What's in a name
📇 It's against the law to name · State of the state · SFH · Week in streaming · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth restored Fort Liberty’s name to Fort Bragg. The military base in North Carolina is among the largest in the world, and it was originally named for General Braxton Bragg who led the Army of Tennessee for the Confederacy.
In 2021, Congress passed a law establishing a Naming Commission that was tasked with suggesting new names for all military assets named after members of the Confederacy. And thus we got Fort Liberty in October of 2022.
The catch with Hegseth’s restoration is that the fort is no longer named for General Braxton Bragg, but instead Private First Class Roland Bragg, an officer stationed at Fort Bragg during World War II and recipient of both a Silver Star and a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge—a clever hack to get around the limitations imposed by law.
Speaking of the Department of Defense, footage from 2023 resurfaced of outgoing Deputy Secretary of the department Kathleen Hicks sparring with television personality Jon Stewart about why the DoD’s inability to pass an audit is not as bad as you think it is.
After Hicks attempts to drive the conversation into the particulars of an audit and what it actually shows, Stewart sums up the exchange well for the audience to applause.
“Now, I may not understand exactly the ins and outs and the incredible magic of an audit,” he starts, “but I’m a human being who lives on the earth and can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps. To me, that’s f*****g corruption.”
The whole back-and-forth is worth a watch if only for how hard Hicks works to give non-answers to direct questions. It’s especially relevant given Trump directed Elon Musk and DOGE to work its magic on the Pentagon next.
In other news, with each passing day, the nine-foot tall chainlink fence topped with barbed wire lining the Natchez Trace Double Arch Bridge radicalizes me further. I reached out to the National Park Services to get information about what the permanent barrier would look like and when it was set for construction. According to NPS, the contract could be awarded in late 2025 and begin construction in early 2026.
As for what the permanent barrier will look like, a rendering shows that the current preferred alternative consists of vertical posts with angled returns supporting woven stainless‐steel wire mesh. In other words, a fence—sans-barbed wire—with thicker vertical posts that arch back over the road. Not much of a change from what we have now, but at least there’s no barbed wire.
I realize this is a grim thing to fixate on, but it matters what our environments look like. The bridge, a marvel of human ingenuity and a homage to the natural world it plays so well against, is now a monument to human anguish. The Golden Gate Bridge has had success after installing nets below the bridge that are not visually obstructive. There are very likely some engineering limitations at play in the erection of barriers along the double arches that I’m not aware of, but there must be a better way to handle this.
If not, then I’m just mourning the loss of a world in which these things were not as present in the public consciousness—where our environments were not marked and maimed by state-imposed reminders of human depravity. As Canada sees an expansion in its assisted suicide offerings (accounting for 1 in 20 deaths in 2023), it’s worth considering how we got here as a civilization.
Onward.
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🎙️ State Of The State Following the recent approval of his full special session agenda, Governor Bill Lee took special care to acknowledge the importance of the state legislature during last night’s State of the State address. “Government is usually seen as a bureaucratic mess,” said Lee. “But this General Assembly proved everyone wrong and showed what happens when we move, not at government pace, but at real-world pace.”
While the governor highlighted the House and Senate’s commitment to East Tennessee as it recovers from Hurricane Helene, their passage of the education scholarship expansion program also marked a personal victory for Lee after its failure during last year’s regular session.
Taking a cue from the new presidential administration, Lee highlighted innovation, deregulation, and energy investment during his 40-minute speech. His agenda includes things like a $50 million grant fund to support Tennessee Valley Authority’s Clinch River Nuclear SMR project, an additional $130 million for public safety grants to support local law enforcement, and $100 million to help protect Duck River. You can review his $59.5 billion budget proposal and package of legislative priorities here.
🏠 Single Family Homes Governor Lee also brought up an issue that hits close to home in Nashville: affordable housing. But instead of addressing density—a talking point often echoed by local YIMBYs and council members—he zeroed in on single-family housing.
“The housing market has dramatically changed in this state, certainly since I bought my first home—which was a long time ago,“ Lee joked before laying out how Tennessee’s mortgage rates have doubled over the last four years. “Today, Tennessee is ranked the fifth worst in the nation for the loss of starter homes,” he said.
To help Tennesseeans achieve the American Dream, the governor is “proposing a $60 million starter home revolving loan fund” with 0 percent interest construction loans for new single-family homes. He is also introducing a tax credit for rural and workforce housing, and emphasized that affordable housing should be addressed “through innovation, and not through regulation.”
🚨 Call It In While exasperated Nashvillians are experiencing reporting fatigue given the recent uptick in car break-ins, Metro Nashville Police Department’s Sergeant William Erickson emphasized the importance of calling in incidents during last week’s West Precinct community meeting. Erickson heads the vehicle crime section and explained to attendees how the police rely on breadcrumbs when conducting their investigations.
“Listing the things that were stolen, especially things with serial numbers or…debit cards that have been stolen is important,” said Erickson. If a reported item is found on a suspect during an arrest at a later time, it can help officers hold that person accountable for the previous theft or assist them by supplying a fresh lead.
West Precinct Commander Steven Bowers also encouraged people to report criminal behavior even when nothing is stolen. The information not only helps track patterns of criminal activity, but shapes how MNPD assigns patrol areas. “You have individuals who just say, ‘You know, well, the last car break-in that I had, nothing happened. They didn't catch anybody. So I'm not even going to report this one,’” Bowers said. While the Commander empathized with the frustration, inserting a personal experience while joking about the hassle of insurance claims, he explained that MNDP’s Strategic Division places more officers in areas based on the number of calls for services.
DEVELOPMENT-ish
- St. Vito Focacceria in the Gulch made Infatuation’s list of 21 best pizza spots in the US (Infatuation)
- Penthouse under contract at Tony Giarratana's Paramount tower, poised to set record (NBJ)
- Tiger Woods' Nashville golf project breaks ground (NBJ)
- Berry Hill commercial property listed for sale (Post)
- Music Row office building listed for $6.25M (Post)
✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (February 11th)
It Ends With Us (Netflix) Even though the romance between flower store owner Lily Bloom and her gaslighting dreamboat neurosurgeon made for a box-office juggernaut last summer, the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuit saga it spawned is where the real drama is. I can’t honestly say there’s anything objectively good in the most by-the-numbers and lazy melodrama of the last decade. But watching the thing while trying to discern traces of the on-set conflict is a better time than any of the streamer’s crappy murder shows or most of what it released last year.
Yellowjackets (Paramount+ with Showtime) The Lord of the Flies meets Mean Girls prestige drama is back for a third season this weekend, so now is the perfect time to catch up on all the flashback cannibal craziness. Featuring 90s all-stars Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis as the all-grown-up versions of the varsity soccer stars stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash, it’s one of the few shows that would rather comment on nostalgia than just revel in it.
My Bloody Valentine (2009) (Prime) Horror remakes are a landmine, but the late-aughts update of the classic 80s Canadian slasher we recommended last week manages to hold its own. This time, the miner seeking vengeance against those moving on from the explosion that killed his friends is after former WB teen drama bros like Jensen Ackles and Kerr Smith with 80s cult acting legend Tom Atkins trying to crack the case. Though it’s a little lighter on the political commentary than its predecessor, it’s a blast for V-Day viewing–even without the 3D that made it a solid hit upon its original release.
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
🎻 Macabre Riddles: Works for Harp and Strings @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, Choose What You Pay, Info
🎸 slimdan @ The End, 8p, $18.54, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎸 Cole Ritter and the Night Owls @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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