A Round at Two Rivers

The boss and I played a round at Two Rivers for this week’s Nashville Fairways review. This 18-hole, 6600-yard links-style layout sits at the intersection of the Cumberland and Stones River (hence the name). Two Rivers was the last of the municipal golf courses to be built. After the consolidation of Metro and Davidson County in the 1960s, suburban flight drifted eastward into the Donelson area.

The Grand Ole Opry moved into its current home off Briley Parkway alongside the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and along with it, residents as well. It was decided that a new course would be put on the site of the old McGavock Plantation. Golf Course Architect Leon Howard, who designed several golf courses in the Middle Tennessee area, was picked to lay the plans.

Pulling into the parking lot I noticed Two River’s Greenway and McGavock High School on the right. It’d be hard for me to pay attention in class if there was a golf course right next door. TR has been home to several Interscholastic Metro Nashville tournaments in the Past.

The Clubhouse here is the largest out of all the Nashville munis. Spacious locker rooms and showers with a full-service kitchen and dining area make it feel first class right from the start.

The chipping green and driving range are on the backside of the clubhouse. Chipping green was very small and flat, just enough to really dial in your touchy five-yard yippers. The driving range is only about 40-50 feet across, so it fills up quickly. Though short it has a sharp uphill grade. I would feel comfortable hitting the driver here without angering the staff sending balls into the deep woods. The putting green was superb and positioned right before the first tee as well. The ultradwarf greens aren’t very fast so be ready to putt aggressively.

🦦 Downtown Crosses the River Last night, Councilmembers Jacob Kupin and Clay Capp hosted an East Bank Subdistrict Information Session about some possible zoning changes. Though it’s across the river, the East Bank is part of Kupin’s District 19, which also encompasses all of Downtown Nashville. The Planning Commission is proposing to expand the Downtown Code to the 30-acre area that will surround the new stadium, with the aim of introducing zoning that would help fulfill the Imagine East Bank vision plan.

According to the commission, the vision’s four main components are equity and affordability, mobility, resiliency, and building neighborhoods. You’ll remember that back in April, the council finalized the East Bank Master Developer agreement with Boston’s The Fallon Company. The land use requirements for the 30-acre subdistrict include the development of at least five buildings and 1,550 residential units, 695 of which will be set aside as affordable housing. Also included are a few guardrails to limit the development of bars, restrict the amount of hotels, encourage the introduction of ground-level retail stores, and prohibit short-term rentals.

Unlike Downtown, the area is currently designated as a mixed-use intensive zone, but applying Downtown’s code to the new development would also bring Downtown-specific regulations with it, including the restriction of above-ground parking and signage. Other guidelines would be introduced specifically for the East Bank, including a maximum building height of 40 stories, with a step-down approach that decreases to a maximum height of seven stories as you get closer to the riverfront. The narrower sides of the buildings would also run parallel to the river to maintain an open feel, and the pedestrian bridge would be extended towards the new stadium with multiple exits allowing pedestrians to get off the walkway at different points. 

The final information session will be held on July 9th at Warner Elementary starting at 6 p.m. before the zoning changes are introduced to the council for a vote. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🌊 East Bank Flood Prevention This May marked the fourteenth anniversary of the 2010 Tennessee Floods. On Saturday, May 1st, and Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, a record-breaking rainfall of over thirteen inches devastated Nashville, destroying thousands of homes and landmarks. As construction crews continue breaking ground on the new stadium and Metro undertakes the largest redevelopment project in the area’s history, there are still questions as to how these new developments will fare as flooding continues to plague several areas of Music City.

Last night, Metro’s Chief Development Officer Bob Mendes gave a comprehensive update on flood zone management in the East Bank. Though the Army Corps of Engineers is expected to provide updated flood zone regulations some time in the near future, Mendes indicated that they likely won’t have an impact on the developers’ designs. 

