The Downtown Library Is Nice to the Homeless

Good afternoon, everyone.

An interesting wrinkle in the local news this morning: The Downtown Public Library will be closed until October as it undergoes renovations. If you’ve been there at any point over the past decade, you know that it essentially functions as a daytime homeless shelter.

So, in anticipation of the homeless displacement, the Office of Homeless Services is passing out free bus passes to the “unhoused” and suggesting they decamp to the Madison, Bordeaux, and Southeast branches. That’s one way to juice ridership numbers before the referendum in November. 

Reminder that we’re doing a Bar Hours next Thursday, August 29th. RSVP to get the location.

Onward.

🔵 DNC Through The Eyes of Tennessee Planned Parenthood brought the abortion pills and vasectomy vans, protesters breached the United Center’s fence, and President Joe Biden delivered his own “career eulogy”: The Democratic National Convention is off to an interesting start. Though State Senator Mallory McMorrow of Michigan toted a giant “Project 2025” book on stage last night, she’ll likely be upstaged by the Tennessee Three, who are set to speak sometime before VP Harris addresses the convention on Thursday. Here are some local reactions that may or may not have fallen out of a coconut tree.

“I got some sweet swag at the Republican convention,” mused Congressman Tim Burchett. “Just think, if I was a Democrat I could have gotten an abortion.”

“The vibe in Chicago for the #DemConvention is real y’all,” posted Knoxville Representative and US Senate candidate Gloria Johnson. “Excitement abounds!”

Brandon Marshall, the Comms Director for Meharry’s School of Medicine, spotted Mayor Freddie O’Connell standing next to Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus while hoisting a WE ♥︎ JOE sign.

And finally, Councilmember Sean Parker weighed in with the most objective, Music City style analysis of the evening: “As a stage professional who has not watched any DNC but did see this single photo: Big crowd, great energy. RNC had [a] better setup. Absolutely nothing wrong with the DNC setup tho.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

📑 Resolution Preview You can catch tonight’s Metro Council meeting live via YouTube, on the Metro Nashville Network, or at the Historic Metro Courthouse. (Did you know that the Memphis City Council broadcasts their meetings by radio?) Here are a few interesting resolutions the council will vote on this evening.

Vision Zero: A $350,000 sole-source contract with the University of Tennessee–-Chattanooga for Vision Zero Plan data analysis and project planning.

Building Your Sidewalks: An NDOT agreement to pay up to $304,275 to reconstruct ADA-compliant sidewalks between the intersections of 2nd Avenue South & Korean Veterans Boulevard and 2nd Avenue South & Molloy Street. (The developer, C.B. Ragland, has agreed to pay the remainder.)

Save The Children: A proposal to increase a grant from the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs by approximately $252,000 to fund four Spanish-speaking Victim Witness Coordinators to work with the Crimes Against Children unit.

Voter Registration Machines: A $13,000 purchasing agreement for voter registration kiosks to be placed in Nashville high schools.

Affordable Housing Tax Incentives: A payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the developer of a multifamily housing project in East Nashville in exchange for 289 units for low-income families. Metro could waive up to $5M of the developer’s taxes over the next 10 years. 

Fortifying Fort Negley: An agreement of nearly $7 million for Metro to acquire 2.36 acres near Fort Negley for preservation purposes. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🚌 Transit Presentations & Surveys Abound Last Thursday, the Nashville nonprofit Neighbor 2 Neighbor gathered via Zoom to deliver a presentation that included the results of Imagine Nashville’s January survey. The questionnaire, you may recall, noted that 90 percent of respondents agreed that investing in city-wide public transportation is an important priority for Nashville. Since the rollout of Choose How You Move, N2N has worked closely with O'Connell's administration, incorporating Vision Zero presentations and pro-transit community outreach initiatives into various information sessions.

Interestingly, a new survey has been making the rounds this week. Distributed by an unknown group, the questionnaire asks respondents how they feel about the Nashville Convention Center, Mayor O'Connell, Metro Council, the school board, and the possibility of a sales tax increase, among other things. Will Nashville see more media coverage incorporating this data before November if the results aren’t as sympathetic to the mayor’s transit plan? MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

NEW DRIVER'S LICENSE DESIGN

DEVELOPMENT

• AJ Capital Partners to relocate historic Merritt Mansion (NBJ)
• 12South wine bar Postino sets opening; Dutch Bros Coffee expands (NBJ)
• Berry Hill property sells for $1.5M (Post)

✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (August 20th)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Max) It may have fallen victim to some dunderheaded girlboss marketing, but the latest entry in George Miller’s five-decade postapocalyptic epic could go toe-to-toe with its predecessors. As the younger iteration of Fury Road’s breakout character, Anya Taylor-Joy proves herself a bona fide action star while Chris Hemsworth brings an off-kilter menace that shows he’s more than just a dim demigod who can weld a hammer. Living-room viewing sure ain’t IMAX, but, as we said earlier this summer, it and The Bikeriders are the perfect transit referendum double feature for those concerned Mayor O’Connell’s plan demonstrates no awareness of the importance of the open road to the American mythos

Bad Monkey (Apple TV+) Vince Vaughn stars in this new series as a disgraced private dick working as a Miami restaurant inspector who can’t repress his noir instincts when a severed arm turns up in a tourist spot. Snarky P.I.s haven’t been this good since The Long Goodbye and Chinatown. Plus, Vaughn finally reveals himself as a major leading man who has been inexplicably punching below his weight for much of his career. 

“Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson” (The Criterion Channel) Those who missed seeing Magnolia with the Mayor at the kickoff to the Belcourt’s 1999 series in May can spend the dog days of summer with America’s greatest living filmmaker thanks to Criterion. Witness Paul Thomas Anderson’s unrivaled early millennium run of Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will be Blood, and The Master while seeing the best work Tom Cruise, Adam Sander, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Joaquin Phoenix have ever done. Top it all off with Anderson’s latest, Licorice Pizza, a movie that somehow ends up as much a tribute to young love and the 70s San Fernando Valley as it is a treatise on the failure of the politics that led to the rise of Reagan. The perfect deep dive before The Belcourt’s 35mm screenings of Boogie Nights that send off the summer on Labor Day Weekend.

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

🎸 Marcel Riesco and the Rhythm Cats @ The Underdog, 9:30p, $5, Info

🎸 Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago @ Bridgestone Arena, 7:30p, $32+, Info

🎸 Wallows @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7:30p, $32+, Info

🪕 45 RPM @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

🪕 East Nash Grass @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $15, Info

🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p

🎺 Todd Day Wait @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.

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