queen Dolly Parton used royalties from Whitney’s version of I Will Always Love You to support a Black neighborhood, calling it “the house that Whitney built” https://t.co/HgJfqnHFSD
— shauna (@goldengateblond) July 31, 2021
Per the Washington Post:
… Parton, who is estimated to have earned millions of dollars in royalties for writing the song in 1973, revealed this week how she spent her money from the songwriting credit for Houston, who died in 2012: She invested in a building located in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood.
“I bought my big office complex down in Nashville, and so I thought, ‘Well, this is a wonderful place to be,’ ” Parton said Thursday during a wide-ranging interview on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.”…
Parton purchased the 6,317-square-foot Mission-style complex in Nashville in February 1997, according to property records. David Ewing, a longtime Nashville historian, told The Washington Post that Parton’s investment came when many recording artists did not look toward the Sevier Park neighborhood, now known as 12 South, to set up their businesses.
“We’re just hearing now, because of the Black Lives Matter movement, how down for the cause Dolly has always been — even when others in the music industry weren’t,” Ewing said. “Dolly Parton could have built and bought any piece of property in Nashville. But you would have to have gone out of your way to buy in the 12 South neighborhood, because no Realtor would have shown Dolly that lot to buy.”
At the time, the neighborhood was “African American funeral homes, businesses and churches,” Ewing said. Now, 12 South is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Nashville, he said.
“But it really kind of all began to be put on the map when Dolly quietly invested in the area,” Ewing said…
“Vote them out.” Country music legend Willie Nelson led over a thousand spectators in song from the steps of the Texas Capitol, in a rally to support of Democratic state legislators who bolted for Washington to block GOP-backed voting restrictions. https://t.co/qLLqxnje5G
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 31, 2021
Country music legend Willie Nelson led more than a thousand spectators in singing “vote them out” Saturday from the steps of the Texas Capitol during a rally wrapping up a four-day march in support of Democratic state legislators who bolted for Washington two weeks ago to block GOP-backed voting restrictions…
The march began Wednesday and ended Saturday when participants walked up to the doors of the Texas Capitol building in a rally sponsored by activist group Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. It was led, in part, by Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman and presidential candidate who has not ruled out a run for Texas governor in 2022. Earlier this week, O’Rourke and marchers shut down the frontage road of Interstate 35 during the morning rush hour, funneled between restaurants and cut a path from Republican-controlled statehouse districts to Democratic ones…
Tomorrow marks my one year anniversary as a military retiree. I’m looking forward to kicking off the book tour on @CBSSunday and finally telling my entire story. https://t.co/ZJ84pMh6XS
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) July 31, 2021
A week ago, MyKayla Skinner thought her gymnastics career was over. Now she’s an Olympic medalist. https://t.co/1r5KrTek99
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 1, 2021
Simone Biles plans to return for balance beam final to conclude her Tokyo Olympicshttps://t.co/gJxqlJgUBw
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) August 2, 2021
… On beam, however, Biles’s routine does not include many twisting elements. Her eponymous dismount is a double-twisting double tuck, but even if she chooses to perform a simpler skill instead, she could still be a medal contender. For Biles, this routine might be less about a medal and more about ending her time in Tokyo on a positive note…
After Biles received a flood of encouragement and empathy on social media, she tweeted, “The outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.”
In the qualifying round, Biles earned the seventh-highest score on beam (14.066) after she took several steps backward out of her dismount. Even with that mistake, Biles’s mark was fewer than two-tenths of a point away from the third-highest score. At the 2016 Games, Biles won a bronze on beam in addition to four golds in other finals. She is a three-time world champion on the apparatus. Biles will compete in the final alongside teammate Sunisa Lee as the gymnastics competition in Tokyo concludes.
During all of the individual finals, Biles has cheered from the stands with the other U.S. Olympians who weren’t competing. Lee won the all-around gold medal and a bronze on bars, and MyKayla Skinner, a close friend of Biles, earned a silver on vault. Skinner thought her gymnastics career had ended a week before when she didn’t advance to any finals, but Biles’s withdrawal opened up a spot in the medal competition that Skinner filled as the alternate.
“She’s just been so awesome the last couple days,” Skinner said. “After everything she’s gone through, it’s really cool to see how strong she’s being.”
