Saving the Tennessee State Fairgrounds - Is it worth it to Nashville?
Thursday November 12, 2009
Since Mayor Dean announced the imminent closing of the Tennessee State Fair Grounds, I have been inundated with plenty of emails on the subject.
Most of which are simply everyday folks asking why our local government has decided that it's in Nashville's best interest to cease operations of the fairgrounds...after over 100 years? What plans are in store for the property and neighborhood? Where do I stand on it personally? And more importantly, what can be done, at this point, to save the Historic Tennessee State Fairgrounds?
Is it worth it to Nashville?
Photo © Jan Duke
Follow Me on Twitter
Comments
I’m glad to see it go. The noise generated from the speedway is a nuisance from Germantown to Green Hills – and having a roaring speedway in the middle of our city reinforces our southern, backwards stereotype. New development of any kind will spur revitalization for the surrounding depressed neighborhoods (Chestnut Hill, Houston/Wedgewood, Vine Hill, Rains, Waycross & Berry Hill). Ask any of these residents and I’m sure they’d tell you that they would rather have 20% higher property values instead of migraine headaches!
We will soon have loads of new exhibition space downtown. The flea market, xmas village, and garden show might bring MORE lookers if we can get them out of that “scary” neighborhood.
Plus I’ve heard rumors that HCA wants the property so they can build a complex to compete with Vanderbilt at 100 Oaks. That sounds like JOBS to me. And lots of them.
AgentSteph, this line you’re spouting is getting old. Can’t you come up with something original?
There’s no one alive today who can complain about the noise. Auto racing has been held on that site in one form or another since the early 1900’s. So the noise argument goes out the window.
Regarding a Southern stereotype, sounds to me like you don’t like Southerners.
As far as property values go, I’d say a doubling of property values from the late 90’s for houses next to the track isn’t a bad deal. One of the first “complainers” about the track who wanted to make the fairgrounds “green” saw a doubling of his property value from the time he bought it.
Regarding jobs… HCA doesn’t need to get a sweetheart deal on city property to create jobs. They can do that now.
If the mayor wants to get rid of property that’s sucking money from taxpayers (unlike the Fairgrounds, which hasn’t used any taxpayer money), how about selling off all those golf courses the city owns? But I guess elites like Steph would have a problem with that.
Everyone has and is entitled to their own opinion and both of you also have some valid points but honestly it seems that there could be some meeting of the minds from the hptb so that it could be a win-win for everyone.
Maybe they could save some historical parts of the raceway (part of the actual racetrack as an outside exhibit), keep the building n businesses in place (for revenue – no displacements) , and turn the rest into a park (maybe keeping the stands for an outdoor community venue).
If anyone has taken the time to read their neighborhood plan- it does state (and always has) that the neighborhood wants a park if the raceway closes and so I think it’s pretty safe to say they don’t want HCA.
Sometimes decisions shouldn’t be based solely on the dollar.
My family has not been to the Nashville fair in over 15 years. In fact, we’ve only been twice in 22 years. However, we have ventured outside Davidson County to enjoy the spoils of a not so urban fairgrounds. As a family living in an urban area it is just not appealing to us to attend an urban fair and it’s definitely more dangerous. Make the fairgrounds a unique experience and we’d be more likely to attend.
I love the Nashville Fairgrounds i have been going there since i was a little girl i love to watch races there. As for the people who live around it and dont like it im sorry you knew it was there when you moved there. My boyfriend has raced there for going on 8 years now and His grandfather raced there in the early or late 60’s this track has been a part of our history since 1900’s i dont understand why they would just take something away like that. i love racing yeah the noise might be a little much but you know what there is something that was being done about it. i think whoever taking this away from Tennessee is a idiot. they are not thinking clearly. many nascar drivers came from this track and its some thing we love very much so i hope its not taking away they’ve took so many historical sites away from us. what happened to opry land thats a big mall now and im sure that opryland did a lot better than that mall does now. im hoping and praying that they dont take our track away I LOVE THE FAIRGROUNDS SPEEDWAY AND I ALWAYS WILL!