The Fight for the Architectural Soul of "Music City" (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

There's alot of about Nashville I don't quite understand - starting with the Nashville Predators hockey team. As a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, hockey in Nashville is sort of like professional jai-lai or bull fighting in Montreal. And somehow, this hockey thing represents so much of what is being peddled as "progres" in the Sun Belt.

But having said that I can't help but feel some sadness for a fight now being played at in Nashville.

A honky-tonk block there, lower Broadway, is now being threatened by a proposed 19 story hotel, office complex that would house a Westin hotel.

The battle lines are not unique to Nashville, but the flavor of the debate is special because of the unqiue role of Nashville in American popular culture. This neighborhood, once home to the Grand Dole Opry (before it moved across the river) still houses legendary and one of a kind establishments such as Tootsie's Orchard Lounge and Gruhn Guitars. It is a block that the New York Times describes as one of "...boot-and-hat-stores, Dixieland flavor and country kitsch so retro that it never lost its hipness in the first place".

In an article entitled "Nashville Journal", the Times details the "polite but passionate" battle now being waged in Nashville.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/us/19nashville.html