry kids.
In the meantime, catch up on the latest neighborhood happenings with this week’s “East Side Buzz.”
Stay safe. Keep well.
Matters of Development
Fran’s East Side, the favorite beer joint and smokey karaoke hangout of East Nashville hipsters and old-timers, shut the doors of its 2105 Greenwood Ave. location for good Dec. 30, after announcing this summer it has lost its lease. Fran’s will relocate to 2504 Dickerson Pike — the former location of the also recently-shuttered Bellshire Pizza — but an opening date is unknown. An online fundraising campaign and October benefit show raised over $15,000 to help with moving expenses.
Bellshire Pizza, 2504 Dickerson Pike, a pizza restaurant, dive bar, and all-ages music venue, closed Dec. 31. After announcing it had received an eviction notice, the business launched a fundraising campaign in November, raising nearly $1,500, and hosted a number of benefit shows, hoping to secure a new location and rebrand as a community art/performance space. The venue’s booker Ryan Sansiviero said the search for a new location continues.
12 South taco restaurant Bartaco will open a Five Points location at 1000 Woodland St., according to the Nashville Post.
Connecticut real estate company Forstone Capital paid $10 million for a four-parcel Dickerson Pike property, with addresses of 1218, 1224, and 1236 Dickerson Pike, as well as 5 Ligon Ave., according to the Nashville Post.
An East Bank property located at 810 Cowan St., formerly owned by Kenny Pipe & Supply, sold to Pinnacle Hospitality Partners for $14.83 million, according to Nashville Business Journal.
The Amplify on Main apartment complex, 30 McFerrin Ave., sold for $20.1 million to a New Jersey company, according to the Nashville Post.
An Atlanta developer began construction on a 302-unit apartment building, on Trinity Lane near Ellington Parkway, according to the Nashville Post.
The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency Design Review Committee approved the design concept for a mixed-use building at 949 Main St., according to the Nashville Post.
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Mayor’s Office Announces East Bank Boulevard Progress
Mayor John Cooper on Monday joined the Metro Planning Department and Nashville Department of Transportation to celebrate another step forward for the development of the East Bank: a partnership between NDOT and the state’s department of transportation for needed right-of-way acquisition to construct a central, north-south boulevard.
The boulevard will be a backbone for additional connector streets that will include all modes of transportation — with an emphasis on pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit options — for an East Bank that is safe and easy to navigate and, in the long term, connected to the larger Middle Tennessee region.
“We have a remarkable opportunity to create a great neighborhood along the iconic Cumberland River,” Cooper said in a press release. “A great neighborhood requires some key elements — sidewalks, bikeways and greenways, housing, parks, and strong transportation infrastructure. I’m committed to getting these fundamentals right, from the onset of this community-driven project.”
The mayor’s latest capital spending plan — which Metro Council approved in December — includes funding for the East Bank boulevard, plus other investments in city parks and housing located on the river’s West Bank.
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“Recent grant funding announcements validate Mayor Cooper’s vision of bringing federal and state agencies together with NDOT to implement key aspects of the Imagine East Bank Planning Study,” Metro Councilmember Brett Withers said in a release.
Withers — whose District 6 is home to about half of the area included in the mayor’s East Bank study — chairs the Council’s planning and zoning committee and represents the Council on the Metro Planning Commission.
Cooper’s vision for roughly 338 acres — bounded by I-24 to the east and south, the Cumberland River to the west and Jefferson Street to the north — is a neighborhood with a city green space along the riverfront for pedestrians and bicyclists, and a boulevard that provides multimodal access, as well as places for residents to live and work.
The area, now the focus of the Imagine East Bank study, is today characterized by industrial development, sports use, asphalt parking areas, and other large-scale infrastructure that primarily serves vehicular traffic.
Metro Planning, NDOT, and the Metro Development and Housing Agency are in the first phase of the study, one of the largest and most complex undertaken by Metro.
Metro Planning has held more than 19 public meetings and more than 100 technical meetings, plus conducted several public surveys, to gather feedback from more than 2,300 people during the first phase.
That feedback helped inform conceptual designs of the boulevard and other potential neighborhood infrastructures, such as bike paths, greenways, parks, and enhancements to existing cross-river connections.
After sharing these conceptual designs and gathering additional input at a November community meeting, Metro Planning is now incorporating residents’ feedback into a vision framework document to present to the Metro Planning Commission in the coming months.
To learn more about the East Bank Study, including future community meetings, visit eastbankstudy.nashville.gov.
Nashville Businesses Support Poverty Awareness Month
Nashville area businesses are raising awareness and donating proceeds throughout the month of January to defeat poverty in our city.
Martha O’Bryan Center’s Poverty Awareness Month campaign brings together local businesses, their staff, and customers into the nonprofit’s mission — to defeat poverty in one generation.
Poverty Awareness Month kicked off Wednesday at Hot Yoga East Nashville, which will donate all January proceeds from their weekly, donation-based free class.
