Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Mall!
I work in Berry Hill. I love Berry Hill. One square mile smack dab in the middle of Nashville. Half of it is a cemetery. We have two cops on patrol all the time. We are five to ten minutes from downtown, depending on traffic.There are two useless (in my opinion) pieces of prime real estate that butt up to the edges of Berry Hill. First is 100 Oaks Mall. Nashville's Dead Mall. I don't know who owns this place, but it is scary. Sure the ground level stores get traffic, TJ Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory, Electronic Express, but upstairs is getting bleaker and bleaker every time I visit. There is one choice in the food court, a gyro. My guess is that the upstairs spaces are 90% empty. There is a Korean nail shop, a guy that sells outrageously ugly women's shoes and a Reebok store. The only people up there are three elderly mall walkers and the occasional gang that picked the wrong mall to terrorize.
The other property is the fairgrounds. That is a huge piece of land, five minutes from downtown that has a flea market once a month and a really crappy fair once a year. I saw some statistics the other day, and if I remember right, the state fair draws not even half of either the Wilson County or Williamson county fairs. I've asked people who might know about it, who owns it, why is it still there, does anyone ever broach the subject of doing something with it? The only thing anyone can come up with is that you have to have a state fair in the capital. To which I say why? The state fair is so crappy that even our own hometown washed-up B-list 80s Country hat acts who play nothing but state fairs and strawberry festivals don't even play the one in their home town.
What would I like to see there? I don't know. Something better. That's not much of a stretch. Something that generates so much tax revenue that my newly inflated property taxes will actually go down, and the public schools will become world class learning institutions.
Yeah, right.
posted by Nashville Knucklehead @ 9:32 AM
4 Comments:
That is the post title of the day, imho. Hilarious.
Wouldn't mind the racetrack going away with the fairgrounds. Why didn't they put the farmer's market there? Not sure what I'd like to see there if it closes down, though, considering that Joel and I are moving in nearby...
The last ime I came to your fine establishment, I went over to 100 Oaks.
Creepy. Very creepy.
They were giving retired greyhounds away though and Rodent Queen wouldn't let me have one.
Dadgummit.
I'm absolutely with you on the Fairgrounds. To me that giant eye- & ear-sore is the weak link preventing a full scale revitalization/re-urbanization of Rains/Waycross and basically everything along Nolensville Pk between SoBro and Thompson Lane.
I think it actually is the racetrack that keeps it there. As I understand it. that track they built out I think in Wilson County was supposed to take over, until Nashville realized they were missing out on the revenue that was bringing in. But damn, there's got to be some better solution for everyone.
(Maybe a topic for the planning meeting?)
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