In the waning days of this summer’s election, the two candidates for mayor stuck to their issues last night in a forum sponsored by Tennessee State University. The questions from a panel of civic leaders touched on issues ranging from controlling Nashville’s growth to funding for Nashville General Hospital.
Without being asked, both candidates said they want to increase minority business participation in government contracting. Bob Clement slid his comment in on a question about the environment and Karl Dean did the same on a question regarding using the ‘Athens of the South’ image for the city.
Beyond contracting, T-S-U president Melvin Johnson says, he wanted to hear about more development in the historically African American university areas.
“The issues dealing with the neighborhoods surrounding the TSU campus and Meharry and Fisk. We’ve got a great corridor, but it doesn’t connect to other parts of the city. So I would have liked to have seen questions related to a transportation connector. How do we get to west end? How do we get our students and all of the universities in our city.”
At this forum, both candidates refrained from criticizing each other. Early voting ends tomorrow for the September 11th election.
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