Harpeth Rambles: Scoring Christmas
By Peter Jordan, columnist
peterjordan@mindspring.com
‘Tis the season to be jolly, but ‘tis also the beginning of serious bowl games. In other words, ‘tis the season to keep score. Santa’s coming down the chimney, but the Grinch is lying in wait to spoil the fun. In the cold winter of the worst recession since the 1930s, who’s winning in Franklin and Williamson County – Santa or the Grinch?
If you’re the kind who likes a stocking stuffed with pictures of Ben Franklin, you can score a few points for both sides. Santa brought AAA bond ratings to both Williamson County and the City of Franklin. But the Grinch put a lot of us out of work: Williamson County’s jobless rate was at 7.4 percent in October, an ugly increase from 4.7 percent in October 2008. And we no longer have the lowest unemployment rate in the state – Lincoln County edged us out with a rate of 6.9 percent. With the last Traverse rolling off the Spring Hill assembly line, it’s hard to imagine the Grinch yielding ground on the unemployment front.
Those 20 years of a “different kind of car company” ran out of gas in a hurry. Saturn disappeared without a trace. G.M. “not only killed it; it dismembered the body, dumped pieces at undisclosed locations, and replaced it with an impostor,” said Jerry Garrett, New York Times automotive writer. Score a big one for the Grinch.
But according to a recent release of 2008 Census Bureau data, we’re the 14th wealthiest county in the U.S., and we’re also well above the U.S. double-digit unemployment average – so the Grinch didn’t take everyone’s Ben Franklins from under the tree.
Dollars aren’t the only measure of a successful Christmas. Even if they sometimes seem the most important yardstick, they can’t buy happiness, and we live in the fourth happiest state, according to recent research by England’s University of Warwick. (Warwick!!?? Oxford or Cambridge it ain’t, but forget your troubles – go on and be happy!)
Over the past year, Santa brought us a bunch of other reasons for merriment, including movement on a number of major Franklin projects that will pay off big-time in quality of life for future generations.
For starters, the city completed the Fifth Avenue North and Third Avenue North Gateways and Corridors improvements on schedule and began work on Columbia Avenue, where Santa was already bringing us what has to be the biggest police station of any town our size in the country. The only Grinch issue, one wag points out, is that we don’t have enough crime! J)
That same wag remarked that the newly streetscaped Third Avenue North makes a great connector to Bicentennial Park, but Bicentennial Park doesn’t exist (Tricentennial Park, maybe?)
But other parks have opened, and Harlinsdale now has a somewhat uneven but mown trail around most of the perimeter, making a terrific walk or jog of some three miles of middle Tennessee landscape. You also can get outdoors and exercise at The Eastern Flank Battlefield Park. And f you’re into contact sports, try the Frisbee course at Liberty Park.
Unfortunately – counters the Grinch – that fresh air isn’t so fresh in some parts of Franklin. The clean-up of Egyptian Metal Lacquer pollution in the Daniels Drive neighborhood seems endless, and the Superior Essex plant is the alleged source of other foul odors.
On the other hand, Santa is putting trees under our tree. Williamson County continues to set the model for The Land Trust for Tennessee, with its focus on key landscapes along the Natchez Trace, at the historic gateways to Franklin, and in the Leiper's Fork, Arrington and College Grove areas.
Since 1999 the land trust has protected over 5,000 acres “critical to the continued agricultural, natural, and historic heritage” of our county through 37 projects -- the most for any county in the state. And the trust plans to close on another four magnificent properties by the end of the year.
But the Grinch scored a big one on a piece of property directly adjacent to a land trust easement – the Roper’s Knob excavation at Cool Springs Boulevard and Mack Hatcher. Half of this scenic hill – an important historic landmark – is being blown and bulldozed into a development that will slow traffic in addition to disfiguring and maiming a central piece of our viewscape.
Back in town, Franklin’s downtown shopping area was recently labeled the “Malibu of Tennessee” in America’s newspaper of record. If you’ve ever been to Malibu, you probably suspect that Santa Monica was intended, but we’ll take all the kudos we can get, even if they’re mis-phrased. And there was no mistaking the American Planning Association’s “Great American Neighborhood” recognition of Franklin’s downtown historic district. The 15-block original downtown area is one of America’s 10 greatest neighborhoods, says the APA. We’re the first city in Tennessee to get a Great Places in American designation.
And in coming years, we should be able to get to or around our downtown more easily. Unless you love waiting in Franklin High and Columbia State traffic, you’re delighted that Santa has made Hillsboro Road widening a priority, and the long, long process of extending Mack Hatcher has finally begun with property acquisition in the Rebel Meadows neighborhood. (But the Grinch counters that the affected residents may not be too happy. . . . Progress comes at a price.)
While we’re waiting for road improvements, we continue to have plenty of reasons to fight our way into downtown. Several new stores have opened, including Sweet CeCe's, Shoppes on Main, Heydey, Avec Moi, Personally Yours, and F.M. Allen, and our festivals continue to draw tens of thousands into the heart of our community. We’ve even got a new artificial Christmas tree – unlike Nashville’s real one, it didn’t blow down. Yes, Grinch, we still don’t have our Main Street movie theater back, but the Heritage Foundation is feverishly designing and accepting bids on the future showplace.
On the preservation front, after decades of studiously ignoring each other, two of the major tourist attractions – the Carter House and Carnton – have joined forces as the Battle of Franklin Preservation Trust, ready to present a united front for the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Battle of Franklin five years from now. And Santa continues to preserve other sites from the continual assault by the Grinch.
Two preservationists have bought and plan to restore historic Breezeway on Clovercroft, the oldest double-pen log home in the county. (But the Grinch is letting neglect threaten to demolish Fleming Hall on the former BGA campus.)
You win some, you lose some, Santa, but so far you’re batting better than .500 against the Grinch in Franklin and Williamson County.
Peter Jordan is a retired English professor who does contract writing and public relations work in the technology industry. You can reach him at peterjordan@mindspring.com.
Posted on: 12/24/2009
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