if you become the next mayor you're in an interesting position because we just came off of covet the lockdowns uh kids

0:07

are behind now right and how how and we did that because we didn't listen to parents we kept these schools metro

0:13

schools open for at least closed for eight months longer than any other school system in the in the area parents

0:18

were begging for our schools to be reopened and no one in the mayor's

0:24

office would take on and wake up every day and say if a bar in Broadway is open these schools are going to be open

0:33

uh welcome to podcast Alice Roy Nashville candidate how you doing I'm

0:38

good I'm really glad to be here and I've already had fun talking before we even were uh we're here it's just fun to to

0:46

go back I guess it sounds like 25 years to you working at our family's Farm yes

0:51

I I was I was looking looking you up you know uh preparing and I said wait a second uh Mr ganier I used to work on

0:58

his farm yeah and uh for about I guess two or three years in high school and I

1:04

loved it I love that farm that is one of the gifts about running um for office I you know I continue to

1:11

find like this coming Monday I'm gonna go and see the principal at Hume fog when I was there

1:17

um her daughter reached out to me and said Dr Whitefield her name that she has um that she has dementia but she has

1:25

heard my ads on TV and remembered me and asked if I would come and see her you know and these are the kind of things

Introduction and background

1:31

that you're like when when do you get to do that right so yeah absolutely yeah so hearing um hearing about you working out

1:37

there on River Road is it's a good is a good way to start a Friday afternoon it

1:42

is you know you think about you know all the things that that Nashville has gone through and you know good and bad you

1:49

know since then and that the community that we grew up with you know uh

1:55

it was special and you know I'm hoping that we can keep it special yeah yeah and I do um you know I do talk

2:02

frequently about one of the issues about running and why I decided to get into

2:07

the race was watching what felt like this um tearing apart of the fabric of what

2:13

it felt like made Nashville so special um in a way I talk about that which I know is very different from the rest of

2:19

the field is I believe you can love Nashville and love Tennessee and I believe that because the highest point

2:25

in the county is named for my great-grandfather it's ganier Ridge at Radnor Lake and that's a state park it's

2:31

not a city park and people who live in that area they don't really care if it's a state park or city park right they just care they have a park and I think

2:38

that's sort of more pragmatic concept of um and and that doesn't mean it was the

2:43

neighbors who wanted that to become a park right but there's also a little bit of an issue of how do we Finance the

2:48

things that are important for people who live here and frequently our you know largest funding sources for our most

2:55

vulnerable residents our state funding sources and we are 10 of the families in

3:01

the entire state of Tennessee so if we have a problem our neighbors probably have it too and we can probably go and

3:07

work with the state instead of having this narrative that's always this um you know kind of a checkers game of

3:13

us and them I I see it as a chess game how do I figure out three plays ahead and who do I bring with me to to get

3:19

things done that's great I always like to think of it as you know when you should build Bridges not walls how do we connect and find commonalities and you

3:26

know Society right now conversation uh you know you could just have a conversation it becomes offensive and

3:33

instead of you know in reality we we've lost in some ways the ability to talk to each other with differing opinions on

3:40

certain issues and still say well you're still a good person we have a lot of the same shared values yeah yeah no it's uh

3:47

yeah I were you know I worked early in my career for Lamar Alexander who's the senator from Tennessee and uh and also

3:54

Governor um and you know people frequently say Alice you're a republican why are you

3:59

running for mayor of Nashville it's nonpartisan and then I'll say well how come it's nonpartisan as long as you're

Motivation to run for Mayor

4:05

a Democrat like how you know how come that is is the answer I'm not I'm not trying to make this partisan

4:11

um Lamar uh authored what is today's Federal framing legislation that passed

4:17

85-12 that was in 2015. education is something that people want to fight

4:23

about frequently but it's one of the most important things that we do and President Obama signed that into law

4:29

right so actually having a republican there who advanced something that enough people agreed with and and then I always

4:36

take his opioid legislation that passed 99.1 and was signed by President Trump how come somebody else didn't you know

4:43

advance that idea right so so so I don't think that leadership or leading this

4:48

city has to be the domain of a single party I think that you can do the work

4:54

in a way that you can find 85 or 99 people to work with you and that you can

5:00

choose you know pretty specifically of of not getting the city embroiled in things right we don't need to tell the

5:06

Republican National commit you know convention not to come here we don't you know tell everybody to come here come on

5:12

my job is to make the streets safe make sure the kids can read so you can you

5:17

know get to the convention that's coming and um you know and and that that the city

5:23

is well managed so I sort of have a sense of if we stick with the with

5:29

really the primary goals for this city I think we can get more done both with the council and with the state yeah I mean

5:35

one of the things when I was reading about you you education is a something that's very important

5:41

um what would your approach be to education would you want to pay the teachers more how do we create you know

5:47

not just the best system in Tennessee We already pay the teachers the most uh in the state but how do we make it the best

5:54

in the country like why don't make that the goal that is a good goal and we are our

5:59

teachers are paid the best in the state and I think that we should stay there right and that means that we'll have to

6:05

continue to keep up um probably the biggest challenge that I see is a lack of accountability for the

6:12

school system and people typically say Alice you're running for mayor you're not running for school board why are you talking about schools but we spend the

6:20

the mayor's job and the council's job is to set the budget but it's also to set

6:25

performance and efficiency metrics around every dollar that we're spending and if we're spending 1.2 going on 1.3

6:32

billion dollars our single largest line item is in education then I think that we do get to have a say and the areas

6:40

that I would like to see us measure and that I think other large Urban school systems have done is are the dollars

6:46

following the child to the school and reporters always you know follow up with oh my gosh that means she's trying to

6:52

privatize all the schools no if you walk into your child child school at HG Hill

6:58

Elementary where people say to me I don't think enough money's there say dude let's do the math if there's 600

Discussion on early career and experiences

7:03

kids there do you see 600 times 16 265 dollars in that building do you see you

7:09

know more than 10 million dollars flowing through that building in terms of serving the site and they don't because the reality is is that only

