Blue Collar Muse

Time was every restaurant and honky-tonk was filled with lead singers and pedal steel players waiting tables, slinging hash or tending bar to make a living until their ship came in. It was always “just temporary” and that elusive meeting to “ink the deal” was just around the corner. It even happened for some of them which only fueled the drive of others to get to Music City to take their shot at success.

But this is the 00s and there are all manner of new things around for singers and songwriters to do while they’re waiting for Dame Fortune to smile on them. Evidently, one of those things is blogging! I logged in last night and found the following as a comment on the very first ‘Will the Circle be Unbroken’ post. I loved it and though I left it there, I’m promoting the comment in full to here. Watch out for those Honky Tonk Bloggers at your favorite establishment around town!

Joy, If You’re reading this, feel free to put it to musicand use it…we can be co-writers. A friend of mine is working on some music for it, too..

‘Til The Lord Takes Me Home (Over My Dead Body)
Lyrics by Harry Pratt 2008
Imok39@yahoo.com

I’VE BEEN HERE FOREVER,
OR SO IT SEEMS THAT WAY,
MAKING WONDERFUL MUSIC,
EACH AND EVERY DAY,
I PAY ALL MY TAXES,
I’M NOT BREAKING ANY LAWS,
BUT NOW EMINENT DOMAIN
IS KNOCKING AT MY DOOR.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE,
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME.

WE’VE MADE A LOT OF MUSIC,
WE’VE SUNG SO MANY SONGS,
WE’VE TURNED WORDS INTO MAGIC,
AND WE AIN’T DONE NOTHING WRONG;
I’M NOT LOOKING FOR A FIGHT,
BUT WHAT I OWN IS MINE,
THEY CAN’T JUST COME AND TAKE IT,
JUSTICE JUST ISN’T THAT BLIND.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME.

THEY CAN CALL ME STUBBORN
BUT I’M NOT GIVING IN,
TO TEAR DOWN WHAT WE’VE BUILT UP,
WOULD ONLY BE A SIN,
SO WE’LL KEEP MAKING MUSIC,
ALL MY FRIENDS AND ME,
WE’RE GONNA STICK TOGETHER,
WE’RE A MUSIC FAMILY.

CHORUS:
THEY WANT TO BUILD A HIGH-RISE,
NOT A BRIDGE OR ROAD OR SCHOOL,
THEY WANT TO TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,
AND PLAY ME LIKE A FOOL;
THOSE GREEDY POLITICIANS,
ARE TRYING TO RE-ZONE,
BUT I AIN’T GOING NOWHERE,
TIL THE LORD, HE TAKES ME HOME

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 34% [?]

It is interesting how little things show up out of nowhere to encourage you. I’ve been wondering how much good I’m doing championing the cause of Joy Ford. Joy is the owner of Country International Records, a small Music Row label, whose building is currently being seized by Nashville through Eminent Domain proceedings to permit a high dollar development by Houston’s Lionstone Group. The City has its armies of lawyers, the MDHA and even a Music Row mogul or two on its side. Miss Joy has a radio talk show host, a city councilman and a blogger or three, even on the left. Doesn’t seem like much of a fair fight.

But on Tuesday of this week, I found myself encouraged by the contribution one person can make. It’s not that my posts on Joy Ford’s plight have been the most popular posts since they started - although they have. People are reading! It’s not just that my posts have prompted other bloggers to get involved as well - although they have. People are writing! On Tuesday, it turned out to be the proverbial who is reading what we’re writing and not merely how many are reading.

Reviewing my server logs showed that Nashville PR firm, McNeely, Pigott & Fox, stopped by. This is significant as their homepage lists both the Lionstone Group and MDHA as clients they are proud to work with. The people of Nashville may want to make note of that. McNeely, Pigott & Fox are proud to represent the bad guys in the fight to force Joy Ford from her property. Those of you who currently use MP&F might want to rethink your associations. Business is business, I know. But who one does business with is just as important as the business one does. The offline contact information for MP&F is listed at the bottom left corner of their homepage.

