NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Alice Rolli and Freddie O'Connell are vying for your vote next Thursday in Nashville's mayoral runoff election. You may know where they stand on the big issues — but what else?
Where did they grow up, go to school and what path led them to public service and politics?
I asked both to meet for a more personal conversation and let them choose the location. Alice Rolli chose Fort Negley Park.
Why?
"Because in 2017 I read an article in the newspaper about the plan to put 27 buildings behind you on what was protected, historic parkland," Rolli told me. "This was preserved in 2006 by the Metro Historic Commission. This is our city's Ellis Island. This is where enslaved people transitioned to free people, and so we were about to sell off — through a 99-year lease — this parkland when we don't have enough urban parkland,” Rolli said.
"So I started a petition. I started it first thinking I'm going up against a popular mayor. I'm going up against the machine. Y'know, at first, we got 500 names signed up, and then we got a 1,000 and then 1,5000. Generationally, there are moments when you have to step up as citizens and say hang on we don't have enough parkland for how many citizens are coming. Why would we turn this into anything other than a park?" Rolli said.
That fight to save Fort Negley seemed natural for Rolli, a Nashville native who was raised in a hard-working family that stressed education and community service.
"I was born here,” she told me. “Yep, I got here the easy way, through Baptist hospital and then to Vanderbilt NICU. I was baptized when I was one day old because they probably thought I wasn't gonna make it and they sent me over to Vanderbilt NICU, and I made it!"
Rolli’s childhood was a mix of rural family life and urban education.
"Well, I grew up on Charlotte Pike in the same house my grandmother grew up in, and we grew up with an interstate in our backyard. I grew up in sort of one foot in the farm that my dad still lives in now, out on River Road, and one foot coming downtown to Hume Fogg."
Rolli said her interest in public service and politics came early on.
"Really, our family has always been involved in public life. So I've always grown up believing that if good people don't step up to run, that we end up with people that we sort of question why they're there,” she said.
Rolli graduated from Hume Fogg High School and decided to head west for college at Stanford University.
"My grandfather had gone to Purdue and he would always say well why don't you go to Purdue? He and my grandmother were cattle farmers, and I think their big fear was I might come back a vegetarian. I did not,” Rolli joked.
From Stanford, Rolli moved to Los Angeles. The city was recruiting teachers in a push to revive its public schools.
"Oh it was amazing. Yeah, the school I taught in was Birmingham High School. I taught ninth and tenth-grade English, and an English history class. Had about 120 kids. Coached the track team and cross-country,” she said.
From there, she moved to Washington, D.C. to take a job with newly elected Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee. It was there she met her husband — a doctor enlisted in the Army.
"As an Army wife, you get moved all around. Your life and your career don't always look like a normal career,” Rolli said.
The pair eventually returned to Nashville, where Rolli has been involved with a number of businesses. They're raising their two sons here.
So what do they think of their mom running for mayor?
"Well Lorenzo, who's my littlest one, in the spring he came home, a neighbor was dropping him off, and he said, 'Mom, I'm home.' And I said alright Lorenzo. And he said if you're the mayor, I'm gonna say, 'Mayor, I'm home! So he is like really excited about it,” Rolli said.
Balancing the busy campaign with family life has been important.
"We're trying to let them continue their sports and their life and not be consumed,” she told me.”
So when did Rolli make the decision to run for mayor of Nashville?
"It was as you started to see the sort of tribalism entering the city, right, where we were creating more challenges for people who lived here without leaders ready to work with people from both sides. And then it was when Mayor Cooper said he wasn't going to run for reelection,” she explained.
"I did have to quit my job. It is a little bit crazy to do this. But I think if you feel, as I did, I feel called to serve. And you can either say was I part of trying to build a better Nashville or was I watching it happen and didn't step up."
On Thursday, our sit-down conversation with Freddie O'Connell will air on NewsChannel 5, you can find the story here.
