Driving through Nashville’s East Bank area, just across the river from downtown, can feel like a maze and a mess. There’s sprawling parking lots for Nissan Stadium, smoke in the air from a scrapyard incinerator and little in the form of pedestrian amenities.
It can be hard to imagine a thriving neighborhood with green space, a transit hub and bike lanes. But that’s what the mayor’s office and the city planning department hope to create. They outlined the big ideas of the Imagine East Bank vision plan last month.
Transit advocates hope Metro makes the most of it.
“We’ve got a big chunk of downtown that we get to build from the ground up … what other city has had that in the center of their downtown?” says Jessica Dauphin, president of the Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee.
But they also worry that — despite the imaginative renderings of new parks and boulevards — the current plan doesn’t go far enough where transportation is concerned.
“We were told this would be a vision for something new, for something better,” says Wesley Smith, policy and government relations manager with Walk Bike Nashville and a lifelong Nashvillian, “and as I look at it, it looks no different from a [West End Avenue] in Midtown.”
He says this iteration of the vision seems to consider cycling primarily as a recreational activity, and doesn’t do enough to encourage bike commuting. The proposed main boulevard, for example, doesn’t have a bike lane — a point emphasized in the group’s recent analysis of the plan.
Smith says that if there can’t be a bike lane on the main boulevard, he’d like to see one of the parallel streets reserved exclusively for bikes and pedestrians.
“That doesn’t have to be a bad thing for developers or a bad thing for business owners,” he says. “We know that the more pedestrian and bike friendly a street is, often the more economically productive and vibrant that street is.”
A new flow
Another part of the plan is overhauling the street grid surrounding Nissan Stadium. Instead of the current tangle, planners envision three parallel neighborhood roads running north to south. With bike lanes, housing, shops and restaurants, these new streets would be the backbone of the new East Bank, and offer better connections between existing neighborhoods.
The city also hopes this plan will benefit people by creating an alternate route to move through the city and avoid downtown congestion — including for WeGo buses that would potentially flow through a new transit station.
“Very often the shortest distance between two areas in Nashville … is through the downtown core,” says Steve Bland, WeGo’s chief executive officer. “Being able to bypass all that is really attractive and can help drive service reliability.”
WeGo is also eyeing another first: the chance to give buses their very own lane — at least in the East Bank area — to make them less subject to the whims of traffic and help them stay on time.
Another aspect of the plan would try to reduce traffic on Interstate 24 on the east side of the city. Planners hope to do that by streamlining its exits and by possibly adding a new bridge over the Cumberland River to connect the East Bank and South Nashville.
Unmet needs
For many Nashvillians, the urban core remains at the center of their lives. It’s where they work, where many people live and where they like to go out on weekends. So even as real estate costs have pushed many people into neighboring counties, regional transit options remain important, says Dauphin.
Her organization represents people in ten counties in Middle Tennessee. She says those she represents worry the plan in its current version would have little impact on their lives.
“If I hop on a bus from Murfreesboro, Williamson County or Sumner County up north, I am still going to be sitting in the same traffic jams I am today,” she said.
And because WeGo does not have a dedicated funding stream of its own, Dauphin fears the shiny new East Bank project could siphon money from other the city’s other urgent transit priorities.
“Half of our residents are paying over 45% of their household income for housing and transportation. We also know transit can offset that cost because transit is a percentage of what it costs to own your own vehicle.”
Jackie Sims, executive director of the People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment, hopes this plan will focus on those who need transit most.
“First priority must be the people who are transit dependent, and as much as possible wherever the transit corridors are, there needs to be affordable housing.”
Sims was glad to see affordable housing included in the vision plan and hopes it stays a priority as the plan moves forward. She also called for WeGo to offer around-the-clock service for riders working late-night or early morning shifts.
The plan also proposes a bikeshare program to be based in the East Bank, and suggests that will be particularly useful for low-income Nashvillians who may not be able to afford their own bicycle, let alone a car.
Sims says that could be true for younger people but would make little difference for older residents or those with disabilities.
“You’re not going to catch me riding a bike around the city,” she said with a laugh. “I would get on a motorcycle or possibly even a scooter.”
At least on one point, the mayor and transit advocates agree: The vision plan is a jumping off point. And there’s still time for more ideas to be incorporated. To that end, Metro has been hosting feedback sessions and has several more scheduled. You can see details online at the East Bank Planning Study website.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM