Nashville’s confidence in its city leaders is wavering, poll finds

Nashvillians’ confidence in their mayor and Metro Council is dwindling.

That’s according to the latest Vanderbilt poll, which tracked how roughly 1,000 residents feel about the city’s direction.

Some of that lost trust can be attributed to Winter Storm Fern. The report says “the storm and its aftermath zapped the optimism that city residents have enjoyed for the past decade, and respondents also expressed more concerns about Nashville’s direction and leadership.”

Because the poll was conducted in the months following the storm, researchers say it’s likely that sentiment will rebound.

Still, the drop in confidence of city leaders is about more than just the storm. Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s approval ratings dropped by 13% — though only 9% of respondents blamed him for the storm response (the majority blamed the Nashville Electric Service or “Mother Nature”).

John Geer, co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll and political science professor, says that O’Connell’s approval ratings are still high for the current political climate.

“Along with the ice storm, the mayor over the last year has navigated polarizing issues from the state and federal governments, including immigration upheaval and economic uncertainty,” Geer said in a statement. “This drop is significant, but in today’s politics an approval rating of 54% is still a good sign for the mayor.”

Approval rating drops are not unique to O’Connell. For the first time in survey history, Nashville’s Metro Council faced a disapproving majority. Still, respondents said that O’Connell and the council better represent their views than state leadership.

The poll indicates that the waning confidence in city leadership could be because respondents felt leaders need to focus more on neighborhood improvements, instead of large-scale projects, as well as broad economic uncertainty in the region (82% of respondents said they cannot afford to buy a house in Davidson County).

There’s also opposition to bringing NASCAR to the Fairgrounds racetrack — only 26% were in favor of the move, while 36% said they would like to see the racetrack eliminated altogether. There is currently a movement to get a charter amendment on the ballot that asks voters to build affordable housing at the racetrack site.

The poll also inquired about the Boring Company’s airport-to-downtown tunnel project and 35% of respondents said they opposed tunnel construction. That opposition number jumped up to 51% when Boring Company owner Elon Musk’s name was included in the framing of the question.

“By a 2-to-1 margin, residents feel that recent changes in Nashville have not been good for the city — from traffic concerns to the pace of population growth,” Geer said. “At the same time, there’s demand for more local job creation. This points to deeper issues of affordability and the need for Nashville’s leadership to prioritize ways to ease the concerns of its residents.”

Storm ‘zaps’ optimism

For the first time, the Vanderbilt Poll asked respondents about their opinions of the Nashville Electric Service, which faced broad scrutiny for mass outages and fragmented communication in the aftermath of Winter Storm Fern.

Nearly two-thirds — 61% — said they disapproved of the utility, and the same amount were unhappy with NES’s handling of the storm response.

On an episode of ‘This Is Nashville’ this week — nearly two months after the storm touched down in Nashville — the mayor fielded questions from listeners about recovery efforts.

Some asked about remaining debris, while others inquired about costs incurred during hotel stays.

“During the ice storm, many of us had to get into a hotel room for extended periods,” said Pam, a listener from Forest Hills. “That was pricey enough. But then as we were checking out, we noticed all the occupancy taxes and all that kind of stuff that just felt like it was kind of adding salt to the wound. I know a lot of that is to put the burden on tourists to pay for the amenities here in Nashville. Wondering if there’s any consideration given to waiving that maybe on the state and local levels in the future or even reimbursing people?”

O’Connell responded that waiving occupancy taxes was unlikely, due to state regulation of most tax relief. However, he said he liked the idea and planned to float it to the General Assembly.

The mayor also pointed to the types of relief the city is providing, including the Winter Storm Recovery Fund, and an attempt to credit Metro Water customers for water dripped during the storm. A measure to credit Metro Water bills was deferred by the Metro Council earlier this month.