7:16

about half of the dollars are actually getting to the school site and at some schools it's less so I so I so I believe

7:22

we should follow a little bit Miami-Dade they went from f rated which is frankly where we are we're 94th or 95th out of

7:29

all 95 counties depending on the metrics and the days but you can go and and uh and look that up so if we are where we

7:36

are if we keep doing what we've always done and say just give them more money and everything's going to be fine we're not going to get a different result so I

7:43

would look at having the dollars follow the child to the school to the publicly funded school that they're going to if

7:49

it's a charter school a Zone School a magnet school a neighborhood school but have the dollars follow the child I

7:54

would look at parental choice and and I don't mean only the vein of charter schools I mean we have public school

8:01

parents that are telling us they want to send their kids to Megs right down the road here right only we only see it a

8:07

quarter of those kids so we send three quarters of the families away and just hope that they choose a Metro school but

8:13

they're telling us where they want to go we see schools like Valor in um you know

8:19

in South Nashville you and I grew up here you and I both went to Public Schools we still operate

8:25

under this fiction that we can only have one Megs but Valor has shattered that

8:30

myth they are outperforming Megs right and and they've done that within six

8:35

years of starting so that tells me the Opera the talent is all over the city but we're not giving families the

8:41

opportunity and and so I yeah so I am a little bit passionate about education

8:47

um early literacy is is truly the key and we have schools in the city Kip

8:52

educates about nine percent of our public school students and their head of literacy is is absolutely amazing

8:58

Catherine Baker she has implemented all new reading strategies they're in their

9:04

third year of that their second graders are posting 80 reading at or above grade level and next year they will shatter uh

9:10

really the the numbers for our city and our community and so I believe that sort of obsession with making sure every kid

9:17

can read it's I mean it's sort of I know there's no silver bullet but it is the Silver Bullet well and you know I guess

9:24

uh if you become the next mayor you're in an interesting position because we just came off of covet you know there's

9:30

a the lockdowns uh kids are behind now right and how and we did that because we

9:36

didn't listen to parents we kept these schools metro schools open for at least closed for eight months longer than any

9:42

other school system in the in the area private schools were open parochial schools were open Independent Schools

9:47

were open Williamson County Sumner County all Rutherford County all open in eight months parents were begging for

9:55

our schools to be reopened and no one in the mayor's office would take on and

Perspective on the current state of Nashville

10:02

wake up every day and say if a bar in Broadway is open these schools are going to be open and it was this fear of we

10:07

can't stand up to uh you know Alice you're not supposed to say that you're going to offend someone listen to the

10:12

parents right I mean look at the outcomes and I know you can say those you know complex situation hopefully

10:19

will never have to go through another pandemic again but when all of your neighbors are making a decision when

10:25

every private school is making a decision we truly said our kids should operate in like a

10:31

separate class and that is not right and I and I I mean I'm I'm in I'm in the

10:36

camp of like you know mama bear I have two boys they're seven and eleven I'm like dude we're going to school

10:43

right well they said trust science uh well political science that's what it became you know especially with the kids

10:49

and that was that was unfortunate so what do you do you know to get the kids back uh on track let's say we're behind

10:55

I don't know maybe a year the kids aren't in early development is is key how do you how do you tackle something

11:01

like that well I mean we were given uh about I think about 600 million dollars of additional Federal Relief Fund to

11:08

provide uh one-on-one tutoring to look at um in you know beefing up our early literacy I think that they are making

11:14

gains that are going in the right direction but but I also believe um

11:19

I think actually right here around the corner Warner Elementary have you have you followed the Warner Elementary

11:25

School at all not recently okay so it's right around the corner this is a school that for years was in the bottom five

11:32

percent of the state um families were fleeing and a new leader came in Ricky Gibbs and you got

11:40

your listeners of their podcast fans which I guess that they are they can listen to season two of The Promise wpln

11:45

NPR I was on the board actually then in our um in the second season is about it is

11:52

about Warner Elementary and Ricky and he brought parents back he provided

11:57

accountability he provided structure he got the test scores up he moved it from bottom five percent to a reward school

12:04

which is our top group of schools and he did that with a relentlessness and an

12:09

urgency he's from Liberty City he's from Miami he has this like passion that says we can do this and frankly after doing

12:17

that for four years he I just read that I haven't spoken to him but I just read he's left and he's gone to lead lead

12:23

Public Schools early or elementary schools so our city

12:28

um I I think instead of embracing that and saying go turn around six other schools how do we get you to do these

12:35

other places and you could hear it in the podcast too we I think we we put him

12:40

against an immovable Force which is Bransford and an attitude that said oh maybe you're not supposed to do that well or maybe you shouldn't ask those

12:46

many questions and you can hear them on this podcast a couple years ago I mean you can feel him taking it on and you

12:51

can feel him fighting for those kids but at a point when there's a minority of adults fighting for the kids at the top

12:58

and there's more people concerned with keeping the schools closed or doing things how we've always done them I

Vision for Nashville's future

13:04

think I think those innovators like you those entrepreneurs they kind of go like I want to go find somewhere else to get this done so

13:11

um so I I believe it takes leadership I believe it takes a different level of

13:16

dedication but fundamentally I think it you know it it takes a different attitude I mean you see it you're an

13:22

entrepreneur right some people have that and some people don't and um I I feel bad because I yeah this is right down

13:29

the street yeah I've been gone you know a lot the last eight years but um you know I think about that I'm like

13:34

what can we do to get something like that back I mean because we need that energy Public Schools I mean I I was raised in a working class family here

13:41

and great mom and dad but you know it was tough I remember we had some tough times growing up and uh but the Metro

13:48

Public Schools uh really prepared me is very diverse education I loved my

13:53

teachers I was motivated we won three state championships while I was at Overton wrestling and uh and if you ran

13:58

for mayor they would all come out and call you like Hollywood I love it yeah one of these days

14:04

yeah I mean it's just unbelievable and so you know I'm grateful I'm grateful and you know and there's nothing wrong