Steve in the ATL
Does anyone not love Dolly?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve in the ATL: Me, but I really really really like her.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
Happy Monday all!
Geminid
Willy Nelson hit the right note with “vote them out.” It’s always good to run on a positive policy platform, and I expect Texas Democrats will next year. But “turn the rascals out” can be a potent rallying cry. Voter suppression measures offend all but the most partisan Republicans. These, and the perilous state Republican leaders left Texans in during February’s freeze, will produce anger among Texans that Democrats can tap into next year.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@Geminid:
Hope so,
Low Key Swagger
A local Progressive I know commented that Dolly’s purchase was really just gentrification. Not sure what to do with that, except it would have happened anyway, since builders here will throw up a building on any patch of grass they can find. Anywhere.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
She really is amazing. I said last night, I wish she would let Biden give her the Media of Freedom.
debbie
Fixed.
NotMax
While TCM’s “Summer under the Stars” has long since passed its sell-by date, will mention that this Thursday (6 a.m. through to 6 a.m. Friday, Eastern time) is movies with Margaret Rutherford (of varying quality, needless to say, though she’s never a minus). Includes a real odd duck, one of those betwixt and between movies which can’t decide what it wants to be, an antic vehicle for roustabout Frankie Howerd or a trifling mystery, The Runaway Bus at 5 p.m. on the 5th (also includes a young Petula Clark).
JPL
@Baud: A medal would be nice, also.
She is amazing.
Baud
@JPL:
I meant what I said. :-\
satby
@Low Key Swagger: Does that “local progressive” prefer run-down red-lined neighborhoods? Because the people actually living in them don’t; their property value matters to them too.
Baud
@Low Key Swagger:
I think gentrification requires displacement of traditional residents. Not sure if that’s the case here, but mere investment doesn’t cut it.
ETA: Autocorrect is kicking my ass this morning.
NotMax
Monday morning music. How to lose 5 pounds in 7 minutes.
;)
NotMax
@NotMax
Sigh. Fingers not cooperating. Linky fix.
Monday morning music. How to lose 5 pounds in 7 minutes.
;)
Low Key Swagger
@Baud: Well the article said that prior to the purchase, the neighborhood consisted of African American businesses, funeral homes (why the distinction? It’s also a business) and churches. You may well be right about displacement, I’m just quoting the article.
Baud
@Low Key Swagger:
Yeah, the article doesn’t says what the neighborhood is like now.
Low Key Swagger
@satby: Let me be clear that this person did not frame this in a altogether negative way. She asked the question, and I think it’s fine to discuss how investors tend to swoop in, buy everything in sight, and raise rents to a level that drive poor working folk out. As I said, it would have happened, eventually, regardless of Dolly’s actions.
Low Key Swagger
@Baud: Well, I don’t go there much (hell, I don’t go anywhere much) but it is a trendy neighborhood now. Restaurants I wouldn’t like, specialty shops I wouldn’t frequent. But it is completely transformed.
Kay
It’s because people move back in once the houses are repaired, so the houses are no longer vacant.
They’re starting to look at whether the increase in murders (shootings, really) in the last two years are due to the pandemic-induced cessation of all of the anti-crime measures that are NOT just “throw more funding at police”. Apparently a lot of the community-based programs were paused during the pandemic, and that might have contributed to the uptick in murders.
Baud
@Kay:
Fascinating.
The 1992 crime bill has become somewhat infamous, but IIRC a part of that bill involved community based crime prevention measures.
germy
Last year:
Baud
@germy:
Damn. Who knew Dolly was the less awesome Parton sister?
Cermet
First we find out she had helped with the mRNA vaccine development, and now this investment in helping revitalize an African-American neighborhood. She is an absolute treasure.
Dolly once remarked she’d like a three-way with Jennifer Anderson … well, I don’t know Anderson but I do know a Jennifer (my girlfriend. ) So I’d certainly be willing and I know my girlfriend would love the chance, as well.
germy
@Baud:
I think they’re both great.
Baud
@germy:
Dolly is more diplomatic though. Stella is more jackalesque.
