Who Gets Your Vote for Mayor?
By Veronica Foster, Communications + Advocacy Manager
6 min read Reflecting on the Nashville Mayoral Forum hosted on June 7th, 2023 in partnership with Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee, Urban Housing Solutions and Walk Bike Nashville. The Forum focused on multimodal transportation, housing, and neighborhoods.
In Spring of 2022, we surveyed the community to help guide our priorities for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, specifically asking them to identify Guiding Principles for Civic Design that spoke to Nashville’s critical issues right now. 3 out of 12 Principles stood out—Community Involvement, Transportation, and Housing. It is easy to see how each of the Principles are distinctly interconnected, showcasing the biggest tensions with Nashville’s growth. For the last year, we focused our educational programming on that intersection, creating excellent speaker line-ups and panels for various Urban Design Forums and PechaKucha Nights.
In anticipation of the 2023 Mayoral Race, we asked 4 organizations—Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee, Urban Housing Solutions and Walk Bike Nashville—to join us on a committee that would host a Mayoral Forum that focused on these 3 key Principles. Each organization’s mission has goals that specifically align with a particular Principle. By working together, we hoped to push the mayoral candidates to identify innovation solutions to each of our interconnected issues.
Follow planning, design and development processes that are grounded in community involvement.
Develop an equitable and desirable transportation infrastructure.
Supply housing options for diverse incomes and lifestyles that complement the neighborhood.
Community Perspectives Become Questions
Early this year, we put together a new survey that all 5 organizations sent out to their membership with the intent to go deeper on the 3 topics. We asked first how our community currently gets around the city and what challenges they face, but we also asked about out their hopes and dreams for multimodal transportation, housing supply, and neighborhoods. The intention was to not only guide our questions for the Forum, but to share the individual responses with each candidate so they could learn about their neighbors’ values.
9 mayoral candidates—Natisha Brooks, Heidi Campbell, Jim Gingrich, Sharon Hurt, Stephanie Johnson, Freddie O’Connell, Vivian Wilhoite, Matt Wiltshire, and Jeff Yarbro—joined us on June 7, 2023 at Trevecca Nazarene University to directly respond to our community’s questions.
The following sections will demonstrate a brief summary of the questions and responses.
Connecting Transit + HousingPreferred Travel Mode
While 47% of our survey respondents claimed to drive around Nashville every single day, the same exact percent would prefer to use transit as their primary mode of travel. Multiple community members wanted to know if our future mayor was going to secure dedicated funding for transit. Following our lightning round question asking this very question, only a few candidates committed to secure dedicated funding in their first term (Hurt, Johnson, O’Connell, Wilhoite). The rest of the candidates did not explicitly answer or commit to the timeline.
In former Council Member Pete Westerholm’s survey response, he wanted to know what the new mayor was going to do with all of these plans the city has put together over the years from NashvilleNext to WalkNBike to Vision Zero, so we posed his question directly in the Forum, asking specifically what they planned to get done in the first year. In response, Brooks stated she will focus on Bus Rapid Transit. Gingrich said he will focus on Vision Zero, transit access to the airport, and sidewalk conditions. Campbell said she will focus on making our bus routes run 24/7. Yarbro would accelerate the implementation of Vision Zero and strengthen the reliability of the current routes. Hurt would implement electric charging stations and try to incentivize students to take Bus Rapid Transit to school.
When it came to the question about solving the housing and transit issue together, both Wilhoite, O’Connell, and Wiltshire focused on building housing on main corridors. Wilhoite emphasized public-private partnerships, O’Connell emphasized policy to make sure more affordable housing can be built, and Wiltshire focused on his history funding and building affordable housing on these corridors with the Barnes Fund and MDHA. Johnson focused on diversifying housing stock and circular transportation.
Community Connection
9 candidates applaud following the program [Photo by: Beth Gwinn]
Dr. Iris Gordon, a Trevecca professor and part of the Social Justice Center, reached out to us and requested to pose a question to the candidates. Her question focused on how the how the candidates would tap local knowledge from community groups already doing the work in their neighborhoods. Hurt focused on partnering with local universities to provide data to support minimizing disparities. Yarbro discussed involving people in solving the problems of their own neighborhoods, like Hub Nashville, participatory budgeting or local traffic calming. Campbell wants to implement plans already visioned by the Civic Design Center. Gingrich focused on building something like Hub Nashville for communities to send in photos about what’s going on in their area. Brooks discussed engaging people with disabilities and the elderly population.
Following the question about community engagement, our new question stated:
Our organizations believe that the best way to feel safe in your neighborhood is to know your neighbors. In rapidly changing neighborhoods, sometimes there can be a tension between new neighbors and longtime residents. How will your administration create and activate community spaces that cultivate connection?
The candidates who were directed this question (Johnson, Wiltshire, O’Connell and Wilhoite) explained how they as a Mayor would connect with community members. While this is valuable insight, we were hoping to hear more about how they would help facilitate connections between community members to alleviate the tension in our rapidly growing city.
Reflecting on the Scenario RoundWhen speaking with the audience and the candidates following the program, we got great feedback about the Scenario Round where we presented community member issues. We quoted their survey responses, and then followed up with the question: How would your administration improve their quality of life? It was a dynamic round and it kept the candidates on their toes. Only a few of the candidates actually mentioned something specific that they would do. Instead many dug deeper on the issues demonstrating things the city “needs to do”, but not really getting to the root of how they would do it. See a summary of their responses below.
Resident of 52 years from 37210 says, “Lack of resting places at the bus stops [and] poorly kept sidewalks increase my risk of falling.”
