When worlds collide

I woke this morning to find myself in agreement with Phil Valentine. I cannot say it was the first time as I am not an avid reader of his column. If he keeps making the sense he made today, it won't be the last.

Phil made hay with the municipal bond world's term for making cities co-sign risky bond deals. The industry refers to such arrangements - which are largely designed to avoid a full faith pledge and hence a referendum - as moral obligations. A moral obligation is essentially a full faith and credit guarantee in all but name. A city that defaults on a full faith pledge or a moral obligation will face the same penalties; limited access to capital markets, besmirched credit and the taint of financial mismanagement.

While I liked Phil's point about how our moral obligation is to our taxpayers what I liked more was what he said about other uses of our tourism dollars. We are losing focus on what makes Nashville a tourist desination. Is building a box that could be in any city in the country so we can house dentists and school administrators, serve them the slippery chicken dinner and shuttle them back to the airport so they can get reunite with their families really the answer? Are there truly no other options? No music festivals, Bar B Que contests, heritage music events, head races or triathalons? Just a glass box, that's our answer. Not very creative for a city that is home to some of the world's most original people.