Tennessean Story on Consultant Report
Today’s Tennessean has a story on what it purports will be Markin Consulting’s report tonight at a public meeting.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the consultant report pretty much throws the race track out the window. If the fair stays where it is, then it’ll have to be more “compatible” with the neighborhood, which would mean getting rid of the track. If the track stays, it’ll have to be more financially viable. Those two statements to me seem like they’re mutually exclusive.
It’s been painfully obvious to me that the powers that be have wanted to get rid of the track for a while now. When you have a Fair Board loaded with folks who are developers or who lobby for developers, then the writing is on the wall.
Something else that would be interesting to know would be who stands to profit if this land is sold to developers? Would anyone involved in those so-called neighborhood groups stand to make a profit? Probably. This isn’t about “noise” from the race track, and I don’t think it ever has been. This is simply about a piece of land that some people are looking at with dollar signs in their eyes.
The public meeting is tonight (5/28) at 7:00 pm in Wilson Hall. If you support racing, you need to be there.
UPDATE: According to this story from the Tennessean, only about 100 people showed up at the meeting.
2 Responses to “Tennessean Story on Consultant Report”
By Rob S on May 29, 2008
I was at the meeting,and it appeared that there were about as many people there as there were at the public meetings in January. The meeting was only for Markin Consulting to explain where they are in their study. There were no oral comments taken, though there were sheets of paper where comments could be written. The Powerpoint slides will be put on Markin’s website. The future of the track does not appear to be as ominous as The Tennessean made it sound in today’s paper. They basically said that if racing was going to continue at the track, some sanctioning body changes should be made, or the fair should take over operation of the track itself. They did not recommend tearing the track down, though they did not support it either.
By Glen Harness on May 29, 2008
Thanks Rob.