font-style: italic; I see it as part of my role as mayor to convene and connect community resources to the schools so that students receive the support needed to succeed in an intentional and systematic way. In a previous era, TIF was used to help bring Kroger to Monroe Street in North Nashville. We know where the problems in our neighborhoods are; Nashville needs a mayor who will address them. padding-left: 0; Instead of listening to these criticisms and developing a new plan, Mayor Briley has announced that if he is reelected there will be no plan in the next four years. Born in Nashville and raised in Shelbyville, John served as an At-Large Member of Metro Council from 2015 to 2019. Ballot access for candidates | It’s time for a different approach. Events in Nashville, Tennessee, began on Saturday, May 30, 2020, downtown and at Capitol Hill. color: white; Rather, this self-replenishing fund will be an investment that can generate returns and have a multiplier effect on housing creation. I want to hear your feedback and your ideas. } It’s located across from what will be the amazing new federal courthouse and what will be a glamorous part of town. Here is what I said at the time: “My concern is that Nashville gets the fair value of the assets that it owns. .mw-body #mw-content-text .votebox .race_header h5.votebox-header-election-type { 3. Parks positively inform the character of our neighborhoods, and provide the opportunity for all to gather in shared public space. Furthermore, Mayor Briley’s staff retaliated against a member of the press by removing him from their press communications list. I will start by listening to the residents of this city. Bring real expertise to housing policy. Election governance | Building the stadium itself should have been enough of an incentive for a soccer team. Building safer crosswalks and making strategic sidewalk connections should be prioritized in our city budget. display: block; I have spent my career in finance, real estate development, and project management. We should not have included a bonus of ten acres at the Fairgrounds beyond the incentive of the stadium. font-weight: bold; Mayor Briley’s current budget proposal amazingly does not include any new funds for the Barnes Fund, certainly not $5 million a year. Today, it is a UNESCO ‘Site of Memory.’ Yet instead of protecting other parks and public spaces, Mayor Briley has continued to attempt to sell them off. Mayor Briley’s plan would allocate an additional $350 million to the agency over ten years. Build a department that reflects the community it serves. By 2025, Nashville is projected to have a shortfall of 31,000 housing units for low-income residents. .results_text { padding-bottom: 8px; MDHA is one of Metro’s least transparent agencies, and not always in alignment with our needs today. The Mayor of Nashville needs to be a financial manager with experience in long-term capital planning, and that why I am the right Mayor for Nashville right now. .image-candidate-thumbnail-wrapper { I was the first candidate for mayor to endorse it. As Nashville grows, developers are building more apartments and more houses. As your mayor, I will make sure that the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Community Development emphasizes that community development mission, and not just growth at any cost. background-color: green; In effect, we are giving away a piece of land for $1.5 million net.” Metro needs to begin doing business with the taxpayer in mind. Yet our police department is understaffed by more than 130 positions. width: 50px; Send me your thoughts. } [13] Floyd died after Derek Chauvin, a white officer, arrived at the scene and pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck as Floyd laid face-down on the street in handcuffs. Public investments have created a booming downtown, but growth has also brought challenges. I have always prioritized green space in my real estate development work because I know how critical it is for community health and future generations. display: block; padding-left: 0; It costs the city approximately $75,000 to recruit and train each new officer. Nashville can’t wait another five years for solutions to our traffic and transportation problems. Cities across the country have recognized that parks are about more than green space. Healthcare | That didn’t happen when major league soccer came to Nashville. vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid #999; It has given millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to developers who don’t need them and has ignored our schools, our traffic, and our affordable housing crisis. Gov. } I was against the attempted sale of Trinity Ridge, 11 acres of hilltop, creeks, springs and historic stone walls adjacent to existing banked land for Metro Parks that the administration tried to sell this year. Police and Public Safety: Metro has 1,900 miles of streets without sidewalks, and the WalkNBike plan identified 91 miles of high priority streets. John C Cooper, 44. Mayor John Cooper today announced he’ll engage 21 housing experts in his mission to create better and more affordable housing for Nashville. .mw-body #mw-content-text th.votebox-results-cell--text { We need to reign in deficit spending because it hampers our ability to pay for essential services. Instead of coming back with a more responsible plan, Mayor Briley has said that if he is reelected, he will not bring another plan before voters in the next four years. font-size: 12px; Time spent in traffic is increasing. Strengthen community policing. Cooper announced