14:10

with private school I'm not saying that but I think that it starts in our public schools because it's given me so much I didn't go to college so you know I was I

14:16

was just fighting uh right away yeah but I mean we don't give the teachers enough credit

14:23

and we don't give them the tools and when somebody comes from the outside I'm hearing the story and I'm I'm motivated

14:28

by it like we got to get more of that in the system because if he's showing that he can do it at this school here why can't we do it at every school yep yeah

14:35

yep and every and every uh every card is stacked against Warner

14:42

and you know every excuse that people say it's not possible and then he did it and look what he said well I'm about to go get him on the podcast yeah I'm

14:49

serious he's so inspiring awesome yeah just hearing it I'm pumped so um so moving a little bit to

14:55

transportation we hear a lot about transportation and um uh what would be your plan to make it

15:02

better in Nashville yeah well uh

15:10

approach right right so in 2018 when we tried to put a Transit referendum on the

15:15

ballot it failed pretty spectacularly it failed pretty spectacularly because

15:20

people voters looked at that and said how is this giant big dig in downtown

15:26

actually going to help me um you know get get where I need to go

15:32

um so a coalition of about 20 Mayors through this group it's called the mpo regional planning organization first I

15:39

would say a new mayor doesn't need to come up with a new plan we have a strong plan um the single most important goal I

15:45

think as a CEO of an organization is like what's the piece I need to move it's quarterbacking getting dedicated

15:52

funding for our County but also really for the region that means going to a

15:58

referendum for the voters and not doing it or failing to do it

Stance on education and school system

16:04

means that we are leaving Davidson County taxpayers at a real disadvantage we are one of only 25 metros in the

16:11

country that doesn't have dedicated Transit funding and that means we can't leverage a lot of federal funds and some

16:18

State funds because they want to see a dedicated funding source right because most these Transit Transportation

16:23

projects are not one year one budget Cycles they're like 10-year projects so

16:28

I would say single most important goal would be be and it will probably be in the fall of 26 or the fall of 28 is

16:36

getting dedicated Transit put to the voters right and that and the general

16:42

assembly gave us the ability to do that and Governor Haslam's improve act and and we failed so you know it's it's a it

16:49

that that is really step one uh step two and more immediately is what are you going to do now right um I would say

16:56

continue the work around bus Rabbit Transit on most of our major corridors

17:02

continue to look at how can we as Downtown parking becomes more and more

17:08

expensive which it will it is but it will become even increasingly more expensive because we have lifted the

17:15

Caps we used to require you to build so many parking spaces for your building now we don't so supply and demand what

17:22

does that mean that means parking so our pain point the last mile of getting to downtown is now expensive enough that I

17:29

think that we can build additional sort of regional centers where you stop and you park your car and then you ride for

17:36

the last six miles if it's to Vanderbilt or if it's to the downtown

17:41

um downtown arts and Entertainment District and then I would say how are you going to measure that so our

17:46

measurement is I I don't believe in and maybe this means I'm you know not inventive enough but maybe it's that I'm

17:53

the granddaughter of a farmer that you worked with um is that I don't see a world where you

17:59

take transit from Hendersonville to Nashville you know and everywhere in between but what I do think we can

18:06

measure is for our largest employers and our hospitals our largest performance venue is what percentage of patrons or

18:13

employees or customers are coming there that are using transit for a part of

18:19

their journey and how do we start to increase that number and I think that we do it through creating places where

18:26

people will drive their cars to and then bus from there and I know that might not sound sexy or interesting but I think

18:33

it's pretty practical and I think most of our County Mayors are sort of in the camp of like yep that works and for

18:38

people who live in Nashville we don't just feel the traffic and Transit congestion from Nashville we're feeling

18:45

it from the growth of all of our regional surrounding neighbors so how do we start to collect cars on arteries at

18:52

places and then use bus Rapid Transit where we can flat we can be more flexible with demand I I don't see

Plans for economic development

19:00

I mean there may be at some point in the future you know some kind of rail somewhere but I actually see a belief in

19:08

um in in our ability to flex around more bus lines I think about when the Taylor Swift concert comes right

19:14

well if you can if you can deploy six times as many buses or frequency in that week and that makes a lot of sense and

19:20

probably you can move people faster and so being a little bit more flexible and adaptive and then the last thing um is

19:27

that we still have a lot of places in our County that we are not using traffic signaling technology which you can you

19:33

can see the congestion you can see the congestion on roads and then it'll all of a sudden clear so it's not really a

19:38

traffic issue it's a congestion issue that I think we can solve too yeah I think that's a that's a I don't say easy

19:43

one it seems easy just to fix the the timing of the lights you know one thing I haven't heard a lot of the candidates

19:48

talk about is talking to Matt about this yesterday I brought it up you know when I hear rails and buses I think 50 100

19:54

years ago because they've been around yeah but you know why or should we be

20:00

looking at building a city the future you know we're within uh I believe 10 years of autonomous vehicles where

20:06

everything will be programmed and you know we won't have parking issues the traffic issues will largely be fixed

20:12

have you thought about that and um you know if so what's what's your thoughts behind it all right

20:18

are you on the committee do me think about that awesome yeah I was just you know she's like how do we build the city of the future because we're right there

20:24

you know AI is coming faster than we might like and uh you know there's yeah

20:30

and I you know and I've seen actually one of my neighbors was at Nissan uh here and with a Google car project yeah

20:37

so I I don't I don't I mean has anyone actually deployed that at scale at this point or yeah it's coming yeah yeah and

20:44

it's one of those I I sort of look at it as one of these never-ending projects for lawyers to decide like how you

20:50

insure a vehicle uh that is driven by technology yeah so lawyers get ready

20:56

you're gonna have fun well it does you know you know we put so much thought and we should into these complex traffic

21:03

problems yeah transportation and I do think that sometimes we forget about you know we're we're in almost revolutionary

21:10

times with technology and uh I think it's going to be I think it's gonna be

21:15

hitting soon if you're mayor for eight years you're probably going to be facing yeah that yeah and probably even more