Speaking of who one does business with, another visitor came from Nashville architectural firm, Earl Swensson Associates. ESA specializes in beautiful, high dollar buildings. Pictures at their site seem to indicate they’ve done work with Vanderbilt and HCA among other clients. ESA is also one of the few publicly identified anchor tenants of Lionstone’s development which will oust Miss Joy. Surprise of surprises, they are designing the complex as well! I wonder if ESA knows how their nice, new home is being acquired and built? If so, I wonder if HCA’s Bill Frist, late of Washington DC, knows his company is doing business with a company willing to benefit from a mockery of the Constitution and Private Property Rights? How Conservative and Republican is that?

It might not matter to ESA. Hobnobbing with $100 million developers who trample the rights of others might not be new to them. Around the time they agreed to be a tenant for Lionstone, they also agreed to participate in a $100 million dollar development project in Nicaragua, of all places. I wonder how many people will lose their land for the Sandanistas to get a swanky, seaside resort? The project’s developer, Kevin Fleming at Grupo Mariana, extols post Ortega Nicaragua as a paradise. There’s a letter from Nicaragua’s President (in 2002) welcoming international development. There’s a page devoted to how safe Nicaragua is now; democratic rule and no more folks roaming the streets with AK47s! Not mentioned at all is that Daniel Ortega regained power in 2006. And ESA inked their deal when? Looks like … 2007 … But I’m sure it’s … fine. After all, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chávez, and Moammar Qadhafi will need a place to stay while visiting their buddy D.O..

The Institute for Justice stopped by! Nice to have a friendly face in the crowd. IJ is a small group of lawyers who litigate for Liberty. One issue with a special place in their hearts (evidently these attorneys have them) is Eminent Domain. They are currently working around the country to stop abuses such as the one MDHA wants to foist on Joy Ford.

And then there were the unknowns. There were a couple of high powered, Washington DC law firms that spent a lot of time on the site. They read the posts on Joy and followed all the links. I have no idea which side they’re on. Like WWII folks used to joke when they saw a plane in the sky, “I hope it’s one of ours!” But it would be unrealistic to assume only the good guys were taking an interest in what’s running through the Tubes.

I’m sure there will be more days like today. Regardless of who comes by, I found the information encouraging. The word is getting out, people are noticing and a couple are even looking to see if there’s a fire associated with all that smoke. Those of you on the side of Liberty, keep your heads up and your powder dry. This ain’t over by a long shot. In fact, it may be just about to get interesting …

Stay tuned …

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

Abusing the Fifth Amendment by Kate at An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings

Popularity: 42% [?]

Last week I wrote about the plight of Nashville’s Joy Ford, the country’s latest victim of Eminent Domain abuse by government. Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) has begun legal proceedings under Eminent Domain to condemn and seize Joy’s business. It has prospered at the head of Music Row for almost 30 years. Now it is “blighted” and must be bulldozed to make room for $100 million dollars worth of development by a private firm in Houston, TX. I said last week, this case is every bit as bad as Kelo vs New London in 2005.

Possibly anticipating the nation’s outrage over Kelo, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing in his Kelo opinon, said, “… nothing in our opinion precludes any state from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power.” In the aftermath of Kelo, according to Property Fairness, 27 states, including Tennessee, took Justice Stevens’ encouragement and attempted to do exactly that in 2006.

The problem, of course, is not in the attempt but in the accomplishment. The Tennessee Bar Association published an excellent analysis of Tennessee’s new law. The short version is that, in Tennessee, little was accomplished beyond political posturing. It is Tennessee’s 2006 failure to further restrict its takings power which leads directly to MDHA’s 2008 actions against Joy Ford. Speaking of the effectiveness of Tennessee’s legislation, Drew Johnson, President of The Tennessee Center for Policy Research noted,

“Tennessee’s new eminent domain law is a joke—and the joke is on property owners across the state,” … Tennesseans aren’t any more secure from having their property taken than before the law was passed.”

In particular, Johnson says that the law’s failure to more clearly define blight and its outright encouragement of eminent domain use to acquire land for industrial parks makes it particularly threatening to property owners.

Three months earlier, State Rep. Susan Lynn (TN-57), offered this evaluation of the law,

… after being worked through committee, this bill essentially guarantees very little protection for Tennesseans when it comes to eminent domain. To quote Sandra Day O’Connor in her dissent of the Kelo decision, the “specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

The bill states that ‘public use’ shall not include either private use or direct public benefits deriving from private economic development or private commercial enterprise, including the benefit of increased tax revenue and increased employment opportunities - except in the case where eminent domain is used for; roads, public utilities, private utilities, housing authorities, community development agencies for urban renewal or redevelopment plans; or for industrial parks. Looking at that list, I really can’t think of any exception for private economic development by eminent domain that the bill leaves out.

