The War Over Your Backyard
🏚 Are the YIMBYs doomed? · Protecting cash and coin in TN · Tourism updates you need to know · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Is the YIMBY movement doomed?... Protecting cash and coin in Tennessee... Tourism updates you need to know... Can TN teachers pass a U.S. citizenship test?... And much more!
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Homeowners Are a Big Obstacle to YIMBY Goals
From Davis Hunt
An article in WPLN asking whether or not the YIMBY movement is doomed caught my eye. The fight over housing in the US has basically lumped people into two camps.
The Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) homeowners who are loath to see their cherished neighborhoods transformed against their will.
And the intrepid activist Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) coalition made up of ideologues, developers looking for projects, and renters who believe that looser zoning laws and density will lower their rents.
The primary obstacle to the YIMBY camp achieving their vision of ever-expanding housing supply is that homeowners tend to be NIMBYs.
“There are some brutal political realities that the YIMBY movement has to contend with,” NPR reporter Greg Rosalsky writes. “Almost 66% of American households own their homes. Many of those households have not just one, but at least two voters. Homeowners are more likely to vote than renters, and they’re also more likely to be civically engaged.”
Rosalsky offers up Nashville and Austin as two cities bucking the trend on entrenched NIMBY-ism, noting that rank at the top of American cities in terms of new housing units built. Austin has seen home prices start to fall back toward pre-pandemic norms, as has Nashville.
Beyond YIMBY accolades, Nashville and Austin share a common growth engine: immigration. Like Nashville, Austin has experienced negative domestic migration (American citizens leaving the city) in the past five years, buoyed only by international migrants moving in to replace them.
The dynamics for why people are leaving Nashville has more to do the relatively higher tax burden married to the poor quality of public services (roads, schools, and safety) than it does the marginally more expensive housing market compared to surrounding counties.
I’m not as familiar with Austin, but reducing migratory trends to one single metric (housing affordability) is a sure fire way to ensure that city leadership’s only metric for “doing good” is when rents are falling – which, paired with significant domestic out migration, would be a flashing red warning sign in any other context.
The gamble cities make in overbuilding in an attempt to sink housing prices is that they invite speculation into the market. The corrosive effects of an overly speculative real estate market are not given enough air time in this debate.
But if houses linger on the market for too long, rental units across the city lay empty, and all this persists for too long without population growth to eat up the excess supply, investors pull out, homeowners get put on the hook for more than the home is worth, and formerly owner-occupied neighborhoods flip to become renter-occupied.
Tax revenue plummets, investment for new builds and the jobs they bring with them stop, and as our NPR correspondent pointed out above, civic engagement falls even further as a city of homeowners flips and becomes a city of renters.
✹ METRO COUNCIL WATCH
Who bankrolls your councilmember? We analyzed every donation to every council member to show you whether they're funded by their constituents or someone else. Higher grades go to those who raise more money locally. (Take a Look)
Protecting cash and coin in a digital world.
From Megan Podsiedlik
In a world where “no cash accepted” signs and aggressive shifts toward fully digital, contactless dining experiences have become the norm, who’s pushing back?
In Tennessee, it used to be former state senator Frank Niceley. The farmer from Strawberry Plains often brought forward legislation to fend off the encroaching digital currency takeover.
Niceley passed away last summer, leaving a legacy and a chasm. In the state legislature, a few lawmakers are picking up the mantle.
Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and Representative Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport) have been working on a bill to allow transactions using precious metal coins as legal tender.
“When I first saw it, I thought, ‘This has got Frank Niceley’s name written all over it,’” Taylor said of the bill during this week’s Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting.
Later this session, legislation mandating cash acceptance in venues and businesses will likely draw more aggressive attention.
The sponsors intend to introduce an amendment that will codify cash acceptance into Tennessee’s code using this bill. The legislation will also include carve-outs for venues that hold over 15,000 people.
The Tourism Updates You Know You Want
From Davis Hunt
Former governor Bill Haslam was out beating the bushes on bringing the Super Bowl to Nashville yesterday at NBJ’s Business of Sports event. Haslam centered his pitch on why bringing it to town will benefit everyone arguing that tax revenue generated by tourism benefits you:
I don't like it when I get stuck behind a pedal tavern when I'm trying to get to a meeting — I hate that. People taking the parking space in front of my house — I don't like it. But that's how we pay teachers. That's how we build roads. That's how we give more help for mental health. … That's how we pay for stuff, and we can either pay more ourselves or we can invite other people in to pay it for us.
I can jump behind the “tax the tourists to pay for our stuff” argument in theory. I just know that most of that revenue gets pissed away in the wind.
In other tourism news, the Vegas Sphere wants to expand to other cities, and according to Axios, Nashville is on the short list. In the parochial minds of our councilmembers, I wonder if the Boring Co. having a tunnel present in Vegas will sour them on a Sphere just because of the proximity to demon overlord Elon Musk.
HEADLINES
- 🗣 Metro names new chief information officer. Mayor O’Connell taps sector veteran Shawn Smith to replace Keith Durbin and oversee the city’s ITS efforts. (Post)
- 📐 Could you pass a 100-question U.S. citizenship test? Aspiring Tennessee teachers may soon have to do that to earn their state licensure under new legislation being considered in the General Assembly. (Chalkbeat)
- 🌽 Nashville leaders are asking TN lawmakers to let them lower the grocery tax. Every city in Tennessee is allowed to lower its grocery tax rate — except metro governments like Nashville. On Tuesday, the Metro council approved a resolution urging state lawmakers to support a House and Senate bill that would allow Music City to lower the grocery tax rate. (WSMV)
DEVELOPMENT
- Michelin-recognized Sho Pizza Bar explores second location on White Bridge (NBJ)
- German audio electronics maker picks Nashville for Americas regional hub (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
🎸 Pete Yorn @ The Mil at Cannery Hall, 8p, $60.37, Info
🪕 Ashby Frank @ Station Inn, 9p, Info
🎸 Max Crimson @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $5, Info
🎷 Cam G & the Tasty Soul Jam @ The Underdog, 7p, $10, Info
🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.