later in the day that he tested negative for the virus, but said he would continue his quarantine. The following is a transcript of an interview with Nashville Mayor John Cooper that aired Sunday, December 27, 2020, on "Face the Nation." In addition to closely monitoring crime statistics, my administration will reinstitute the practice of conducting an annual survey to measure public levels of trust in the police. The Let’s Move Nashville plan was built with too little consultation with residents and neighborhoods. Energy | Here are some highlights on each topic relating to focusing on neighborhoods. Metro gave Opryland Hotel an estimated $14 million incentive package to build a private waterpark in 2017. Twenty-three pedestrians were killed in Nashville in each of the past two years. margin-bottom:16px; .widget-row.value-only.black { House of Representatives | .race_header.democratic { Our issued and obligated debt per capita has almost doubled since 2015, even accounting for our population growth. Claiming credit for future funding. if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; Tennessee elections in 2021 | The number of schools in the bottom five percent statewide has increased to 21. Expand parks programming and invest in our youth. Only 12.9% of Davidson County households live within a ½ mile of high-frequency bus service at rush hour. We have an inadequate and under-resourced bus system. width: 100% John Cooper in Nashville, TN 54 results - John Cooper may also have lived outside of Nashville, such as Knoxville, Brentwood and 2 other cities in Tennessee. text-align: center; The city has had a string of valuable assets downtown — jewels in our crown — and each has been sold for too little. A Democrat, he served as a councilman at-large on the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County from 2015 until 2019. But how are Nashville’s residents doing? It’s time to support our teachers and first responders. display: block; background-color: #db0000; The arrangement froze property taxes for the Ryman facility. } But it’s not enough. I am a supporter of collective impact programs like Community Achieves, which has brought community partners into 22 MNPS schools to focus on improving family engagement, college and career readiness, health, and social services. Use Economic Incentives to Increase Quality of Life. As a council member, I created the Blue Ribbon Commission to identify $20 million in savings for Metro Government. The previous administration proposed handing over 21 acres of Fort Negley Park to private developers in exchange for $1 million over 10 years, plus infrastructure improvements. It is time for smart solutions for traffic and affordable housing. background: #4c4c4c; Nashville needs to address these problems. } } It is also failing the men and women who serve us. overflow: hidden; I plan to create a public safety subcabinet that brings together representatives for MNPD, Sheriff, District Attorney, Public Defender, the Division of Youth Services, probation and parole, as well as representatives of nonprofit and faith-based groups, to identify problems and solutions. It is clear that access to affordable housing is a concern across the city, as is transportation, public safety, and education. I will demand that district leadership and school board are aligned and focused on improving student outcomes, will set measurable and achievable goals for improvement, and will hold accountable to the goals that we set. Their presence in a neighborhood promotes residents’ health and well-being by cooling urban “heat islands,”providing places for recreation and exercise, improving air quality, and helping to prevent flooding. No one in the mayor’s race understands the real estate development and financing market better than I do. Trust between police and the people they protect and serve is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our justice system, and the effectiveness of our police department. I will be especially focused on reducing equity gaps in student outcomes. } Federal courts | That will allow us to preserve existing units. Other cities have found new funding sources by creating citywide park improvement districts and by creating business improvement districts around parks, identifying sponsorship opportunities, and developing more robust public-private partnerships to support our parks. Community-wide cooperation. border-bottom: 1px solid grey; background-color: #ccc; overflow-y: hidden; Just four of them. } Source. I am encouraged by efforts like the Nashville Connector Transportation Demand Management (TDM), which encourages downtown workers to find transportation alternatives to driving. Cooper won in the general runoff election on September 12, 2019. Cooper completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The Thompson Hotel received $4 million of TIF in 2015. .non_result_row div { Elected officials need to understand public perception of safety and policing. height: 22px; I will conduct performance audits of metro departments and agencies to increase transparency of how our tax dollars are being spent and identify areas for improvement. Payments on our rising debt have limited the investments that can be made in education and affordable housing. Instead of improving bus service, the mayor’s budget cuts services. In 2018, budget issues were kept quiet until the last minute, presumably to boost the chances of the transit referendum passing. As mayor, I am committed to finding mechanisms to not simply provide one-time raises for teachers but also finding a