tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87612241588650313172024-03-05T08:35:10.202-06:00Muddy Waters Made ClearYou can't be afraid to sound different.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-83043944026362446282014-08-03T18:42:00.000-05:002014-08-06T11:50:30.618-05:00Until Teleportation Becomes A Real Option...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the past few months, reports have been published for Franklin, Tennessee, and downtown Nashville citing the need for affordable housing options. For most Middle Tennessee residents, these reports were more of a "duh" moment than a revelation of a real community need. Franklin holds small-town charm surrounded by beautiful countryside while being 30 minutes south of Nashville. Downtown Nashville is in the middle of a growth spurt and robust recovery from the recession, and condominium and apartment building has resumed after about five years of stagnation. Several conversations with friends and coworkers about the rapidly rising rental and home prices here echo the concerns of the reports, but no one seems to really touch on the reasons I'm about to advocate for protecting or creating decent housing for low- to middle-income residents of these areas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">First, the report highlights:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://franklinhomepage.com/report-finds-homeownership-nearly-out-of-reach-for-average-franklin-worker-cms-14988#.U96CSlYkaOI" target="_blank">The Franklin report</a> found that 40 percent of its resident renters pay 30% of their income on housing, and 18 percent pay more than half. A worker making the area average wage of just over $54,000 per year could afford only 11 percent of the homes sold last year or the year before in Franklin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2014/07/report-smaller-more-affordable-housing-units-are.html?page=all" target="_blank">downtown Nashville report</a> noted that the rental occupancy has been around 98 percent for three years, pushing rental rates to painful heights, and downtown condo sales have hit record prices. There are 14 new projects on the books, including Ray Hensler's TwelveTwelve complex, which began as an apartment development but converted to condos after exceeding the lender pre-sale requirement of $35 million, hitting $49 million in reservations in mid-June.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9de63abac7f3ffcababa4e2b7d424d35c335de6d/c=436-0-3821-2539&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/Nashville/2014/06/18/-nasbrd05-23-2014tennessean1d00120140522imgnas-bizstandalone.j1.jpg" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">In the background, in June, TwelveTwelve was still being serviced by a crane;<br />in the foreground, another housing development nears completion on Demonbreun.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shortly before the Franklin report came out, a broker friend of mine and I had been discussing how rent control in Manhattan came about and how it worked. When I sent him the news article about the need for affordable Franklin housing, he said he found it interesting that "<span style="background-color: white;">the sense of entitlement that permeates our culture extends to the notion that somehow everyone should be able to live where they want regardless of whether or not they have earned the privilege." He said that no affordable housing existed because there wasn't a business case for it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">In response to an email in which I asked </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Mr. Hensler of TwelveTwelve if he would consider developing a downtown project for middle-income folks, Hensler agreed with me "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">that having good options for folks at all income and demographic levels is important." His company, though, is small and focused on what they know, which is the luxury segment of the high rise market. A former multi-housing broker explained to me that developers can't get financing for so-called "affordable" housing and instead build to meet the market demands that bring a greater return on their investment.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fair enough.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Now, the reasoning for more affordable housing:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">So why do city governments and organizations and citizens need to consider affordable housing within city cores? The most simple answer is because we need to remember the people who serve those communities in low-income jobs. The second reason corresponds with the first and touches on an issue that Nashville is struggling with as it grows: if people can't live near where they work, they commute, and that means more of their income goes to transportation, and the city experiences traffic congestion, air pollution, and a greater need for public transit options.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">According to the Franklin housing report article, 85 percent of the nearly 51,000 Franklin workers live outside of Franklin. "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Of the five largest industries," the article continued, "none have average wages high enough for a worker to afford a single-family detached house. Only two paid enough to cover median rent." Anyone who drives south on I-65 or I-24 after 3:00 PM on a weekday knows that a significant portion of Nashville's working population also commutes, turning what might otherwise be a twenty-minute drive into a 45-minute to hour-long rush hour commute. Many choose to live in Williamson and Rutherford counties for their excellent school districts, but how many people are traveling into downtown from Antioch or Nolensville, the more affordable areas south of Nashville? As Middle Tennessee discusses mass-transit options, no one in the major publications has publicly suggested that maybe one part of the solution is to provide housing for those people who make low wages at area gas stations, fast food restaurants, dry cleaners, hotels, and other service industries, not to forget the creatives who fuel these cities' cultures.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">When I worked in the food-and-beverage and hospitality industries during and just after college in Charleston, South Carolina, I lived within walking distance to work at first, but I later moved to more affordable housing on James Island. After that, I sometimes spent thirty minutes to an hour on a bus to travel what would be a six-mile trip by car. As Nashville embraces a hotel and restaurant boom, the city needs to consider where all of those hotel and restaurant workers will live. As ServiceSource and UBS announce faster-than-expected downtown employment growth while, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">simultaneously,</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"> the city works toward increasing parking options in the blocks surrounding those offices, it becomes an obvious [to me, at least] need for more housing options for these workers. If Franklin wants to retain a more walkable, healthy, less congested community, it might need to consider affordable housing options for those who work in those quaint little downtown shops.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nashville-mdha.org/uploads/images/John-Henry-Hale-Homes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nashville-mdha.org/uploads/images/John-Henry-Hale-Homes.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Nashville's Metropolitan Development and Housing Agencies'<br />
family housing apartment communities at Charlotte and I-40.<br />
Downtown Nashville can be seen in the background.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Wages for certain jobs will never keep up with the housing pricing in areas that are experiencing popular demand from people who can afford above-average prices per square foot. Those who live in downtown Nashville or Franklin are willing to pay the premium prices required to be near exciting new restaurants, shopping, and working options. Perhaps, though, we need to revise our impression of living the good life with good schools and decent housing: maybe it shouldn't be as much a privilege for those who worked their way up as it </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">is a privilege</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">to have coffee shops and drugstores and convenience stores in those exclusive communities. Perhaps having clean air and quiet roads requires supplying nearby housing options for the people who work at those places.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">There are a few options for the lowest incomes in Nashville. The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency of Nashville (<a href="http://www.nashville-mdha.org/" target="_blank">MDHA</a>) lists 13 family housing properties on its web site, most of which look nothing like the old-school housing projects of decades past, and many are located near the downtown core. They also claim to have "</span><span style="background-color: white;">served as the catalyst to other unique and innovative projects that are increasing housing options for low- and moderate-income Nashvillians," including the income-based <a href="http://nanceplace.com/" target="_blank">Nance Place</a>, a <a href="http://www.freemanwebb.com/" target="_blank">Freeman Webb</a> property near Rolling Mill Hill in the downtown area that currently has a waiting list for its under-$1,000-per-month options. The <a href="http://www.franklinhousingauthority.com/about-fha" target="_blank">Franklin Housing Authority</a> also operates 288 public housing units for those earning low to moderate incomes. Compared to the populations of these cities, those options leave quite a large group of people who fall between those qualifying for public housing and those able to afford the <a href="http://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-nashville-rent-trends/" target="_blank">Nashville average rental rate</a> of $1,040 per month [as of February 2014].</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">For someone like myself living in that group, the public options make me happy but don't actually serve me. The non profit organization </span><a href="http://urbanhousingsolutions.org/" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">Urban Housing Solutions</a><span style="background-color: white;"> owns and operates 30 affordable housing properties around Nashville, some of which serve people in public service careers such as teaching and social work. Again, these options serve a community in need, but they don't serve me.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Since I can't afford to buy because my husband and I aren't in a position to save for a down payment (or mortgage insurance plus housing insurance plus a home payment), we have few options. We will stay where we live now as long as possible, in the third floor apartment of a house we share with a vocal coach, where my husband competes for practice time on his drums with students practicing in the apartment below us, or move out of the area further west to the countryside or south to Antioch, increasing our rent a couple hundred dollars per month, or move to a neighborhood that sits beneath an interstate with high crime rates and <i>still</i> pay a hundred or more per month than we do now. One of us could get a second job, of course; that would be in the cards if we choose to have children. These are our options in the city I love. Market forces have made it this way. If market forces were the only things that mattered, then my broker friend would be correct in that I don't deserve to live in certain areas. If the work I do matters to the city, though--or if the work of the creatives in this city</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">like my husband</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">matter to a place called "Music City,"--there needs to be more options in the middle range.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As Music Row becomes a battleground for developers hoping to capitalize on the housing boom versus preservationists who want to retain the unique character of the neighborhood, and as officials and activists fight over public transit options, I hope that people will remember the forces that prop up the money behind the property buyers. I will never forget a radio interview of Bill Gates' father in 2004 in which he said, in essence, that those who make the most money do so on the backs of those who serve at the lowest income levels. Cities need people to serve in those jobs that pay minimum wage. What has only recently occurred to me, though, was that everyone's quality of life can be improved in some way--reduced traffic congestion, better services, reduced poverty and crime--by providing opportunities for people to improve their living situation with not only jobs but with actual affordable living spaces.</span></span>Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-16105890053905802942014-07-17T07:20:00.000-05:002014-07-17T07:20:56.083-05:00Real Fans Respect the ProcessThis blog does not rant. Airing out grievances here was never my intention; I want to inspire thought and action, not bore people with angry tirades. It's from this place, this desire to project a specific and calculated opinion in each post that does not rant, that I came to my topic today.<br />
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The newly released Michael Jackson album is a crime against Michael Jackson.<br />
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Creation is an act of discovery.<br />
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I might choose later to take the words "an act of" out of that last sentence to create impact, then even later decide to leave those words in for all the weight that their meaning could hold, and tomorrow question whether that weight affects the sentence negatively.<br />
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To publish the unfinished, unapproved works of an artist, any kind of artist, is to rob that creator of true, uncensored expression. An artist's own revisions are part of the creative process, and until a creator deems his or her work complete, the work is, in effect, censored of its creator's final thoughts. Each modification to a creative work imprints the artist's personality upon the piece until it ends up reflecting just what the artist wanted reflected. To release unfinished works posthumously risks exposing weaknesses, flaws, mistakes, or other particulars that might not have been released by the creator. It opens up the work to misinterpretations or criticisms from which a dead creator has no self-defense.<br />