21:23

reason to not you know rip up the roads with uh you know embedded rail if you

21:28

can start to program and you know probably again that sort of concept of

21:34

um well I you know I'll take it to the Back to the Future but um uh probably 15

21:40

years ago my husband and I went to Tunisia and just the two of us

21:45

um and we use this traveling system called the luaje which is sort of how Lyft was you know developed that you

21:52

effectively would go to a station and they would and they would wait until six or eight people who are going to the

21:57

same city got there and then they would take right so it's sort of like an on-demand and you know show up and

Views on Nashville's housing issues

22:03

they'd be like Sue sell gem you know City boo Saeed and they would just be yelling it out like you were just going to decide when you got there like like

22:09

going to a market or something but but that sort of idea too is collecting people and then probably you could see

22:15

you know many or smaller and we are doing that some our access ride for seniors uh which is primarily driven by

22:22

MTA and sort of our Hardware they are starting to do some Pilots with Uber to figure out how do we expand the fleet

22:29

um that we don't have to own the fleet entirely and so I you know so I think that there are places for that that'll

22:34

be fun figure it out I know for sure I would love for a nap no I won't do that I don't I didn't yeah

22:41

someone will lose their mind mayoral candidates said we're going to Tunisia for a field trip right yeah but you get

22:48

an idea on a tractor and you get an idea in the lily pad and sometimes you get an idea and you know deserts of Northern

22:54

Africa yeah that's awesome yeah no uh another thing that me and my friends talk about a lot this is just I would

23:00

joke all that somebody needs to do to win mayor is say they're going to fix the potholes I promise to fix the

23:06

potholes I know it's not possible to fix them all but do you have a plan for dealing with that yeah well we um so

23:13

actually if you look at the throughput now for ndot so I think one thing we were not doing well uh with prior

23:20

administrations was Performance Management metrics across our agencies and I think ndot and I would credit a

23:27

single person in city hall with this Kristen Wilson she's got an MBA from Stanford she's absolutely brilliant

23:33

she's been with mayor Cooper for all four years uh used to work in Atlanta uh

23:38

was was there with Bloomberg philanthropies as like a budget director and he's really really smart and what she has done very effectively across

23:46

city government in a way that you know people beat up on city government but city government is also filled with

23:52

really good people that sometimes need someone brave enough to say we're going to start something new we're going to go

23:57

in a New Direction but they're there the town is there and sometimes it needs a little bit of support but ndot when we

24:03

look at the difference now where they're measuring and and you can see we are

24:08

laying more sidewalk feet we are doing it at a lower price you know things that business people would think about we are

24:15

filling more potholes probably the biggest challenge is our number of state roads

24:21

um so you know Dickerson Pike Nolensville Road Murfreesboro like these are all actually state roads 8th Avenue

24:27

and so I think a place that we do have to get a little bit more entrepreneurial is going to the state and this most

24:34

recent budget includes 750 million dollars for Middle Tennessee 300 million

24:39

dollars that we can apply for as a county we should get about 30 million of that around road paving expansion and

24:45

repairs and and I think we just got to go and and be smart right to say like how do we get the most done the fastest

24:52

and the cheapest possible um and and figure out who we need to hire even on a short-term basis to get

24:58

it done yeah it seems like the state and the city is at odds one of my best friends growing up he's working for TDOT

Approach to healthcare and public services

25:04

and I was uh I now call him every time I hit a pothole because he said actually I'm kind of you know helping with that

25:09

yeah yeah you're like that's the state route oh wait so you have like the magic number this is like the number you used to have to have for princess Hot Chicken

25:16

exactly yeah he's a wonderful person he'll uh you know he kind of explained

25:21

it to me oh I thought it was the city he's like no some of this is ours and he was explaining some of the some of the

25:26

issues and I do think you know getting some transparency on what's going on with that would be important because

25:32

it's not that complicated but it's made complicated and sometimes government does that it makes it more complicated

25:38

than it really is yeah yeah and so I um you know I have frequently and I know someone later accused me of being

25:44

anti-first Amendment I'm not but I will still say what I say as I say

25:49

um you know in my Administration we're not going to have a pro-life Rally or a pro-choice rally we're not going to use City Hall for a backdrop for these sort

25:56

of national issues we're going to have a pro first graders reading rally approach filling the pothole rally a pro taking

26:01

out the trash and I think some of it is also about what you elevate right so if

26:06

we Elevate the importance constantly of what color the bridge is and we don't

26:12

talk about this is how many potholes we filled this week right so you kind of people end up paying attention to what

26:19

the chief executive is talking about and it is how many days and it may be how

26:24

many days from a reported pothole to a closed pothole and how do we all start to work towards that metric you know in

26:31

the Parks system it would be not it's really hard to do X but

26:37

at our at our highest revenue producing golf courses instead of saying we're going to cut hours saying the most

26:43

people want to play golf at McCabe let's open that the most right like that's match demand that's producing revenue

26:50

for the city with need um and and I and I think I think of everything as like how are we going to

26:56

match the cost of growth with a site of growth how are we going to make sure people are paying for their part and then how are we going to help get the

27:02

institutions not aligned on like you know what what some fight is with the

27:08

general assembly but what did you do today to work with the state what are the you know and and I think sometimes

27:14

it's sort of resetting or reframing those metrics yeah absolutely that's a the good thing about running for mayor

27:21

is you can really you know get a get a handle on it yeah and also everybody's going to be mad at me pretty much every

27:27

day which I'm like the middle of three girls I'm like but bring it you know I don't like her anymore yeah so I'm very

27:33

I'm very prepared for that um uh you know also um uh yeah I you know the mayor's job is

27:41

probably the hardest because you never you know whatever you see not working it probably is the responsibility of City

27:47

local government yeah for sure and you know I was thinking you know I supported

27:52

uh Cooper in the last election uh and I think about it now I would not have supported him if I would have known

27:58

covet was going to happen and so I think um you know because Amir does have so

Thoughts on Nashville's infrastructure

28:04

much kind of control over what happens uh in the city it's your job you're the you're the big boss yeah uh you know if

