When NashvilleNext, the community-driven process for guiding Metro Nashville through 2040 recently began pondering what we should look like as a city 27 years from now, one indelible image came to mind: a climate-controlled football stadium. Our own Music City Dome? First, let me document precisely how sports have broadened Nashville’s appeal and the profound [...]
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We need more purple, less red and blue
As I was contemplating writing a column pleading for more mature and measured bipartisan efforts in the face of our nation’s presumed forthcoming fiscal disaster, I recalled the column I wrote exactly four years ago about a “purple coalition” and what the Volunteer State could offer America’s new president early on in his administration. Though [...]
Longtime public servant dies at 59
Edwards worked on World Fair, 2000 Gore staff and Sports Authority, among others Emmett A. Edwards, a businessman and public servant for more than three decades, died Monday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center due to complications from lung cancer. He was 59. Born in Covington, Tenn., in May of 1953, Edwards graduated in his high [...]
State needs new emphasis on higher education
Where does public higher education stand in the pecking order of priorities in the Volunteer State? Not very high, I’m afraid. In the past decade we have seen major shifts, some good and some bad, in efforts to provide a quality post-secondary education for Tennessee’s students. I had the privilege of being involved in one [...]
Bobbi: Her Contagious Smile Influences a Community
Congenial. Enthusiastic. Smiling. Compassionate. Bubbly. Caring. Friendly. These are just some of the adjectives offered by colleagues about the woman who serves as the greeter, information desk attendant and security officer at our downtown Nashville office building. If one is ever having a down day, a short stop at Bobbi’s desk at the entrance of [...]
Maybe we need another helicopter ride
There was no strain as the helicopter carrying 1200 Nashvillians took off and flew us into the future. Most of us were mesmerized as the then-mayor, Phil Bredesen, piloted the virtual helicopter six years into the future. We looked out in amazement to see a new Nashville arena, and, wait, across the street a new [...]