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In an era of reduced privacy and instant sharing of emotions, it may seem like we should feel more comfortable with a stream-of-consciousness style of creativity. Myself, I love the editing process, in both my writing and my photography, and consider the editing to be as important as the initial composition. It's why I don't journal anymore—I don't want anyone to think my journals are the sum of my thoughts, especially if I should happen to die at an inopportune moment of self-reflection! Virginia Woolf, the poet and diarist, noted that people tend to journal in times of great emotion, limiting the value of the thoughts expressed in a diary as an accurate reflection of life. So, too, are the limits of works in progress, as they are the incomplete reflections of an artist's musings.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidUzdbpEBIcpnoJ7wiRdejP3L4BOAyhKNspvL6kRnqp1I6o7V_ktKqlBHAqiYD7CLhivstBbg1JjNtjxP0IKPjUfuTvGBmA2nIJUjRYaU7cSMY6oQ0f89AgDRD62v8fIj6AwH9jr1YopU/s1600/Creative+Process.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidUzdbpEBIcpnoJ7wiRdejP3L4BOAyhKNspvL6kRnqp1I6o7V_ktKqlBHAqiYD7CLhivstBbg1JjNtjxP0IKPjUfuTvGBmA2nIJUjRYaU7cSMY6oQ0f89AgDRD62v8fIj6AwH9jr1YopU/s1600/Creative+Process.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My creative process, by the light of a lava lamp. My scribbles will be edited</i><br />
<i>during typing and then again in the morning before posting.</i></td></tr>
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We, as consumers (often our only real power in the U.S.) must not allow others to profit from the publishing of Michael Jackson's unfinished recordings that were completed by others without Michael's input and therefore are not truly Michael's songs. The same applies to releases of Tupac Shakur's extensive previously unreleased catalog, or <span id="goog_2018445639"></span><a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/when-do-posthumous-releases-go-too-far-99577" target="_blank">the publishing of manuscripts left behind by J.R.R. Tolkien by his son Christopher</a>.<span id="goog_2018445640"></span><br />
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Do I believe some diaries and journals should be published posthumously? If it was clearly the intent of the author to share with the world a particular perspective from a particular point in history, then yes. If it was clearly a private expulsion of emotional pleiades meant only for personal enlightenment, then maybe not. If we aren't sure, then maybe some things are best left private. To do otherwise would be exploitation.<br />
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Do I think George Lucas should have altered the original <i>Star Wars</i> films to fit his original vision, the one he claims he was denied by the limitations of technology in the 70's and 80's? As I say about oh-so-many things, just because he can doesn't mean he should. Once released to the public, a piece of art becomes part of the public consciousness. Art is a gift. It is the personal struggle of the artist to create within imposed limitations, which forces creativity. The public release makes art a new thing, ready for interaction with observers and listeners and readers. It becomes a collaborative agreement with an audience, an agreement that George Lucas violated. <i>Star Wars</i> fans were pissed because they did respect the original process and the original results.<br />
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<i>A masterpiece is something said once and for all, stated, finished, so that it's there complete in the mind, if only at the back. </i>—Virginia Woolf</blockquote>
What about the works of masters, especially from ancient history? While I admit to my own hunger for more works from great artists who died too young or who simply spark an insatiable craving in some of us, it's still just not right. To discover a missing or previously unknown finished work is exciting, but I say again, anything else is exploitation.<br />
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Part of the beauty of art is its limits: its impermanence and limited quantity. Cake decorators understand this. If we love an artist—if we are a true fan—we must respect the creative process and let that artist's unfinished works dissolve quietly into the ether, hints of what could have been but were never meant to be.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-85456440899562802152014-07-12T14:08:00.001-05:002014-07-12T14:08:44.816-05:00For The Love of NashvilleI never meant to be absent from my blog for this long. It wasn't that I had writer's block. It was more that I was unable to focus on any one topic. As this summer has bloomed, though, some trends in the local news and conversations with various friends have been percolating.<br />
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In the time since my last post, I survived unemployment and started a job that I love in January, one that challenges me and stresses me out and pushes me beyond my comfort zone and tests my mettle and stretches my creativity: it's a position in business development for a <a href="http://www.cictn.com/" target="_blank">small commercial construction company</a> working with wonderful people who build wonderful things. It has absorbed a lot of my focus while I learn about the business, follow leads, and cultivate inspiration. It's everything I wanted in a job, and it makes me want to work really, really hard.<br />
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It's part of my job to know what's happening in the Nashville market, both with commercial real estate and with business in general. Nashville is actively touting its current "boom," it's growth as a hub of entrepreneurialism, healthcare, technology, and creativity. Community leaders have been enviably successful these past few years at fostering a business-friendly environment, drawing large corporate relocations, incubating hundreds of start-ups, fostering significant development in both commercial and residential real estate, driving job growth and home sales, and even improving academic performance in the public school system. All of this growth benefits the construction industry as we build the places where people will work, live, and play.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYPnoQLDeZ7IVaka6puEAtVQaorI9jnBrRCFM1h_WGdLAysA8wNajXyOlcM1idg9BH7XnLwhQnfcIhthJ4hURXKeN69VJlzN-1-lRgs5B-UXsUqmC2GOfj-e0C7dCMpRYvzEJOHV4oow/s1600/View+from+5th-3rd_Nashville+(2+of+12).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="View of downtown Nashville, TN, from the balcony at 424 Church Street." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYPnoQLDeZ7IVaka6puEAtVQaorI9jnBrRCFM1h_WGdLAysA8wNajXyOlcM1idg9BH7XnLwhQnfcIhthJ4hURXKeN69VJlzN-1-lRgs5B-UXsUqmC2GOfj-e0C7dCMpRYvzEJOHV4oow/s1600/View+from+5th-3rd_Nashville+(2+of+12).jpg" height="480" title="View of downtown Nashville, TN, from the balcony at 424 Church Street." width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The SunTrust building in the foreground, the Pinnacle at Symphony Place building in the far left, the Music City Center with the green guitar-shaped roof, and the Omni Hotel immediately in the center were all built after my husband and I moved here in 2004.</td></tr>
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Being so immersed in the hyperbole of the city's success, though, it becomes easy to forget about the core culture of the city and where Nashville is headed, if it can survive the growing pains without diluting the attributes that make it great. In just the past month, two issues arose that touched on the fate of Music City's legacy, the <a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-potential-sale-of-rca-studio-a-touches-off-a-debate-over-preserving-music-rows-history/Content?oid=4223731" target="_blank">potential sale of RCA Studio A </a>and a <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/07/opponents-push-back-against-restrictions-to.html" target="_blank">proposed retail restriction</a> over 17 acres of Lower Broadway. Ben Folds, who leased Studio A for 90 days at a time and renewed his lease over 50 times, lobbied for the protection of the studio (which may never have been in real danger) and a general historic preservation overlay on Music Row. He garnered a lot of attention from artists, property owners, and developers. Some fall on the side of protecting the city's musical heritage by protecting the remaining studios in which that heritage was recorded. Others don't want to restrict any development and want to preserve the value of the properties as investments. Northeast of Music Row, the retail restrictions on Lower Broadway proposed by Metro Councilwoman Erica Gilmore would limit the types of business that can open there. The original bill banned national chains and required new businesses to be music venues or somehow otherwise reflect the country music theme of the honky-tonk district. Gilmore is working on a revision while opponents have proposed their own, less restrictive bill that redefines a "chain" and reduces the rule's physical footprint, decrying the push to narrowly define the face of downtown. Both problems reflect an old battle of capital versus culture.<br />
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The issues have been bubbling up in areas surrounding downtown in the past few months, also, as <a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2013/12/18/careful-east-nashville-before-removing-land-use-restrictions-in-five-points" target="_blank">East Nashville bumps up against redevelopment district guidelines</a>, and Germantown property prices inflated rapidly following the ground-breaking of a new baseball stadium for the Sounds this year, an event that drove a flurry of development deals. <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/07/nashvilles-newest-record-1-9b-of-building-permits.html" target="_blank">Metro Nashville issued a record value of building permits</a> in the fiscal year ending June 30th, $1.87 billion. In Christine Kreyling's <i>Nashville Post</i> article linked above about East Nashville's redevelopment district, Metro Councilman John Summers stated the issue neatly: "Just because property values have risen dramatically doesn't mean everyone is going to do neighborhood-senstive development." It's an issue my husband and I know well from our experiences in Charleston, South Carolina. We've seen the rise in property values and property taxes that drive out poor populations, often driving minorities, especially, out of their neighborhoods to make way for new businesses and higher-income residents. We watched as rental rates on Meeting and King streets rose too high for the small, independent business owners to sustain their shops, shops that were later replaced with stores like Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma. Yankee vacationers and retirees began buying the mansions on the peninsula and the <a href="http://youtu.be/mes2r_czcHo" target="_blank">beautiful linguistic accent</a> that rolled off the tongues of the Charleston elite all but disappeared. (Actually, I haven't heard it in years; it may be gone now.)<br />
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The music industry in Nashville has changed, as well, with the influx of new hopefuls following the success of the ABC show, "Nashville," a couple of short-lived reality TV shows, and the general trend in voter-driven singing competitions like "The Voice" and "Rising Star." My husband, a drummer, and his friends have been discussing the changes to their careers as a result. Hungry newbies on the scene dilute the value of creative work by playing for free, paying to play, or virtually giving away their catalogs. Executives want to know what show singers have been on, how many Facebook "likes" they've acquired, or how many YouTube hits a performer has attracted before considering them for a label. Record labels hire young--or young-looking--performers to back up their vocalists, to the detriment of the careers of seasoned professionals. Performers in the honky-tonks have to be human juke boxes to entertain the tourist crowds. The rapidly declining opportunities for paid gigs has caused more than one in our circle of friends to question the path this city is taking toward growth at the expense of the musicians who paint the scene.<br />
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Being pro-business and pro-progress, yet also pro-minority empowerment and pro-cultural preservation, I am torn on these issues. I don't believe that restricting Lower Broadway to only country music-related businesses is wise, but some restrictions could help retain the local flavor, whatever flavor local business owners choose to sell. I believe in preserving the heritage of Music Row, but I also believe the people who want to preserve those properties need to pay a fair-market value to protect them. I believe in the value of independent music labels and innovative start-ups in all fields, and I have grown to love the small-town feel of this somewhat large Tier 2 city. I abhor the big machine behind country music, but I recognize that profit motive always has and always will drive any industry.<br />
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So, what's to become of the culture here in the next five years? City leaders know that we have to get this growth thing right in terms of traffic, infrastructure, and housing, but it's up to the citizens to protect the pieces we love. In a way, it's another reason for locals to pursue their own businesses; it's the unique businesses here that do the most to preserve the culture. It's the locally-sourced and locally-owned restaurants, the small brewers and distillers, the indy labels and the label-less musicians, the artists, the techies, and the fashionistas that keep the profit-above-all system in check. They create jobs and opportunities while perpetuating that delicious blend of traditional and quirky. While I and others may worry at the dissolution of Nashville's peculiar flavor, it's possible that we are attracting and encouraging more of the ambitious people who will fit right in and help us become a more sustainable, more diverse, and ultimately more interesting community.<br />
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Is it likely? I don't know, but it <i>is</i> possible. It's possible we just need to fight business with business.<br />
<br />Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-78531338485977882682013-10-23T13:16:00.001-05:002013-10-23T13:20:34.040-05:00The Enterprising Upswing of the Economic DownturnThe jobs reports this quarter: they haven't been positive. The healthcare snafus and the government shutdown: they make the Dow quiver and business owners wait on the edges of their seats to make a move, to decide to expand or order inventory, or whether to hire new people. It might seem to the casual headline-scanner that this country has little hope for near-future recovery. However, I'm here to report on a project that inspires and trends that shine like a little match near a stream of methane coming from this dump of an economy. <br />
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In May of 2012, in my post <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/05/moondoggie-style-economic-development.html" target="_blank">Moondoggie-style Economic Development</a>, I wrote about the Five Points Collaborative in East Nashville, a cluster of small shops with short lease terms, and a similar project that was about to open called <a href="http://www.shoppesonfatherland.com/spaces/" target="_blank">The Shoppes at Fatherland</a>. The idea behind these projects is to promote small businesses and entrepreneurship without adding the heavy burden of expensive long-term leases to the business plan. I loved the idea and thought some activist investors could make good use of it.<br />
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To my delight, a couple weeks ago, my sister sent me an article from <a href="http://good.is/">GOOD.is</a> about an invention called <a href="http://www.good.is/posts/storefront-transformer-a-kit-for-pop-up-community-hubs" target="_blank">the miLES Storefront Transformer</a>. It is a fold-able kit complete with walls, shelving, lighting, and some furnishings to fill vacant storefronts in Manhattan. The article is worth reading. The <u>M</u>ade <u>I</u>n the <u>L</u>ower <u>E</u>ast <u>S</u>ide Storefront Transformer ran a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1215719462/made-in-the-lower-east-side-miles-storefront-trans" target="_blank">Kickstarter campaign</a> that was just successfully funded as of their close date, October 19, to "transform an underused storefront this winter into a pop-up neighborhood hub with 7 themes." They want to use these pop-ups to exhibit the magnificent versatility of the transportable cubes to fill underused storefronts with pop-up shops, incubators, art galleries, classrooms, and anything else one's imagination might come up with to invigorate a neighborhood. Having just worked in an office building that had a concrete retail shell space that sat vacant the entire two-and-a-half years I worked in the building, it filled me with joy to see people working to collaborate on so many levels to keep a neighborhood from appearing to be an abandoned hole, to allow start-ups to experiment in a short-term space, to allow temporary classes and workshops to imbue energy into a community. These are the things that the miLES Storefront Transformers could accomplish.<br />
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I am learning myself just how complicated starting a business can be for the uninitiated. A friend and I are collaborating on an idea for some consulting work--photography and copy writing for a specific audience for the web--that seemed inexpensive to start, enjoyable to do while utilizing our talents, a way to make some extra money, and an idea that appears to reach a market in need. We don't even need a storefront, just a web site, but I am learning that there is more to starting a for profit business than a nonprofit organization. It seemed at first like choosing to organize as an LLC would be the obvious best choice, but then again, maybe not; maybe we should do some freelance work first. The insurance recommendations from the Tennessee Secretary of State have me overwhelmed. The parts I'm not afraid to do--cold calling, running the web site, doing the work--don't make much sense without some structure. As I mentioned in my more recent post, <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2013/06/free-help-for-weary-money-makers.html" target="_blank">Free Help For the Weary Money-Makers</a>, the government does have a plethora of help out there. I've started our business plan on the <a href="http://www.sba.gov/business-plan/2?saved" target="_blank">Small Business Administration</a> web site, watched some helpful tax videos on the IRS site, "<a href="http://www.irsvideos.gov/SmallBusinessTaxpayer/virtualworkshop" target="_blank">Small Business Taxes: The Virtual Workshop</a>," and have begun looking at sites like the <a href="https://www.tsbdc.org/" target="_blank">Tennessee Small Business Development Center</a> and the <a href="https://www.tsbdc.org/" target="_blank">Business Enterprise Resource Office</a> for additional information.<br />
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In fact, there is so much free information out there, it's almost too much information. I currently have more time on my hands than a lot of people when I'm not busy looking for a day job, have an above-average tolerance for reading through boring text, love learning about business and technology and new things in general, am more organized with internet references than most people I know, and still can't wrap my brain around all of it. (Is it obvious from my self-boosting description that I've been selling myself to employers for a few weeks?) My father would probably remind me that I don't need to know everything to get started, and my sister would remind me that I am getting bogged down in the details, so that's where I differ from business owners who just wing it. It seems that keeping on top of all of this information, though, is important for someone like me who advocates for expanded business education to expand economic empowerment. It also seems that the complexity of the process could deflate the confidence of someone who doesn't have the internet and a computer in their home, someone who has a full time job and/or children to look after, someone who reads slowly and maybe doesn't have the reading comprehension skills of a college graduate. Many people probably could run a business if only they had the right training and mentoring. Perhaps, though, the system works for those who have the diligence to persevere when things are difficult and find help when needed. I'm not entirely settled on that matter, but that's not the point here. The resources have been created--from education to storefronts--by engaged activists everywhere who want to ensure that those with the drive and a product have what they need to succeed in business.<br />
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It seems like a grand time in history to be entrepreneurial. Businesses can be run with less money and better technology, run by people with basic educations and people who still work another job. Resources for small businesses have been sprouting in the last decade on a fertile landscape of economic depression crap--the manure of broken retirement and home ownership dreams, the heat of anger over poorly run businesses and institutions that left people unemployed for months on end, the nourishment of those who have energy remaining after navigating the HR maze of the job hunt. People are returning to an appreciation of self-sufficiency: the <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2009/12/etsy-entrepreneur.html" target="_blank">Etsy Entreprenuer</a>, the small-scale farmer, the urban homesteader, the <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> project pursuers, the vintage resellers, and the many wonderful brands of people who may hit a big box store for a lot of items, but who know what it means to make something for themselves. Cities and building owners are becoming more creative in their zoning and project use. Rethinking how we get around cities has reminded people of the value of the ground floor storefront in a walkable neighborhood as a community-binding fixture. Larger companies are gathering their employees in open-concept floor plans to collaborate and communicate with each other face-to-face just as society begins to be concerned with people having their faces stuck in screens.<br />
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OK, the effectiveness of that last phenomenon is actually an unproven, possibly even counter-productive method that might not actually be getting people's faces out of their screens. Nevertheless, this country wants to support <i>enterprise </i>and <i>collaboration</i>, never mind that boring old b-word. Perhaps if we continue to share the love and collaborate globally, support technologies like the indoor aquaponics food garden called <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1414985420/the-aqualibrium-garden-the-future-of-food" target="_blank">The Aqualibrium Garden</a>--another amazing project worth reading about--there might be a better world in the nearer future than any doomsday prep-er would be willing to admit.<br />
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Now we have to figure out what to do with that damned government.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-86118434866117550552013-09-26T01:02:00.000-05:002013-09-30T08:44:13.776-05:00The Next Phase of My LifeWow, for the first time in a long time, my American audience has surpassed my Ukrainian readership. Of course, I have been conspicuously absent from here for months, as happens occasionally. I give a lot to my day job, and this summer was especially hectic.<br />
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As mentioned in previous posts, I work in property management. The building where I work is a high rise that has suffered large vacancies due to several factors, but my boss and I were brought in as new management when the building went into foreclosure in 2011. This summer, we lost our anchor tenant, the bank that built the building nearly 40 years ago. A tenant prospect simultaneously began considering absorbing nearly half of the space that the bank gave up. During the process of transitioning out a bank (<i>Are vaults considered fixtures? How many signs do they have in this place, anyway? How do you get the giant letters off the side of the building?</i>) and wooing a new tenant, a new buyer prospect for the building began a very long process of due diligence. Mid-summer, the other assistant in our office left to do student teaching, leaving just my boss and I to continue. I worked long hours, longer than my boss on many days since she has a child to care for, so blogging fell by the wayside. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ipsZ5A7Nc_xhi-htMsPkICIPK551bMlzEmnplY2fCsQYp_dMMh72TnHu9qWlFB-6tOMh88kz-evs10xmOPD8xd5IKyQtKGSXrGXNoYoBFN6fJVt9ksPA-gaw-Jk5UeNAu3qNDcfs4tQ/s1600/IMG_1816.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ipsZ5A7Nc_xhi-htMsPkICIPK551bMlzEmnplY2fCsQYp_dMMh72TnHu9qWlFB-6tOMh88kz-evs10xmOPD8xd5IKyQtKGSXrGXNoYoBFN6fJVt9ksPA-gaw-Jk5UeNAu3qNDcfs4tQ/s1600/IMG_1816.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is how you remove letters from a building.</td></tr>
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I did write a short story, though, that I will expand into a children's novel for the 2nd-3rd grade level (or ages 7-9). As I picked up <i>A Wrinkle In Time</i> by Madeleine L'Engle to remind myself of what I enjoyed at the age of 9, the building finally sold, the bank was finished moving out, and the new lease was signed. I prepared myself to stay at this position a little longer so as not to give my boss a stroke by leaving her alone. It's been my goal to work in editing or publishing for 15 years, and this latest position all but eliminated the creative work I'd enjoyed in other jobs. I am not a quitter, though, and when the other assistant in the office left, it seemed like the right thing to do to stay and support my boss, working on my storybook at home and trying to get some freelance gigs.<br />
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God had other plans.<br />
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Two days after the sale was final, I was laid off with 30-days notice. My last day is October 4th. The new owner cut two positions, mine and a maintenance tech's, to reduce operating expenses. Being business-minded, knowing it was not personal since the owner didn't know me, and my boss cried and fought for me, it didn't take me long to see this as an opportunity to finally give myself over to the search for a writing <u>job</u>, not just <u>work.</u> My real estate career taught me many things about marketing, but my current position isn't marketing-focused. For all of the things I endeavored in my off-time, I almost lost hope in 2008 that I would ever get to actually make a living writing. Nashville doesn't have many writing positions outside of journalism. Suddenly, with this layoff, I wouldn't have to feel like I left my boss for selfish reasons. I could search across the country for jobs openly and pimp myself out through every available means. It gives me the time to search and apply for positions without staying up till midnight (like tonight), and it allows me to pursue starting my own business with a friend, one that is time-consuming and requires some travel. Now I will have time and a little money to move to a new city if needed and still start that new business because it's web-based.<br />
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There is a mourning period that goes with this, of course. I like the people I work with, and I like my 20th floor office with a view. I feel an attachment to the building and wanted to see it improved upon and filled up again. I'm afraid of draining my severance because finding a job takes longer than it used to five years ago. With all of these fears, though, comes a faith in my calling, and a belief that I am meant to transition back into a creative position, or that my latest entrepreneurial endeavor will pay the bills. Either is fine by me.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYy0ugEeZ2gKEUONRZB3unnON-j2IJZT6fntXqUgMTqhHmmIBTjPFq2-xYetaSOaaSiPUOrKI3Dxf5w2NZsN916dqKw54XYfKVfO_z_3UxZ6zYgvMO9h1SBxAtMmLB1pFGxlWt-UJoPQ/s1600/IMG_1929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYy0ugEeZ2gKEUONRZB3unnON-j2IJZT6fntXqUgMTqhHmmIBTjPFq2-xYetaSOaaSiPUOrKI3Dxf5w2NZsN916dqKw54XYfKVfO_z_3UxZ6zYgvMO9h1SBxAtMmLB1pFGxlWt-UJoPQ/s1600/IMG_1929.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what I see from my desk chair: bye-bye, beautiful view.</td></tr>