These 2006 comments by Lynn and Johnson are prescient. Joy Ford’s property is being seized because it is deemed “blighted”. Drew Johnson noted the law’s poor definition of blight. According to Ms. Ford, her property is ruled “blighted” because, among other things, it is surrounded by a chain link, barbed-wire topped security fence and is the only building left on the development property. Yet someone, perhaps the developer, has erected a shabbier looking fence around the development site. It goes unreported that both a hotel and Ford’s building abut the same parking lot. I assume the hotel property is not part of the development and so escapes urban “blight” despite also standing alone. Either that or Ford’s building is not the only one left on the property. Further, the reason Ford’s building is the only one left is the Shoney’s and other buildings standing on the site were demolished in anticipation of the development.

I’m trying to determine if these truly are factors in the classification of the Ford’s property as “blighted”. If so, how unfair. MDHA and LionStone Group want to buy her property but Ford won’t sell. They move ahead with development plans and clear the land. This has, for them, the pleasant side effect of creating the situation needed to force Ford from her property. Had LionStone and MDHA been required to wait until the property was free and clear before proceeding, a major element of the case against Ms. Ford, that of her “blighted” property, would not exist. How does creating “blight” for personal gain become working for the good of the public?

However, it is Rep. Lynn’s comments which make me wonder if government has not stacked the deck against the citizens they are to represent. A quick read of the bill would lead one to believe Tennessee was seeking to protect Tennesseans from the exact abuse Connecticut forced on her citizens. As Rep. Lynn observes, the bill starts well, noting “‘public use’ shall not include either private use or direct public benefits deriving from private economic development or private commercial enterprise, including the benefit of increased tax revenue and increased employment opportunities …” Unfortunately, the Tennessee Legislature left a loophole in the law. While making an acceptable exemption for traditional uses of Eminent Domain such as “… roads, public utilities, private utilities …” the bill then opens the door to all manner of Eminent Domain abuse by also exempting cases “… where eminent domain is used for; … housing authorities, community development agencies for urban renewal or redevelopment plans; or for industrial parks.”

The very issue which enraged the public in the Kelo decision, taking private property for private economic development to increase the city’s tax revenue, is not forbidden to government. In fact, the mechanism for government to do precisely that is written into the law. Government is forbidden from directly taking your property to develop to improve tax revenues. But agencies created by government whose purpose is development can do so. How did such disregard for citizen’s rights become law and an example of preserving the rights of citizens?

I’d like an answer to that from the Legislature. I’m sure Ms. Ford would, too. But for her, time is running out. The Legislature ran out of town at the end of the session. Too bad MDHA is still here and they’ve given Ford until just the middle of September to vacate the premises. After that, the wrecking balls start swinging. That’s long before the politicians responsible for this mess swing back through town. Stay tuned for more on this here …

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

LionStone Blight at Kay Brooks.

Government Takes Over in Nashville at Blue Collar Republican.

Eminent Domain Abuse in Nashville at The Roundtable.

Popularity: 57% [?]

What Circle? 23 Music Circle East - Nashville, TN to be precise. And broken may be the kindest way to describe what the owner of the business at that address faces. Shattered, decimated, mercilessly hounded into oblivion all come to mind to describe what Joy Ford, owner of Country International Records (CIR), is facing at the hands of Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA).

For almost 30 years, Ford and her late husband Sherman, have operated one of the first studios on what would become Music Row at that address. While much of the rest of the Row has gone corporate with multi-million dollar facilities, CIR remains privately owned. This earns CIR the classification of an Independent label or “Indie” as it’s known in the trade. Usually reserved for recent entries into the field who don’t have the juice to or don’t want to compete with the big boys, in the case of CIR, it’s deceptive. Joy and Sherman Ford were making music, writing songs, developing artists and cutting tracks at Country International Records long before many of the current Music Row elite were born. The walls of Ford’s business are filled with pictures of the legends she’s personally worked with. Stars like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw and more.

If government has anything to say about it, that won’t be true much longer. Chas Sisk at The Tennessean, who has covered the story since March, reports,

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency filed papers in a Nashville court Friday to start a process that would take the offices of Country International Records at 23 Music Circle East.