28:11

something like that were to happen again you know you mentioned the schools like how would you handle uh is same scenario

28:17

how would you handle it differently or the same or yeah well so I mean he was

28:24

obviously dealt in in the whole country so it's easy to sort of you know Monday Morning Quarterback this situation

28:31

um though um I would not have allowed our bars to

28:36

open at the capacity that they were and not every day be saying how we get the schools to open right I mean that is a

28:41

reflection of our priority so first I think he did really well is trying to support our most vulnerable populations

28:47

our elderly right and and folks in nursing homes things like that I think all of those initial actions were

28:53

entirely appropriate based on what we knew I think where we missed the Mark was living with the urgency to say if

29:00

the cash registers are open uh the classrooms have to be open and and and sort of elevating that especially when

29:09

we saw our neighbors doing it and especially when we saw our private schools doing that right that make is

29:14

very untenable position to say my kids can go to school but yours can't

29:21

um that that's um that that's not a Nashville I will choose to lead and our um and our

29:27

families Farm you and I were talking about weddings here and coming here to a wedding several years ago uh our family's Farm you know suffered a

29:34

lot in Coven a lot of businesses did too I mean this is a 350 acre outdoor farm

29:40

and people were having big events all over Williamson County Wilson County other places and we were shut down because the Metro Health right I mean

29:47

you couldn't have more than eight people there I mean like our family literally like could not get together without it

29:52

sort of being like well maybe you're not allowed to be here yeah yeah I know right because there's a because there's a business part to it right I mean you

29:59

can go up to the go up to the house but you know whoops don't don't go down there so I think

30:04

um you know I uh we have a farm down in Giles County and um you know and I know people live with this world of

30:12

um this city is smarter than the rest of the state I I reject that we are part of a family right I I don't I don't see

30:18

that anyway and Lane is my neighbor down there and I remember going down one day and the case rates down in Giles County

30:24

were really high and I said Lane you're being careful right you know and he said oh oh yeah I said you you know we're you

30:31

know being careful about going inside too much you know being around big groups people and he said yep basically

30:37

if I go into town I've got a mask on but if I'm out on the tractor I got a mask off and I kind of think of it that way

30:42

here in you know when we closed our parks for a long time all of these places

30:48

um that were I mean outdoor venues um I I just I

30:53

don't know I think there was a little bit of a lack of common sense so yes the granddaughter of a farmer will have a little bit more common sense and the

30:59

classrooms will be open before the cash registers no that's that's good yeah it is a good point you know about

Plans for public safety

31:05

priorities when bars are open before uh schools and the fact that private

31:10

schools are open um but Public Schools aren't like that yeah and and that's always been my

31:15

orientation you know during uh the berry Administration there was a period of time when short of in the dead of night

31:22

outside of the board a decision was made to close General Hospital if you remember that and I and my first

31:30

response was um okay if it is that bad I need to go bear witness so I actually moved my

31:36

patient care there to Dr Collier who was over the Meharry Medical Group and what I saw was really good patient care but

31:43

incredibly low utilization rates right and so you sort of think what is the problem and how we're going to solve it

31:49

it's probably getting the utilization rates up um but the same with Fort Negley I started a petition

31:55

um you know read something in an article in the paper that said we were going to put 27 buildings on protected Historic Park

32:01

and I was thinking like that didn't really make sense who does that make sense to you know and and so I think sometimes it's sort of saying I'm going

32:08

to stand in the front line if you are telling me that whatever this is is so bad um and early in my career I was a high

32:15

school teacher because I thought if I ever want to work in education policy I need to have rolled up my sleeves and

32:20

actually done it and so I I just I think there's sort of like a different orientation

32:25

um that that you know that says if Williamson County's got it open if the bars on Broadway are open I'm going to

32:31

go stand there and see if schools if my kids school is open and I tell somebody else their kid can't go to school

32:37

there's just like there's something fundamentally uh wrong with that so yeah no no doubt it seems like we lost a lot

32:44

of common sense and uh you know and it was a scary time for everybody yeah and so it's hard to make good decisions I'm

32:50

not even saying you know with with Cooper I did not like how he uh ran it but yeah he wasn't elected to do that

32:58

you had to give him some yeah he's had my husband always says he's like Alice you just like won't throw him under the

33:04

bus and I'm like I don't know I just can't really do that right like he is a genuinely good person he you know has

33:12

had the mayoral administration of job right the direction the tornado

33:18

2nd Avenue bombing covid you know now

33:23

the sort of riots downtown now would I've acted differently yeah we're not going to let City Hall burn that would

33:29

not happen that's not going to happen and if my if our police force can't handle I'm going to call the governor and be like I need the National Guard we're not going to do that right I mean

33:36

there are there are differences but at the same time I think um I think to have some empathy to say

33:42

the Baton will be passed to me when it is passed to me I will not spend my time looking backwards I will have to run the

33:49

race before us and and that's kind of how I look at it yeah and we you know we can learn a lot uh from that you

33:54

mentioned the Harry yeah I think Mary has a lot of potential it does absolutely what what's what's your

Stance on environmental issues and sustainability

34:00

thoughts on the Harry and you know what could the city do to make it even better yeah well I think first and foremost it

34:05

begins with utilization right this is a healthcare town I don't know what the number is now but it used to be

34:11

something like two-thirds of the hospital beds in America are run out of Nashville right between HCA and CMS and

34:17

sort of all the spin-off companies here and so with the thought leadership that

34:22

we have here about how to improve throughput and utilization it's all

34:28

sitting here right we're managing large Health Hospital Systems what are we doing wrong that our utilization rates

34:34

or our patient rate Mahari I think his biggest challenge is

34:40

is underutilized right because you can't make the numbers work if you don't have

34:46

enough throughput on patients and and that flows through everything right I had a a knee injury and I remember

34:52

calling there and they basically didn't have an orthopedic person so I had to move that care issue somewhere else

34:59

right and so um and they you know they apologized we're getting one soon et cetera et cetera but it's one of those things if

