Dear ,

This has been a tough week for everyone, but it has also been one of those weeks that make me remember why I ran for council in the first place, and why I love this neighborhood. As I have worked to get help and information where it was needed, I have been constantly impressed for the care you all have shown for each other. We are not quite 100% back to everyone having electricity yet, though we are getting there, and my priority remains pressing NES to restore every last person in the district. But, my great thanks to all of you who have acted as neighbors in this storm.

As we dig out, I want you to know that there will be a review and oversight process for NES, and what happened in this storm and its aftermath, and I will be weighing in to that. So please continue to inform me of your experiences so I can do that as best as I can.

For now the focus must remain on helping folks impacted by the storm. One important new source of support is a gift from the Titans to the Metro Action Commission for a fund to help folks who were not able to make rent due to the storm. This has been a huge impact, critical for many of our neighbors, so please make use of this fund and share it widely. You can see the details here.

Reminder: New Trash and Recycling Pick-Up Schedule for East, Starting Tomorrow!

With so much going on, just a quick reminder: Our trash and recycling goes out tonight (or tomorrow morning) for our new, Friday, pick up schedule! All of District 6 is now on the same pick up day for trash and recycling, which is just an amazing improvement over the garish patchwork of various contractors on various days in various alleys that we used to have. If there are hiccups on this first day of the new routes please let me know. The new Metro Waste Services team is eager and ready to get this right and I think it will be a huge improvement. We all have both Trash and Recycling tomorrow!

Note: If you alley is still blocked (as I know of a couple cases), the guidance from Waste Services is to put your carts out front and let me know your address where you did that so I can make sure they modify their pickup location—this is for this week only!

Also, there are still free bagged-trash drop off sites if you need them due to the storm, and the convenience centers remain free through the 7th.

Brush Pick-Up Update

NDOT is doing extra wood and brush pickup as part of their storm cleanup efforts. They will not be doing these pickups on any set schedule, but will do multiple sweeps across the county in the coming weeks. Please see graphic below for details.

Note: If you are not able to move brush to the curb yourself, please see the help available for that through Nashville VOAD, which is also doing much other excellent storm recovery work. My heartfelt thanks to those of you volunteering to help the recovery. Check them out!

The Old Scrapyard Site

As you all know, the scrapyard site by the river has sold, and discussions have begun about what the new zoning and design standards should be there. This site, though it is on our side of the river, is not in District 6, but it is important to me to get the East side voice into this conversation, the same way we have on other East Bank issues, because the potential change at this site is significant, and the impact will be felt here in East most of all.

An early step in that discussion is a community meeting being held by CM Kupin, whose district includes the site. It will be held this Monday, the 9th, at 5pm, at the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church (1203 9th Ave N, 37208). You can RSVP here. I will be there. This date of this meeting was only announced a day or so ago.

I really do not feel that it’s timely to be turning our attention to this when we still do not have 100% of power restored and people are still recovering from the storm. But the meeting is happening so I have to let you all know.

Another meeting about this coming up is the Planning Commission’s consideration of proposed design guidelines and rezoning for the site, which is scheduled for the Planning Commission meeting on February 12 (4pm at the Howard Office Building). You can see a draft of the public realm design framework here, and a proposal for design guidelines here. Given the past couple of weeks, I haven’t absorbed the details of the proposal either, and I want to make sure that everyone else has time to do that too. If you have concerns about this of this I’d encourage you to email the Planning Commission at [email protected]

Importantly, though, any and all of these proposals for design guidelines or rezoning will require Council approval, and that process has not yet begun, so I will make sure that there will be time to discuss all of this properly. Please stay tuned for that. I will continue to share about this proposal and look forward to hearing your thoughts as well.

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