Music City Tales from the 1980s: Lower Broad and the Ascendance of the High Class Drunk

By the second half of the Reagan Decade, Lower Broad was on its way to becoming a tourist destination. An impressive ascent, considering it was more or less a war zone. How did it do it? It replaced “low class” drunks with “high class” ones through investment, selective enforcement, and heavy policing. We also meet a teenage boy who was used as bait to arrest dozens of gay men, and we check back in on Mayor Hoot Jackson.

But first, a few words about that fucking tornado.