Dear ,

The first meeting of our new Council is tomorrow night, and I plan to make this newsletter my primary way of letting you know what issues are coming up, and what I am working on. Please let your friends and neighbors know they can sign up at claycapp.com.

East Nashville Spokes Project

After receiving a federal grant and Council approval two years ago, NDOT has been working on redesigns for portions of Woodland, South 10th, and South 5th Streets. Their goal is to upgrade these streets across the board while preserving their neighborhood character, through big pedestrian improvements (expanded sidewalks and crosswalks), protected bike lanes, and significant street tree plantings.

NDOT will be presenting the designs, and seeking public feedback on them, at an open house it is hosting on 10/19, from 5:30-7pm at the East Park Community Center. Please come and help these streets be the best they can be!

Shelby Park Naval Reserve Building

As many of you know, Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms is proposing a plan to rehabilitate this old and disused, though beautiful and significant, building near the entrance to the park. I am a full supporter of this effort, which is about to start going through the legislative process. I will be at the Parks Board meeting tomorrow to help advance approval of the Term Sheet, a preliminary step. Please stay tuned for a community meeting on this subject, which I want to hold before I carry any proposal to the Council for consideration.

KVB Bridge will be closed from 10/5-10/10

Due to utility upgrade work, the bridge between Shelby Avenue and downtown will be closed from 7pm on Thursday 10/5 through 10/10. Knowing this can be a major inconvenience, I wanted to let everyone know. Please help spread the word!

Another win for Nashville’s charter against State overreach

After the State passed a law that purported to rewrite our Metro Charter’s provisions about demolition or renovation at the Fairground and Speedway, we challenged that law, and two weeks ago we won decisively at the trial court, which found that such actions by the State Legislature violate the State Constitution. This is another important victory for the integrity of our charter and for local self-government, but of course, the case is not finally over (it could be appealed) and the overall struggle between local self-government in Nashville and the State’s desire to control our city is far from over. You know what side of that struggle I stand on!

TN Legislature is planning to reject almost $2B per year in federal education funds

Relatedly, the State Legislature has begun an effort to reject the nearly two billion dollars that our federal taxes contribute every year to public education in Tennessee. Rejecting this money would mean that our federal tax dollars will simply go to supporting students and teachers in other states, when public schools in Tennessee are already underfunded in the first place! Federal education money supports school lunches, low-income students, and students with disabilities, among other important goals, but the Republicans in the State Legislature would rather try to evade the national non-discrimination requirements that go along with the federal funding. Defunding our schools by rejecting federal education support is a profoundly disturbing idea, and it is part of the State’s ongoing attack on public education.

We will need to organize to defeat this reactionary proposal. A good first step will be to contact your State representatives and let them know your views. Equally importantly: reach out to your friends and family who live in other parts of Tennessee and ask them to contact their State representatives about this. Everyone in the State Legislature needs to hear that we want more support for our children, not less!

As always, please reach out to me directly at [email protected] or 615-864-0008. You can also use Hub Nashville for an array of city services and other Metro requests. 

Hope to see you soon. Yours in service, Clay