Nashvillest

Good morning, Nashville. If you were hoping to take a cab this morning, you’re probably out of luck. After the 100-person taxi strike yesterday, the other 400+ Nashville cab drivers are planning to follow suit this morning. Instead, you’ll find them rallying outside Mayor Dean’s office downtown at the courthouse in hopes of meeting with the mayor to air out their issues with Nashville cab companies–namely the $175 flat fee they have to pay each week to pick up passengers. Though this part of the strike is only lasting through the day, it could continue if their demands aren’t met.

• Outsourcing the blame. A new study by the Economic Policy Institute has employed a new tactic for explaining Tennessee’s awful job market: Just blame it on China. They’re saying that close to 55K jobs have been cut in Tennessee as a result of China bringing some product manufacturing in-house instead of importing from the U.S. to cut costs. Sounds good to us.
• New Mayor’s forum. Last night marked the beginning of Community Matters, a new initiative by Mayor Dean to directly address concerns by residents of the East Nashville neighborhood. In the next few months, neighbors are encouraged to meet with the mayor regularly about concerns ranging from potholes to neighborhood safety. In two months, the program will move on to another area of the city.
• Bits & pieces. Over 4,000 glass pipes and two handguns were confiscated after Metro Police discovered a downtown liquor store selling “drug kits” on Lafayette St. … Nashville Rescue Mission and members of Downtown Presbyterian are patrolling the streets with cases of bottled water to help homeless folks beat the heat … Not directly tied to Nashville, but that Facebook app we all know and love, Scrabulous, is probably not coming back because Hasbro sucks … An audit found that thousands of dollars have been stolen from the Williamson County government.

Photo by NYCArthur.