The local, non-profit Martha O’Bryan Center first brought Poverty Awareness Month to Nashville in January 2017, with the help of 10 East Nashville businesses. Poverty Awareness Month now includes businesses from neighborhoods across the city, from Green Hills to Capitol View, and Sylvan Park to Wedgewood-Houston.
“Poverty Awareness Month provides a great opportunity for our neighbors to be deliberate with their consumer dollars”, said Peter Martino, Chief Development Officer at Martha O’Bryan Center. “It is also a chance to consider both the reality of poverty in our city and the real solutions we have for defeating poverty in our own neighborhoods.”
Participating businesses will coordinate with Martha O’Bryan Center to share over social media poverty facts and poverty solutions that are relevant to the community, including ways that neighbors can volunteer their time in the Center’s cradle-to-career family services. The Center integrates programs ranging from family preschool and afterschool programs to career coaching and food security programs, including the busiest food bank in Nashville.
Additional Nashville businesses donating part of their revenue to Martha O’Bryan Center on specific days in January include The Bookshop (Jan. 9), Chopper (Jan. 13), Dino’s (Jan. 21), East Nashville Beer Works (Jan. 19), Five Points Pizza (Jan. 11), Green Hills Grille (Jan. 31), I Dream of Weenie (Jan. 8), Italia Pizza and Pasta (Jan. 22), Kendra Scott (Jan. 28,29), Mitchell Delicatessen (Jan. 12), M.L.Rose Craft Beer & Burgers (all year on select items), Sweet Tea Candle Co. (all month), and Woodland Wine Merchant (Jan. 15).
A Poverty Awareness Month calendar is available allowing community members to see where they can take their business to support the education, employment, and family support programs serving families at Martha O’Bryan Center.
Martha O’Bryan Center, founded in 1894, is an anti-poverty non-profit organization with longstanding history and deep community roots, grounded in tradition and strengthened by innovation. It has operated from the heart of Cayce Place — Nashville’s largest public housing community — since 1948. For more information please visit www.marthaobryan.org.
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Happy New Year From Todd Snider
Quick Bits
- A Metro Extreme Cold Weather Shelter, located at 3230 Brick Church Pike, will remain open until Saturday. Transportation to the shelter or other sheltering options will be arranged by Metro Social Services for those who wish to get out of the cold.
- The South Inglewood Neighborhood Association has offered a FAQ via Google Drive regarding Metro’s suspension of curbside recycling pickup.
- MusiCares has partnered with Optum Quit 4 Life to help qualified music industry professionals quit smoking in the new year.
- More guns than ever were stolen from Nashville vehicles in 2021, according to The Tennessean. Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Kris Mumford describes these thefts as “a crime of opportunity“ and urges folks not to leave guns and valuables in their vehicles and to always lock their car.
- East Precinct detectives are working to identify the man they say is responsible for a Dec. 28 burglary at Hocus Pocus Vapor, 4118 Gallatin Pike. Anyone with information is being asked to call Crime Stoppers at 615.742.7463.
- East Precinct detectives are working to identify a “porch pirate” operating in the area of Scott and Marsden Avenues on Dec. 21. Police say the thief stole packages from the porches of at least two homes and got away in a blue Subaru Forester. Anyone with information is being asked to call Crime Stoppers at 615.742.7463.
- The Silver Alert for Howard Green — who went missing after a visit to the Walgreens at 3500 Gallatin Pike — has been canceled. Green, who is 83 and suffers from dementia, was found along Interstate 40 by the Tennesse Highway Patrol after he got stuck in the median.
Love Buzz
Yola
It’s 2020, and there’s no better song to begin the year with than Yola’s “Stand For Myself.” It’s a ground-shaking anthem, a powerful pep talk in which Yola pours her entire self into delivering words that I have no doubt a lot of people need to hear right now.
“Now I’m alive, it’s hard to explain / It took this much time and took this much pain / You can get here if you’re willing / Let go of yourself for a new beginning.”
“Stand For Myself” is the title track for Yola’s latest full-length and it’s one of many empowering bangers. (Do people still say bangers? I’m gonna go ahead and say bangers.”) About the album, she says: “I’ve been proven through this fire and I’m back to where I started, the real me. I kind of got talked out of being me and now I’m here. This is who I’ve always been in music and in life. There was a little hiatus where I got brainwashed out of my own majesty, but a bitch is back.”
That’s the energy I’m going to carry with me into the New Year. That’s the energy I hope you can carry with you, too. 2020, 2021 — they stole a lot of our majesty. Let’s make 2022 the year we take it back.
Yola is playing The Ryman March 3-4. Tickets are still available at Ryman.com.
We’d like to extend our gratitude to Megan Seling for curating “Love Buzz” and turning us on to some great music. She’s departing for new pastures, but keep an eye out for future contributions — like her fantastic cover story of Lilly Hiatt, available here.
