By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Bordeaux residents have been lied to before. Hallmark Station, the affordable housing project behind Krogers on Clarksville Pike, doesn’t look like the original plan that residents were shown. That complex has 1-3 bedroom apartments and small houses that rent from $773 to $900/mo. It is clean and well-kept and only two apartments are vacant. “I don’t like it,” said William Robinson. “It’s not in keeping with housing in the community,” he said. “Cheap-looking”… “Board ain’t brick” “They promised us the moon”…“The quality wasn’t what we thought it would be”…”They sang us a song, didn’t…
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By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — As a kid growing up in Antioch, Daron Hall never watched Roy Rogers or the Lone Ranger or Gene Autry or Gunsmoke. “I am not interested in who done it. I don’t watch movies or have much interest in TV shows. They are about who did it and people like to catch ‘em. I have no interest in that. I’ve always been interested in figuring out why,” he said. “I love thinking we can do something about it,” he added. Hall was elected Sheriff of Davidson County in 2002 and was elected to his…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Republicans are playing politics with healthcare. “They’ve been saying they are going to repeal and replace for seven years,” says Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center. Johnson said the GOP is going to repeal the Affordable Care Act but we haven’t seen a replacement. “They need a plan that takes into account that this is nearly 20 percent of the GDP,” she said. Meanwhile, a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be marked up in Washington this week. The Hill reported the House Energy and Commerce Committee…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Black businesses are getting stiffed by Metro’s Purchasing Department as illustrated by two systemic problems with the city’s Procurement Nondiscrimination Program. Metro’s contract with LPS Integration, Inc. for computer “Storage Area Network and Infrastructure Hardware and Services” is an example. A good faith requirement to include minorities can easily be manipulated and avoided. The Business Assistance Office (BAO) averted its eyes to the game the prime contractor played regarding Contract No. 353208. Only two contractors showed up for a meeting, Todd Sanford of LPS and Alex Coure of IT Solutions By Design, Inc. Coure…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — After failing for eight years to reach the city’s diversity goals, Griffith and Strong of Atlanta will soon deliver a third outside review of the city’s Procurement Nondiscrimination Program. The firm helped write the ordinance creating the program and a minority business assistance office in 2008. Michelle Jenkins, lead author of the latest Griffin and Strong report, is still crunching the numbers and said the report should be done by mid-March. It will gauge how far the city has come towards fair contracting practices. As with earlier benchmark reports, Jenkins said she looks…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – A former Metro business development officer says the city’s purchasing agents and the Business Assistance Office (BAO) systematically excluded black contractors from doing business with the city. “I thought they could be doing much better than they were doing, “ said John Irvin who worked in Nashville’s BAO from 2008-2013. Irvin created a diversity council for MWBE minority construction firms at Vanderbilt University before coming to work for Metro. He was a senior buyer for General Motors and purchased goods from minority firms there. After spending two decades on diversity and inclusion efforts Irvin…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN — During his first hour in office, America’s new president stopped a cost cut for millions of homebuyers who Barack Obama tried to help. Obama ordered a .25 percent cut in mortgage insurance premiums to start last week, but now FHA mortgage insurance costs stay at about $72 per month on a $100,000 FHA loan. “It’s not going to stop home ownership because people were buying homes with FHA a few years ago and people have not stopped buying now,” says Joan Fleming, residential mortgage manager of Citizens Bank in Nashville. “But when you’re…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Civil Rights groups are collecting data on harassment, hate, bias and intimidation in Nashville. Their steering committee, Respect Nashville, will document bias and harassment, “even those that might not rise to the level of a hate crime,” Nashville Human Relations Commission Executive Director Mel Fowler-Green said. Respect Nashville includes the NAACP, Tennessee Equality Project, ACLU, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “We want to inspire grassroots efforts to shift the climate; we want … civil discussion about these issues,” Fowler-Green said. “We want to amplify our shared values, and [tell] Nashvillians of all backgrounds,…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Call them The Indivisibles. Like a flash mob, about 40 of them swarmed the West End offices of Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander on Tuesday delivering their letters about the Affordable Care Act. They’re ordinary people against repeal of Obamacare unless there’s something better. Sen. Corker thinks that makes a lot of sense. Last week, he introduced an amendment to the bill repealing Obamacare that would have delayed a vote until March, but shortly after midnight Jan. 12, Corker caved in and voted with his fellow Republicans. The demonstration of Capitol Hill power…
By Peter White NASHVILLE, TN – Tequoia Radley, 20, has a GED certificate, no criminal record, and doesn’t take drugs. She lives with her mother and eight siblings in Section 8 housing in Nashville. Someday she wants to be a police officer. “I’m looking for a good job and I like helping people and protecting people. And I can work well with others,” she said. Radley may soon be working for Allied Universal Security Services in a MDHA housing project. Radley filled out an application, took a drug screen test, and interviewed for a security guard job last Saturday.…