Chatter: Was Greyhound’s BZA debacle not as bungled as it seems?

Greyhound has more than likely been licking its wounds since the drubbing it took from Metro Board of Zoning Appeals a week ago.

If you didn't go to the hearing or see the rerun on public access, you missed some good amateur theater in BZA denying a special exception for the bus station’s proposed move to Murfreesboro Road.

You would have seen an unprepared Greyhound executive trying to answer a barrage of questions from BZA board members and defending his side against the shotgun blast of information from opponents.

But you also would have seen how a neighborhood group can throw out statistics and statements to paint a worst-case scenario. Interestingly, the group's attorney, Tom White, and Joslin Signs owner Bobby Joslin are usually on the other side.

Still, in the view of some observers, Greyhound’s hearing highlighted just how arrogant a company can be when it comes to dealing with a neighborhood group. The performance raised the question of Greyhound's seriousness in moving.

Perhaps that was part of the plan: Make it clear that Greyhound will need a new downtown location and put greater pressure on the city to get one if a new convention center moves forward.

Dallas-based Greyhound apparently didn't listen to local advice to attend neighborhood meetings and engage neighborhood leaders. Nor did the company provide much information on how a new station would be an improvement over the current one until the meeting. Even then, the information was thin. Supposedly, the station manager here was much more prepared but got bumped by the regional VP.

There's also the view that the property owners could have done more.

It's unclear whether that would have worked. It's also unclear whether Greyhound would have won approval had its executive been better prepared.

Some comments and questions from Chairman David Ewing were pointed and could have been construed as sarcastic.

The Greyhound executive touted that each of its buses takes 34 cars of the road. Ewing asked how the executive got here. He drove.

Also, had he been to the station in the time he'd been here? No.

In one exchange during the meeting, the Greyhound executive had explained how the company had refurbished the downtown station's interior. Ewing pointed out that the "H" in the "Welcome to Nashville" sign was out, saying, "Since you didn't take the bus here, you missed it."

BZA denied Greyhound's permit citing public health and safety reasons. Board members hammered on the crime statistics — 931 calls over six years — that were provided by the opposition to show that the bus station would bring crime to Murfreesboro Road.

Most of the 931 calls were for disorderly conduct and not all calls generated an incident report. Those figures certainly didn't substantially support the assessment of the opposition's real estate appraiser that drugs and prostitution would follow the station to Murfreesboro Road.

But those numbers aren’t as high when put into some context: The Nashville Rescue Mission had 3,320 calls over the same six-year period, according Metro Police data. Tootsie's Orchid Lounge had 448.

Proximity to homeless organizations has been cited as part of the reason for the calls to the Greyhound station. The Greyhound executive used Orlando as an example of a station moving from downtown to the suburbs and crime dropping as a result.

He, however, couldn't dispute the report because he'd never seen it. But he did tout the company's commitment to keeping its passengers safe and 24-hour security. Ewing, however, said he saw no security when he had gone to the station the previous afternoon, which obviously didn't look good.

One question raised by all the hubbub: Where was the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, which is handling, among other things, the work of relocating businesses in the planned convention center’s footprint?

MDHA won't get actively involved until the convention center is approved. Greyhound was just trying to get a head start.

Now it will fall back into place and wait — which may have been what it was looking to do anyway.