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A couple months after I graduated from college, I planned to cycle up the east coast to Maine. I had enough money to last one month before I needed to get a job and start paying off my student loans. I researched panniers and bought a new seat for my bike. Then, one night before I fell asleep, I prayed for a sign, asking God if this was the right thing to do. The next morning, I awoke to discover my roommate had moved my bike outside because he didn't like it in the kitchen, and he didn't lock it. My precious ride had been stolen. That seemed to be a big sign; I couldn't afford to replace my bike. Now, with a rare opportunity to focus on finding something creative, an opportunity to even search in other cities, I am applying for positions that focus on marketing, writing and editing. I can't miss this chance: I must pursue the dream.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DQOFlf6wLfbXMcyAlvh3GMJ68CshwVpZLbD8JzHbWG2CgxkwuiPR02W60hOcndH7uVpA9XYijTwm8_dnBTUn0n5Lx8fyrWc6QLeCyTQ6jCag9r1Xzjt5XHGhgv20IAZnLs3bdmlYdsM/s1600/IMG_1729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5DQOFlf6wLfbXMcyAlvh3GMJ68CshwVpZLbD8JzHbWG2CgxkwuiPR02W60hOcndH7uVpA9XYijTwm8_dnBTUn0n5Lx8fyrWc6QLeCyTQ6jCag9r1Xzjt5XHGhgv20IAZnLs3bdmlYdsM/s1600/IMG_1729.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beneficiary of my dedicated service for two and half years,<br />
a quirky building I've grown to love.</td></tr>
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<br />Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-87469155896040313412013-06-12T22:42:00.002-05:002013-06-12T22:42:28.390-05:00Free Help for the Weary Money-MakersI have been learning a little bit about the U.S. Cooperative Extension System, as well as other programs designed to assist farmers and rural communities create and sustain viable businesses. Each state's land grant university hosts an Extension program to provide research-based advisory services for anyone, geared toward rural and agricultural endeavors, with offices in counties throughout the state. My interest was piqued by the The University of Tennessee Extension program called <a href="http://economics.ag.utk.edu/mang.html" target="_blank">MANAGE</a>, which "helps families analyze their total farming business." It made me wonder, why is something like this not more prominent for businesses in urban areas?<br />
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The <a href="http://www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/extension.html" target="_blank">National Institute of Food and Agriculture</a> says that when the Extension system was originally created by Congress, more than half of the population lived in rural areas. The MANAGE program helps farm families look at their financial plans, potential capital investments, "the likely consequences of changing the scope of enterprises," and other areas to help ensure success in a business as challenging as farming. I am not sure of the number of farmers who participate, but if I was a farmer, I would be eager to take part. The benefits of such advice for existing businesses all over the state seem obvious. The gap between entrepreneurship education and a full business degree was what I wanted to see filled by something local, affordable, and with a very similar scope to the MANAGE program before I even knew that program existed. Businesses in any area--rural, urban, or suburban--can benefit from assistance with marketing, risk management, planning, and many other things a farm business must master to be successful. <br />
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Then, suddenly, I remembered <a href="http://www.score.org/about-score" target="_blank">SCORE</a> and the Small Business Administration. Services DO exist for businesses in urban areas, for little to no cost. SCORE has the same sorts of seminars, webinars, workshops, and other information as the Extension available for anyone with web access, and their offices are located within large population centers. The resources are out there, but the for-profit entrepreneurship programs and business degree programs seem to take precedence, drown them out, diminish their market presence. Knowing these things exist, though, keeps me from working so hard to convince someone to reinvent the wheel and further convinces me that my writing and advocacy could be the best thing I could do to improve the lives of others. Maybe instead of my creating something new, I should write about and highlight the services that already exist. I wonder, is there an app for that?Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-92058383082746389112013-05-01T02:15:00.001-05:002013-05-02T11:52:52.565-05:00Be Your Own Governor: Support Local FarmersMuch has been written lately about a Tennessee bill that passed the state House and Senate recently, a bill based on a law that exists in many states requiring people to turn in photos or videos of livestock abuse, unedited, to law enforcement within 48 hours of recording it. Ideas like the one presented in this bill and the response that the idea has generated were the impetus behind my starting this blog in the first place: issues often aren't as clear as they seem. Two primary responses stand out, both from groups of people claiming to be looking out for the welfare of animals, and the logic of both stopped me from shooting off an email to Governor Bill Haslam with an opinion. Of course, you can read any of the dozens of articles and blog posts out there on the topic, so here, I shall take a slightly different turn.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4vDuyMz5kum3OT9qGG1sA40z_KLPWzkyEAIUZb853WpvMtCx_rpTBj3JKI1sDFXOvNytUT7HEGoTbeTIcIk_jRVOJS-awDYM2tcXgRSUTcLZeQOelq7JTRYwVSA_HxyykmlOdoa-YSh0/s1600/Calf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4vDuyMz5kum3OT9qGG1sA40z_KLPWzkyEAIUZb853WpvMtCx_rpTBj3JKI1sDFXOvNytUT7HEGoTbeTIcIk_jRVOJS-awDYM2tcXgRSUTcLZeQOelq7JTRYwVSA_HxyykmlOdoa-YSh0/s1600/Calf.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the livestock seen at Adventures in Agriculture in Rutherford County, TN.</td></tr>
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On one side, animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States [HSUS] criticize this bill--even taking it to The Ellen DeGeneres show--because it makes proving recurring abuse difficult. They emphasize the importance of gathering evidence over time that shows a history of abuse. Supporters of the bill and critics of HSUS believe it's important to stop abuse immediately, hence the 48-hour rule. Some of the blogs I found on the topic, like <a href="http://www.humanewatch.org/" target="_blank">Humane Watch</a>, point out that HSUS allows abuse to continue for weeks or months while compiling video footage, and bloggers also assert that HSUS splices together inconclusive video segments to make stronger, falsified cases. Either situation is then used to raise funds for the group.<br />
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My initial thinking was, if the law proves unjust, people will break it or find ways around it to protect animals. Of course, people subvert just laws, too. Why, then, care about whether bills like this become law?<br />
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Cari Wade Gervin, a journalist reporting with <i>Metro Pulse</i> out of Knoxville, highlighted additional points in an article on March 27th entitled, "<a href="http://www.metropulse.com/news/2013/mar/27/critics-say-tennessee-bill-aimed-reducing-animal-c/" target="_blank">Critics Say Tennessee Bill Aimed At Reducing Animal Cruelty May Actually Protect Food Industry</a>." The entire article is worth reading, but two points stuck with me. First, the bill only protects livestock, not all animals. The language should have been written to give the law a broader scope. Second, the bill does not protect the press or their confidential sources. That latter point doesn't merely reflect the sentiment that long-term investigations are important, but it casts a shadow over the freedom of the press. An animal rights group specifically looking for abuse differs from--or <i>should</i> differ from--an investigative journalist hunting out the truth without an agenda. While it is neither the case that all animal rights groups seek to shut down animal farms, nor that all journalists write without an agenda, we must carefully consider legislation that could restrict the effectiveness of research by the media.<br />
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Both sides have valuable arguments: animal's need protection from harm immediately, not six months after the harm occurs, but to convict someone of serial inhumanity requires proof of recurrence. Livestock handling differs dramatically from how the average non-farming family would handle a pet, and a lack of understanding of the processes by the public could damage a business that is operating within the law.<br />
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<b>"Farm animal welfare is critically important to animal agriculture."</b> John McGlone, Texas Tech University <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Miller, Marlys. "<a href="http://www.porknetwork.com/webinars/Webinar-Gestation-Sow-Housing-to-provide-answers-and-insights-149909295.html" target="_blank">Webinar: 'Gestation Sow Housing' to provide answers and insights</a>," <i>Pork Magazine, </i>May 2, 2012. Accessed April 30, 2013.)</span><br />
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On Wednesday, Blake Farmer with Nashville Public Radio reported that <a href="http://wpln.org/?p=47374#.UYCfjJ-iWrg.blogger" target="_blank">Governor Haslam has received a huge response</a> advocating against signing the bill, but what should we do next? If you believe that animals, including livestock raised for food, deserve humane treatment and slaughter, that they should not suffer and should be honored as that which sustains us, then you will find yourself in the company of many farmers. Find sources of humanely raised animals. Advocate for more humane laws regarding the housing and slaughter of animals. Talk to farmers at the farmer's markets and read about the individual industries to learn accepted practices. You might not agree with accepted practices, but you will be able to <a href="http://awionline.org/content/know-your-labels" target="_blank">make informed purchases</a> and advocate for better policies.<br />
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As I discussed in one of my most popular posts, "<a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2010/04/monsanto-monoculture-and-consumer.html" target="_blank">Monsanto, Monoculture, and Consumer-Driven Monopolies</a>," much of our power comes from our pocketbooks. All industries are driven to cheaper methods of production, and only when we demand better quality with our purchasing power do we see long-standing, effective results. By committing to buying certain types of products, we allow producers to strive for quality over price. When people will break or circumvent laws that do not suit them, whether just or unjust, our best motivator becomes money. Make it feasible for farms to do things in a way that brings them better profits by producing better products, and the market will respond. Yes, we can be misled by promises, and that is where the laws and freedom of information protect us. The potential to be misled must not discourage us from seeking a culture of quality and morality. Whatever you believe about the bill, you can make a bigger difference with the choices you make every day.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-13088472816441394622013-04-08T10:01:00.000-05:002013-04-08T10:01:00.061-05:00I'm Not the Only One Thinking about Strip MallsYesterday I mentioned driving through an area south of Nashville that was filled with cash advance stores, pawn shops, cell phone stores, and other chains and franchises that fill many small suburbs, especially dense, low-income areas. Today, <em>The Tennessean</em> published an article, "<a href="http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130408/NEWS01/304080019/2095/BUSINESS02?nclick_check=1" target="_blank">What to do with dead malls, aging suburban corridors?</a>" In it, Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor of architecture and urban design at Georgia Tech, listed ways in which some cities have retrofitted malls, bulldozed existing structures, and created more welcoming spaces with parks and mixed-use development.<br />
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None of these are new ideas, but they point to the trend of increasing enjoyable and beautiful areas outside of the wealthiest areas of town as a benefit to whole cities and communities. My grandmother used to take children from Denver on field trips into the mountains to let them see nature and learn about the area behind their city that they saw but never visited. My grandma explained that many of those kids never even left the city; their parents didn't have cars, and they stayed within their neighborhoods for most of their childhoods. Since I spent most of my childhood outdoors, this always struck me as a tragedy for urban dwellers. That developers and city planners are now seriously considering quality of life for residents in sprawling areas makes me happy, but it also just makes good economic sense (for reasons I mentioned yesterday).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ciwbLRdma95IU0PA31QE-6Y1qPzJXpdBcuSUVI_wiFs7BAnzHsJYN2Nm1P7wIuVM5yPR1arQbyLAB0BTAx-iGRrSHgnw1wwwe54ZN_zMHdy2Er4MbXHpqDZl_MKFd0gVcqR-mNcAQf4/s1600/Burger+King.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ciwbLRdma95IU0PA31QE-6Y1qPzJXpdBcuSUVI_wiFs7BAnzHsJYN2Nm1P7wIuVM5yPR1arQbyLAB0BTAx-iGRrSHgnw1wwwe54ZN_zMHdy2Er4MbXHpqDZl_MKFd0gVcqR-mNcAQf4/s400/Burger+King.jpg" width="400" /></a>I am not completely pie-eyed, though. This was a view from a stop light yesterday; we thought it was funny because, from this angle, it looks like a Burger King Liquidation Center: "Whoppers, Whoppers Everywhere!" Where would the liquidation center go, though, if not here? Should it be next to a park? The next question becomes, how do we integrate places like this with walkable neighborhoods? Should it be part of an industrial office park sort of space, or could it be like a department store within a larger retail space? While I am thrilled to see us looking at new ways to contain and redevelop sprawl, we also have to remember that certain types of businesses pop up where the rent is low; sprawl sometimes happens because of price, the very thing that keeps some people within an urban core. If we want to make these places livable, we have to develop places that are also affordable.</div>
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Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-8442120045145397762013-04-07T19:03:00.001-05:002013-04-08T09:29:38.914-05:00The Road BeckonsYesterday, for the first time in a few weeks, I did not need to wear a jacket in Nashville. It's glorious outside! We had one splendid weekend in March that, as it did for many people in the U.S., preceded weeks of cold, rain, snow, and lots of gloomy days. As an office-dweller, days like today and yesterday make me burst through our storm door as soon as I get on a pair of jeans and put some breakfast in my belly.<br />
