Street Fest and Bell's Bend

6/21/09
I don’t write in this blog as often as I should. There’s so much happening on the local scene, both environmentally and in general. But it’s as if I’ve burdened myself with the expectation of needing to write a full and formal report or essay on every issue I wish to address in here. Given a limited amount of time to do this, that’s just not realistic. There are plenty of paid journalist and reporters out there to do that. So instead, I’m gonna make it easy and enjoyable for myself and just give ya’ my brief, relatively informal take on things and not worry about dotting every “i”, crossing every “t” and researching every detail… It’s my own darn blog, after all!
Today, there was a street festival in the heart of Sylvan Park, coordinated by Jen Casale at “The Green Wagon”, and her significant other, Jonathan. It was a great event, with lots of vendors, both profit and non-“”, fabulous artist and bands throughout the afternoon (including, among others, the awesome Darrell Scott, and a singer named Maureen Murphy who blew the roof off with killer soul vocals and a rockin’ band), and a pretty good turnout of local folk. I was the “emcee” for the day, introducing the bands, thanking the sponsors, plugging our show, praising the vendors, etc.. Given the fact that it was Father’s Day, with a 100 degree heat index and a number of other major events happening concurrently around town (as is often the case here), I’d say it was a major success!
Part of the purpose for this eco-event, in addition to enabling local “green” businesses to ply their wares and social and environmental organizations to share their mission with attendees, was to help Jen and Jonathan raise money to begin a non-profit called “RENEU”, which stands for Regional Educational Network for Environmental Understanding. I love her passionate commitment to raising awareness about issues that so deeply affect us all. I wish her God-speed in creating her own good in the world, as I do mine, and as so many people do, here and everywhere, blessing all of us with their vision and inspiration for creating a better world. And I hope the “Green Wagon Street Fest” becomes a regular (annual? Twice a year?) event on the calendar for Sylvan Park.
The Bell’s Bend vs. May Town Center saga continues with another Metro Planning Commission hearing this Thursday, June 25th, 4pm at Genesco Park, 1417 Murfreesboro Pike. I pray that we can balance the arguments in favor of STOPPING this extremely infrastructure-intensive proposal in its tracks and preserving the rural nature of this beautiful area for generations to come, per the wishes of the community there, and an increasing number of Nashvillians who are justifiably concerned about major traffic increases, competition with local businesses that are already feeling the pressure of a slow economy, the potential tax drag of the build-out of more than one bridge, in addition to water, sewer, electric, streets, signals, schools, fire dept., medical and other social services and on and on – not to mention the loss of even more local agricultural land and the environmental impact of all of this.
To be continued, sooner than before…