Baud
Caelab Dressel seems like a really nice guy. I hope we don’t find out later he’s a Trumper.
debbie
@germy:
I like the surcharges suggested in this response:
?BillinGlendaleCA
Off to the orange apron place, you all have a nice morning.
satby
@Low Key Swagger: Parton bought the building in 1997, almost 25 years ago. Been a couple of boom/busts in real estate since then. But speaking as a person who has lived in mostly poorer /working class neighborhoods most of my life, anything that helps improve the value and living conditions in them is mostly welcomed by people there. We point out that people in small towns in red states are angry when their lives and towns seem devalued because no one wants to live there, so why is making an urban area a place where people want to live and work a bad thing? As long as there’s provision made for lower income housing for current residents who might be priced out of the market, which has been lacking for renters.
I wish someone would gentrify the abandoned house across from me where I feed the ferals. The ceilings have started to fall in in the front rooms.
Kay
@Baud:
Right and they wouldn’t have a baseline because the programs have been around so long- to see the effects you’d have to pause them. So shootings “would have been up 10%” (perhaps) w/out the programs and we got that experiment. They’re personal contact intensive – “high touch” – so a pandemic would make the whole approach impossible.
debbie
@Baud:
Looking at his Wiki page, he doesn’t seem to have accomplished much. //
germy
@debbie:
I like their “medical excuse” reply: “Then you shouldn’t be in a bar during a pandemic.”
rikyrah
What I am most bitter about today?
The dispatches from the Children’s Hospitals around the country that are filling up with children who are COVID infected and couldn’t get the vaccine. My rage knows no bounds when I try think about them. When I realize that, even if they make it through, CHILDREN
CHILDREN
Could be inflicted with life-long COVID symptoms.?
Baud
@Kay:
We should thank Republicans for advancing the cause of science.
germy
@Cermet:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/12/04/jennifer-aniston-responds-dolly-partons-outrageous-threesome-joke/2209346002/
raven
I got a lot of helpful feedback last night when I posted that we were thinking about adopting a dog. After great input from the jackalariat we deduced 1. we need a smaller dog, 2, we need to wait until after a mid-sept wedding that we could not take it to, 3. we’re going to foster a doggie that’s in a vet right now
Holy shit I just found out this little thing was in the paper last week for being extremely, and I mean extremely, abused.
Baud
@rikyrah:
We should start calling them fetuses. Then maybe more people would care.
Baud
@raven:
?
satby
It did. It’s how I became a Vista volunteer, during the Summer of Safety push to establish community policing Chicago.
Baud
@satby:
You’ve led an interesting life, satby.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Morning Imma ?
Hope that Little Imma is doing well ?
OzarkHillbilly
Woohoo! Washington County made the front page of the STL Post Disgrace:
In this rural Missouri county, the vaccination rate is low and opposition high
Home sweet home.
rikyrah
????
Richard Daily, MD & Benzie (@rdaily) tweeted at 10:53 AM on Sun, Aug 01, 2021:
Arkansas just let 80,000 doses of COVID vaccine expire after failing to find anyone to take them.
(https://twitter.com/rdaily/status/1421861640329437186?s=03)
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
And she’d be angry if they did.
rikyrah
@raven:
You are good people ?
raven
@rikyrah: This is new ground. I think I’m glad I didn’t realize this pup was the one in the paper when we decided to give it a whirl. The person placing her works closely with my wife on the dog parade and it really committed to pet issues (she’s also a law prof).
ixnay
@raven: Wise set of decisions.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: He is doing great! ? Thanks.
Next Sunday or Monday we are setting off on our road trip from Boston to Houston to get him (and my old car) back to college. I’m looking forward to it!
satby
@raven: Wonderful! Yay you guys!
satby
@Baud: I get bored and change it up. I’m the human equivalent of a seven year itch.
Immanentize
@raven: Prof. L.M.? If so, she’s kinda famous in the animal welfare world.
Low Key Swagger
@satby: I don’t disagree, but “As long as there’s provision made for lower income housing for current residents who might be priced out of the market, ” is a heavy lift and rarely happens. In my rural community, I’ve seen this again and again. Affordable rentals are bought up by builders/investors. House is torn down, nicer house is built. Rents tripled. We have trailers renting for 1000 a month. Not even nice trailers. I haven’t lived in an urban area for quite some time, so I don’t have any first hand observations, but yes I do tend to believe that proper investment in a neighborhood as a whole would indeed be welcomed by most residents.
