‼️ Why are 80 local businesses suddenly closed?

🍽️ Our Culinary Melting Pot

On today’s City Cast Nashville podcast, we’re discussing how immigrant traditions are reshaping the city’s culinary scene, from family recipes carried across borders to restaurants redefining Southern food. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🧑‍🎨 Arts Collective Temporarily Closes

In September, the 100 Taylor Arts building in North Nashville closed suddenly due to fire safety and accessibility issues, displacing 80 businesses and nonprofits. Repairs should be completed in 4-6 weeks. [Nashville Banner]

• Check out the tenants’ social media pages for ways to support these small businesses until they can return. [100 Taylor]

🏎️ Locals Call for Vote on Racetrack Plans

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Board of Fair Commissioners held a public meeting to discuss the future of the Nashville Fairgrounds, as the mayor considers a deal with Speedway Motorsports to bring more races to the track. Many locals urged the Fair Board to let voters decide the speedway’s future, speaking out against track expansion. [WKRN]

• This comes on the heels of an ethical complaint against Fair Board chair Jasper Hendricks for conspiring with Bristol Motor Speedway to bring NASCAR to Nashville. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

✈️ Improving Airport Traffic

BNA officials have identified five ways to improve traffic following the hours-long gridlock on Sept. 15. The measures include increasing traffic staffing, data sharing between rideshares and the airport, and upgrading technology. [Axios Nashville]

• A first-hand account of the airport traffic mayhem. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• Related: BNA expects minimal impact on airport operations amid the federal government shutdown. [The Tennessean]

On Saturday, Oct. 4, Friends of Shelby is showing a free outdoor screening of “Crosswinds: The Courageous Life of Cornelia Fort.” This documentary explores the life of the trailblazing woman Cornelia Fort Airpark is named after. Here’s more about her life.

🌹 A Southern Belle With Other Intentions

Dr. Rufus Fort was a prominent member of the community. A surgeon at Nashville General and a breeder of Jersey cattle, he was the owner of Fortland, a massive property in East Nashville at what is now the intersection of Eastland and Riverside Drives. His two daughters — Cornelia, born in 1919, and her sister Louise — were brought up to be proper Southern debutantes, whose comings and goings were tracked in society pages.

Cornelia bristled against the future her family set out for her, falling in love with aviation, attending Sarah Lawrence College, and taking up flying lessons. She did not tell her family about her secret passion until after her father’s death in 1940.

🛩️ A Trailblazing Pilot

Within a year, Cornelia became the first female flight instructor in Nashville. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Pilots Training Program, she moved to Ft. Collins, CO, and was hired in 1941 to teach flying in Hawaii to the military men stationed there. On December 7th, 1941, she and a student were in the air off John Rodgers airfield when they barely dodged a collision with a hostile aircraft; looking out over the horizon, she realized Pearl Harbor was under attack from the Japanese Navy Air Service.

🇺🇸 An American Hero

Thanks to the United States’ entry into World War II, Cornelia was soon invited to join a brand new squadron: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Based in Delaware, the WAFS tested and delivered aircraft throughout the country, as well as training male cadets. It took until 1977 for the WAFS women to be designated as military personnel and entitled to full military benefits. Sadly, Cornelia did not live to see the day: She was killed in a routine ferrying mission over Dallas Love Field in 1943.