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Lately, especially, I've wanted nothing more than to get away to clear my head. <br />
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Yesterday I went out alone with the intention of finding a solution for squirrels eating my bulbs, but it was too pretty a day to spend shopping. (I reconcile my occasional joy-riding with how little I drive during the week.) I headed north up Briley Parkway, then exited to the northwest, taking a couple turns to get further into the countryside. I stopped at a BP for water before turning around in Springfield, and I walked into what turned out to be both a convenience store and a restaurant, Douglas & Co. A man was sitting by himself enjoying one of the most tender-looking slabs of barbeque I've seen in a long while, and the smell! I could not miss out on it. The man, it turned out, was eating short ribs, so I took some of my own in a carryout container to share with my husband. Those ribs spent twenty minutes overwhelming my senses on the drive home, and they did not disappoint. No sauce needed here, folks.<br />
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Today, my husband agreed to go south with me to do some exploring, but some miscommunication on both our parts resulted in us driving past dozens of cash advance stores, pawn shops, tobacco outlets, and cell phone stores. These are the shops that thrive in small towns all over the country, not just here in the south. It is one of the reasons I wanted to spread business education, so independent businesses could afford to open up their shops alongside the chains and franchises and create areas with local character. We turned around in Smyrna and returned home, content to spend more outside time on our porch.<br />
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I'm inspired today and happy, ready for a spring of renewal. Below is a pic of our crocus. We have a deck instead of a yard, so we grow container plants. I planted four types of bulbs to give us blooms all through the season. The crocus bloomed first, and some Checquered Fritillaria are just beginning to pop
up. When the latter bloom, the petals will be purple with pink checks on them. It's not out of a lack of creativity that I get sentimental at spring time; the way more and more things seem to be falling into place, I just wanted to share a little optimism with all of you and wish for you some positive changes, too.<br />
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<br />Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-1242011417670749972013-03-19T12:09:00.001-05:002013-03-19T12:17:47.394-05:00Things are looking up!So I'm blogging from my phone while an IT person from the company where I work cleans up a virus. After years and years of vigilance, I'm in my thirties getting my first computer virus from a stupid fake survey link in an email. Thank God for talented IT people. In the meantime, it seemed like a good opportunity to give my readers an update.<br />
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I've been a busy little bee, sowing seeds all around, and I am finally going to get to lead a business education seminar...or series. The exact format has yet to be decided, but I've been selected to be a co-chair of the Economic Empowerment Committee with the Urban League Young Professionals of Middle Tennessee. We want to do some programs to teach people about personal financial health, home ownership, and starting and running businesses. The whole committee will have to choose our ultimate course of actions, and we'll need to find some partners in town, but it looks promising! It's an amazing group of young professionals!<br />
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Other seeds may begin to flourish, too, and I hope they do. I met with the Nashville Chamber's Social Enterprise Shared Interest Group this morning, and it looks like I'm in the right city to be reaching out and working with others with a goal toward social betterment. It's exciting to finally see some things coming together. I'm letting go of expectations, and keeping with one of my mantras, I just keep moving forward. Maybe now others will be moving with me!<br />
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If you want to know more about my idea, check out my post, "<a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/10/lacuna-kinship-business-education-for.html" target="_blank">Lacuna Kinship</a>." Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-73520717296525677922013-02-11T12:56:00.001-06:002013-02-11T12:56:49.929-06:00Dear Ukrainian Friends...I may regret this one, but I have to ask, how are readers in the Ukraine finding me?<br />
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I consistently have more hits from the Ukraine than from the United States. While I would like to think I'm quietly starting some sort of ethical business revolution in eastern Europe, I'm guessing it may have more to do with something else . . .<br />
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So please, comment, and let me know: how did you find this blog, and is there anything you'd like to me to write about for you?Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-53122199628970789642013-01-20T17:56:00.003-06:002013-01-20T17:58:58.377-06:00An Object In Motion At RestFor the holidays, I decided to rely on the good old physics law that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, at least until acted upon by some outside force. I hoped the trajectory I set in 2012 would hold over through the holidays--the trajectory of progress that I have made in spite of not going to school or getting any community business education going yet.<br />
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During my long break, I sewed, I photographed, I read books that had no useful purpose. I attempted to spend more time in the now and less time thinking about the future and how to make it take shape.<br />
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Before the holidays took hold, I attended a networking event, an introduction to the Social Enterprise Alliance here in Nashville and their business plan competition. I met some amazing women: one who runs an hispanic newspaper <i>and</i> a catering business, another who is writing a book to encourage single mothers to start their own businesses while she runs her business sewing formal gowns and working a separate job in marketing, and yet another woman who has just started a farm to supply locally grown food to restaurants while she also practices law. They were all a bit intimidating but also inspiring. I told them about my day job and my dream of starting a program of community business education, and one of them asked if I planned to teach the classes myself.<br />
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"Oh, no!" I answered. "I need to find people willing to share their expertise for little to no cost." Finding these people, I explained, is one of the keys to the program's success. It's also proving to be one of the most challenging aspects of getting started.<br />
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During my break from just about everything, I did some self-exploration to look at whether I truly have the entrepreneurial guts to start a program on my own. The answer seems to be that I may not, at least not yet. Looking at the Nashville Social Enterprise Alliance business plan competition web site, it became obvious to me that I wouldn't be ready to move forward with the prizes--branding from a marketing company, startup money, space in a local incubator--even if I somehow pulled off a win. I am a facilitator, and I always do best bringing together existing programs, products, and needs with wants. I know how to make things happen and can see how to make things work more efficiently and more cost-effectively. Understanding my level of risk aversion and recognizing I currently lack a team to help me move forward can save me from spending time running down the wrong path. Creating a team was one of the reasons I want to pursue the Masters in Civic Leadership at Lipscomb, but I can also attempt to create an organic team of existing groups of people that may turn out to create a workable program such as I've described in past posts and not have to start a whole new business on my own.<br />
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If I sound vague, that is with purpose, as I have to keep some things to myself while I attempt to gather resources together.<br />
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In the meantime, here are the things I've learned in my quiet time:<br />
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<li>I have to know myself before I can sell myself. I have to know exactly what I want before I can go after it successfully. I also have to recognize my strengths and work to those strengths. My strengths probably won't look exactly like anyone else's.</li>
<li>Every waking moment does not have to be work. If I'm not at my job, I don't necessarily have to be working on, or thinking about, my side projects. Letting go of constant planning has been quite the relief.</li>
<li>Peace can be found in the most stressful of places, but sometimes peace takes work, too: work <i>not</i> to think, <i>not</i> to plan, work to be still.</li>
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Being the type of person who spends most waking hours planning, organizing, and doing, I can never rest for long, but it's been a great mental break to step back from the big picture and spend a few weeks learning to appreciate the moment and all the little things that happen within it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some tee-tiny moss growing on a wall by my house, which I noticed during a sunrise.</td></tr>
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Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-55829399947236016402012-11-24T21:38:00.000-06:002012-11-27T12:33:30.304-06:00Hobnobbing Job GobblersThe meek might one day inherit the earth, but for all of human history, the present, and the near future, the meek survive at the mercy of the wealthy and powerful, who are usually one and the same.<br />
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I have nothing against wealth. I don't want to redistribute wealth. I only want people who aren't wealthy to recognize that the power wielded by the masses requires extensive organization. If we aren't organized, we are powerless.<br />
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In reading articles about the development of Nashville, the projects such as apartments, office buildings, and mixed-use buildings that have been planned, I can't help but notice how these development decisions rarely get made by the people living in the neighborhoods around them. A time for input from the community leads up to public hearings, but how many of us are analyzing the impacts of proposed developments and attending those public hearings? These projects generally don't get created specifically for the betterment of the community, although there are exceptions (and what betters a community is debatable). They get created by people with money who want to make more money by investing in a space that will be leased for a profit. There is no sin in that, but it does mean that a small group of influencers leads the growth of any city.<br />
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I have never been the one with the money. I can't buy property. I can't fund a master's degree without a loan, so by refusing to take out a loan, I've been forced to beg. Without a cadre of contacts, a source of funding, or an advanced education, I am just another cog in the system.<br />
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This situation fuels my fire, though. I am not alone. I am not alone in knowing that with the right loan, I could purchase an income property and lease it out. With the right loan, I could start a business and raise more capital to invest further in my business or in property. I know that with the right information, the right idea, and the right connections, I could find the funding to put my little stamp on the map of this city. Many people like me, maybe even you, know that a little help can go a long way.<br />
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What may ultimately be the only way to legitimately spread wealth and power is what I'm embracing as my cause, my goal, my opus: the masses must begin to create their own jobs. Micro-entrepreneurship must become a source of competition for corporations. Individual investors must create their own investment groups to buy influence in publicly traded companies. We, the masses, cannot continue to sit at the mercy of CEO's who will put profit before the public good--hobnobbing job gobblers who claim that regulations cut into their ability to create jobs, when at the heart of it, their lack of imagination, an inability or refusal to adapt their modus operandi, and/or a ruthless drive toward profit at any cost cuts into their ability to create jobs while simultaneously maintaining their own standard of living and consistently higher profits for stockholders. (I'm speaking about the giants here, not the small businesses squeezed by regulations.) Corporations <u>do</u> exist with missions and goals that support the missions and goals of their employees, that support protection of the natural environment, that uplift the communities from which they draw their profit. And yes, they make a profit.<br />
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Workers, too, need to understand the fundamentals of business and the economy to foster stronger companies. If Hostess weren't mismanaged, and one of the two unions representing their employees weren't unbending, people would not be hoarding Twinkies. There are more than two sides to that story, more than two ways of thinking about how their insolvency could have been avoided, and I wonder what could have been the solution long before strikes were contemplated. I don't propose to know, but I do propose that a wiser, better-educated workforce might have made a difference. Could a cooperative structure have been one possibility? What sort of knowledge would those employees have needed to have become the owners of their own company?<br />