Kay
@Baud:
It’ll be nice if they get some credit- if the reduction in crime over the past two decades was partly due to their slow, steady neighborhood level work rather than the “one neat trick” explanations of lower blood lead levels or “broken windows” policing.
The much-maligned midnight basketball may make a comeback :)
Our juvenile delinquency is way, way up. I thought it would be. They don’t have anywhere to go so they get into trouble. People bitch about public schools sports funding but even if they’re not stand out players it keeps them busy and they need to stay busy. I can’t wait until they ramp up the whole list of after school programs again. They were missed.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
I’ll bet good money that person went to a fancy private school.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Wow, I love this woman! Thanks for tipping me off to her.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
inorite?????
Baud
@Kay:
“One neat trick”ism will be the death of us.
satby
@zhena gogolia: I was betting a suburbanite ?
Assumptions, we all make them ?
rikyrah
The fastest man in the world is a Black man named Lamont from ITALY ??
Lashanda Walker (@majesticbeauty5) tweeted at 11:26 PM on Sun, Aug 01, 2021:
Black Jesus said he gonna run around the track a little bit before he takes us home https://t.co/BYpC8WSQuW
(https://twitter.com/majesticbeauty5/status/1422051156768051202?s=03)
raven
@Immanentize: Yep, she lives down the street. I’m thinking about doing a bleg here for this pup.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: He’s a Gator!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m fine with dragging him dead.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Autoincorrect never sleeps. It just waits patiently, then BAM!
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: All I can say is for a guy to go from a 10.0 runner to a 9.8 runner in a year is … really remarkable.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: At 340 pounds, you better bring a tractor and logging chains.
Immanentize
@raven: please do! Poor little guy.
Betty Cracker
It’s somewhat amazing that Dolly Parton’s spouse has managed to stay so resolutely out of the spotlight. I watched a documentary about her recently. (Maybe on Netflix? Can’t remember…) Anyhoo, it suggested that he’s always been very supportive of her career and is happy to hang out with Dolly’s celebrity friends when they visit, but he wants nothing to do with the spotlight himself, and she supports him in that. Good for them!
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: just like you and your husband!
Suzanne
@Low Key Swagger: My neighborhood seems to be on the upswing a bit, and I don’t think everyone is happy about it. It is a historically Italian and working-class neighborhood, and there are still a few long-timers. My neighbor across the street is an old man, speaks next to no English, and maintains his property immaculately. However, two doors down, there’s another longtime family who has let their detached garage fall into terrible condition. It’s probably a fire hazard and we’ve seen animals in it. Anyway, the neighborhood is becoming simultaneously more middle-class with more professionals, and more diverse, with a small-but-growing Latino population and Muslims. Property values are going up and the business area is changing to hip restaurants and yoga studios and video gaming. Our neighbor two doors down is not happy about it. He’s an asshole. But as these houses get improved, there is going to be more pressure on him to clean up his property or leave. I don’t want to drive anyone out, but I also want him to clean up his shit.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Yep! If you subtract the talent, fame, fortune, altruism and boobs, the similarities are eerie!
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: nit picking critics can soak their heads.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
JL Cauvin did a funny bit on that, but since I’m being accused of being mentally ill for linking to him, I won’t.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize:
You are a sick, sick man.
Kay
Jane Mayer has more of (her usual) great work on the continuing threat to election systems:
The Big Money Behind the Big Lie. Viewing this as “fringe” is incorrect, IMO. This is the majority of the Republican Party and they have serious financial backing. The warnings should be taken seriously.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: I assume you’ll be stopping at every Stuckey’s along the way? Pecan logs across America!
Kay
Richard Hasen is not generally considered to be an alarmist. He’s like..an election law nerd :)
Low Key Swagger
@Suzanne: Can the neighbor afford to fix that garage? If so, and they just don’t do it, I would think the city would eventually fine them or make them tear it down or repair it. Could be wrong tho.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker:
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
glory b
@Baud: It absolutely did, job training, and anyone remember midnight basketball? It was part of keeping activities available for longer periods of time, giving younger people something to do in a controlled environment.
One of the worst things that happened in 2016 was the demonization of the crime bill, PEOPEL WHO LIVED IN THOSE NEIGBORHOODS WANTED IT! DEMANDED IT! Russian bots did more harm than a lot of us realize by telling young black people to teach Hillary a lesson and refuse to vote. A lot of our media betters (Eddie Glaude, Michael Harriott, etc.) got caught up in that.
