by Rod Williams, 6/14/2019 - Three of the four leading candidates for the non-partisan office of mayor of Nashville, took the stage at the Belcourt theater last night to participate in the Davidson County Democratic Party mayoral forum. The three participants allowed to participate were all white men; the other major candidate who is a Black Women was excluded. I spoke to the person in charge of the event who clarified that Carol Swain did not simply not participate, but was excluded.
About 500 people attended the event. The Belcourt has a seating capacity of 700 and not all seats were taken. The free event was listed as "sold out." Apparently a lot of people signed up for the event but did not attend. Often at events like this, those who attend are turned out and not people who just spontaneously attend. Clemmons had the most visible and loudest supporters at the event.
As events like these go, it was good. It was well-organized and there were no glitches. The format was that each candidate got three minutes to make opening statements and at the end, each candidate got three minutes to make a closing statement. A series of six questions were asked of the candidates and candidates were given three minutes to answer each questions. Three minutes allowed the candidate to give more detailed answers.
The questions were selected by a process of the question being submitted by the participating public to the Davidson County Democratic Party Facebook page, then a poll was created and the participating public voted on the questions to ask. The six questions getting the most votes was the questions included. There was no off-the-wall questions about the Green New Deal, how are you going to resist Trump, or how will you turn Nashville into a sanctuary city. The first five questions were questions that would have likely been asked even if Republican would have participated in drafting the questions. Only, the last question, about how will you make Nashville a greener city was one that I would categorize as not a mainstream concern. The other questions were about affordable housing, traffic, Nashville's debt, and funding for public education.
The full video of the forum is available at this link, so I am not going to attempt to summarize who said what. I encourage readers to watch the video. Of the three participants, I was least impressed with Ray Clemmons. He did not have detailed answers and seemed to display what I thought of as phony passion. Maybe it is just me, but he seemed to be posturing and pontificating. I also think he was trying to position himself to the left of David Briley, which is hard to do.
On the question of affordable housing, Clemmons was critical of the efforts being made and said it was not near enough and we need to put $50 million a year into the Barmes Fund and he said no neighborhood should be off limits to anyone. That may appeal to liberal sensibilities but it is illogical. If you build affordable housing in the most expensive parts of town, the cost of land is going to mean you don't build very many units.
David Briley scored a point with me when answering the affordable housing question. Part of the question asked what you would do to keep the elderly from being forced out of their homes by rising housing cost. Briley said that increased property tax was a factor in housing affordability and that was a reason to hold the line on taxes. Often it seems politician ignore this fact. Briley scored another point responding to the traffic question when he pointed out that some of the bus riders are being subsidized up to $40 per trip. He said having buses cover more territory with more bus routes was not a solution. Of course, I wish candidates would embrace markets, technology and innovation but an admission that subsidizing bus rides up to $40 per trip is not wise policy is a start toward rethinking transportation. For those who attended First Tuesday last week and saw Mayor Briley speak, he gave no different answers to a room full of Democrats than he did to a room full of Republicans.
On the environmental question about a greener Nashville, candidates covered a lot a ground. Candidates said due to global warming, we can expect more frequent flooding. I found it interesting that not a one of the candidates mentioned building the flood wall that was once a city priority. I guess that idea is finally dead. I am pleased it is but kind of surprised that it is not being advocated by a candidate trying to tap into environmental angst and passions.
John Cooper came across as informed and gave good answers. On the question of the city's debt, Cooper said that the city has a debt of $6,000 per man, women, and child in Davidson County. On this question, I think he showed the greater mastery of the issue. If I knew nothing about the candidates other than what I observed at this forum, I would have to give Briley a slight edge and Cooper a close second and Clemmons a distant third.
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