Outcry over the potential redevelopment of RCA Studio A in Nashville is raising tough questions about the conflicting dynamics of property rights and cultural heritage.
Mark Guarino updates the unique preservation concerns of Music City, which is amidst a building boom and the gentrification concerns that come with it. According to Guarino, "The building [RCA Studio A] and many others located in Music Row, the nucleus of the city’s country music industry, is threatened by an economic boom that has sent property values skyrocketing and increased the metro area’s population by 25 percent between 2000 and 2012."
"In July, the site that houses Studio A was sold to a developer that has said it may be too decrepit to save; many fear the space will be razed and replaced with condominiums."
Given Nashville's unique and famous cultural heritage, the threat of transformation makes the cultural stakes of gentrification uniquely conspicuous, according to Guarino: "For any city, boom-time conditions are followed by inevitable growing pains. But veterans of Nashville’s commercial recording industry complain that a city that has branded itself over the last 50-plus years as 'Music City' is in danger of turning into a landscape of luxury apartments, mixed-use retail and other amenities."
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