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It is to this end--creating more informed workers and small business owners and empowering would-be entrepreneurs--that I believe in creating affordable business education. Some people become wealthy first and then start a school. I hope to start a program now that makes many people wealthy; not just the founders, but the constituents. If you had a chance to take a class to improve your business skills, what sort of classes would you want?<br />
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I got very excited about the possibly teaching a class this winter on commercial leases with the Nashville Community Education Commission, but then I realized it could be perceived as a conflict of interest with my current position. What other sorts of classes might help you as a small business owner, or aspiring CEO, or dreamer of better things to come?Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-28013272826605171492012-10-26T17:59:00.004-05:002012-11-24T21:55:26.219-06:00Lacuna Kinship: Business Education for the Masses<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fall into the gap.</td></tr>
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It's been brought to my attention that I am not using this platform to its full potential to explain my current goals and what I'd like to do with a Lipscomb master's degree. Most of my musings have been vague, underdeveloped, and written with the purpose of leaving myself room to adjust those ideas. It's time now, though, to spell out exactly what I want to do, so while I research routes to fund additional education of my own (GoFundMe turned out to be a bust, but more on that later), here it is:<br />
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I am raising money for tuition for Lipscomb University's Master's program in Civic Leadership, for which I have been accepted for attendance in Fall 2013. OK, I was accepted for this fall, but they deferred my enrollment so I can continue to avoid student loans and convince the world to help me move forward. The degree will culminate in my launching a community education program to fill the gap (or lacuna) left between job readiness programs and entrepreneurship programs.<br />
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My version of community business education will offer relevant, affordable information to people who may never be able to afford college, but who want to start businesses or simply learn more about how businesses are run so they can become stronger, more valuable employees. The courses will appeal to those who are seeking more than basic software or resume-writing skills, and make available the preliminary education that would precede more advanced information offered by incubators or college programs. Anyone can start a business, but not everyone knows how to run a business well. The goal will be to inspire people in underserved and low income areas to achieve unprecedented success within existing or new companies, creating jobs and brighter futures for their children.<br />
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The benefits of my own education at Lipscomb will be connections to community leaders, skills and resources in leadership, and a structured development format. I will continue to research and develop my idea throughout the next year, so if I do not raise the full tuition for Lipscomb, the community may still be served whether I'm able to pursue a master's degree or not. However, an investment in my education becomes an investment in the economic viability of those who want to succeed in business but lack the resources to take the next step.<br />
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It's going to be a Lacuna Kinship: bringing people together within a gap of resources and education.<br />
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Now to stick a donate button on my blog, 'cause GoFundMe's WePay system wants me to grant them a lein on whatever bank account I associate with the funding page, so they can hold a reserve--any reserve they deem appropriate--of funds. Yeah, that's not happening.<br />
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Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-61253640628340393232012-09-17T21:33:00.000-05:002012-09-17T21:46:30.435-05:00The Next StepIt's been quite a month so far. I work in commercial property management. The downside of this line of work is that when a property gets a new owner, the new owner might just decide to get a new management team. While this fact has always slept lazily in the back of my head, it jumped into my frontal lobe and demanded all of my attention when I learned the building where I work was being put up for auction. The week before the auction was hell. My boss and coworker and I tried to convince ourselves we had no reason to worry. In spite of this, the day of the auction was more hell--whenever the timer on the auction would get below a minute, someone would submit a bid, extending the auction for four more minutes. This continued for over an hour.<br />
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Then we learned that the final bid did not meet the reserve, and we decided to breathe and pray for a little reprieve. How long before the building finally sells, we don't yet know, but thank God for a job.<br />
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At the same time that this was going on, I was forced to acknowledge that I would not be attending Lipscomb in the fall. Let's just say I fell a little short of my fundraising goal this summer. By how much is not important, but those who know, they know it was a bit of a bummer summer. <i>(See <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/06/dream-defined.html" target="_blank">The Dream Defined</a> for more about this endeavor.)</i><br />
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So what's next?<br />
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Lipscomb agreed to defer my admission until next fall. The fundraising continues: I will start a crowdfunding campaign and spend the next year continuing to develop my plans for community business education. I removed the link for the Business Plan for America. I joined the <a href="http://www.nashvillechamber.com/Homepage.aspx" target="_blank">Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce</a>--well, my company was already a member, so I get to be a member--and I am looking into joining the <a href="http://nashville.uli.org/" target="_blank">Urban Land Institute</a> and the <a href="http://urbanleagueofmidtn.org/" target="_blank">Urban League</a> by attending their meetings this month. These groups emphasize economic development, economic empowerment, and responsible land use and real estate development. To be better prepared to analyze existing programs, I'm compiling information about people and groups doing things similar to what I want to do, such as Alison Rinner, also known as "<a href="http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012309090036" target="_blank">Ms. Biz</a>,"who teaches entrepreneurship to children in middle Tennessee, and <a href="http://www.theskillery.com/" target="_blank">The Skillery</a>, a web site connecting locals through classes and workshops taught by other locals. I've even completed <a href="http://theideaframe.com/" target="_blank">The Idea Frame</a> to flesh out the weak spots in my plan.<br />
<br />
As is oft repeated in film and motivational speeches, the only thing to do, ever, is to keep moving forward.<br />
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I even got a haircut. As Tess McGill says in <i>Working Girl</i>, "If you want to be taken seriously, you need serious hair." It's the evil truth.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Tess McGill in Working Girl" border="0" src="http://www.hairromance.com/wp-content/uploads/image-import/-Nq0gbmBhgXw/ToRj09Zw7zI/AAAAAAAAAsw/75pphDyBRgk/s320/working-girl-to-use1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Tess McGill in Working Girl" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://www.hairromance.com/">www.hairromance.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
(No, it wasn't this hair cut.)<br />
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<br />Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-31479833058406953902012-08-27T09:28:00.002-05:002012-08-27T09:28:16.927-05:005 Away from 3000Here it is, a Monday morning with nothing much to distinguish it from so many other Monday mornings, with one exception:<br />
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I am five views away from my 3,000'th view.<br />
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Granted, this is over the course of multiple years, but it's still pretty exciting for me. A special thanks to all of my eastern European readers! It's just the little boost I need.<br />
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Last week was a week filled with fear: realizing I am oh-so-far from attending Lipscomb, unless some generous benefactor steps in, and finding out the building I work in is going up for auction in a few weeks, which could mean the new owner might not keep the current management company, or worse, they might not keep us as the current staff at all. These are fears that cut into my courage and weaken my progress. The things I fear could be overcome, but they would be setbacks. It's a dreary end to an optimistic summer. <br />
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I read <a href="http://upstart.bizjournals.com/resources/author/2012/08/16/entrepreneurs-need-one-thing-to-succeed.html" target="_blank">an article stating entrepreneurs need one thing for success</a>: optimism. Fear eats away at optimism. Of course my logical mind knows that anything can change at any moment, and I should not fear that which has not happened, but isn't that what fear is? Isn't fear one of the most irrational and difficult to control of all emotions? So when well-meaning people attempt to comfort me and tell me everything is going to be okay, I try very, very hard to believe them. When they tell me this could be the start of something new and exciting, I pray it isn't at the cost of my current job. I'm not the kind of person that will leap into entrepreneurship if I lose my job. I'm the kind of person that will dive head-first and full throttle into the search for my next job.<br />
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Therefore, today I embrace the 3,000 people who glanced at my blog and maybe even came back to see it again. Thank you for reading and keeping me inspired. My optimism just ticked up a notch.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnF4vfUBaeHlIrGXpuhBkjqtp7jn-eVaAc0SaS83AhAK6LBlseaxfI_et91XmdmfHCC3xkqti7wBfIL9GIAXkr8lIooAMbm1Jbn9GVWgQytF05lqpE0Nbo32xOTCMbXeomkEYn2RRN7w/s1600/102175485265482817_oGCHhLxR_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="everything will be okay in the end. if it's not okay, it's not the end." border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnF4vfUBaeHlIrGXpuhBkjqtp7jn-eVaAc0SaS83AhAK6LBlseaxfI_et91XmdmfHCC3xkqti7wBfIL9GIAXkr8lIooAMbm1Jbn9GVWgQytF05lqpE0Nbo32xOTCMbXeomkEYn2RRN7w/s320/102175485265482817_oGCHhLxR_c.jpg" title="Everything will be okay . . ." width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">courtesy of <a href="http://www.bellamumma.com/">www.bellamumma.com</a></td></tr>
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Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-69240658694647825562012-08-01T17:30:00.000-05:002012-09-17T21:35:24.575-05:00Will Anyone Care?It's the question that venture capitalists ask before funding a new venture. It's the question that incubators ask before inviting someone into their entrepreneur program. It's the question every potential new business should be able to answer before their launch. So when I'm having trouble answering that question myself, is it a sign?<br />
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It's a sign that I'm not getting the financial support here to know--and that other people are probably asking themselves--is anybody going to care if they can attend community business education classes in their neighborhood? Speaking with people, I get resounding support from anyone who has ever had a bad business dealing. That doesn't mean, though, that people are going to take an evening away from home to attend a seminar, or put up the money to attend a series of classes. A <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012307150053&nclick_check=1" target="_blank">recent article in The Tennessean</a> talked about the shrinking budget of the Nashville Community Education Commission (which is government funded) and that many people thought the Commission had dissolved. Ugh. That is not a good sign. Maybe the government funding wasn't enough to support the Commission's marketing and outreach budget. Or maybe the business classes being offered by the Commission, covering things like Microsoft software and social networking for businesses, aren't comprehensive enough. I have ideas for so many more classes, so many more opportunities to expand knowledge for people looking to advance their careers and people looking to start new careers or hoping to start a business. I cannot be alone in the wish for more affordable opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship without yet having a full business plan in place. Of course there are others wondering how to get ahead on a meager budget, but are they motivated enough to go to small community classes that don't lead to a degree or certificate, that might only last for one session or five sessions and cost $100? The government-funded program in Nashville isn't doing that well; why?<br />
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These are questions into which I'm willing to look further and find the answers. They are the questions that will motivate me to keep talking to people and finding out what they need. There are those out there struggling to keep their families afloat, struggling to provide better opportunities for themselves and their children, who are also motivated to find a way to excel that won't break their bank.<br />
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People who haven't purchased the business plan I'm selling to raise money for my own education keep asking me how the fundraising is going, which I find amusing. They believe that everyone else helps, so their contribution isn't necessary. They are so wrong. YOU, reading this right now, must not wait for others: <i>(the original link has been removed; read <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/09/the-next-step.html" target="_blank">here</a> for more details)</i>. I will move ahead without a Lipscomb degree, pursue a community program on my own, and keep the fundraising going and apply again next year if I get the funds. After all, I'm pushing to create more affordable business education, so I'm motivated by my own desire to avoid student loans. I do hope, though, that you <em>will</em> contribute, ignore the PDF if you don't want to read it (it isn't homework!) and help me become better prepared to help others. If you want to help seed a revolution of better business practices in the areas that need it most, YOU can do your part.<br />
