Leave Them Broadway Signs Alone

Good afternoon, everyone.

Fielding reader questions: “Is there a German word for lashing out at one trivial thing because you are impotent in another (more important) thing?” I don’t know the answer to this question, but if there is such a word, it would describe the Metro Council.

Last night, a benign and routine resolution that would have permitted Morgan Wallen’s Broadway bar to put up signage was voted down with 30 nos, 3 yeses, and 4 abstentions. Councilmember Jacob Kupin, who represents the Broadway district, pulled the bill off the consent agenda—meaning that, instead of bundling it with a bunch of bills that would pass with a simple vote, it would be brought to the floor for discussion before going up for a vote.

“This is a sign encroachment for Morgan Wallen’s new bar that crossed my desk right about the time that he decided to throw a chair off a rooftop, nearly hitting some first responders,” Kupin announced. “It struck me that we’re putting up a sign with someone’s name on it who has not been a good actor downtown.”

Kupin spoke in favor of the resolution (and was one of the three yes votes), but opened the bill up to discussion which set the stage for what was to come. The subsequent discussion led to a series of moralizing soliloquies from a number of council members on why they’d be opposing the bill.

“Is this the same Morgan Wallen that got in trouble for making racist comments and using the N-word?” Councilmember Porterfield asked rhetorically, before announcing her intention to vote “no” on the resolution.

The council’s petulant display was clearly meant to send a message to Wallen, and more broadly, the culture of Broadway. You can see a highlight clip on our Twitter of some of their other comments, which I don’t want to dignify further in print (and I’m late getting this out).

The whole discussion and ensuing vote ate up eight minutes of the three-hour meeting, constituting four percent of the time spent in session inside the chamber. Porterfield later tweeted, “We just voted down a resolution allowing an Aerial Encroachment with Morgan Wallen's name on it. Yes THAT Morgan Wallen. The one who throws chairs & uses racial slurs.”

I’d fully expect this tweet to be used as evidence in a lawsuit that will cost the city at least a couple hundred thousand dollars, if not more. According to the Supreme Court ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, local ordinances may regulate signs so long as the regulations are content-neutral, but not if the regulation is content-based. 

Because the council members didn’t have any misgivings about the sign, aside from the fact that it contained the name of notorious outlaw Morgan Wallen, their vote against the resolution is likely a violation of the First Amendment and bound to end up in court. What an absolute waste of time, energy, and money. DAVIS HUNT

Onward.

🔫 Permission To Carry, Ungranted Last month, days before the governor added his signature to a newly passed law permitting school employees to conceal carry, MNPS announced it would not allow teachers or staff members to arm themselves on their campuses. The council backed the district’s decision last night by passing a resolution supporting its stance. “The permissive guns-in-schools law was only a bandaid brought up to pacify those who wanted real, sincere change to address some of our violence challenges,” said sponsor Antoinette Lee. “I commend our school district for researching and doing their due diligence to listen to employees and the community.”

According to Lee, only four Tennessee school districts haven’t released a public statement rejecting the new law. This near-unanimous response across the state, she said, is proof the legislation was a terrible idea.

However, a Vanderbilt poll released this morning shows Tennesseans are split on the issue: 47 percent support the new law, while 47 percent oppose it. A look at the partisan breakdown shows 77 percent of “MAGA” Republicans and 71 percent of “non-MAGA” Republicans support the option of armed teachers, while 47 percent of Independents and only 11 percent of Democrats are in favor. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

✰   ✰   ✰

🗺️ To Colonize or Be Colonized Councilmember Delishia Porterfield brought forward a late-filed resolution condemning white supremacy after flyers were found advertising Kentucky’s Ku Klux Klan in North Nashville. The council waived the rules to pass the resolution with little discussion. 

Emotions ran high toward the end of the meeting when the council took up a resolution recognizing May as Jewish Heritage Month. One of the council’s Jewish members, Jacob Kupin, sponsored the legislation and spoke openly about the tensions felt by the city’s Jewish community. “I've had friends of mine whose children have been threatened in MNPS school bathrooms and told that, because they are Jewish, they are not welcome here,” he said. In a display of camaraderie and friendship, he reached out to his Muslim colleague, Councilmember Zulfat Suara, across the room: “It's a tough time for Jews, it's a tough time for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Muslims.”

Suara was emotional as she commented on Kupin’s resolution. “I think the Jewish community has done so much for our nation, and I think that being persecuted for who you are is very, very wrong,” she said. “And I shouldn't have to say that…people shouldn't be surprised that I said that. As somebody who's lived in this town for so long, and done a lot of interfaith work and has a lot of Jewish friends, it shouldn't be surprising that any one of us would want to recognize Jewish Americans.” The resolution passed unanimously. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

✰   ✰   ✰

The status of other noteworthy bills from last night's meeting.

RULES OF PROCEDURE

• Rule 43.4 (Passed) Gives a one week deferral for any reintroduced item that has been off of the agenda for more than 60 days, with exceptions for zoning bills.

RESOLUTIONS

• Late-filed Resolution (Passed) condemning white supremacy due to recent materials found in North Nashville 
• RS2024-351 (Passed) asking Metro to study safety and security along the Cumberland River
• RS2024-459 (Passed) allocating $500,000 from the Metropolitan Government to the new Strobel Permanent Supportive Housing Residence for the homeless
• RS2024-467 (Failed) permission for aerial encroachments at Morgan Wallen’s bar
• RS2024-455 (Deferred) approving three option agreements authorizing the purchase of properties for a new elementary school in Antioch
• RS2024-473 (Passed) supporting the decision of MNPS to reject the state law allowing teachers or staff to carry firearms on campus

BILLS ON FIRST READING

• BL2024-375 (Passed) "Build It Right" bill regarding workplace safety and audits of Metro construction agreement
• BL2024-187 (Passed) NEST; substituted based on guidance from planning department, allows construction of single-family, two-family, and multi-family in all commercial zones 

BILLS ON SECOND READING

• BL2024-183 (Withdrawn) NEST bill related to fireproofing requirements, but council will come back with a substitute to adhere to new state laws
• BL2024-343 (Deferred) change of code regarding the membership of the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the process for approving the criteria for awarding funds

BILLS ON THIRD READING

• BL2024-184 (Passed) NEST; DADUs, daycare centers, and mixed-use zones 
• BL2024-336 (Passed) Accelerating Resilience of the Community through Holistic Engagement and use of Renewables

DEVELOPMENT

• Printer's Alley investor brings back Beer Sellar under new name (NBJ)
• Meta approved for another data center on Gallatin campus (NBJ)
• Airport board prioritizes 309-acre site for second terminal (NBJ)
• Austin men's fashion retailer, Stag, to open local store (Post)
• MDHA committee OKs plan for Gulch hotel project (Post)
• Hillsboro Village events building listed for sale (Post)
• Charlotte Avenue property sells for $2.05M (Post)

✹ REVIEW: BACK TO BLACK (2024)

“I want people to hear my voice and just forget their troubles for five minutes,” Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela) says in voiceover as she runs down a London street. It’s the kind of sentiment one would expect from a big-budget popstar biopic of a figure mired in tragedy and unrepentant substance abuse. But this recounting of Winehouse’s life is also a Sam Taylor-Johnson movie, so all is not what it seems. 

As the opening begins to induce eye-rolling, Taylor-Johnson cuts to Winehouse reading these words from a diary entry she wrote as a teenager, leaving us to wonder how someone so mired in adolescent cliché ended up producing one of the most emotionally raw records in rock history. Rather than ripped-from-the-headlines melodrama, we see Winehouse interacting with her beloved nan (Lesley Manville), who would also become the primary inspiration for her grandaughter’s hybrid of fifties glamor, blues, and R&B–the pioneering sound that paved the way for the likes of Lana Del Rey’s and Taylor Swift’s more managed eras. 

Most famous for her photography in Interview magazine, Taylor-Johnson has always been more interested in interrogating iconography than succumbing to tawdry self-seriousness. Such makes her a rightful heir to that publication’s founder, Andy Warhol. Consequently, her work often provokes hostility from critics who can’t see beneath the surface. Such is why her Fifty Shades of Grey remains a punchline a decade after its release even though it's a movie about the reality of corporate power on par with The Social Network.

Back to Black has no patience for dramatizing hard drug use and bulimia. We had our fill of that in the years before Winehouse’s untimely death. Instead, Taylor-Johnson offers an astute exploration of pop mythos that elevates the traditional above the tabloid nihilism that probably would have garnered it much better reviews. JEROD HOLLYFIELD

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

🎸 Wild Child @ The Basement East, 8p, $35.45, Info
+ indie pop duo from Austin, TX

🎸 Richard Bennett Band @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info

🎸 Marcus Miller with the Nashville Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $36+, Info

🎸 Jack Silverman Quartet @ Vinyl Tap, 7p, No Cover, Info
+ Nashville jazz with a psychedelic rock twist

🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info