NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — New Orleans is known for its lively nightlife. Nashville is often compared to it for that reason.
In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans, we wondered how Music City stays safe and locked down around the clock.
In recent years, Nashville created the Office of Nightlife. A focus is strengthening public safety. There are only approximately 15 cities in the country with a designated nightlife office.
Benton McDonough, the director at Metro-Nashville Mayor's Office of Nightlife, reached out to his counterparts in New Orleans when he learned someone intentionally rammed into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 10 and injuring at least 30 others.
"We're a tight-knit group," Benton McDonough said.
McDonough told me, in terms of physical security, the bollards bolted into the ground along Broadway protect people on the sidewalks. The metal, short, thick posts line the street starting at 1st Avenue all the way up to 5th Avenue. They wrap around Bridgestone Arena, and Fifth and Broadway.
According to Collier Engineering, which installed the barriers in 2015, one bollard can stop a 15,000-pound truck traveling 30 mph.
As it happens, Nashville is currently having conversations about installing barriers on Broadway that potentially stretch curb to curb.
"These would be retractable ones that you can withdraw into the ground, and put in place as you need it, but they would be more permanent," McDonough said.
Similar security barriers, which had been operational, were reportedly under repair in New Orleans at the time of the attack.
Cars are allowed on Broadway. However, during major events and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights Metro Police close several blocks to traffic. When the street closes, police park vehicles at either end of the pedestrian zone. For large events such as CMA Fest and the Fourth of July celebration, fire trucks, garbage trucks, and NDOT trucks are often stationed at the entrances to create a more impenetrable barrier.
"We could be vulnerable, but we want the citizens of Nashville and our visitors to know we're doing everything in our power to prevent something like this from happening here," McDonough said.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at hannah.mcdonald@newschannel5.com
This story by Aaron Cantrell reminds me of my first school in Dyersburg, TN. I was a student at Bruce School from Kindergarten to second grade until the school system was integrated. My parents graduated from this K-12 school in 1960 in one of the city's African American communities. After sitting empty for several years, part of the school was demolished while the rest was renovated and now serves as a community center for the Bruce community in Dyersburg. A local pastor is now trying to do something similar in the Cemetery community in Rutherford Co.
-Lelan Statom