35:06

you had it it it really it feels to me like a volume of care and because it is the city safety net hospital and because

35:13

it is a primary care and there's so much that can be done on preventative care um I'm not I'm not sure if it is a

35:20

difference in delivery if we need to think about you know in some of our utilized retail centers similarly to how

35:26

Vanderbilt's been doing this and Ascension pretty successfully right you see these pop-up Health Care Centers all around the city now do we need to think

35:33

of that but but how do we need to think about growing the number of patients

35:40

into Mahari and I don't have an answer but I feel like that that's probably the

35:45

biggest single challenge that they that they have well when like with maharry

35:51

you you have uh underprivileged population uh you know generally going there yeah and you know

35:58

the genomics labs that are being built are so underutilized it's kind of it's

36:03

hard to do it's complicated but yeah we're building one right now uh and I like to say we're going to make it

36:09

better than Vanderbilt and it's going to be in Tijuana Mexico yeah but um you know the the care for these patients could be

36:15

so much better just by having a great genomics lab yeah just by being able to sequence the DNA and and and different

36:22

different things for Cancer Care specifically um you know they don't get there yeah

36:27

our drug and Drug Testing is primarily uh is is oversampled on on white population patients but I know that yeah

36:34

so so the sort of dosing and care and you know a real light in nationally for

36:39

Nashville during the pandemic was Dr James Hildreth yes absolutely I mean and

36:45

and also uh I think recognizing the difference in

36:50

um in in levels of fear and levels of infectivity and levels of recovery with

36:56

the African-American population but he I you know I think you're right I mean well look we've got uh one of the only

Views on the role of technology in governance

37:02

you know historically black medical colleges we have

37:07

um we have a cities General Hospital we have like you said opportunity communities and and so maybe there are

37:14

other ways sort of other revenue streams that we can also think of with the

37:20

private sector so I'm I'm like a solution finder so I'm gonna we're gonna figure it out yo doctor you're getting

37:25

you're getting appointed to like all the figured out groups okay no you don't get paid so no I don't you know I don't know

37:33

like I don't think Nashville realizes and I disagree with some of the stuff he even said but we have a Rhodes scholar

37:39

uh immunologist who focused on T cells and I would love to talk to you about this one day because uh we were focusing

37:45

on antibodies and I thought we should be focusing on T cells and that's his expertise but um as a nation I should

37:51

say you should have him in here yeah no I I would absolutely love to I'll get you as number two I'm gonna like line up all your speakers you're like you're

37:58

ready for it well Hildreth was I listened to the when when they approved the child vaccine I listened to the

38:04

seven hour uh uh debate where he was on that commission uh you know on the FDA

38:10

panel let's do it twice at times two speed so it took me seven hours to listed it twice and he actually made the

38:17

argument I appreciated the argument he made he said that you know about half the kids or so have already had covid

38:22

and I'm approving this only because I think people should have access to it but not because I think that everybody

38:28

should every kid should have it and I was like thank you for saying that and there's a couple of different scientists

38:33

on the panel that that voted for it that had made that argument too and I was like okay at least you're acknowledging

38:39

I was on the other side I was like they're gonna might try to force uh people to take it but if they already

38:45

had it that was like that was my my concern and they at least brought it up and yeah you know it's courageous at

38:50

that level to you know to say that so I really appreciated him and he's you know

38:56

mehari has so much potential too I mean uh it's got It's got the the Medical College it has so much potential um it's

39:03

you know a black medical school you can it's got one of the the top leading scientists

39:10

black scientists in the country you know leading the charge so I have a lot of Hope for it yeah well well and what what

39:16

you just said reminded me um one of the real sad parts about covid was the number of people we lost and I

39:23

was just thinking when you said the courage to ask a question so Kwame Lillard a freedom rider here was one of

39:30

the founders of the African Street Festival during covid um his celebration party kept getting

39:35

moved um and then it finally happened and I took my son um and it was uh it was up in in

39:43

Bordeaux and mayor Cooper was there me and my son and I'm pretty sure we were

39:48

the only three people that were not African-Americans in the whole probably 100 people there um am I we walked in and I said I

39:55

brought my son because I said Kwame Lillard is you should ask him like what it was like you know um to be a freedom

Thoughts on the importance of community engagement

40:02

writer and the whole way over there my you know my son was well how come there were areas that were all black and how

40:07

come we had you know racial you know redlining why did these things happen um someone who's 10 years old who

40:14

doesn't see that see that today and I still remember Kwame said Beno you just

40:20

keep asking the questions you just keep asking the questions and that's the same thing this sort of fabric of not living

40:27

in the space that we already know the answer but that we are brave enough to ask and then sort of brave enough to

40:33

keep asking if it doesn't really add up yeah like you were saying he did and that other people did yeah yeah and

40:40

that's a that's a you know great leadership we have have in Nashville um let's move on a little bit to uh

40:47

Freddie O'Connell put a tweet out yesterday or the day before about Steve now about Steve Smith oh and basically

40:54

you know I read it as and I didn't know his position on uh downtown in the music

41:00

and uh I read the comments and uh but I still don't exactly know his position

41:06

I'd love to ask him but um he suggested he wanted to to lower the decibels downtown and uh I took it

41:14

is he trying to silence downtown is he trying to shut down the music is that is that what his uh proposal was but what

41:20

do you think about uh do you know anything about uh the war between Steve Smith and Freddie O'Connell yeah over

41:26

the sound and stuff yeah uh well so Steve I've I've never met Steve Smith people frequently say Steve Smith

41:32

supporting you I'm like nope there is a Steve Smith who has contributed to my campaign but you know more than one

41:38

person has the name Steve Smith he's not the same he's not he went to uh he went

41:44

to grammar school with my aunt I mean like now not the same Steve Smith um but um

41:51

I you know I think uh that both sides are a little bit right that downtown

41:57

does not feel uh like a great place to want to take your family downtown has

42:03

gotten a little bit raucous um uh and and so I think some of the things

42:08

like there's now a separate downtown police unit the bar owners have done quite a bit more uh they actually went