“The preliminary recommendation said we're going up by some three feet, which would raise [the flood zone] to just shy of what we saw in 2010,” Mendes said. He went on to explain that the final requirements are expected to be slightly lower than that, but Metro has been using the Corps’ preliminary findings to safeguard the viability of new development plans: “We went ahead and told everybody who's got big projects, Oracle, the Titans, the truckstop people, Fallon…we basically shared the direct preliminary recommendation and said, ‘When it comes to the recommendation, we're doing it, so plan accordingly.’” 

As of this year, Mendes said that all the planning for the extended East Bank has been assuming the higher flood zone level, regardless of whether the Corps comes back with a new assessment indicating lower levels in the future. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🏙️ Ranking the Cities A couple weeks back, WalletHub published the results of a study they undertook to determine the best and worst places to raise a family in 2024. Their analysts took the 150 most populated cities in the country and the two most populated cities in each state to come up with a list of 182 cities they ranked based on family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability, and socioeconomics. Nashville ranked 116th, while Memphis ranked dead last. Chattanooga was Tennessee’s highest-ranking city, coming in at 108. The top five were Fremont, California; Overland Park, Kansas; Irvine, California; Plano, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. Not sure about all this, but thought it worth sharing. DAVIS HUNT

DEVELOPMENT

• New Orleans-based Turkey and the Wolf team to open restaurant (NBJ)
• Chicago firms reveal renderings for Edgehill Beaman site (NBJ)
• Miami vintage car and guitar store slated for Pie Town (NBJ)
• Regent Homes breaks ground on Fairview City Center (Post)
• Metro approval sought for Rutledge Hill project (Post)
• Long-planned Edgehill project progresses (Post)

✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (JUNE 11)

Dumb Money (Netflix) It’s an outrage that this retelling of the GameStop meme stock frenzy and the populist resistance led by YouTuber Roaring Kitty (Paul Dano) came and went from theaters last fall without the attention it deserved. But now that the notoriously reclusive man-myth-legend is back on the stream, it’s as good a time as any to revisit the most remarkable moment of stick-it-to-the-manness that came from the COVID era. The movie’s whip-smart script actively avoids the self-righteous trappings of other “stock market for dummies” movies like The Big Short while its top-notch ensemble cast, including Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, American Ferrara, and Shailene Woodley gives it a smarmy energy that rivals the heyday of 90s indies. It’s the best proof in recent memory that sophistication and Hollywood entertainment aren’t as diametrically opposed as they increasingly seem.

Mad Men (AMC+ and Prime) Earlier this spring, The New York Times’s James Poniewozik articulated what we’ve been saying for years: TV has been mid for the last half-decade––as sleek yet disposable as a Nordstrom Rack cardigan. But the real problem is that nothing has come close to the sheer artistry of Matthew Weiner’s zeitgeist show since it ended its eight-season run in 2015. As ad exec Don Draper, Jon Hamm navigated masculinity in crisis while serving as the paragon of the difficult man to which we should all aspire. Biting, hilarious, and more heartfelt than its reputation would indicate, it’s the very definition of Peak TV.

Lisa Frankenstein (Peacock) Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody teams up with Robin Williams’s daughter for an 80s-steeped retelling of Frankenstein about a teenage semi-Goth New Waver (Kathryn Newton) who would have resurrected the Victorian boy of her dreams (Dylan Sprouse) if not for his murderous tendencies. It may have been DOA at the winter box office, but it’s one of the few movies to capture the beauty and brutality of 80s adolescence in a way that would make both John Hughes and Stephen King proud. Sure, it received the same polarizing reviews Cody’s Jennifer’s Body did fifteen years ago. Look how that turned out.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎺 Sofia Goodman Jazz Jam @ Vinyl Tap, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 A Room on Fire - The Music of The Strokes @ The Basement East, 8p, $19.27, Info

🎺 Todd Day Wait @ The Underdog, 11:00p, Free, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌
+ Honky Tonk Tuesday afterparty, down the street

🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ American Legion Post 82, 8p, Free, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p