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If you are interested yourself in classes to help you get ahead in work, spread the word! Let people know <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/06/dream-defined.html" target="_blank">what I'm doing</a>. Community business education will be coming to a neighborhood near YOU!Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-74990791687471431472012-07-11T00:02:00.000-05:002012-09-17T21:36:34.963-05:00Ok, So, Less Boring Then?I'm about to pull a George Lucas, on a teeny tiny scale.<br />
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Tonight, I release the 2nd Edition of my Business Plan for America. <i>(I have taken down the link for it: click <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/09/the-next-step.html" target="_blank">here</a> for more details.)</i> It took printing the thing to realize that the introduction and detailed table of contents detracted from the message overall, so I took them out. I corrected a few typos that four sets of eyes missed. I touched on some awkward sentences. These are the privileges of self-publishing, I suppose. Of course anyone who already purchased it can have the new edition for free.<br />
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I did not add special effects.<br />
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It reads easier now. It gets right to the point. In honor of this release, I've decided to also release some of the alternate titles I considered. A dear friend suggested that perhaps the current title doesn't attract the pundit-weary, and a title better encompassing the theme of the work might attract more readers. While this sounded like a great idea, the whole basis for the work is that of a business plan. I thought, at least that would have to be the subtitle, like, <i>Can't We All Just Get Along? A Business Plan for America.</i><br />
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So imagine the rest of these with that subtitle...too bad <i>A New Hope</i> was already taken.<br />
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<i>Politics Suck--Let's Try Something New</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>What To Do Until We All Win the Lottery</i> </blockquote>
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<i>When the Boat is Sinking, It's Not Time to Upgrade</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Peace, Love, & Profit</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>40 Million Opinions and One Party to Plan</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Last Chance Before the End of the World</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Soaring Near the Imperial Sun on Wicked Wings of Tax-Free Wax</i></blockquote>
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<i>When You Stop and Think About It . . .</i></blockquote>
Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-22344839329966184912012-07-04T21:34:00.001-05:002012-09-17T21:39:07.675-05:00A Brief Introduction to A Business Plan for America<i>Excerpted from the original Introduction to <u>Business Plan for America</u>, which I released on this blog briefly.</i><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We, the People, need a business plan.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">No company could survive as we do, two halves fighting for control, divided against one another. We are engrossed in a battle much like that of many management and labor disputes, and when either side forgets the goal of the company and operates only for its own benefit, then the whole organization breaks down, as we saw in the auto industry a few short years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">America needs a business plan. We need to remind ourselves what our common values are, what our mission is, and how we're going to beat the competition. Our major competitor, China, has determined such things. If we don't stop fighting about the benefits granted to us as Americans, we may lose those benefits to a hostile takeover. The metaphors may seem excessive, but our nation was founded on commercial enterprise in spite of the desires of an elite ruling class to maintain their noble rights. The right of every person to create a living in their own way--if they can figure out how--helped us become the power we are now. We should use that skill set to re-prioritize, reorganize, and operate in the black again.</span></div>
<i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><br /></i></span></i>
<i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Read about my plans for community business education at: <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2012/06/dream-defined.html" target="_blank">The Dream Defined</a></i></span></i>
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</i>Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-70495251755502252542012-06-30T23:39:00.000-05:002012-09-17T21:39:56.898-05:00For those with five minutes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #272727; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><i>Excerpted from <a href="http://www.muddywatersmadeclear.com/2011/09/beggars-barterers-and-bandits-part-3-of.html" target="_blank">Part III of Beggars, Barterers, and Bandits</a> posted in September 2011, following a discussion of imminent threats to society:</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDcPSSDxGijUJ1B3MqPpjMQaeoic4EHoXEdrHesBodgdeUdtxj-DBSeO0qlfNz7YEhnxZwuvH6EbYRWBT5a8CKtoeqWWgUzbjfAghE2AxRcntrMd4An4WS-MCdXFE5dUfkx21fCEZtvY/s1600/San+Miguel+Market.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="photo of market tables" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDcPSSDxGijUJ1B3MqPpjMQaeoic4EHoXEdrHesBodgdeUdtxj-DBSeO0qlfNz7YEhnxZwuvH6EbYRWBT5a8CKtoeqWWgUzbjfAghE2AxRcntrMd4An4WS-MCdXFE5dUfkx21fCEZtvY/s320/San+Miguel+Market.jpg" title="" width="241" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #272727; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: medium; line-height: 22px;">[...] To survive in a time of extreme upheaval when most social systems have been dissolved, we will either become beggars, barterers, or bandits. Those who can be self-sufficient will provide for their own needs as much as possible and will barter for whatever they cannot grow or build. A basic understanding of how to use that bartering system to one's advantage has obvious benefits. Those who cannot support themselves through their own work and ingenuity will either beg or steal, which doesn't sound that much different from now. Keeping the thread of a civil society intact requires that most people become barterers. We can reduce crime and poverty now by preparing people to support themselves and increase local collaboration. Training an entire nation to be better barterers as well as entrepreneurs or corporate titans is time well-spent in a strained educational system. As I've mentioned in a previous post, even people who work to serve, or people who will never start their own business, can benefit from understanding how business works. It is part of a larger picture of national strength-building....</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-style: italic;">"We are the one species on the planet that will run into a burning fire to save a complete stranger. We are the one species on the planet that will organize our community to help a community on the other side of the world that we may never visit. We're the one species on the planet that has the compassion to make sacrifices to help another species." John Cronin</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">[...] average Americans can no longer look to large corporations, banks, or the government to be benefactors of opportunity. We must make our own opportunities, creating strength through self-reliance. People often point to the unity felt in the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks as a beacon of hope, as proof that we have the ability to see past the petty issues that often cloud our disagreements. That same unity of purpose arose again after Hurricane Katrina flooded the Gulf states, and Americans quickly realized that the government can be ill-prepared for even the most local of disasters. Business knowledge cultivates self-reliance, which cultivates a stronger, smarter populace, who will resist out-of-control governments, monopolies, or would-be despots. We have it in us now to collaborate and work toward a system where no one will have to go hungry, and we will still have an opportunity to thrive.</span></div>
Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-23980203863571408142012-06-24T11:29:00.002-05:002013-05-09T21:50:09.613-05:00The Dream DefinedIn the documentary <i>The Lottery</i>, <a href="http://www.successacademies.org/" target="_blank">Harlem Success</a> parent Karl Willingham describes his frustration with those who protested the opening of a new charter school in Harlem, New York:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I get emotional about what these children can have. You watch these parents protesting; you want to grab them: <i>Do you remember when you were a child and you wanted to be an astronaut, or a scientist, or President of the United States, and you couldn't because no one taught you which direction to go to get there? </i>So wanting to be an astronaut seemed as far away as the moon, which it's really not that far, but no one told you that.<i> </i>And you just don't want to see anyone else missing out just because no one told them they can have it.</blockquote>
This month, I received my acceptance letter to the <a href="http://www.lipscomb.edu/civicleadership" target="_blank">Civic Leadership master's program at Lipscomb University</a>. The program aims to help students utilize the resources available through government, non profit, and for profit avenues to accomplish civic goals such as my desire to expand business opportunities to the young and underserved. In hopeful anticipation of my acceptance, I have been working on a way to fund my participation in the program, which begins this fall. Since I refuse to take out additional student loans with such a tenuous potential return on investment as civic work would provide, and scholarships and grants for master's programs are extremely limited, I decided to sell the populace on my ideas.<br />
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When I speak with people about my goals, many bring up <a href="http://ja.org/" target="_blank">Junior Achievement</a> or the <a href="http://entrepreneurcenter.com/" target="_blank">Entrepreneur Center in Nashville</a>. Both bring real results, but my plan goes further. While I am not yet exactly sure what form my project will take--that's one of the reasons for seeking a master's education, to evolve my ideas--I do seek to distinguish whatever I do from existing programs in a way that would reach people not yet cognizant of certain business opportunities available to them. That might involve partnering with an existing organization, or I might create my own. However the program takes shape, the goal will be to end the cycle of poverty and dependency by empowering people who might not otherwise pursue an MBA or start their own business to establish security for themselves within an existing job or by creating new jobs.<br />
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To better understand my goals for this degree, you can download my admissions essay <a href="http://digioh.com/v/MuddyWatersMadeClear/12339" target="_blank">here</a>. If you think there might be even a smidgeon of merit in that idea, you can then help me achieve those goals and help me afford tuition by purchasing a copy of my Business Plan for America for $5. <i>(Update: This has been removed due to embarrassing failure and subsequent lack of confidence in it's quality, but leave a comment if you'd really like a copy.)</i> Beyond the initial goal described above, I have been working for over a year developing a new plan for our country outside of the current political stream. Some people don't believe $5 is enough to charge for this plan, as nearly 7,000 people will have to buy in to cover the cost of tuition. For five bucks, though, nearly anyone can afford to buy in, and I hope that the Business Plan for America will go viral. It does not seem unreasonable to me to think that 7,000 people in the world would want to learn about and support a different means of moving the economy. In fact, I challenge Nashville, especially, to tap into our well-documented entrepreneurial spirit and invest in the idea of an economic and cultural renaissance.<br />
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If you believe in teaching people skills instead of offering them a handout; if you believe that the poor deserve an opportunity to revitalize their own neighborhoods through their own devices; if you believe that children will be better prepared for a job when they understand how businesses work; or if you simply believe in our right to pursue happiness and want to preserve it, please support the dream. Then, use the buttons below or the Share link at the top of the screen to spread the word. Let no one live without achieving their dreams because no one showed them how to do it.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-44674100187214337302012-05-22T09:38:00.000-05:002012-05-22T10:03:29.058-05:00Schools For SaleOnce, I wanted to go into marketing. Before even making it out of college, though, I found the idea of manipulating the public to purchase a product somewhat distasteful and less enticing than, say, motivating the public to buy into a good idea. However, good ads do inspire me, so I was also inspired to watch the documentary, <i><a href="http://www.sonyclassics.com/pomwonderfulpresentsthegreatestmovieeversold/" target="_blank">POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold</a></i>, created by Morgan Spurlock of <i>Super Size Me </i>fame<i>.</i><br />
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<i><br /></i>Spurlock aimed to create a documentary about product placement in film and fund the documentary through, of course, product placement. The process of hunting down compatible products highlighted the challenge of getting just one brand to buy into a gimmick, but then having an avalanche of products aim to follow suite, all wanting their moment in front of the camera, all wanting Spurlock's name on a contract and their logo on a sleeve. And through the folly of the process, I began to see just how commercialized the blockbuster films have to be in order to make their budget. <i>The Greatest Movie Ever Sold</i> wasn't billowing with shocking revelations, but it amused and intrigued. I was even becoming quite enticed to try POM Wonderful the next time I see it.* Then came the scene filmed at a high school in Broward County, Florida.<br />