42:14

and got a state law pass that allows them to have a separate downtown police force it's paid for uh through four

42:21

percent higher property taxes and 22 percent higher sales taxes when you go downtown and get your bill you sort of

42:27

say like oh taxes are a little bit higher here that's where that is going um but um but in in terms of silencing

42:34

downtown um you know I I don't see that I think that um I I do think that

42:42

um and and I and I I do not tell people what songs are allowed to sing you come

42:48

here sing whatever song you want to sing on the stage different bar patrons are going to go to different bars depending on who's playing and what they're doing

42:54

right that's not that's not our role um and so all of this debate right now about who's allowed to sing what or say

Plans for improving public transportation

43:00

what I think is really unproductive for elected officials to get involved in right because when you start deciding

43:06

what somebody gets to say or saying where do you stop but we're not we're not the uh what do you sing police I'm

43:12

not going to get involved in that um but in terms of um in terms of lowering the decibel

43:18

levels um you know that that sounds to me like more sort of hyperbolic like bring down

43:23

the drama yeah my understand was like the my understanding is there's like the noise ordinance they could possibly uh

43:30

you know change that to where they have to maybe not be as loud I well but you for most the ordinances that we have I

43:37

think they're reasonable I think the business community and you know others have agreed to them I think the bigger

43:42

issue is enforcement right so I I mean if an ordinance isn't being enforced we should but I'm not sure that there's

43:49

like a strong call at this point to change an ordinance so I think you know Freddy's right if if if we're not

43:55

enforcing an ordinance let's ask why and let's start to enforce it but I I don't I don't really see an appetite for

44:01

changing uh changing a current import you know ordinance yeah what do you think about um but the two of them

44:06

there's something going because he's running attack ads after him and you know and it's

44:11

um it's a whole thing yeah that's a whole thing right where I just kind of sit over here and a lot of the campaign has

44:18

been that right there's there were eight of us that were covered for most of the race now there's seven uh Jim dropped

44:23

out earlier this week and I really respect um being there on the stage with him he

44:29

frequently was the only other person articulating a lot of our issues around debt and spending and I just

44:34

always felt like okay I'm not alone up here I'm not the only person who looks at the world in numbers um thank you Jim

44:41

um so so you know it's seven of us and and six of us to your point remaining it's me and people who are like you said

44:48

like sort of part of this downtown crowd their whole experiences I've worked for

44:54

three Mayors I'm a current elected official I'm been here for 20 years as an elected official and so um there is a

45:01

sort of insulated we need to keep the narrative going of um

45:07

I don't know us and them and I and I sort of think I'm like Ted lasso I'm like well maybe we just gotta like try

45:12

coaching this thing a totally different way you know absolutely I mean it's it's uh you know silencing downtown I don't

45:20

know I'll I'll try to ask him and see what what he was talking about with that but um you know the smell when I go

45:27

downtown that's something that I think we can do a lot better at and I see the

45:33

uh yeah we pick up trash down there like seven times a day yeah and it's the problem though this is what I see I see

45:39

when it's picked up there's got to be a patent padded trash truck because when they put the trash in all the fluid from

45:45

the trash cans leak out and it's going and then it smells the heat yeah and uh

45:51

you know I think that we can do something you know about there's got to be a trash truck that has that problem solved yeah

45:57

yeah yeah or or just just regular

Approach to dealing with Nashville's growth

46:03

uh power washing truck yeah I sort of think I'm gonna write that down I'm gonna find somebody who does that well

46:09

thanks well it's it's important because um you know we don't want downtown Nashville to turn into New Orleans New

46:16

Orleans doesn't smell very good no and I like the crowds I like the tourism I have fun I mean I was going uh you know

46:22

downtown to watch my friends play it at tootsies and uh a lot of the different places on Broadway for for many years

46:28

and I like you know it's a little crowded for my taste but I like that people

46:33

like the same experience I I like I enjoyed when I was younger yeah so you know I don't want to change that but I

46:39

also don't want it to be so dirty yeah that we lose well and I think probably

46:45

the bigger uh issue and I have uh talked to Ralph Schultz at the chamber after I

46:50

said this on one of the televised debates because I'm confident I'm making trouble for everyone which is good uh

46:56

you know a little piece of sand makes a makes a pearl sometimes you gotta like get in there and and shake it up a

47:02

little bit but if we think of downtown sort of as a triangle of live work play the play part has gotten a little bit

47:09

out of balance and it is a concern to me that the work part needs to hold their

47:15

own the the Nashville chamber moved their offices from downtown right they used to be right next to where um

47:22

uh Baker law centers were and you know right there off the second

47:28

um so they moved that tells us something people vote with their feet it wasn't a

47:33

productive place to do business or ask people to come down to fight the traffic et cetera to come and park and meet with

47:38

the chamber it wasn't our best foot forward our front door of the region our Nashville chamber

47:45

um and so I I think they've got to get an assert a little bit of authority on

47:50

behalf of businesses and then also the commercial property Brokers right

47:55

because it we will have a problem if some of these six and ten year leases of buildings like the Pinnacle building or

48:01

Bridgestone or others that have been built in the last decade if people start to say I don't want to make my office

48:07

workers come down here right then we could have a real problem right a uh an

48:14

under uh rented under utilized building is is not good it's not good for the banks because most of those

48:21

um you know mo talk commercial property Brokers most of them are running on frankly sort of like interest only

48:29

um financing that's pretty much paid for by full fully rented building so not helpful so I so I do think that we need

48:35

to think about when you said think about six or ten years out is we do need to think about

48:40

um making sure that if this intention for the area is to live work and play that we make sure that the work part

48:48

continues or if there's aspects we need to rethink about the streets making certain ones one way closing some making

48:54

it one area of pedestrian only um but but we're but those voices the

Thoughts on the importance of diversity and inclusion

49:00

commercial property owners in the Nashville chamber I do think need to kind of come back on the work side at least at least to make it you know four

