By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — The Mathew Walker Comprehensive Health Center on Jefferson St. is going to increase its dental services soon. Dental residents from the University of Tennessee in Memphis will be furloughed to work at the clinic next year. Talks between UT, St Thomas, and Mathew Walker are ongoing and no final agreement has been signed yet. Residents from Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry work at the clinic now and they will continue to do so. “We did not go looking for this. We are excited about it because of what it means to our community…
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By Peter White NASHVLLE, TN – Old neighborhoods are changing fast and there’s no stopping it. In 2009, 107 Fern Avenue in East Nashville was a modest bungalow frame house sitting on a half-acre lot on a bluff above I-24/I-65 just before the Trinity Lane exit. There is no 107 Fern Lane anymore. It no longer exists. In its place three tall and skinnies sit on .12 acre lots. Building up instead of out makes sense on this block. Each of the new homes, worth more than $500,000, has a spectacular view of downtown Nashville across the Cumberland River. The…
By Peter White NASHVLLE, TN – General Hospital is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Hospital Authority, whose 11 board members are appointed by Mayor Barry, submitted a $55.7 million budget and only got $35 million to run the city’s public safety net hospital this year. “They have never been given the amount of money they need to adequately run that hospital,” says At-Large Councilwoman Sharon Hurt. In addition to its perennial shortage of funds, General’s CEO, Dr. Joseph Webb, could be leaving at the end of the year. His current contract ends in December. He doesn’t…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN –Like the abolitionists and freedom riders before them, they began their meeting with a prayer. About 150 people came to the Gordon Memorial UMC on Herman St. last week to talk about a police department that treats too many people like criminals. NAACP officials, members of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH) and members from a half-dozen other community groups want to create a Community Oversight Board (COB) to investigate allegations of police misconduct. The mayor, police chief, half the city council, and most of the city’s business leaders are dead set against it.…
By Peter White MEMPHIS, TN – Charlie Morris, 96, remembers his brother’s death like it was yesterday. Jesse Lee Bond was murdered July 17, 1939 in Arlington, TN. Bond was a sharecropper and Sam Wilson, the landowner, shot him as he walked into the plantation store that day. Bond, 19, stumbled back out the door and took refuge in a nearby outhouse. Wilson followed him and riddled it with bullets until Bond fell outside dead. He was castrated and thrown in the Lousahatchie River. The coroner reported the death as a drowning. Bond had bought $13.90 worth of seed…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN –Councilman Colby Sledge was deeply involved in the Fort Negley development deal and right after the plan he pushed was picked to do a $200 million facelift of Greer Stadium, the Cloud Hill Partnership hired his public relations firm to promote the project. That is raising questions not only about a conflict of interest but also about influence peddling and politics in awarding lucrative city contracts. One of the first things McNeely Pigott & Fox did for their new clients was to thank Colby Sledge for five years of faithful service and then quietly show…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Metro Purchasing Agent Jeff Gossage denied a protest regarding the development of Fort Negley awarded to a friend and campaign supporter of Mayor Megan Barry. The deal is worth about $200 million and will leave only 3.6 acres of green space on the 21 acres Metro Parks wants to develop. If the Mathews Group gets a 99-year lease, the stadium will be demolished. The rest of the land will be office space, 294 residential units, and 48,350 square feet of retail space. The city may not get any of the estimated $62,000 yearly rent…
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville public schools are failing. For years, Metro students have scored lower on statewide tests than students in five surrounding counties. Closing the achievement gap is Director of Schools Shawn Joseph’s top priority. After a year on the job, Joseph says he knows how to do that. All it takes is time and money. He is short on both. The Tribune interviewed Joseph last week in his office on Bransford Avenue to talk about education and how he plans to succeed when previous directors have not. The first part of his plan is to put resources in…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Metro’s procurement office recently approved a plan to build 405 apartments, two office buildings, retail stores, and an early childhood education center in Fort Negley Park where at least 600 African Americans died during the Civil War. Runaway slaves built Fort Negley in 1862 and some of their descendants want the city to shelve its plans to develop Greer Stadium. A formal protest has been filed with the city’s Finance Department to get city officials to rethink the whole idea. “If it can happen here it can happen at other metro parks,” says Gary…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — Federal aid to Metro Schools may be cut by $7.54 million. Faced with a smaller budget, Dr. Shawn Joseph, Director of Schools, is reaching out to parents to do more with less next year. “We feel with the budget that we have, we have addressed a lot of the parent’s inquiries that came about regarding what are we doing to increase rigor,” Joseph said. Joseph said that after spending a year listening to parents and teachers, his administration has a list of priorities. They include: 1) Literacy specialists and gifted and talented staff in…