Show Me the Funding
🏦 Mayor O'Connell reacts · Read this week's short story · Nashville rent continues to dip · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Mayor reacts to proposed changes to his budget... Tales from the West Side: Little House on the Freeway... 63 percent of Nashville rentals listed on Zillow offering free rent, waived fees, or other deals... And much more!
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Mayor loosens zoning codes for child care facilities and weighs in on proposed changes to his budget.
From Megan Podsiedlik
This morning, Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed “Codes for Kids,” a zoning reform bill that makes it easier and faster to open and operate childcare facilities in Nashville. The bill removes some red tape by eliminating the 1,000-foot rule (which restricted distances between facilities), reduces the need for special exception permits, and updates definitions and zoning permissions for different-sized child care centers.
This week, council members presented adjustments they’d like to make to the mayor’s proposed budget. O’Connell said that he was made aware ahead of time about Councilmember Jason Spain’s proposal to take a million dollars from MNPS' budget to conduct an audit of Metro Nashville Public Schools.
“He's also looking at continued study of the Urban Services District and General Services District,” said O’Connell. “We him them, as long as we can find reasonable sources for funding, that those are things we could support.”
The mayor had a similar response to Chair Kyonzté Toombs’ proposal to increase the mayor’s 0.5 percent grocery sales tax cut to one percent.
“What we found was we could offer a grocery tax reduction that was corresponding to what we asked Nashvillians and visitors to chip in on the Choose How You Move program, and so we're kind of offering that back to Nashvillians," he said. “If Metro Council can find sufficient ways to further reduce the budget by losing that revenue, we'll look at that.”
✹ Little House on the Freeway
From Rachel Gladstone
I always look for it, no matter the weather or time of day. Cruising down the freeway, due West, I could be headed to Memphis if I had a mind, but instead I’ll be taking the next exit and driving the eight blocks home. Just as I glide into the far-right lane, I see it, The Little House on the Freeway, hunkered down in the shadow of the Cracker Barrel billboard.
The faded yellow, one-story dwelling looks like the lovechild of a mobile home and a shanty, or like an old prom queen in an ill-fitting dress whose date fled a long time ago. It’s the last house to leave the party; the only remnant of a neighborhood that was whole and thriving once upon a time; before the freeway sliced it in two. Clinging to the hillside, just a few yards from I40, it sits placidly facing danger every minute of every day with nothing but a low, concrete wall and a haphazardly short chain-link fence standing between it and oncoming traffic.
✹ METRO COUNCIL WATCH
New Council Watch Features We've added additional features to Council Watch. In addition to who's funding your council member, you can now see how they vote and who they vote with most frequently. (Take a Look)
HEADLINES
- 🏢 Free rent, concessions available at many Nashville apartments. A surplus of new apartment construction in Nashville has cooled the rental market, with about 63 percent of listings on Zillow this spring offering concessions such as free rent, waived fees, or other deals. While this provides some relief, affordability remains a challenge for many local workers, as typical rents still require high incomes relative to wages in common occupations. (Tennessean)
- 🌍 Kilmar Abrego Garcia fights deportation to Liberia after criminal charges dropped. After criminal human smuggling charges against him were dismissed in Nashville, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is fighting further deportation efforts and seeking removal only to Costa Rica, which has offered him refugee protections. The Trump administration has pursued deportation to countries like Liberia instead, which his legal team argues is punitive retaliation after his successful challenges to prior unlawful removal to El Salvador. (Lookout)
- 🐄 Tick Talk: invasive tick relatively new to Tennessee. The Asian longhorned tick, an invasive species first found in the U.S. in 2017 and Tennessee in 2019, has established populations in multiple Middle and East Tennessee counties and primarily threatens livestock due to its ability to reproduce asexually and rapidly multiply. It is less attracted to humans than native ticks, carries some potential pathogens (though transmission risk to people remains unclear), and is active from spring through fall in grassy and wooded areas. (DNJ)
DEVELOPMENT
- Beloved Cherokee Steakhouse Poised to Reopen (Scene)
- Restaurant, bar planned for former Germantown Barista Parlor space (NBJ)
- Fallon, Elmington Capital break ground on Eastpoint Flats (Post)
- Chestnut Hill eyed for boutique residential project (Post)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week 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
🎸 Echo & The Bunnymen: More Songs to Learn & Sing @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, 8p, $59, Info
🎸 Caroline Carter @ The Blue Room, 7p, $19, Info
🎸 Laney Jones and the Spirits @ The Basement, 9p, $19.78, Info
🪕 Boot Scootin' Boogie Nights - A Night of 90's Country @ The Basement East, 8p, $19.88, Info
🎻 Time For Three: Abrams Conducts Bates @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $48+, Info
🎸 Musicians Corner @ Centennial Park, 5p, Free, Info
🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
SATURDAY
🎸 Ricardo Grilli & Friends @ Dee's Lounge, 9:15p, $10, Info
🎻 Time For Three: Abrams Conducts Bates @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $48+, Info
🎸 Musicians Corner @ Centennial Park, 12p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
SUNDAY
🪕 Steve Earle @ Ryman Auditorium, 7p, $31+, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Jam @ Station Inn, 7p, Free, Info
+ a night for musicians and singers from all over the world to gather and enjoy making music together
🪕 Sundays Between with Easy Green @ Tennessee Brew Works, 1p, Info
+ a bluegrass celebration of the music of the Grateful Dead
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.