I was so disappointed that the MSM didn’t report on the actual history of the bill. Also, hanging it around Hillary’s neck (who was the first lady at the time) and ignoring that Sanders actually voted for it, along with the vast majority of the Congressional Black caucus. Too many blacktivitsts acted like it was used to just round up and throw into jail a bunch of black people.
I am old enough to remember that our neighborhoods were like war zones, getting the crime rate down did A LOT of good for us.
Also, the economic improvements wrought by Clinton increasing taxes on rich people. I remember companies doing job fairs at prisons, the guys in there got educations and they were telling them to come get hired when they got out.
The crime rates dropped exponentially after it was passed. I remain infuriated, especially in light of the things Allan spoke of earlier.
Have I had too much coffee today? Maybe…
Another Scott
ObOpenThread – CNN:
Oh.
Well that seems perfectly sensible and fair and not corrupt at all. //
(sheesh)
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who is probably the last person here to notice this.”)
gvg
Gentrification is complicated. If a historically black neighborhood has depressed values, then the residents don’t have an asset to finance moving for better opportunities, or retirement or give their kids a stake. They can only hang on and they are trapped. They also don’t have equity and banks can’t make loans against a valueless property. It’s a trap.
If the neighborhood has decent values, then the owners can make normal choices which does mean take the money/profit and move somewhere cheaper or more expensive their choice. That inevitably means after a while, some different people will live their than before. also if values go up, so do property taxes. This means fixed income people may need to move. The thing is, that happens everywhere, and is normal background in say a white middle class neighborhood. You need to keep that in mind when reacting to the word gentrification.
It is a problem if their is a physical limit to houses and a larger number of people who desire to live their such as New York City or San Francisco. It can be made worse by out of date building codes and plans. Only building high end houses causes problems too. I believe they are more profitable for the builders, but we need all levels of house.
Low Key Swagger
@gvg: Yes to all of this. It is a very complicated issue and I like discussions about it. Could be some workable solutions will come about.
Another Scott
@gvg: +1
Neighborhoods always change (unless they become “historic districts” or something). What matters is what happens to the people. Zoning and housing assistance has to change with the times or there will be other costs…
I’ve mentioned before that my MIL came to DC from MN to get a job in the summer of 1941. She lived with several friends in a boarding house on P Street for several months, maybe even a few years, until she could get a place of her own. (Housing in the area was very tight in the buildup to the war, and during the war.) The building is still there – it’s nice apartments or condos now. I occasionally see houses around here in NoVA that seem to be rented to several young workers (lots of cars) for a few months before they’re sold.
People have to be able to find a way to live somewhere affordable reasonably close to where they work. If localities refuse to provide the infrastructure for that, then landlords will rent rooms. If localities don’t want that, then they need to lobby for housing assistance so that people can pay the market rates. Either way, something must be done – economies can’t work without workers.
Cheers,
Scott.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Low Key Swagger: i wouldn’t actually call noted nashvillian — & onetime gore 2000 campaign grunt — kkklay travis a progressive. troll, though..?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@glory b: the crime bill was hillary’s until it was biden’s.
#ourrevolution & justice democrats can’t even be consistent in their ratfucking.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Another Scott: i still see republic of china.
even though i still otherwise call it formosa.
zhena gogolia
@glory b: Great comment!
Low Key Swagger
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose: Nah, didn’t refer to her as a troll. Just that she brought it up as a question. It was actually a friend of mine, well, online friend who isn’t a “shit on Democrats” kind of Progressive.
Marc McKenzie
@glory b:
All of this. Every freakin’ word.
Origuy
@Low Key Swagger: Funeral homes, barber shops, and beauty salons were traditionally businesses that African Americans could open without competition from white-owned businesses. White people didn’t want to learn how to deal with black hair or touch black bodies, dead or alive.
Ruckus
Does anyone know anything about The Defense Post?
They followed me on twitter and I have no reason or understanding as to why. I get very, very few followers that I haven’t had any comments with or about and I’ve never heard of them. My bit of research has really given me nothing other than they have a website.
Ruckus
@satby:
OK that cracked me up.