I'm an ideas man, Michael!

So, after writing a few posts, I'm noticing a pattern. The subtitle to our blog is "kramily life behind the bluebird cafe," but I don't write too much about our life here. I don't have any desire to change that either. Were this blog devoted to keeping up communication my streak of inquiries would be intolerable. Much to the contrary, I've decided to roll with John Stewart's advice and write about what pleases me... with a little daily life thrown in. 

Many of my thoughts begin with, "Wouldn't it be great if...?" Lacking any direction of utter and total conviction that one might call a "career path," these notions are often followed by "I could do that." Oh, if only that were so. Let me give an example.

Nashville is pleasantly separated into lots of little neighborhoods much like San Francisco, but not so distinctly. There is 12th South, Hillsboro Village, Five Points, Nipper's Corner, Sylvan Park, etc. etc.  North Nashville, which is more like a huge chunk of the city is one of these "neighborhoods." Ghetto is probably more like it. Edgehill, Lafayette, and parts of East Nashville fall in the same category. 

Several days ago Della and I got curious about house prices in Nashville. A real estate agent friend of ours told us we could probably still find a really great deal. So it was. Dozens of houses between $60k and $100k popped up in the first search. After filing through the obvious dumps, we noticed a fair number of decent looking houses gathered together in clumps. North Nashville. 

You travel through just about every part of a town when you work in delivery, especially delivery of medical equipment. You get to know places. I've been to North Nashville more times than I cared to. It's the area immediately north and west of Downtown, extending almost all the way to 440 north of West end, stopping shy of the delightful Sylvan Park. It's a memorial to white flight, a testament to urban decay, and a rundown part of town. Not the safest place to live or work. 

This place's houses are so cheap because no one wants to live there. There are no grocery stores, no banks, no shopping centers, poor schools, hard drugs, and rough gangs. So much of this has to do with the people's poverty, and the financial institutions with the know-how of increasing wealth are going to be the last ones to head into that part of town.

"Wouldn't it be great if someone started a bank and financial service center at ridiculously low cost to patrons just to lift areas like this out of poverty?" It would have to be in the midst of it. It would have to offer financial planning to an entirely new demographic. It would have to be run terribly well... I could do that!

That's what I spend most of my time doing around here, folks. I get visions of how to help, but don't have the patience or know-how to follow through. Are any of you financial planners or bankers with a heart for the urban poor? 

I'll come up with some more ideas soon. 

Grace and Peace,

Krammy