Nashville's Premier Cooling Shelter
📚 The downtown library is still closed · National Guard Assisting ICE · Abrego Garcia Update · Travel Baseball Index · The Frist goes Mediterranean · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. The downtown library is our most prestigious cooling shelter... An update on the Abrego Garcia case... The Travel Baseball Index, our original economic indicator... And the Frist goes to the Mediterranean for one more week.
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It’s been nearly three months since the downtown library closed after a fire in an adjacent parking garage. Soot and smoke poured into the library facility through the air conditioning, damaging parts of the interior. Since the June 9th fire, there has been an ongoing restoration process, focusing on the ten percent of the building that sustained moderate to heavy damage.
Generally speaking, few groups seem to have noticed the closure more than Nashville’s homeless population who typically congregate there, especially on hot summer days. The Nashville Banner published a story about the homeless’s reaction to the closure, quoting one man who appreciates how “police won’t tell people inside they have to move on like they do outside.”
Allie Wallace, Executive Director of Open Table Nashville, is also concerned about the closure. “The library is such a place of refuge for folks,” she told the paper. “To be able to get in, out of the elements, to use their computers, to sit in a chair and read and use the bathroom and all those kinds of things.”
Sounds more like a rec room than an institution devoted to the elevation of human knowledge.
“Libraries are known for being a place of knowledge, but they’re also a place of progress, right,” H.G. Stovall, the Executive Director of an organization that works with unhoused LGBTQ youth, asks rhetorically. “It would be beautiful to see some coalition that staffed and identified a cooling shelter that was of assistance.”
And there you have it. The downtown library is functionally just an elevated cooling shelter. At least we’re saying it out loud now. DAVIS HUNT
⧖⧗⧖ WHAT'S NEXT FOR BUSINESS? ⧗⧖⧗
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
⚖️ Abrego Garcia Update Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be released from Tennessee jail today, which would allow him to return to Maryland under pretrial supervision with electronic monitoring. Abrego Garcia made national headlines after being deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison in March, only to be sent back to America to face human smuggling charges. A Maryland federal judge has prohibited ICE from immediately detaining him upon release, requiring a three-day notice for any deportation proceedings to a third country. That said, ICE may still detain him in Maryland. His criminal trial in Tennessee is scheduled for January 27, 2027.
🧊 National Guard Assisting ICE In Nashville Governor Bill Lee has called up the Tennessee National Guard to assist ICE in Nashville from September 1 through December 15, with the possibility of extension. When asked about it during today’s media roundtable, Mayor O’Connell said that he’s a bit in the dark when it comes to the details. “Just as earlier this spring, I don't know what to expect, when to expect it, or how long things might last,” he said.
O’Connell went on to explain that immigration is a federal policy issue, not something the Metro Nashville Police Department intends to engage in. “Luckily, what I've seen so far is that if the National Guard gets engaged, I think under what I've read from the governor's office, it looks like they'll be primarily clerical and logistical support,” he said.
⚾️ MLB In Music City Major League Baseball is expanding in about four years, and Nashville is at the top of the list. ESPN's senior MLB insider Jeff Passan called Nashville "almost a shoo-in" to get an MLB expansion team when on "The Pat McAfee Show” On Wednesday.
According to the Tennessean, the next expansion will likely take place in 2028 and coincide with television contract negotiations. According to the Sports Business Journal, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would like the locations for two expansion franchises to be decided before he retires in 2029. Music City Baseball executive committee member John Loar told the publication that two potential downtown sites are being evaluated to develop a mixed-use ballpark entertainment district in Nashville.
DEVELOPMENT
- Downtown's Philips Plaza under contract to sell at markup after discount deal (NBJ)
- CA South seeks to sell prime East Bank development site (NBJ)
- Strategic Hospitality plans Wedgewood-Houston concept (NBJ)
- Construction to start on Eighth Avenue condo building (Post)
- Permit issued for Gulch hotel project (Post)
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✹ THE TRAVEL BASEBALL INDEX
Porter concocts a new way to measure which American states are the most affluent
From Joshua Porter
The Little League World Series Championship is upon us. Once a year in late August all eyes are on South Williamsport, PA as hundreds of young boys from across the country battle it out on the diamond for a chance to face a bunch of 6’2” Chinese “12 year olds” (wink, wink) in the championship game to determine the best youth baseball players in the world… well, not really.
According to Google search trends, interest in Travel Baseball peaks every year around June. This is right around the time when youth league season ends, and dad starts wondering if Jayden should start playing travel ball. Then by July, after getting run ruled several times, the allure wears off until the next year. This cycle repeats itself every year until Jayden gets cut at middle school tryouts and decides to play soccer and Fortnite.
An estimated 2 million of the 16.7 million kids that play baseball every year are spending 26 weekends a year grinding it out on the travel tournament circuit, while mom and dad are taking out second mortgages and title loans to get Braden enough exposure to get a scholarship at a community college program.
With spending on private training and tournaments growing every year, we here at The Pamphleteer cooked up a new economic metric that highlights where the deepest pockets in the youth baseball game are in 2025: the Travel Baseball Index.
Using data from www.travelbaseballrankings.com, we have aggregated the top fifty teams from all eleven age divisions (8U-18U) into our database. The top ten states with the most nationally ranked travel baseball teams are as follows.
✹ THE FRIST GOES MEDITERRANEAN
As Nashvillians fret over the influence of tourists on the city’s identity, Venice’s recent safeguards on visitors look all the more appealing. Substitute day-tripper fees for a bachelorette tax and cruise ship bans for pedal tavern laws and we’d really be choosing how we move. But the Frist has offered a less restrictive solution to these Venetian woes. Throughout Summer 2025, Nashville’s most high-profile art hub has brought a taste of the “Dying City” to downtown Nashville with its splashy summer exhibit, Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
Through September 1, the museum is providing Nashvillians with a window into life near the Mediterranean Sea from 1400-1800. With over 159 artists from The Republic of Venice (697-1797) and the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), the exhibit traces the influence of cross-culture exchange in a way that calls into question pat characterizations of Western imperialism.
In bringing to life how these two superpowers flourished, The Frist creates a dialogue through its array of armor, paintings, textiles, pottery, and other pieces. Thanks to a collaboration with seven Venetian museums, visitors can experience a portrait of the two empires’ influence on each other that reverberated through every facet of life from the culinary to the political.
As the exhibition winds down over the next two weeks, the museum has planned a series of related events that serve as the perfect cap to its central summer offering. Tonight, visitors can attend DJ Amy Darling’s lobby party with a special lute performance of the period’s music from Francis Perry.
The Frist also offers the last in its series of Art Chats about the exhibit led by its staff and, for families, a scavenger hunt for hidden gems and watercolor portraits by artist Mandy B. There’s no better place in Nashville to get away from the scorching late-August heat.
Tickets to the exhibition and a full schedule of events is available at The Frist’s website.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and for more recs, click 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
🎸 Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7:30p, $59+, Info
🎸 Bully @ The Blue Room, 7p, $32.51, Info
🪕 The Amanda Cook Band @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info
🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, 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).