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This public high school, in order to enhance its paltry budget, sells ad space in its school buses. We've all seen the banners on football stadium fences, so seeing banners on this school's front fence may not have been that out of the ordinary. However, to profit from the captive audience of school bus riders seems even too dirty for a government program (i.e., the public school system). The ads were specifically chosen to be relevant and beneficial to the students, like a homework hotline, but shouldn't we weep that a school is so desperate for funds that it began to sell space to corporations to fund a public good?<br />
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Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville recently proposed <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2012/05/01/mayor-dean-proposes-53-cent-tax-hike.html" target="_blank">a property tax hike</a>, the first in his seven-year tenure, and still at a lower level than when he took office. Mayor Dean's dedication to expanding teacher presence and police presence in Nashville stands out amongst his chief accomplishments, and this tax hike will fund more teachers and more police officers in the wake of $3 million in department cuts this year. While we could probably all agree that ideally tax levels would remain level while a government learns to operate within its means, and growth of the economy should fill in the gaps, well, we live in a real world economy with bumps and bubbles and human foibles. And we must invest in certain things consistently to reap greater economic rewards later, namely, proper education for the public.<br />
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The Nashville Chamber of Commerce <a href="http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/chamber-endorses-deans-property-tax-hike" target="_blank">came out in favor of the tax increase</a> after coming to the same conclusion about investing in a community and education. Davidson County loses relocating businesses to neighboring Williamson County often in part due to the gap in educational quality. Williamson County's schools are some of the best in the state, and who wants to move their company to a county where your employees won't feel comfortable sending their children to public school? More importantly, how can we rear a smarter, more business-conducive society if we skimp on the infusion of information in the younger generations in favor of infusing product recognition and purchasing power? These practices only further divide income gaps as more people are content to be consumers and stop becoming inventors and creators. Wealth, both monetary and intellectual, isn't created from a vacuum: it's grown like a crop, and we have to spread a little to allow for germination. Teachers are the pollinators, and the rest of the community are the farmers. Kids are the seeds, awaiting that transfer of knowledge to allow for the miraculous transformation from seed into fruit . . . fruit of the community, fruitful bounty: wealth for the farmers! (Am I taking this too far?)<br />
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No matter how anyone feels about government versus private industry, if our communities must turn to corporations with their private agendas to fund public education, we are failing our children and our ability to compete in a global market in the years to come. It's a worse short-sighted investment than <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/colossal-misstep-jp-morgan-rattles-122412442.html" target="_blank">JP Morgan's recent speculation debacle</a>, for in this scenario, we are starving masses of children of adequate fact-finding and problem-solving skills while banking on the well-educated minority to float the nation through for another hundred years.<br />
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This age of entrepreneurship and the rise of small businesses isn't a phenomenon of the Millienials; it's a gift from all adult generations to those little sprouts preparing to sell their first app on iTunes. Ads on school buses should become rallying battle flags of the next generation. At least if there are going to be ads, they should be for companies started by and run by students!<br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/business/media/judge-rules-pom-wonderfuls-advertising-is-misleading.html?_r=1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/05/22/business/POM/POM-popup.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
*<i>Incidentally, just yesterday, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_878511420">the New York T</a></i><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/business/media/judge-rules-pom-wonderfuls-advertising-is-misleading.html?_r=1" target="_blank">imes reported</a> that a judge issued a cease-and-desist order to POM Wonderful for their deceptive advertising. Bummer.</i>Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-77068200516956053782012-05-08T22:53:00.002-05:002012-05-09T09:43:41.238-05:00Moondoggie-style Economic Development<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nashvillepost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article//sites/default/files/node/63195/Picture%209.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://nashvillepost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article//sites/default/files/node/63195/Picture%209.png" /></a></div>
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If you've never seen the Five Points Collaborative, this picture is an artist's rendering. According to <a href="http://nashvillepost.com/news/2011/6/2/east_nashville_pair_launch_retail_incubator" target="_blank">an article in the <i>Nashville Post</i></a> last year, the creators of the collaborative, Bret and Meg McFadyn, wanted "to encourage entrepreneurial small businesses by providing small rental spaces with short term leases at a fair price." When I saw it in person a couple weeks ago, it reminded me of a series of beach bungalows, similar to those in the surfing movies that sell board wax and beaded necklaces. Saint Simons Island in Georgia added a series of tiny one-room retail shops near its pier, the Pier Village Market, in the nineties. Although I was young and not exactly worldly, the concept seemed revolutionary to me.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2012/05/07/east-nashville-getting-new-retail.html" target="_blank"><i>Nashville Business Journal</i> reported today</a> that another small retail cluster will be opening in East Nashville, this one developed by Mark Sanders. The shops will contain 400-800 square feet each. That these little clusters have begun to spring up now speaks to the idea that big box stores can't compete with themselves online, but the niche local shops can thrive given the right environment. This concept is similar to what I'd like to do in more blighted areas of town in run-down or abandoned retail strip centers. In those areas, however, where the culture hasn't developed the embrace of entrepreneurial independence and artistic exploits that can be found in East Nashville, I wonder if such an endeavor would be successful.<br />
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During my years in Charleston, South Carolina, I felt sick every time I saw a national chain store take over a space on King Street or Meeting Street that was formerly occupied by a small business owner. The rents in those areas forced out the art studios and boutique clothiers to be replaced with Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn. The entire culture of King Street changed over the course of a decade. This begs the question, then, could attracting certain types of small retailers to form a retail community in an economically depressed area actually affect the culture of that area in a positive way? Could an occupy movement (of sorts) with an owner and a group of lessees or a coop--a movement that actually generated tax revenue and created jobs--take hold and begin to lift an area from depression?<br />
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Imagine, what sort of activism might a cadre of visionary entrepreneurs set aflame?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nashvilleandbeyond.com/2011/10/26/five-points-collaborative/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://nashvilleandbeyond.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Five-Points-Coll.-Blog.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Click the photo to learn more about the shops at the Five Points<br />Collaborative via NashvilleandBeyond.com.</span></em></td></tr>
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<br />Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-62791485047367720622012-04-23T23:28:00.001-05:002012-05-08T23:13:42.836-05:00One Truth, Many EquationsIn an interview with Michael Toms on New Dimensions Media, Maya Angelou said something that's been rustling around in my brain for a few days. She said,<br />
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Ignorance is the great sin. If we knew more, we would do more. I can't explain why a person who knows right would do wrong. So I'm convinced, then, that the person does not know right. That is to say, a person may say he knows, or say she knows, but they don't really know. They may intellectually have computed that two and two are four, but they have not really comprehended that that also means that eight halves are four, that four ones are four, and all those other combinations of facts which add to the one truth.</blockquote>
This idea struck a chord with me, the multiple ways of explaining one truth using arithmetic. How many of us wanted to be able to get to the answer in math class as students without having to do it in the way the teacher wanted us to do it? It seems that when confronted with something as concrete and eloquently formulaic as mathematics, we accept that more than one way of reaching an answer exists. Yet when bickering amongst ourselves over issues that can be inherently local, biased by our education, our culture, our religion, and our armchair philosophy, as one of my professors liked to call it, we struggle to get others to see our way as the right way.<br />
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It is for this reason, this insistence by some groups upon looking at truth through one lens, that I eschew traditional party lines or fundamentalism or most groups and labels in general. This is a life I strive for, to be constantly questioning tradition, and logic, and <i>la mode de la jour. </i>This lifestyle doesn't exactly curry favor amongst those who believe strongly in a set code or faith or party line, those who know exactly what they believe without doubt. People who believe with that much passion and with deep faith in something have a gift of certainty with which I was not blessed. That whole groups of people get to share in those beliefs and fellowship and history is a beautiful thing. However, if no one ever questioned, how would we achieve progress? If we can't explain our own convictions, or if we can't acknowledge that another's convictions may have equal value to our own from a different perspective, then we stall in our evolution to greater enlightenment.<br />
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In the book, <i>Conversations With God,</i> we are invited to experience the world through all of the wonder-filled and drab moments that comprise it, as that was the purpose of man. God is everywhere and in all things, so in order to experience these things, God created something--mankind--with an outside perspective, and every one of those perspectives is as valuable to the view of the whole as any other. Maybe it's not a biblical idea, but I like it. We're here to experience life, and it won't hurt too much to help each other along the way.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8761224158865031317.post-91106317907821900162012-04-19T21:59:00.002-05:002012-04-20T16:03:52.767-05:00Soapbox or Smugbox?A couple of years ago, an episode of <i>South Park</i> mocked the superiority complex some people projected after purchasing the then-fairly-new hybrid cars. In order to get his friend's family to return to the town of South Park, Colorado, from San Francisco, the character of Stan writes a song to encourage everyone in town to buy hybrid cars. As people begin to buy the cars en masse, those who own the hybrids brag about how environmentally aware they are compared to the rest of the townspeople. Their attitudes create a "cloud of smug" that threatens to blend with a cloud of smug traveling from San Francisco to create a weather phenomenon they dubbed, "The Perfect Storm of Self Satisfaction." My husband and I laughingly refer back to this episode once in a while, attempting to keep ourselves from becoming too self-righteous.<br />
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It does not escape me, however, that this blog potentially smacks of self-righteousness. I have the same problem at work, I think. My coworkers haven't accused me of being smug, but I get the distinct impression that no one cares about my opinions on the environment, or better business practices, or any of my other favorite topics. If anything, the fear of sounding smug has made me self-conscious. How do I advocate within this blog for what I believe is right and even necessary without sounding like Bill O'Reilly? Setting the tone: this is my goal.<br />
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No one, as my husband reminded me today, likes to have someone point out when he or she is wrong or doesn't know something. Just like most bloggers, though, I spend a great deal of word work attempting to convince people that I've looked at the world, carefully considered what I saw, and this opinion here: it's worth reading! Therefore, while I acknowledge all of our tendencies to read things that reinforce our beliefs, I hope people with a variety of opinions read this and engage in the discussion. Questioning our own ideas will only help us come up with better ideas. Stretching our brains is like stretching our bodies: sometimes it's invigorating, sometimes it's exhausting, but it creates agility that keeps life interesting.Not a Real Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01993672856562840545noreply@blogger.com3