longer-term, sustainable vision for teacher salaries that provide the opportunity for more growth over time. We need to bring real expertise to housing policy and get it out from under the political purview of the Mayor’s Office. } The 62.5% property tax abatement was worth $2.28 million to Omni last year alone. It was driven by a desire to go as big as possible, not a realistic assessment of our needs. As we grow, we need to make sure that Nashville remains a livable city. jQuery(item).html("Scroll for more "); .inner_percentage.Libertarian { The first events took place in Minneapolis-St. Paul on May 26. } else { margin-bottom:0px; We need to conduct performance audits of Metro departments and agencies to increase the transparency of how tax dollars are spent and identify areas for improvement. It isn’t enough to be the fastest improving urban district if there are students who are left behind. Thank you, Nashville! Together, let’s build a Nashville that works for everyone. But rejecting a bad plan is no reason not to present a good one. .votebox_legend { A neighborhood like the Nations is already well into its boom, but lagging stormwater and sidewalk infrastructure are limiting the area. The number one thing I have heard on the campaign is the desire for the tourism space to cover its own costs and not impose them on the resident taxpayer. line-height: 1.5em; Congressional delegation | Due to generations of underinvestment in certain neighborhoods, low-income students and students of color are frequently left behind in our current system; in some neighborhoods, students move from a low-performing elementary school to a low-performing middle-school and into a low-performing high school. Given the environmental, health, and economic benefits of parks, we should view parks as part of the solution to issues facing our city. State executives | width: 100% !important; Nashville looks inexpensive to those relocating from the coasts, but we are becoming increasingly unaffordable for those who have been here. I encourage you to read my full policy statements for any topics that interest you so you can get a sense of my priorities and how I think. color: white; Basic needs need to be met in order for students to meet their full potential. And for the difficulties of the job, police need need full access to mental health resources. I will work with journalists, free press experts, and government agencies to review Metro’s current open records practices, to make sure that the public’s work is being done in a lawful, transparent, and public way. .race_header { John Cooper, Mayor. I know how to manage large, complex projects. Address our recruitment and retention problems. This agreement was in addition to the Amazon incentives. margin-right: 12px; The last chapter of Nashville’s economic development story was focused on downtown development and tourism. } font-weight: bold; As a former banker and a long-time businessman, I’ll do the math to make sure developments benefit taxpayers. let scrollHeight = jQuery('.results_table_container').get(index).scrollHeight; Our total issued and obligated general obligation debt is now about $4.5 billion. Last year, Mayor Briley supported a transit plan that cost too much and delivered too little. I want our parks to play central and valued roles in helping Nashville continue to be and become more of the city we want it to be. The mayor’s plan envisions increasing the city’s contribution by $5 million a year. That requires investments in infrastructure — in roads, traffic lights, sidewalks and crosswalks and in public transportation that residents use. Not everyone is benefiting from Nashville’s boom. John is honored to serve as Nashville’s next mayor and is focusing on his transition to office. } The existing network needs to be maintained and expanded. As your mayor, my door will be open. But I am also committed to helping the city do better. text-align: center; We’ve created a lot of growth but the growth has increased rents and priced people out of their neighborhoods. top: 0px; .results_row td:first-child { color: #0645ad; Mayor John Cooper's new $475 million Nashville capital-spending plan contains a record investment in schools, including a long-awaited new … It also provides over 1200 programs a week across the city, including sports, special events, arts, fitness, nature, and history activities. background-color: #f4f4f4; I believe that Nashvillians are ready to address this problem. As Mayor, I will ask Metro’s Planning Commission to work with each Metro Council member to create a description of what affordable housing would best fit within their community and how affordable housing can support and enhance the quality of life for residents. padding-left: 10px; Neighborhoods are a cornerstone of each of my policy discussion pieces. Over half of teachers are leaving the district within their first three years of teaching. Juvenile Courts | The MDHA has long insisted that it has sufficient funding to carry out its Envision projects, without additional funding from the city. This is clearly an extremely valuable piece of property, and we need to get the fair value of it for taxpayers. As mayor, I will support current school leadership and help the school board recruit a great candidate for Director of Schools. While many residents are within only a few miles of our bustling downtown, they have not been able to benefit from the city’s growth. Only 37 percent of Nashvillians live within a 10-minute walk of a park — this is less than half the percentage of a typical major U.S. city. Yet Metro hasn’t