Welcome to Loophole City.
The secret history behind Nashville’s tall & skinnies—and what we might build after the loopholes close.
Loophole City is a three-part narrative about how a legal loophole reshaped Nashville’s neighborhoods.We go from the highway that sliced through Jefferson Street, to the condo law that became a tall-and-skinny machine, to the fight over what Nashville can build next.
Episode 1 - The Blueprint
How did a highway through Jefferson Street and Metro's formation set the stage for Nashville’s tall & skinnies? This episode traces the city’s original “loophole mindset” and how it built a blueprint.
Episode 2 - The Workaround
A three-page Attorney General opinion turns a forgotten condo statute into the most powerful development tool in Nashville. Follow the lawyers, planners, and builders who turned the Horizontal Property Regime into a tall-and-skinny machine.
Episode 3 - The Middle Rung
Nashville is running out of room for loopholes—and out of patience with its housing crisis. We look at the rise of “missing middle” housing, the cities rewriting their rules, and the fight over what Nashville chooses to build next.
Why it matters today
I made this series because “tall & skinnies,” zoning fights, and missing-middle buzzwords actually hide a bigger story about power, rules, and who gets to live in Nashville.This podcast is for anyone who cares about that story: planners and policy makers, real estate agents and investors, longtime neighbors, or anyone staring at a new build on their street wondering:“How did we end up here—and what could we build instead?”
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