Do you think Nashville is going in the wrong direction? Mayoral answers vary

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Is Nashville going in the wrong direction?

An annual Vanderbilt University poll found that Nashvillians surveyed said the city wasn't heading down the right path.

We asked Nashville's mayoral candidates. Do they believe that, too?

NewsChannel 5 sent every person running for mayor a questionnaire with the same questions. We have not edited these answers from the candidates, meaning these responses are straight from them.

Natisha Brooks

“A Good Learner Is A Good Listener” - To move Nashville in the right direction, place issues that affect people’s MONEY On the BALLOT! Increasing property taxes, the Titan Stadium Deal and PAID PARKING Should be a conversation between the Mayor and the Citizens/Voters. As Mayor, Natisha will be committed to meeting with community leaders, home owners associations, chambers, teachers and first responders to keep an understanding the needs of Nashville/Davidson County Residents.

Fran Bush

I would foster an environment that attracts diverse industries, encourages entrepreneurship, and promotes job growth. Invest in infrastructure, affordable housing, and workforce development programs to support a thriving economy and ensure equitable access to opportunities for all residents. Prioritize education by working closely with local school systems to improve educational outcomes, expand access to quality early childhood education, and enhance vocational training programs.

Collaborate with businesses and higher education institutions to align curriculum with workforce needs and create pathways to employment for residents. Invest in public transit options, improve infrastructure, and promote alternative transportation modes to reduce traffic congestion and enhance mobility for residents and visitors. By implementing these strategies and actively working towards the betterment of the city, Nashville can regain its momentum and move in a direction that reflects the aspirations and values of its diverse population.

Heidi Campbell

I frequently ask the question, “Are we building a city to visit or a city to live in?” But this isn’t just a campaign tagline, it’s reflective of why so many Nashvillians believe our great city is moving in the wrong direction. Many of our residents feel that big businesses and out-of-town developers are getting priority over everyday people who have lived here their entire lives.

And with some of the deals Metro Nashville has offered — take the Omni Hotel, for example —it isn’t hard to see why. Moving forward, we need to make sure that we put Nashvillians first. How? By building more affordable housing, erasing the iniquities in our education system, expanding multimodal transit, rebuilding trust between law enforcement officers and the community, ensuring reliable garbage pickup, and more. We need to build a city that we can live in and a city that works for all of us–no matter who we are or what we believe. That’s what I’ll do as your mayor.

Bernie Cox

I’ve come to cherish Nashville’s roots as Music City, the Country Music Capital of the World. However, I see that image in jeopardy of being permanently tarnished by a flurry of mismanagement.

For instance, the fastest-growing investment market in the country is in jeopardy of diluting our Music City culture and unique downtown architectural atmosphere. I will re-focus city development on those projects that enhance our heritage, protecting the tourism industry, and all while operating within our revenue streams. No doubt, the most positive characteristic of Nashville is our charm. Our historic architecture that is brick and mortar, artsy streets and downtown neighborhoods make us what we have been most famously known for around the world.

Jim Gingrich

Nearly twice as many Nashvillians believe our city is headed in the wrong direction than the right direction. This cannot be taken lightly. 

In the 2015 election, the candidates for mayor were discussing the same issues we’re discussing now. We all know the challenges -- affordability, crime, traffic, schools, infrastructure. Our city leadership has kicked the can on these issues for years. And rather than deal with these critical challenges, our politicians and insiders just spent the past year providing a billionaire with the largest ever public subsidy for a new stadium. The current right/wrong direction metric should not be surprising.

We have a choice in this election: do we continue on the path we are on, or do we elect a leader that will finally begin to deal with the challenges that our growth as a city has created: affordability, infrastructure, educating our kids, crime, and more. 

Let’s end politics as usual. As Mayor, I will put the people of Nashville first.

Sharon Hurt

Nashville is growing. This growth was supposed to remove the decline we find in some parts of Nashville. But the growth has instead only benefited some parts of the city while leaving other blocks forgotten or even more difficult to live on. I believe we can get Nashville on the right track by ensuring Nashville’s growth reaches every hand on every block in every community. That doesn’t mean stopping our growth. Rather, it means being more intentional about our growth.

Freddie O'Connell

The quickest way for Nashville to get back on the right track is for the mayor to invest in a Nashville for Nashvillians rather than continuing to invest in expensive toys for tourists. For instance, we are the last major American city that lacks a meaningful transit system, and people notice this. Too many of our neighborhoods lack sidewalks, and people notice this. I will be working to ensure that Metro is one of the top customer service organizations in the city.

Nashville used to feel like a small town where we knew our neighbors, said hello to strangers, and all lent a helping hand to whoever needed one. We loved our local businesses and farms instead of focusing on attracting major chains and developments. We celebrated — not criminalized — diversity. It is those qualities that made us a destination. That feeling of warmth and neighborliness has been degraded by visitors taking advantage of our southern hospitality, treating our home like it’s a hotel room they can trash.

With the state too often acting hostile to people and performers that we love, they have emboldened those with hate in their hearts to act in horrifying ways. I want to be a leader that loves this city to the point where the residents know this and feel it. They’ll trust their local government to take on the daily issues we face and improve the long-term trajectory of our town, and we’ll all remember why we love Nashville.

Alice Rolli

Nashvillians see that they are paying a lot more for city services and getting less — we have more than 100 homicides a year, emergency call times are longer and we are rated 95 out of 95 counties for our schools. To get Nashville on the right track requires injecting accountability of our government to our taxpayers.

This means bringing Alice Rolli’s perspective — she is less concerned with defending the way that things have always been done — and more concerned with getting results for our citizens so that when you call 911 an officer comes, so that you can expect to be able to secure a seat in a high-quality tax-payer funded school for your kids, and that you can make ends meet because your taxes aren’t continually going up.

Matt Wiltshire

I believe Nashville is a city of virtually unlimited potential, but right now it’s not working well for the people who live here. When I looked around the city a year ago I saw the big challenges of affordable housing, traffic and transit, underperforming public schools. But I also saw the everyday challenges we were facing — trash wasn’t getting picked up on time and potholes were not being filled. I believe we need to get back to the basics and show people we can make the government work well.

With the right vision and focused leadership, Nashville should have the best public schools in America, be the safest major city in the country, and be an affordable place to live and raise a family.

Vivian Wilhoite

There are many cities and communities that are genuinely going in the wrong direction, but I don’t think Nashville’s one of them. Most cities in the nation would gladly trade places with Nashville, because our problems largely arise from a growing economy, increasing population, and rapid development. And most of us in Nashville love this city enough that we wouldn’t want to live elsewhere.

But it’s easy to see for any longtime resident that the growth is getting away from us — it makes folks worry we won’t be able to recognize the city we’re becoming. We know other cities manage to construct buildings without closing roads and sidewalks, and we believe Nashville should be able to do that too. The answer isn’t to slam on the brakes, because real leadership isn’t about stopping the future but shaping it. As a city, we have to recommit to ensuring that we grow in a way that’s smart, sustainable, and equitable — and insist upon development that enhances rather than detracts from our quality of life.

Jeff Yarbro

We can get back on the right track by ending the petty politics that is happening between the city and the state and ensuring that we have economic parity in our city for neighborhoods in the same tax districts. For too long Nashville has been strong for some people, but not everyone. We must ensure that we have investments in all parts of our city. We must have strong businesses and strong neighborhoods. We will begin investing in the vision of affordable housing, public safety, fulling funding education, continue to pay metro employees competitively while remaining transparent in the process.