Context-Sensitive Urbanist, AIAret - The "guy with a pencil" reading blueprints, deconstructing pro formas - demanding civic solutions over partisan theater.
Joined July 2011
- Tweets 209
- Following 551
- Followers 443
- Likes 175
30 Photos and videos
Chris Remke retweeted
🎥 At our next event, we're hosting @Hotshot_Movie to talk about the ground-breaking ads he's produced for @spencerpratt's LA mayoral run and how the Palisades fire brought the two together. Join us June 18th.
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Chris Remke retweeted
19 Aug 2019
A thread:
I have not written this out ahead of time, I am writing as I go, so bear with me, this is just a musing.
The Lord of the Flies theory of millennials.
This is a different generation than ever before in history. This is a generation that grew up in a 1/
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Jun 9
Protected species do not know where property lines begin and end. 🐆🦒
A massive data center is proposed next door to the @NashvilleZoo.
How is it bypassing industrial environmental standards?
The developer applied for the permit under “General Office.” [A sleight of hand]
Complete nonsense. 🧵Yet, they are enjoying the anti-DC show while they get away with the "slight"👇
open.substack.com/pub/builtt…
#Nashvillezoo #Nashvillepolitics
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Chris Remke retweeted
Davis Hunt of The Pamphleteer poses a question many Nashville taxpayers are wondering about today: pamphleteer.co/post/is-the-m…
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Jun 5
Check out this post on Nextdoor:
☕️ The Promise vs. The Reality Since 2015, this site has been envisioned as a Mixed-Use Center. A true neighborhood mixed-use center where locals could gather, grab a coffee, and connect.
Take a deeper dive into the issues. Do not contribute further to Nashville's Bedroom Warehouse District.
nextdoor.com/p/C6W5s-CyyzK4?…
#thenations #NashvillePolitics
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Jun 5
Modern zoning operates strictly in the "Transactional Economy." It measures success by stacking the highest number of "heads and beds" onto a single tax parcel. It treats humans as economic units.
But a truly livable city operates on the "Gathering Economy." 🧵👇
builttothink.substack.com/p/…
#urbanism #HousingPolicy #Nashville
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Chris Remke retweeted
Jun 4
In a certain street are three tailors. The first to set up shop hung out this sign -- 'Here is the best tailor in the town.' The next put up -- 'Here is the best tailor in the world.' The third simply had this -- 'Here is the best tailor in this street.'
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Jun 3
What do housing policy and horse manure have in common?
Quite a lot, actually.
There is an old European theater tradition in which success was measured by the piles left outside the theater.
Housing policy has its own version.
We count units.
We count density.
We count permits.
We count studies.
But are we measuring success—or just counting piles?
New article:
Housing, Horse Manure, and Other Signs of Success
builttothink.substack.com/p/…
Housing, Horse Manure, and Other Signs of Success
#HousingPolicy #CityBuilding
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May 25
Another check off the bucket list . The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, this Memorial Day Weekend.
Bedford lost more sons per capita on D-Day than any other community in America, forever linking this small Virginia town to one of history’s most pivotal moments. The memorial is powerful, humbling, and beautifully done. A reminder that freedom has always carried a cost paid by ordinary people willing to do extraordinary things.
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May 15
A wise Tar Heel
Eric Church | 2026 Spring Commencement Address | UNC-Chapel Hill youtu.be/SZYiwUdmEJc?si=rcfK… via @YouTube
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May 13
"Nashvegas" used to be a sardonic joke. Now, it’s a reality threatening Nashville's soul, aided and abetted by our Council's Planning and Zoning Committee and their puppets at the Planning Commission. They are full-bore focused on making room for Vegas at the expense of NashNatives.
People look at the zoning disasters and ask, "Are they really this blind and incompetent?" The truth is, they want you to think it's a huge "miss." That's why they look into the news cameras, totally "astonished" by the massive tax bills and displacement destroying our neighborhoods.
Don't buy the fake surprise. They built the machine, they pulled the lever, and now they are playing dumb.
The mechanics are working exactly as designed: more density - more inflation - more gentrification of NashNatives and BizNatives.
substack.com/@builttothink
substack.com/@builttothink/n…
#NashPol #PropertyTax #NashvilleHousing
May 13
Photos: New Nashville Yards hotel coming: See renderings tennessean.com/picture-galle…
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May 14
Sean, clearly, you read posts about as well as you read Metro Housing Studies. I didn't type a single word about a hotel.
You win the gold medal for tone-deafness. You looked at a post about the displacement of NashNatives and a massive fiscal hole, and your only takeaway was a lazy strawman.
Let me help you with the context you missed: Right now, a coalition of 300 local businesses is begging for relief from assessment spikes of 150-300%. Legacy spots like Varallo's are dead. And the Mayor's response is to tell locals to just 'absorb the cost' while he preps corporate welfare for Starbucks and covers for Oracle's broken promises.
Thank you for perfectly demonstrating the 'playing dumb' routine I just called out. It’s much easier to invent a fake argument about a hotel than it is to look at the BizNatives footing the bill for your extraction machine. Try reading the room and next time, the content of the post.
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May 13
You’ve seen @WKRN, @FOXNashville, and @NashvilleScene sound the alarm on ACME & Peg Leg Porker fighting catastrophic property tax hikes.
But what the media isn't telling you: the exact same wealth-extraction machine is coming for your neighborhood's starter homes.
builttothink.substack.com/p/…
#NashPol #PropertyTax #NashvilleHousing
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Chris Remke retweeted
After instituting a 4-cent tax rate increase during the last budget cycle, the City of Clarksville’s proposed budget for FY 26-27 not only includes another 33.7% property tax increase but also seeks to pull back a portion of the sales tax shared with the local schools.
tinyurl.com/rj75hs62
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May 12
How your Council Member influences your tax bill.
UPDATED: Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.” Nashville’s zoning playbook and a upzoning friendly to global investor landlords Metro Council is acting like a speculative stock market, hyper-inflating land values under the guise of "affordability."
Call it ZONKS (Zoning Stonks).
The city's own 2025 data proves it: 27,000 affordable homes LOST. (Also see inflationary trends on housing in a graphic from @KennyCapPhd.
open.substack.com/pub/builtt…
#NashPol #NashNews #NashvilleHousing
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May 11
ZONKS: When your city council upzones to "create affordability" - pricing out locals before a shovel hits the ground.
Nashville is importing the exact playbook from coastal cities that people are fleeing.
Show me the incentive, I'll show you the displacement.
open.substack.com/pub/builtt…
#ZONKS #Nashville #Gentrication
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