kept pace with the need for sidewalks. We need to come together to address these challenges. If, in the future, we move to use a regressive funding mechanism for a transportation plan, we need to be hyper-vigilant that improvements are distributed equitably across the county. [16] An event in Chicago organized by Chance the Rapper and Rev. We have to provide the resources and support for a great school system, provide adequate funding for our emergency services workers, and make sure that the costs of growth are not falling upon our citizens who need our help the most. This is with the assumption that there will be no new capital spending in the years ahead. In the process, I’ve learned a lot about how this city is being run. The Barnes Fund needs a dependable source of funding and I will work with the community to create one. Only a mayor can turn the page and usher in an era of good management. This can be effective when used fairly and in a targeted fashion, but the use of traffic stops to try to disrupt crime grew too much over time. Our greatest challenge is going to be how we make that growth work to the benefit of all of our citizens and all of our neighborhoods. It is time for that to change. We need a planning process that seeks community input as the foundation for our transportation plan, so that the final product is a plan that voters support. Before we can talk about neighborhoods, we must deal with housing. I recognize that not every resident or visitor to Nashville will use the bus as their primary mode of transportation moving forward. } At the same time, Mayor Briley was patching a budget hole with ill-advised one-time property sales, his administration steered ten acres at the Fairgrounds into private hands. Addressing the challenge of affordable housing requires more than one or two staff people in the mayor’s office. background-color: #003388; There are so many ways parks can be assets for needed solutions to many of the challenges facing Nashville. Improve safety. What would be your top three priorities, if elected? Measuring by the number of cranes you’ll spot downtown on any given day, we are doing well by that measure. Yet his campaign is touting those three areas as accomplishments. One hurdle is our expensive outsourced process including project management and right-of-way acquisition. It is time to turn the page to a new chapter of economic and community development, where we emphasize growing human capital and focusing on the neglected neighborhoods of Davidson County. I have already cosponsored legislation that would match affordable housing dollars with incentive dollars. .inner_percentage.Republican { Finance is the foundation of everything a city does. Please, Tested negative for coronavirus on January 5, 2020, Events and activity following the death of George Floyd, Mayoral election in Nashville, Tennessee (2019), Nashville, Tennessee municipal elections, 2015, Politicians, candidates, and government officials diagnosed with or quarantined due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020, Events following the death of George Floyd and responses in select cities from May 29-31, 2020, https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=John_Cooper_(Tennessee)&oldid=8223616, Mayor of Nashville candidate Davidson County, Tennessee, 2019, County candidates in Davidson County, Tennessee, Mayor of one of the 100 largest United States cities by population, Tracking election Vice-Mayor David Briley stayed silent. The State of Tennessee only has $1.9 billion in total general obligation bonds outstanding. Voters overwhelmingly decided that last year’s transit plan wasn’t the right plan for Nashville right now. A responsible city needs to evaluate opportunities systematically and openly. The current mayor’s parking privatization proposal is not the first time Metro has made mistakes regarding parking. As mayor, I will bring a fiscally-responsible plan to voters within my first year in office. let item = jQuery('.votebox .indicate_scroll').get(index); Under my leadership, I will ensure that we are maximizing the affordable housing subsidies we grant and that federal, state, and local sources work together. jQuery( ".votebox" ).each(function( index ) { The developer paid MDHA $9.4 million, but the land was actually worth many millions more, perhaps double. City leaders have been exceptionally creative with financing deals to help private developers, but that creativity and dedication is missing in action when it comes time to fund our schools, take care of our employees and create affordable housing. Improve the functioning of the MDHA. The pattern is clear. } letter-spacing: 0.03em; This is a problem. If you would be like to be considered for a role in his administration, click the … What would you like to see Metro do to improve your experience moving throughout the county? That will require working through many layers of complexity to maximize our existing and future resources that can be devoted to creating and maintaining affordable housing units. As mayor, I will commit to further developing the human capital of Nashville’s residents and will prioritize education and workforce training as mayor. Accountability begins with transparency. Our downtown grid is made up of narrow streets; this means we must reduce the number of cars downtown by encouraging more people to ride the bus, carpool, or bike to work. .results_table_container { margin: auto; However, Nashville needs a mayor who will make sure the taxpayers come out ahead.

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