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Kimbrell: Preparing for growth vital to life

By Ed Kimbrell

Ask any great coach about winning and you'll hear the word momentum before the answer is completed. So, too, is momentum the key to economic growth and prosperity.

The entire Middle Tennessee region seems to show attitudes toward the future I cannot recall seeing until now. At this season of the year, especially, it seems that our time to take the positive forces at play and use them wisely and prudently.

Channel 8 re-ran a documentary this week on downtown Nashville that was not only interesting history (can you imagine telling a teenager the entire area around the Capitol was a slum?) but the awareness of leaders old and new that the idea of a living, breathing, 24-hours-a-day downtown is now emerging, a long hoped-for revival.

From downtown lofts to high-rise condos to a $450 million civic center, with plans already being discussed to use the existing one, the vital mixture of housing, good restaurants, sports (new baseball stadium will work), and entertainment means the end of the old Nashville.

When I came to Nashville and Murfreesboro 35 years ago, they seemed to be so far behind all of the other places I had lived and worked. Nashville seemed a bit seedy around the edges and the downtown was in decline. Ah, those wonderful (?) suburbs were being built while 100 Oaks said you can buy everything you need (everything) under one giant steel tent.

Murfreesboro was quaint. One could even stretch a bit and call it a village. The university was beginning to stretch out, under the controversial leadership of then-President Mel Scarlett, as his vision forced it into new areas, new degrees and expansion.

Franklin was quaint, a toy town. Still wants to be a village (with lots, and lots of money).

Today, these three counties are in the midst of their greatest days. (I will always love a line in one of the fun murder-mysteries of Nick and Nora Charles where a guest cries out how he missed the "good old days" to which Nick observes that "these are the good old days."

Franklin-Cool Springs and the coming of Nissan headquarters means Williamson County must continue its excellent record of planning and expansion of services, especially in schools.

So too, Murfreesboro, now a regional hub of commerce and education, must continue to provide services which match Williamson County, as they do now.

While there isn't the wealth generation in Rutherford to match Williamson County (one of the richest counties in the nation), it provides a fine quality of life. Rutherford, with its location, the largest undergraduate university in the state, and its national ranking in growth, is on a great roll.

Take three announcements: 110 new stores and shops in one complex; a new ultra-modern, state-of-the-art hospital, and the completion of the Medical Center parkway, and it becomes clear.

Murfreesboro, however, must address one part of what must be, with all of the good news comes a cautionary note: transportation and planning. Critics of the city worry about the independence of the city from developers, and they can make a strong case for concern. The city must build permanent lungs: tracts of open space, parks and greenery.

It must realize it is not a country town. A park system is vital. It is also vital to plant trees, greenery, and quiet gathering places. The land must be bought now.

I remember when one of the City Council members chastised then-member Mary Huhta as wanting to make Murfreesboro a Germantown. (Germantown is a beautiful, planned suburb of Memphis, with signage laws.) Business is what matters, he shouted, not signage rules. Well, that is a lost battle. Our main commercial roads are a surreal Chinese dragon on steroids.

But, there are cosmetic ways to improve them and ensure that all new such construction matches the excellent new parkway in design and greenery.

Murfreesboro must be commended for buying buses. It is a decision filled with foresight. The entire city is sprawling outward and buses will help many people go to and from work. It's understandable the city didn't buy electric buses, which are environmental wonders, because they cost about twice what a fossil-fuel bus does. But, hopefully, the city will in the future.

Williamson is wisely buying and integrating parks into its designs. Davidson needs to rethink mass transit. The buses are too large and ponderous and research on new ways to move large groups of people in and out of the core should be done now. I love trolleys. How about it, Mayor Purcell?

Predicting the future is a fool's game. But, at this point in time, it's not too far a reach, as Eddie Cantor exclaimed after starring in the first talking movie, "The Jazz Singer," to say "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"