Nashville’s great housing swindle: How the Metro Council’s "Missing Middle" ongoing fairy tales fuel an affordability crisis
Article by Christopoher Remke, AIA [ret] • 2.25 minute read
The million-dollar lie: Exposing Nashville's "Missing Middle" swindle
For 15 years, Nashville leaders have peddled a myth: build more, and affordability will follow. This is the flawed gospel behind the Metro Council's crusade for "Missing Middle" upzoning.
It was a lie during the "tall skinny" boom, and it’s a lie now. This isn't a housing plan; it’s a swindle—a betrayal of public trust that fuels speculation and guarantees luxury development.
The bait-and-switch
They sell the public on "gentle density" and DADUs. They deliver a Trojan Horse: forced urbanization.
The new push means 75-foot monoliths on main streets and 16-unit complexes crammed onto standard residential lots. This radical surgery ignores the city’s own blueprint and the will of its residents.
This strategy fails because it ignores the Iron Law of Land Cost: You cannot build cheap housing on expensive land.
Upzoning in high-demand areas doesn't lower costs; it acts as a speculative accelerant. The math is undeniable: the "Missing Middle" is a $1.1 million townhome.
Cannibalization and bureaucratic malpractice
The consequences of this ideology are devastating. Instead of housing "filtering" down, affordability is being cannibalized. Nashville has lost 27,000 affordable units since 2010, bulldozed to make way for luxury construction. The workforce is entirely reliant on existing, older homes (NOAH)—the very stock that the city's policies are incentivizing developers to destroy.
The recent Nations UDO exposed the depth of the bureaucratic malpractice:
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The Council rubber-stamped a staggering 456% density increase.
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They ignored a known $24 Million+ infrastructure fiscal note and severe flood risks in the area.
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They dismissed nearly 1,000 residents who petitioned for a voice in the process.
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They guaranteed higher taxes, inflated land values, and aggressive gentrification.
This is not a housing plan. It is a mechanism to strip wealth from residents and hand it to corporations.
Neighborhoods are not commodities for investors, nor laboratories for reckless political experiments. They are our homes. Our vision must be respected. Our consent is required.
The evidence is undeniable
The Metro Council hopes you won't scrutinize the math, flawed data, or the looming infrastructure disaster. Our full investigation breaks down the "Missing Middle" swindle piece by piece.
We expose:
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The "arbitrary" population targets (2.5x the state projection) were used to justify the giveaway.
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The Anatomy of the Swindle: The ignored $24M infrastructure crisis in The Nations (or worse).
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The real developer math: How upzoning functions as a bailout for overpriced land.
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The Truth About the Workforce Housing Stock and Why It's Vanishing.
Don't let the Metro Council trade your neighborhood for investor profits. Read the definitive investigation now: