Downtown expands
🌇 The Gulch wants to fold into the city's CBID · Updates on the airport authority · Visions of future Nashville · F1 review · Film rundown · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Today, we look at the potential expansion of Central Business Improvement District, catch up with the latest on the airport authority, get you ready for the new F1 movie, and present our weekly list of movies releasing in theaters. First time reading? Sign up here.
Happy Fourth! We’ll be taking tomorrow off to celebrate the 249th birthday of America. See y’all on Monday.
Like what we do? Forward us to a friend.
Yesterday, we talked with Councilmember Jacob Kupin about the proposed expansion of downtown’s Central Business Improvement District. The Gulch has its own business improvement district, which expires in 2026. Instead of reinstating it, stakeholders would like to merge with the downtown district to take advantage of additional sales tax revenue that they can only charge by joining the CBID.
“I think this is so great for downtown, but also for the whole city, because you effectively have stakeholders saying that they are going to invest their own money in their own neighborhood,” said Kupin. “It's downtown Nashville, which we know drives a substantial portion of the city and state revenue, and so the nicer, cleaner, safer, more active, and attractive it is, the more people want to come to it, the more money they spend, and the more revenue we have in the city. So you've got this core group downtown that's going to invest, and then you've got the whole city that's going to benefit with the revenue.”
While Kupin says local stakeholders are completely on board with the change, some council members have raised questions about how this sales tax money is used.
“I don't know if I've even heard a single person who's opposed to it,” said Kupin. “That being said, I believe that no matter what organization or group or entity you're working with, there's always room for improvement. We should always be looking at ‘How do we do it better? How do we do it with more care and kindness and success?’”
During Tuesday’s council meeting, a report of a shadow police force removing homeless people funded by the downtown partnership was mentioned. Kupin hopes to gain more clarity. “The article indicated approximately 200 to 300 arrests over 24 months,” he said, explaining that it is his duty to represent the homeless downtown as much as any other person who lives in his district. “One of the things we're looking at is: What percentage of arrests was that of all the arrests? My early indication is that it was not substantial compared to the number of arrests and the number of interactions in downtown Nashville over 24 months.”
Kupin also expanded on the impact of these accusations and how they've taken a toll on those who work closely with Nashville’s homeless as part of the business district’s endeavors. “The allegations that there's harm being done, I think, are, again, important to look into, important to address, but I don't think they are accurate to the way the article tried to characterize them,” he said.
The Central Business Improvement District’s expansion does not detract from any funding utilized in the city’s budget. Instead, it allows stakeholders in the district to tap into additional sales tax revenue resources to expand on services and upkeep. Kupin threw out some stats that paint a picture of what the investment accomplishes. “In 2024, the partnership picked up 750 tons of trash,” he said. “And my other favorite: There were 34,000 square miles of sidewalk swept, which is the equivalent of 1.4 times the distance around the globe.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
⧖⧗⧖ SHOW YOUR SUPPORT ⧗⧖⧗
If you want to support our work at The Pamphleteer, a recurring donation is the best way. We have a $10/month Grub Street tier and a $50/month Bard tier. Membership gets you access to our comments section and free access to upcoming events.
🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
✈️ State Still Wrestling Over Airport Authority Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti hopes to take the state’s battle over control of the Metro Nashville Airport Authority to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Thus far, courts have upheld the city’s authority. According to State Affairs, the state filed a petition last week shortly before the deadline.
In 2023, the Tennessee legislature passed a law that would take away the appointment power of the Metro Nashville Airport Authority from the mayor. Instead, it gives control to the governor and House and Senate speakers. Judges have ruled in favor of Metro, finding that the change violates Tennessee’s home rule by singling out Nashville and is therefore unconstitutional. It’s worth noting that Metro is attempting to make the same argument regarding another state law that would shrink the council. That said, since the law capping the number of council members applies to all municipalities, the circumstances of the case are a bit different.
🛣️ Key Appointment to TDOT Yesterday, Governor Bill Lee announced that Will Reid will replace Butch Eley as the new commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Starting July 10, Reid will take over for Eley, who stepped down from his TDOT position but maintains his position as Deputy Governor.
“Will Reid is a proven leader whose unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation has elevated the work of TDOT and the future of transportation in Tennessee,” said Lee in a press release. “His deep understanding of our state’s infrastructure needs, coupled with a track record of driving efficiency and transparency, makes him the right person to lead TDOT into its next chapter of service to Tennesseans.”
🎓 Vanderbilt Expansion Vanderbilt University announced that it will be investing in a 40-acre campus expansion in Midtown Nashville. The area in West End will be developed as an “innovation district” and includes spaces for “research, parks, retail spaces, housing and offices for university-affiliated individuals and startups.” According to the Vanderbilt Hustler, the new expansion will replace several blocks currently used for parking and retail and was inspired by Cornell Tech in New York and Harvard’s Allston Palace.
