Vanderbilt Poll: Nashvillians Less Optimistic About the City, Mayor O’Connell Approval Drops

• More Nashvillians (56 percent) think the city is on the wrong track than just a year ago (42 percent), which may reflect reactions to the recent ice storm, which affected 76 percent of the respondents.   
• Approval for Mayor Freddie O’Connell drops from 67 percent in 2025 to 54 percent in 2026, which also can be attributed, in part, to the impact of January’s ice storm. The same pattern holds for public’s approval of Metro Council.   
• The public’s approval of NES stands at 39 percent. 
• Nashvillians view affordable housing as their top and growing priority (73 percent), and they don’t think neighborhoods are being prioritized by the city (71 percent).  

“By a 2-to-1 margin, residents feel that recent changes in Nashville have not been good for the city—from traffic concerns to the pace of population growth,” 

... Nearly half (48 percent) said recent changes have made their day-to-day lives worse, compared with only 24 percent. 

A vast majority (71 percent) of residents surveyed believe the city government spends too little time addressing problems in neighborhoods generally.   who said they have made it better. 

A majority (79 percent) of residents believe Nashville’s population is growing too quickly—a pattern that has been true for more than five years. These numbers are congruent with “heavy traffic to and from downtown” emerging as the top reason (cited by 32 percent) that Nashville residents avoid the city’s center.  

...there is limited support for bringing NASCAR to the racetrack. Twenty-six percent are in favor of the move, but 36 percent call for eliminating the racetrack.  

For more on the Vanderbilt survey, follow this link. 

Top Stories