Ms. Wilhoite explains she will bring “economic parity” to this zipcode.
A new resident in 37206 shares, “Construction in downtown and Germantown has made my route to work much more dangerous.”
Councilmember O’Connell will establish Office of Infrastructure and create a model of development services so we can monitor where all the projects are occurring and make sure the city is navigable.
Resident of 8 years from 37217 shares, “My local bus route, 77, runs infrequently (30-40 min at peak). The bus stops are located arbitrarily in ditches on East Thompson Lane, a road in Nashville's High Injury Network, providing no protection for people waiting for a bus. The walk to the bus stop is also arduous and requires walking on a 30 mph road with no shoulder and no sidewalk.”
Mr. Wiltshire says we need to make sure we have sidewalks to access transportation, retail opportunities, and for children to walk to school.
Resident of 39 years from 37220 shares, “Before and since the pandemic, there is increasing vehicle traffic on my commute, which is primarily along I-65N from just south of downtown. There are no transit options reasonably near me and no frequent or reliable transit service, in general. I would love to NOT have to drive in my car.”
Ms. Johnson, says she will use dedicated funding to provide what the community wants to see in their neighborhoods in terms of transit.
A resident of 37211 tells us, “I live in the Nolensville Rd. corridor. Apartments need to be built along that corridor for people who do not have transportation. I see people who have lived in the area a long time having to walk up the street to get groceries, etc. Fine for a young person, but not one who is aging.”
Ms. Brooks plans refocus on seniors and people with disabilities and to work with private developers and small businesses together to make sure 37211 is walkable and livable.
Resident of 32 years from 37013 says, “I reside with a family member because housing is no longer affordable for me.”
Mr. Gingrich talks about how we make it difficult to build the tens of thousand of units we need. In short, he plans to be creative to build more affordable housing more quickly.
Resident of 20 years in 37208 says, “There is absolutely too much traffic on any given day in Nashville but especially during peak commuting hours in the morning and evenings.”
Senator Campbell wants to look towards longterm plans for this issue. She says we could follow though on a study to move Radnor Yards to free up internal freight train routes for public transit.
Resident of 13 years from 37210 believes while their rent is affordable, they do not believe their neighborhood is desirable. They said, “It's disgusting how many apartments and houses that are being built with only short term rentals in mind. It's hurtful that we can't afford reasonably priced housing without going an hour or more out of the city.”
Senator Yarbro spoke to his history passing a bill to redirect tax that is paid from Short Term Rentals. He wants to preserve affordable housing, prevent displacement and unleash the private sector to build more affordable housing.
Resident of 30 years from 37212 says, “I have mobility issues and use a cane for walking. There are still many curbs not cut for those with mobility issues and many streets without proper sidewalks to begin with.”
Councilmember Hurt will get experienced engineers and the people experiencing the problem to get to the root of the issue. She says we have to be intentional about fixing the problems.
Getting to the Root of Planning Nashville
The Civic Design Center Team at the Forum [Photo by: Beth Gwinn]
We couldn’t get through a whole Mayoral Forum without talking about city planning and design! When asked about updating the zoning code in a lightning round question, all candidates agreed it needs to be updated. We hope that means, that will be a priority for all candidates.
Our next question was intended to push the candidates to think more deeply about city planning, specifically asking how their vision would come to life physically beyond basic city services. We asked the following question:
Beyond guaranteeing basic city services, like filling potholes and regular trash collection, in so many words, the Mayor is like the “Chief Urban Planner,” casting the vision for where the city is headed. If you were elected Mayor, what would Nashville physically look like in 8 years?
Hurt, Brooks, and Johnson focused on safety, inspiration and city beautification. Brooks specifically mentioned she would cut the grass along the highway. Campbell, Wiltshire, and Wilhoite focused on “cleaning up” the city. However, Wiltshire specifically said, he doesn't think the Mayor is the Chief Urban Planner, so he will direct that role to Metro Planning’s Lucy Kemp. Yarbro and Gingrich focused on preserving neighborhood distinction, but Yarbro focused most deeply on walkability.
O’Connell got very specific on how Nashville would look after 8 years. His Nashville will have community transit centers, Rosa Parks and Gallatin will look like 12th Ave S, rail crossings will be fixed, East Bank will be vibrant and connect East Nashville to Downtown, and more. He stated that he was “shovel-ready” for the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, and the administration will be tired from getting stuff done.
Thanks to the community for showing up!We were so grateful to the hundreds of people who attended in person as well as the growing number of people who have watched our live stream. Our team got great feedback that the Forum helped guide them to the candidate they plan to vote for, or that it at least helped narrow the playing field. We hope that after reading this, you got just as much out of it as the attendees in the room.
Don’t Forget the Important Dates:
July 5th: Last day to register to vote
July 14th-July 29th: Early Voting
August 3rd: Election Day
From left, Natisha Brooks, Jeff Yarbro, Sharon Hurt, Freddie O’Connell, Heidi Campbell, Matt Wiltshire, Stephanie Johnson, Vivian Wilhoite, Gary Gaston, and Lydia Lenker [Photo by: Beth Gwinn]
There is nothing we appreciate more than our community. We asked members in the survey to share their transformative ideas for Nashville and many people wrote essays about their visions for the city. We hope that the new Mayor will put these visions into reality. Each candidate has a copy of the amazing responses, however, we will continue to elevate those ideas through design visions and advocacy. Stay tuned.
Thank you to our moderator, Lydia Lenker, of McNeely Brockman and Partners. Thank you to all the candidates who have put their hearts and soul into this race, and best of luck to the Mayor elected to serve us this Fall.