MCC Poll - 51% Against, 37% For

I've heard people say "Mayor Dean's election is a mandate in favor of the MCC." I say nay nay. Let's look at some polling data from July 2007 - HERE - 51% OPPOSE, 37% FAVOR, out of 1000 Davidson Co residents (876 RVs). Even then, Mayor Dean didn't enjoy the support for MCC, and it's only getting worse.

So that got me thinking - where are the other Mayoral candidates on the issue? Realistically/Politically - no former Dean opponent will come out and oppose this - Cooley et al will chalk it up to spilled milk and the Mayor's office and his 6 PR firms will personally attack that former candidate.

But where are the supporters? If they all favored it 2 years ago, where are they now? Why not join Mayor Dean and support this project? Or has the financial landscape changed so drastically that no one wants to be on record as favoring it now?

Where are you Clement, Gentry, Dozier, Briley? (I would argue Briley is disqualified - he works for a law firm that supports the project)

Minority Hiring for MCC - Minority Forum Cancelled

I'm not sure how I missed this one, I must have been out Christmas shopping. A tip just came in and I believe it to be credible - Mayor Dean's buddy Ronnie Steine (photo), just nixed the minority contracting forum originally scheduled for January 12th. I wonder how other members of the Council feel about this???

Under pressure, agency delayed minority contracting forum, member says
By Michael Cass • THE TENNESSEAN • December 18, 2009

A Metro Council member pressured a city agency to delay a forum on minority contracting so it wouldn't create controversy just before the final vote on building a new downtown convention center, a member of the agency's board said Thursday.

For the full article, click HERE.

This is my favorite part: pushed by Lonnell Matthews, "MDHA predicted the numbers would increase if the council approved construction." Of course it will, trust us.

Another Video

Someone just sent this VIDEO to me. Enjoy.

Anyone AGAINST Jobs?

The pro-MCC folks have spent a lot of time talking about the new jobs this will create. They can't get a finalized HVS study, and can't get their fuzzy math to add up correctly, so they are resorting to something no one is actually against - jobs.

Some Council members have correctly pointed out that the new MCC will actually take money away from essential services that are currently being funded by the annual hotel/motel taxes - about $14 million dollars. This is money that is currently being used to pay for police overtime, Metro and County Transportation costs, and subsidies to the Preds and the Sommet Center. The pro-MCC folks initially said they would have answers to where to find this money before trying to pass the bill. Now, they are saying "we'll figure it out" (AKA we'll raise taxes) come budget time in July.

So, to be clear, the pro-MCC folks would like to cut police overtime, cut metro transit (didn't they just cut this not too long ago?), cut jobs at the Sommet Center, and money from the Historical Commission, among MILLIONS more, in favor of primarily construction jobs. The Mayor's office won't tell us how many full-time, salaried employees this will create (not move from the NCC to the MCC). I think it's safe to assume many of the jobs will come from out of state (the General Contractor is from Maryland), and will be part-time. Jamie Hollin has done a good job of asking the right questions - specifically, how many job hires/contracts have we given to minority, women-owned, and disadvantaged businesses? The goal is %20, it appears we're around 5% currently.

So the question becomes, why do we favor speculative/part-time/out-of-state jobs over existing jobs? Does anyone have an answer?

Dean's 12 Days of Christmas

Ouch.

Twelve Days of MCC @ Yahoo! Video

Real Debate, Fake Names

Dave Cooley, aka Cheetos Bastardo aka Kevin (not so) Sharp is hard at work again, this time using his precious time to blog in response to the other 5 PR firms that are also blogging in support of the MCC. The question I have is this: if the Mayor and the MCCC have no less that 6 PR/Lobbying firms on the payroll (wonder what that is costing taxpayers?), why are the overwhelming blog entries in opposition to the MCC?

Read Michael Cass's full article HERE

Councilman Cole Puts Foot in Mouth

Councilman mentioned civil rights, WWII in discussing risks of convention center referendum

By: Michael Cass
Published on December 22, 2009

Metro Councilman Erik Cole said in a recent interview with WPLN (scroll to the bottom of the text at this link for audio) that a referendum on building a new, $585 million downtown convention center isn’t necessarily a good idea. He said the masses would have rejected some of the great actions of 20th-century history, like desegregation and American intervention in World War II, if they had been put on the ballot.

“If you were to look at civil rights and had taken general referendums in the ’60s in this city, we would not have had the kind of results we would want,” Cole said in the interview, which took place after the Dec. 15 council meeting. “If you took a referendum in the early ’40s about whether or not we should go into World War II, the result would probably have said, ‘Don’t go.’ ”

Click HERE for the full story.

I’m not as fired up as others. Yes, it’s an incredibly boneheaded thing for Councilman Cole to say, and it would go away faster if he actually apologized instead of “wishing he had kept his mouth shut.” But even more boneheaded is the fact that he is considering voting for this boondoggle based on emotional arguments. The Mayor and pro-MCC folks don’t have rational arguments in favor of MCC – e.g. we’re going to spend a billion dollars to increase the 11,000,000 visitors we already enjoy annually to 11,125,000 visitors? (Mayor’s numbers, not mine) Come on! Instead, the Mayor and his multitude of PR firms are relying on emotional pleas like “believe in Nashville”, and “courage to move Nashville forward”, and character assassinations. Cole can redeem himself in my eyes if he takes the time to listen to the naysayers and ask himself what we’re all so upset about, there’s no shortage of reasons.

Dave Cooley Hard at Work

Anti-Kevin Sharp petition on its way to the White House

From Michael Cass, 12/22/09

http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2009/anti-kevin-sharp-petition-on-its-way-to-the-white-house/

I called Music City Center Coalition lobbyist Dave Cooley today to talk about blog commenters. When we got done with that topic, I asked Cooley if anything was new with the petition he signed that questions Nashville’s Priorities president Kevin Sharp’s fitness for a federal judgeship.

He replied that he put the petition in the mail to President Barack Obama earlier today. He said it contains 102 actual signatures, though some of the signers were listed as anonymous in the online version.

I asked Sharp about the petition at the end of an interview Monday, and he said he wasn’t concerned about it. “We’re still talking about the convention center,” he said.

Wow. This is news. Not so much that the Mayor and the pro-MCC, taxpayer-funded PR machine(s) are targeting their largest critic, but that Dave Cooley’s star has fallen so far. I mean, Dave Cooley used to *be somebody* in this town, right? Wasn’t he Deputy Governor? Didn’t he have every top Democrat in the nation on speed dial (along with a few state troopers)? And now what? Printing off 60 real signatures of his fair-weather friends and snail-mailing an online petition to President Obama? I bet he’s licking his own stamps (stamps have gone up considerably, Dave, since you had to do this type of work yourself). I’m sure President Obama will take your petition seriously, you may even get a form letter thanking you for contacting the white house. Good luck with that. NDC