Voters can shape Nashville's future
With 15 Metro Council seats guaranteed to change hands and with competitions brewing for 20 others, Nashville voters will have a lot to say about the city’s direction this summer.
On the table is the future of a city trying to balance big-time ambitions — sports hub, entertainment capital, tourist magnet, destination for the young and creative — against financial constraints.
“It’s going to be a choice between a Nashville that’s moving forward and a Nashville that’s being held back,” said Brady Banks, 32, a candidate for an open council seat in southeast Davidson County. “It should be a spirited campaign.”
More than 110 candidates formally qualified to run for mayor, vice mayor and the 40 council seats by Thursday’s deadline, which ended a three-month qualifying period. Each candidate has until noon Thursday to withdraw from the Aug. 4 ballot.
Thirteen council members will be leaving office because of term limits, and two more decided not to run for re-election. Just five of the 25 remaining incumbents — Phil Claiborne, Emily Evans, Walter Hunt, Edith Taylor Langster and Carter Todd — appear to be running unopposed.
Mayor Karl Dean will seek a second term over opposition from term-limited Councilman Michael Craddock and three political unknowns: Marvin Barnes, Bruce Casper and James Keeton. Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, who presides over the council but votes only to break ties, will have one challenger, James Baxter, who ran unsuccessfully for Davidson County Criminal Court clerk a year ago.
Businesses are watching
Ralph Schulz, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the business community will be scrutinizing candidates’ views on job creation, education reform and mass transit.
“There is an expectation that council people are going to have a vision about how to move the city forward and grow the city, especially coming out of a recession,” Schulz said. “There’s going to be opportunity out there, and council people can be seen as embracing it or restraining it.”
Hunt, who represents District 3 in northern Davidson County, said he wants to keep the city “moving forward.” But he also wants to slow Nashville’s public building boom, which yielded LP Field and Bridgestone Arena in the late 1990s and now has the $585 million Music City Center under construction.
“Those new venues help the city,” he said. “Having said that, I think we’ve done enough. We need to put the brakes on.”
Hunt said he could support a new baseball stadium for the Nashville Sounds, which Dean is expected to propose at an undetermined site if he wins a second term. But the ballpark should be built “basically with private money,” the councilman said.
Dean also has been exploring the possibility of building a downtown amphitheater to help the city attract some of the midlevel touring acts it started losing after Starwood Amphitheatre in Antioch closed four years ago. His efforts to redevelop the state fairgrounds, however, have been stymied, and the August ballot could include a referendum on permanently keeping the fair, racing and other activities at the fairgrounds.
At-large field busy
Curt Wallen, a candidate for the District 19 seat, which will represent downtown under the redistricting plan approved earlier this year, said he wants to find a way to make commercial and residential interests coexist in harmony in the city’s core.
“How do you create a great living environment while at the same time maintaining a great working environment?” Wallen said. “It’s a challenge, to say the least. But that’s what I love about it.”
The race for the five at-large council positions, which are elected countywide rather than by districts, drew 17 candidates, including the five incumbents: Megan Barry, Tim Garrett, Jerry Maynard, Ronnie Steine and Charlie Tygard. Three council members who are term-limited in their districts, Sam Coleman, Eric Crafton and Vivian Wilhoite, also are running for at-large seats, along with nine lesser-known hopefuls.
Tygard said the big issues will be attracting growth and development and making progress in education.
“Nashville’s headed in the right direction,” he said. “Obviously there are some financial issues to tackle as long as this economy stays the way it is.”
Karen Bennett, who is running for re-election in District 8 against two opponents, said voters are looking for “positive growth” and improvements to “the little things” that can make life in the city more enjoyable, such as sidewalks.
“I’m a local Madison girl,” Bennett said. “I’m from here, and I’m still here. I remember the old days, and I want to see a future that’s even brighter than what it has been.”
Aug. 4 election
More than 110 candidates qualified for Metro seats.
13 incumbent Metro Council members are term-limited.
17 candidates are seeking five at-large council seats.
35 council races are contested.
