Mayor’s Aide Courtney Pogue on Frustrations, Priorities for Nashville Neighborhoods

Courtney Pogue

by Rod Williams, Dec. 20, 2021-  In an article in the Nashville Scene today, Stephen Elliott interviews Courtney Pogue, Mayor John Cooper’s director of economic and community development for about the last nine months  Pogue expresses his frustration about a lack of direction in city government and a tendency to focus on newsmaking economic development deals — like those with Oracle or Amazon — rather than the kind of work that can bring grocery stores or other vital businesses to underserved neighborhoods. 

 He says the city does not really have a community development strategy for the city. The city follows the lead of the Chamber and focuses on big deals but there has been no focus on small business development. 

I am not so sure, the city should even be steering development.  We should avoid overtaxing businesses so they will want to open or expand in Nashville, we should provide good police protection so businesses can safely function and provide quality education so we have a good workforce and the city should do the other things that constitute good governance and then essentially let the market determine who gets the grocery stores.

This is an interesting article.  I think it is rare to find someone who serves at the pleasure of the mayor be so blunt in what amounts to criticism of his boss. To read the article follow this link. 

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