Mayoral candidates Megan Barry and Jeremy Kane were among the panelists at Wednesday’s forum on walkability issues. Credit: Adams Carroll
The five declared candidates vying to succeed Mayor Karl Dean all say that making the city more walkable needs to be a priority. At a forum sponsored by the group Walk/Bike Nashville, the mayoral hopefuls bounced around ideas about expanding sidewalks, getting traffic to slow down and what needs to be accomplished to make the city a more friendly place for pedestrians and cyclists.
It marked the first time all five candidates appeared on a forum together, and it’s expected to be the first of dozens more to come ahead of Nashville voters electing a new city leader 10 months from now.
Megan Barry, who’s been a Metro Council member for seven years, had a leg up in the discussion, since it focused on city policy and design issues, topics regularly taken up by the Council.
She said, as mayor, she’d aim to for Nashville to land recognition in areas it has yet to garner much acclaim.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” Barry said. “We’re on that ‘it’ list for a lot of ‘it city’ reasons. But we are on the ‘not it’ list for walkability, bike safety and transit.”
Candidate Jeremy Kane said changing that will require a culture change. After all, we’re far from pedestrian-friendly California, he said.
“Nashville’s becoming less car-centric, less car-driven,” Kane said. “But again, we need to take the time and take those steps to build up that culture, to build up that safety.”
Tied directly into those themes is public transit. Candidate Charles Robert Bone said he appreciates the concerns many residents have with the Amp, Mayor Karl Dean’s proposed bus rapid transit project. To be sure, though, Bone expressed measured support for the project, at least compared to the other panelists.
“I think we have to get something started,” Bone said. “Each day we lose we’re getting further and further behind and beginning to limit our options about what mass transit and public transit looks like.”
Candidate Linda Rebrovick said she’s confident that Nashville’s future depends on the city’s ability to build a regional transit plan. But since the Amp is “not finished yet” it’s premature to comment on it, she said, citing ongoing community input. “But I am very much for a regional transit system that has a spine, that has a backbone, that has opportunities for everyone to get around Nashville.”
Like the rest, candidate David Fox said he’s an avid mass transit supporter, but some uneasy public perceptions loom over the Amp, he said.
“This was sort of sprung on people,” Fox said. “There was a feeling, maybe unfairly, that this was crammed down our throats. I don’t want to see that happen.”
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