DEVELOPMENT
- Mystery buyer behind Edgehill Village deal snaps up more Music Row real estate for $10M (v)
- 51st Deli to open in Brentwood (Post)
⧖⧗⧖ TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BITCOIN ⧗⧖⧗
|
Use the form below to schedule your free consultation. We’ll help you store your bitcoin safely and securely — no pressure, no jargon, just real people who know how important it is to keep your bitcoin safe for you and your family. |
✹ THE NEXT TITANS' STADIUM DEAL
A satirical vision of the city in which something like the CBID expands and breaks off from the rest of the city, written October 18, 2022, after then-Mayor John Cooper announced the terms of the Titans stadium deal and revealed the $2.1B price tag and how it'd be funded.
It's 2050. The Mayor of Nashville, Jimmy Cooper the fifth, has just completed a deal with the Nashville Visitors Bureau to redistrict and rename downtown—otherwise known as the Tourist District—Nashvegas. They've just finished mounting a giant, Googie, glowing sign that arcs over Broadway, beckoning thirsting tourists down into the district—now complete with its own bus service, trash pickup, police force, and all the standard accouterment of a city within a city.
The border of Nashvegas spans the river, encompassing the entirety of the East Bank, including a recently-completed stadium built on the same site as the old one that can seat 200,000 people and host global e-sport tournaments in addition to drone races; the international baseball championship, the yearly OnlyFans Extravaganza, and more. The tourists who come to town to frequent these events adoringly call the stadium the Bale of Hay, because the yellow coat of paint on the outside gives it the color and texture of, well, hay. Not to mention, the smell of stinking sewage—Nashvegas has its own sewer system—seeping into the Cumberland River lends it the smell of a barnyard, to proffer a charitable description.
✹ REVIEW: F1 (2025)
If the first half of the summer movie season belonged to a plane-jumping Tom Cruise on the eighth leg of his impossible mission, the second is now officially the dominion of Brad Pitt, whose racing drama, F1, blew away box-office expectations last week. Even before the pandemic, Cruise and Pitt remained–with the obvious exceptions of Denzel and DiCaprio–our last movie stars, holdovers from the 80s who have spent the intervening decades honing their craft.
But while Cruise abandoned name directors like Kubrick and PT Anderson a quarter century ago in favor of his own cadre of stunt-obsessed collaborators, Pitt continues to push the cracks in his movie star persona by working with the medium’s greats in everything from Babylon to Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood.
Though F1 is also the latest from Joseph Kosinski, the now A-List action director responsible for Cruise’s rescue of Hollywood with Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, it appears more an alternate take on that film’s pretty-boy masculine energy than an extension of it into the racing world. As never-was driver Sonny Hayes, Pitt possesses little of the antiauthority spirit that made Maverick the country’s last hope in Biden’s declining America.
Instead, he’s a misanthrope that fell too hard for his own myth, unable to come to terms with how his hubris caused the career-immolating accident that left him traveling the amateur circuit. It’s his duty to former teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem) that pulls him into the Eurocentric world of F1 where he has little regard for the pretensions of Young Turk JP (Samson Kayo), who luxuriates in the media attention.
Its unparalleled racing sequences and instant-classic summer movie soundtrack aside, F1’s most impressive feat is rewriting the western with Pitt’s Hayes as the reluctant hero who rises above his personal foibles toward the realm of American greatness. The same week Donald Trump and his charm offensive left the NATO crowd calling him daddy, Pitt returned Hollywood to its unapologetically American heyday. If the last week is any indication, things are looking up.
F1 is now playing in theaters.
✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: July 3-10
The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming titles, check out the 2025 Film Guide.
Jurassic World: Rebirth (Dir. Gareth Edwards)The franchise gets back to its horror roots as Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali play mercenaries journeying to the defunct park’s research island to extract some cancer-curing dino DNA. With original JP screenwriter David Koepp and Godzilla/Rogue One director Gareth Edwards mining Michael Crichton’s novel for unexplored story threads, it looks like a worthy successor–even without Jeff Goldblum.
The Damned (Dir. Roberto Minevini) A group of Union soldiers treks out West in 1862 to find themselves at the nexus of the Civil War and the Gold Rush in this Montana-shot hybrid of the war movie and western. Now playing at The Belcourt .
40 Acres (R.T. Thorne) A family’s utopian farm in a post-apocalyptic world buckles under the threat of its eldest son’s desire to start his adult life. Now playing in theaters.
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
🎸 Band of Horses @ The Caverns, 8p, $65+, Info
🎸 Cliffs @ The Basement, 9p, $12.85, Info
🪕 Remedy Tree @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info
🎸 Cordovas @ The Underdog, 9p, $10, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
+ vet community here
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Jerod Hollyfield (Crowd Corner), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).