Good morning, Nashville. Folks in Bellevue have been talking with the Metro Council about rezoning the Bellevue Center Mall turned into another incarnation of Hillwood High School, whose current building would be shut down. At the moment, the plan is to turn the mall into a mixed-use development (although Eric Crafton and Facebook seem to think they can convince someone to turn it into an IKEA), but not a whole progress has been made there. After a few years of watching it sit there empty, we’ll just be happy when someone does something with it.
- Green Hills traffic continues to suck. We’re hearing more speculation about the traffic nightmare that will be (and already is) Hillsboro Road in Green Hills after the news that Vanderbilt University Medical Center will be plopping an office right next to the movie theater which will add about 500 new commuters to the mix. Nordstrom is also expected to add to the fray when it’s completed in 2011, so TDOT is currently studying traffic patterns to see if there’s anything they can do.
- It’s pay day. Mayor Dean is checking into the option of selling all of our city’s parking to the highest-bidding private company to make some quick cash before the next budget cycle starts, so that rather than getting the ongoing payout from parking meters and garages, they’d just collect a much larger chunk of money up front. With regards to next year’s budget, Councilman Michael Craddock said, “I think we are going to have a train wreck of monumental proportions come May,” which is not really what we want to hear at all.
- Bits & pieces. Consider this your second official warning about this weekend’s Twilight convention at Opryland … Cold and windy today with the possibility of a big snow and ice storm this weekend. Bread and milk! … Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee’s hard drive heist in Chattanooga ended up costing the company $7 million … Just when we thought we’d heard the last of it, the controversial “second downtown” May Town development proposed for Bells Bend could be back for another round.
Photo by WJ11.