The action, the city’s first test of eminent domain since the state legislature tightened condemnation laws two years ago, was taken after the agency determined that negotiations with building owner Joy Ford would not work, said Joe Cain, the agency’s development director.

“We’re not having any conversation,” Cain said. “We’re hopeful that now she will meet with us.”

The government is filing papers to take Ford’s property. When they asked her to sell she said, “No”. Problem was, Joe Cain and MDHA didn’t like that answer. Having determined “negotiations with the building owner Joy Ford would not work” (read: this woman doesn’t want to sell her property at any price) they are having her property condemned as “blighted”. If she will not sell, they’ll force her out. With the pressure on, they’re “hopeful that now she will meet with” them. Mr. Cain and the MDHA seem to be confusing conversation with coercion.

A casual read of the issue sounds like a business deal moving along, working out small contractual differences as it goes. A “win-win” in the buzzword parlance of business. Except Joy doesn’t want that sort of victory. Her idea of winning is Joe Cain and MDHA leave her alone to continue the dream she and her late husband pursued for years, making music. This being America, she should be able to do exactly that. The property is hers. She owns it free and clear. She pays all her taxes. To most Americans that means that she can do what she wants with her land as long as it’s legal.

Welcome to the real blight in this story. Just a week after Kelo v New London’s 3rd anniversary and in a week celebrating the quintessential remembrance of American freedom from governmental tyranny, the spreading blight of governmental abuse of Eminent Domain has arrived in Nashville. The arrogance and hubris of Joe Cain and MDHA reminds one of the royalty we opposed for our freedom over 230 years ago. If Joe Cain has his way, Joy Ford’s dreams and right to do what she pleases with her own property will be bulldozed to make room for a $100 million dollar development deal with a private company in Texas.

At it’s heart, this is the real issue. True Eminent Domain is about the government requisitioning property for Public Use for the good of all the citizens. This is just a business deal. And it’s the stuff of Hollywood, not Music City. It reads like a boilerplate movie script, not a hot Billboard single. The widow v the conglomerate. MDHA signed a deal with Houston based Lionstone Group, a private developer, to sell them the property they wanted at cost. They inked this Music Row deal in March of this year. At the time, Ford’s property was not theirs to sell yet they sold it anyway! Now, they are using strongarm tactics to keep a promise they had no right to make. In doing so, they are not simply trampling on the rights and dreams of one woman. They are making a mockery of our Constitution and rights and values paid for with the blood of tens of thousands. The question is, will this movie script, as yet unfinished, have a happy ending? How will this sad country song finish after the bridge?

I met Joy Ford just this afternoon. But three weeks ago I wrote ‘Eminent Domain, the other ED’ in which I said,

New ED will be eradicated when Americans choose to reclaim their constitutional rights and responsibilities. We must trust ourselves and our neighbors more than those in government when making decisions about our property. We must reject the idea government is our source and reclaim the notion we are responsible for ourselves and have specific rights, including to own property. And we must be willing to defend our Right to private property ownership by exercising our other Rights as needed. The Right to Free Speech, to Assemble, of the Press and perhaps even to Keep and Bear Arms will be needed to stem the encroachment of government on our Rights.

Joy Ford is going to fight. She’s going to need some help. I’ll stand with her. This is just the first of several posts I have planned. Phil Valentine will stand with her. Metro Councilman Mike Craddock will fight for Joy. There are some country music legends chiming in, too.

I’m inviting you to stand with her as well. I’m asking you to be like Bill R. from Washington, DC. He read Joy’s story in the Tennessean and walked from downtown’s Renaissance Hotel to Joy’s part of Music Circle. Having seen her place and her plight, he wrote her a check and an encouraging note. His actions said he believed this is a fight Joy can win but it will take more than just her. Watch this space, tune in to Phil and other talk radio shows for more information. Call Mayor Dean and your Council member. Put the pressure on and keep it on. The MDHA is saying they are doing this to benefit all the people, not just one developer. Tell them there are limits to how far you want them going in your name.

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

Eminent Domain Use Violates Nashville Private Property Rights at Truman’s Take.

Abusing Eminent Domain at An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings.

City Starts to Seize Music Row Property, Chris Cannon at News Channel 5. Video report, pics and video transcript.

Joy Ford Fights for Property, John Dunn at Fox 17 News.

Popularity: 47% [?]