Donelson, Growing And Feeling ‘Hip,’ Wants Mayoral Candidates To Pay Attention

Residents of Donelson have two opportunities this week to meet the candidates for Nashville mayor.  So we wanted to know what questions they might ask. 

A lot of people visit Donelson
 whether they’re flying out of the airport or taking in a show at the Grand Ole Opry
.  It’s a 1950s-era
 bedroom community with widely-spaced houses.  The neighborhood has seen double digit population growth over the last 15 years. 

Ginger Rose, who’s lived in Donelson
for half that time, says that translates into more cars and fewer places to walk.

“The school that my children attend is two blocks from our house but they can’t walk to school because we don’t have sidewalks and the roads are not safe and I find that to be very challenging,” said Rose. “Most of the schools in this area do not have sidewalks.” 

Those concerns are echoed by Frank Trew
, president of the neighborhood group known as “Hip Donelson”
.

“We want to see infrastructure expand — it’s very important. We want to see mass transit expand. It’s got to be able to take care of our growth,” he said. 

Trew also says the next mayor should know that Donelson is an “up-and-coming” neighborhood that he says represents the new “it” part of the city.

WPLN’s Tony Gonzalez contributed to this report.