South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Music City’s forgettable year
Apart from the pandemic, Nashville’s mettle tested by weather, explosion
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Sandy and Geff Lee finally saw a photo of the building that was home to their Nashville boutique on the day after the Christmas morning bombing, a quiet came over the room.
The rubble was overwhelming. Debris shadowed familiar details. Geff Lee pulled up a map to verify they were looking in the right place.
“It was an eye-opener,” said Sandy Lee, owner of Ensemble.
The Christmas Day explosion has sparked shock across the country after a bomb detonated in the heart of Nashville’s historic downtown and killed the bomber, injured three other people and damaged dozens of buildings.
Yet for those who call Music City home, the bombing feels like a cruel capstone to an already dark year.
In early March, a massive
tornado rumbled through the city — uprooting homes, destroying businesses and killing two dozen people.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, shuttering businesses as people stayed home and the virus spread rapidly. Some people who lost their homes in the tornado saw their jobs disappear.
Things have steadily worsened over the course of the year. The post-Thanksgiving resurgence left Tennessee with among the highest number of cases per capita as state leaders remained hesitant to impose statewide mandatory restrictions. And while the city is known as a health care hub, Nashville’s hospitals have strained to keep up with the stream of COVID19 patients that have been rushed from all corners of the state.
Those weren’t the only setbacks. Some downtown businesses experienced property damage in late May during a peaceful protest that turned violent in response to racial injustice and police brutality.
Many structures in the tornado’s path remain broken and tangled to this day.
State and local officials shake their heads in dismay that a city that had been flying high on an economic boom for years managed to pack in so many tragedies in just 12 months.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper recently described 2020 as the city’s “hardest year.”
“We’re getting through the tornado, then COVID. And then this. Just when you start to see the light, it’s taken away in two seconds,” said Pete Gibson, whose tattoo parlor was just across the street from the site of the Christmas Day explosion.
A year earlier, Nashville hosted the coveted NFL draft and proudly announced it would once again host a presidential debate in the 2020 election. It boomed as a destination spot for bachelorette parties.
Businesses along Second Avenue, a narrow-tree lined street where the explosion took place, had found a thriving location with a readymade tourist market in the Civil War-era buildings over the years. The explosion took place just off Lower Broadway, the flashy business thoroughfare known for its bright lights and honky-tonks, on a slightly quieter street that beckoned those looking for refuge from the noise and bustle of the main drag.
More than 40 structures were damaged by the blast. Because of the active investigation, which has drawn hundreds of federal officials to sweep though the broken glass, bricks and other debris left by the blast, business owners have not been able to return — not even to survey the damage.
“We’ve always taken such pride to be part of this community and to see those buildings that have survived the Civil War are going to be most likely torn down is really, really sad,” said Carla Rosenthal, the owner of The Melting Pot and Rodizio Grill, both businesses destroyed in the blast that employs roughly 120 staffers combined.
Nearly a quarter of those employees had already applied for unemployment by end of Christmas.
“We’ve always felt like we were part of what has brought Nashville to become the ‘It City’ as it is,” said Rosenthal, who has owned The Melting Pot for more than 25 years and Rodizio Grill for eight. “We helped build this city.”