Happy Wednesday, Nashville! It’s September 16th. Lots of news from Nashville’s neighborhoods, including neighbors asking Cheekwood to pay damages, when the library parking garage could reopen, a 62 restaurant score, and a new thrift store for “premium brands.”
⚡ Top stories
☀️ Weather
Another heat advisory! High: 99 with a heat index as high as 108, Low: 76. Temps drop to the lower 90s early next week.
🚦 Map: 59 intersections where right turns at red lights could be banned
The Metro Council last night deferred the second of three votes for a proposed ban on right turns at some red lights in Nashville to allow more community input, but now I have a list of where the ban could happen.
Council member Sandra Sepulveda filed the legislation in July after a rise in pedestrian deaths in Nashville. The original version would’ve impacted hundreds of intersections in the most populated areas of Nashville known as the Urban Services District.
After pushback from some fellow council members and Nashville’s mayor, Sepulveda filed an amended bill that’s scaled back to 59 intersections initially. Most of them are downtown, but South Nashville, West Nashville, and East Nashville are also impacted. Here’s a map I made with help from the AI platform Claude. You can also read the text version here.
The bill is scheduled to be considered again at the next Metro Council meeting.
🚲 Allowing pedicabs in Nashville neighborhoods
Pedicabs will no longer be limited to operating in Downtown Nashville. Metro’s Transportation Licensing Commission voted yesterday to allow pedicabs to operate countywide.
“I don’t believe they’re going to be operating in places where there’s not large crowds,” NDOT Transportation Licensing Director Richard Rooker said. His examples of where pedicab drivers might choose to operate: Geodis Park, festivals at Five Points, and a Vanderbilt football game.
The board indicated it could revisit the rules if there are problems. The change does not apply to pedal taverns.
🏠 What’s new in Nashville’s neighborhoods
Belle Meade
Changing strategy against Cheekwood: A group of neighbors upset about Cheekwood’s expansions over decades wants the botanical garden to pay them damages “for the loss of use and enjoyment of their properties and other injuries proximately caused by Cheekwood’s private nuisances.” That’s part of an amended lawsuit just filed by Neighbors for Safety. It adds Cheekwood as a defendant after the group initially only sued Metro. The lawsuit claims Metro didn’t enforce zoning and noise laws as Cheekwood expanded and added events. In addition to damages, the group wants a judge to force Metro to enforce its interpretation of the law. You can read the amended complaint here. A spokesperson for Cheekwood told me their legal team is reviewing the complaint. Cheekwood representatives have previously said they are in compliance with the law.
12 South
Addressing parking challenges: NDOT expects a consultant’s plan to address parking challenges in 12 South by next April. Director of Transportation Planning Marty Sewell said the previous issue-by-issue response has created a “whack-a-mole effect … where you make a change on one block and it moves the pressure to another block.” Case in point: A representative of the 12 South Merchant Association said this week a concentration of residential parking permits on the south side of 12 South “is strangling us” with business down 30% to 40%. More: The Nashville Scene reported an interesting story on parking rights across Nashville.
East Nashville
Work beginning on Main Street and Gallatin Pike: Repaving is starting on two sections: South 5th Street to Eastland Avenue and Hart Lane to Briley Parkway. NDOT expects to complete that work this winter. The agency expects several more projects to be completed in the spring, including new pedestrian hybrid beacons. The beacons will stop traffic for someone to walk across the street at three locations: near The Nashville Biscuit House, near 1100 Sunnymeade Drive, and near 4312 Gallatin Pike. NDOT also plans to put up flexible posts at 17 intersections to make left turns safer and add striping and delineators at 30+ locations to limit road access from some driveways and other areas with “undefined open frontages.” You can watch NDOT’s explanation of all the projects here.
62 restaurant score: The health inspector who visited Fat Mo’s at 2608 Gallatin Pike flagged 28 violations, including buildup inside the ice machine, an employee apparently handling raw ground beef and then touching buns with the same gloves, and more. You can read the full inspection here. I link to all restaurant inspections at the end of the newsletter.
Berry Hill
New thrift clothing store: Uptown Cheapskate plans to open a store at 2107 8th Avenue South. “Uptown is your go-to thrift clothing store. Sell gently used clothes for cash & shop premium brands for 70% off retail,” its website says. It just got its building permit. The store’s website hasn’t announced an opening date.
Downtown (and nearby)
When the library parking garage could reopen: An NDOT official said he’s “not making a promise,” but he hopes a portion of the downtown library’s parking garage — about 300 spaces — can reopen by the end of the year. It’s been closed since a fire in 2025. Also at the downtown library: NDOT plans to add a raised crosswalk outside the library as part of its pedestrian safety plans. And, courtyard renovations could start next month. The parking garage issues slowed down that project.
Green Hills
“It is never too late to do the right thing”: An unexpected package recently showed up for the Metro Library Director. It included a book checked out from the Green Hills library in 1975, a $400 check, and a letter from a man in Illinois. He wrote that he found the book while managing his sister-in-law’s estate. “By all appearances, the book is overdue. And as we were taught by our parents, it is never too late to do the right thing,” he wrote. “So, in appreciation of your kind consideration, I am enclosing my personal donation to the Nashville Public Library.” And speaking of the Green Hills library branch: Metro expects renovations to be complete in January.
📰 A few final headlines…
Gen Z migrating to Nashville: The Nashville area now ranks #4 in the country for Gen Z’s “most popular migration destinations,” according to new research from Redfin. If you’re like me, you can’t keep up with the different generation names. This one means someone born between roughly the late 1990s and around 2010. So, why Nashville? Redfin says we have “plenty of job opportunities for people early in their careers, along with lively social scenes.”
Nashville restaurant wins “Best of the Best” award: Bourbon Steak at the JW Marriott in Downtown Nashville was just named one of the top 10 fine dining restaurants in the United States by Tripadvisor. We’ve talked for years about going, and I bet it’ll be a bit more difficult to get a reservation after this award! The restaurant recently shared this video of the experience from start to finish.
Poll results: I asked nash.news subscribers yesterday whether they support a bill to further restrict door-to-door sales in Nashville. 98% of respondents said yes.
🧠 Today’s quiz: Neighborhood Match
Test your memory of yesterday’s newsletter. Match each new business project to one of the following neighborhoods: Rivergate, East Nashville, Near Hermitage, Near Lenox Village/Cane Ridge.
Buffalo Wild Wings GO
Nonna Notti
Halloween Express
Subliminal Coffee
🍔 MAP: click here for restaurant inspections across Nashville
Correction, feedback, question? Just reply to this email or email me directly at ryan@nash.news. Talk to you tomorrow! —Ryan