Areas of Concourse and Rendezvous
🌆 What HG Wells said about cities · Pardon me · Getting ahead of AI · Divvying up property tax · Repeat offender all-star · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Today we’ve got a note on the future of cities in the United States, a flurry of news about pardons of Middle Tennessee public figures, the AG’s effort to get ahead of AI, and the council deliberations over how to distribute the additional property tax revenue. First time reading? Sign up here.
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What does the future of American cities look like? America’s most renowned chronicler of urban affairs Joel Kotkin has some thoughts:
What we are seeing mirrors H.G. Wells’s vision. He predicted that most economic life, and most families, would shift to the suburbs and exurbs. The urban core would be reinvented: no longer the uncontested center of political and economic life but a vast theater of “concourse and rendezvous,” ideal for the childless wealthy, necessary for their servants and a beacon to the young and the culturally aware.
You’ll often hear from advocates of density that with increased density comes increased productivity. As if by cramming more and more people together, the friction they produce shuffling by one another is enough to throw off excess energy.
Whenever that claim pops up, I just point to Silicon Valley—the world’s foremost innovation hub—and note that it’s a suburb. I’m currently in Las Vegas for the Bitcoin Conference (yearly tradition at this point, report forthcoming). Vegas represents the maximalist version of Wells’s vision: an urban playground for adults, void of children and productive economic activity. Nashville’s future, despite common comparisons to Atlanta or Austin, may look more Vegas-y.
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
⚖️ Pardon Me Former local reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley are to be pardoned after serving just over two years in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud. Yesterday, Trump’s Communications Advisor Margo Martin posted a video of the president making a call to the couple’s children and sharing the news. “It’s a great thing, because your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” Trump said. The full pardon comes after Savannah Chrisley appeared on “My View with Lara Trump” to share her parents’ story a week and a half ago.
Speaking of pardons, former Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey—who was also pardoned by the president after just beginning his 21-month sentence for illegal campaign finance charges earlier this year—is eligible to receive his state pension benefits. “His pension’s been recently restored because he was pardoned by President Trump,” state Treasurer David Lillard told The Tennessee Journal.
A week ago, country star John Rich took to X on behalf of former aide to past Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, Cade Cothern, who was recently convicted on federal counts of conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, theft, and money laundering related to a shell company scheme involving his political consulting firm, Phoenix Solutions. “I have personally advocated to [President Donald Trump] to pardon [Cade Cothren] who was targeted by Biden's DOJ, persecuted by the FBI and other agencies, and is now facing 20 years in prison for what amounts to a false, TN State, minor infraction,” posted Rich.
👾 Getting Ahead Of AI Last week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined 36 other state attorneys general opposing a federal ban on state regulation of AI products. The coalition sent a bipartisan letter to leaders in the US Congress after an amendment was added to the House budget reconciliation bill that would put a 10-year prohibition on enforcing state laws or regulations addressing artificial intelligence.
“The combined efforts of the states and the federal government have been, at best, barely enough to protect consumers from Big Tech,” said Skrmetti in a press release. “Eliminating state oversight through this reconciliation amendment guarantees Americans will suffer repeated violations of their privacy, consumer protection, and antitrust laws.”
Yesterday, Senator Marsha Blackburn released a column warning of the dangers of unregulated AI in the music industry. While acknowledging the positive impact AI development can have on the future of music, Blackburn pointed out the fraud and copyright issues that may arise as the technology advances. The senator also announced that she plans to help reintroduce the NO FAKES Act, which “would hold individuals and companies legally liable if they distribute or host an unauthorized digital replica of an individual’s voice or visual likeness.”
💰 Council Unable To Make Changes To USD/GSD Rates During yesterday's Budget & Finance Work Session, council members heard from the Finance Department and professionals who conducted a multi-year study that determined the Mayor’s newly reconfigured property tax rates. These rates are the Urban Services District (USD), which includes properties within Nashville's core where additional services like garbage collection, street lights, and sidewalk maintenance are provided, and the General Services District (GSD) for properties throughout the county that don’t get these extra services.
Given the proposed rate changes, council members with constituents who own property within GSD areas are unhappy with how they will absorb more of the cost of services. Because of this, several council members have been looking for ways to redistribute the rates and trim the budget, but that’s likely to be a tall order.
Metro Director of Finance Jenneen Reed disclosed that, because Metro conducted an official GSD/USD tax rate study, they must implement the newly proposed changes or could face legal risk. Committee Chair Delishia Porterfield also clarified that council members hoping to cut the budget by eliminating certain Full-Time Equivalent Metro employee positions or programs could only do so with the blessing of the department heads affiliated with the change. Both of these realities may tie the hands of council members hoping to pass an alternative budget to replace Mayor O’Connell’s proposal.
Throughout the two-hour work session, a few members posed questions about the exact breakdown of how services provided to the downtown core district differ from the rest of the county. Some also presented potential solutions, including separating things like fire, police, and education etc. for those who live within Nashville's urban area from those living on the outskirts of the city—ideas that sound a lot like the way Davidson County and the City of Nashville used to operate as separate entities before their consolidation in the 60s.
DEVELOPMENT
- State sells downtown's Citizen Plaza office tower at significant loss (NBJ)
- Kid Rock opens seafood restaurant in Nashville (WKRN)
- Local church buys Music Row property (Post)
- Metro considers parking ordinance for bars, nightclubs (Post)
✹ REPEAT OFFENDER ALL-STAR OF THE DAY
Today's repeat offender all-star started his career at the ripe age of 14 when, during a fight outside of Pearl Cohn High School, he was accused of attempted criminal homicide of a 17-year-old boy. The next year, when Ransom was 15, he was accused of shooting an 18-year-old, for which he is set to stand trial on June 5th. (More Info)
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.
TONIGHT
🎸 The Menzingers & Lucero @ Brooklyn Bowl, 7:30p, $47.80, Info
🪕 The Darrell Webb Band @ The Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
💀 Tennessee Dead @ Tennessee Brew Works, 6p, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Jerod Hollyfield (Crowd Corner), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).