49:07

days a week that your office can be open I don't know yeah I know it's a good point I mean I haven't thought about the

49:13

buildings going um empty and um yeah something that needs to be solved yeah needs to be

49:18

thought about what do you think about Second Avenue I mean are they going to do anything with the buildings that blew up yeah well a fair Dumber have been um

49:25

I mean have you seen sort of the renderings and the re rebuilding and oh yeah well I I drive by I have my electric bike I just went by there a

49:32

couple times a week and it yeah it doesn't seem like much has been done so it's like they're still yeah Giants yeah

49:37

almost three years yeah I guess things move slower than we want them to do I do uh I do appreciate in the planning for

49:44

the new part that it does feel like we're going to reorient more towards the river um which you know I mean right Growing

49:49

Up Remember The Spaghetti Factory that was the place to go that was like a

49:55

cool that was kind of um the train carton side that I used to love like oh my gosh let's go let's go

50:01

yeah there was this sort of almost a wall but between the river so I do

50:07

actually think um I guess the silver lining of a real tragedy for the city is um is is the the

50:14

ability I think that we'll see to see a more of an activation to the Riverside uh with the rebuilding of buildings that

50:20

are going in there yeah it's really interesting because you know when we were growing up Second Avenue was big uh

50:25

and it moves now to Broadway and of course the bombing change there was

50:31

other businesses of course on Second Avenue oh yeah we arrived when Hard Rock Cafe came in oh yeah yeah that was like

50:38

I was like we've arrived and then and then there were there's like no cruising signs yeah so I do think the pendulum

50:45

swings right like people right now are not happy with the certain type of a cruising and you know 30 years ago we

50:52

were not happy with another kind of cruising right right yes so maybe we need a no cruising law at

50:58

certain hours we'll see no it's uh yeah traffic down there I get around my electric bike uh and actually I have

51:04

three so when I have friends there I'm like hey we can all go you know but um we we Zoom around it's a really you know

51:10

it's a really good way to get from East Nashville to downtown faster many times

51:16

and you can drive so um but yeah and I live on the other I live on Edgehill so just about a mile from downtown so kind

51:23

of same yeah same thing other side but we can just take the 12th Avenue bus right down

51:29

um talk about your uh position on small businesses and and you know are you going to be a pro small business uh

51:35

mayor or you you're going to be more of something else yeah I couldn't couldn't be more Pro small business I'm the only

51:41

candidate in the race to have taken the taxpayer protection pledge and I'm not raising property taxes we are going to

51:47

figure out how to operate the city on the revenues that we have or we're going to figure out uh how to

51:54

um start to look at maximizing underutilized Revenue sources right 12 percent of the property and the county

Views on the role of arts and culture in Nashville

52:00

is not taxed at all a lot of other cities do what are called voluntary pilots and we think about we we have

52:07

them at a certain level they need to be rethought and and sort of upgraded so take Vanderbilt for instance and I'm not

52:13

picking on Vanderbilt so Lynn Maddox and Nathan green and all your government relations people are not picking on you

52:19

I'm just helping people see I know you do have a part of a voluntary pilot but we do need to renegotiate that but if we

52:27

think about non-profits um you know other other institutions

52:33

they still pay a water bill they still pay an electricity bill why don't we pay a City Services bill for filling the

52:40

potholes for having emergency and 9-1-1 service right and yes it would have to be voluntary but I actually believe in

52:46

particular if we start to say hey if one of your single most important issues is the fully funding of the Barnes fund

52:52

what if we levied um you know voluntary 10 of what your actual your property taxes should be that you contributed to

53:00

the city and that would work out to about 55 million dollars you know that that'd take care of the barns fund it twice as what it's funding now so I

53:07

think it's um thinking constantly you know as sort of a salesperson or as a

53:12

chief Revenue officer of the city how do we get these buildings open faster how do we make sure that we're collecting

53:18

the taxes that were due in the cases of fees it's going to the state um you know when people get frustrated

53:24

about laws getting broken around permitting zoning roads being closed the

53:29

most that ndot can charge is 150 bucks it's a it's a treble fine which is fifty dollars in the state law it's a

53:36

Jacksonian era law when that was so much money that I was talking the head of indot I'm like why don't we change that

53:42

a lot like where'd the government change the law right like let's go do that I mean like these are kind of

53:48

um so so for small businesses my perspective while I did run strategy and economic development I like to say that

53:54

like the corporate social welfare part was not part of my portfolio everything that didn't belong in state government was small business the business

54:00

enterprise resource office the research division good to have one of those especially when people make strange

54:06

decisions they would say we're referring to the research office at the state to look into this

54:13

um I believe economic development is fundamentally education our kids

54:19

prepared to come and work at your company right can they qualify and compete for the maximum wage jobs not

54:25

the minimum wage ones are we keeping the streets safe when you call 9-1-1 does someone come and right now the call

54:32

times are higher that is a small business issue and then and then issues around

54:38

infrastructure right I mean just the blocking and tackling of the city so I think you will see much less ribbon

54:45

cutting from me and much more are we reading um can do you as an employer have

54:51

someone that you can actually hire here and do you want to send your kids to schools that your tax dollars are paying

54:56

for and if the answer is uh no then we're not doing our job in Economic Development

Perspective on the challenges facing Nashville

55:02

interesting I mean you mentioned uh getting um you know buildings up faster the

55:08

codes department is so backed up I mean if you go down there well I guess you can't really go down there right now um but uh they I mean the weight is

55:16

horrendous you plan on hiring more people for that yeah well you know a government is kind of sort of lagging

55:23

it's getting in its way I think there's two things one new state laws that were just passed and

55:28

I will give Senator Yarbrough in the field a shout out for this is how do we

55:34

sort of FedEx parts of city government and don't hear that the world's coming to an end and Alice is firing everyone

55:40

but walk with me down this road the U.S Postal Service forever people said you could not track your mail overnight

55:47

right it took somebody else coming in the U.S Postal Service is still here tracks are mail overnight if you go down

55:52

to FedEx and the Matrix at FedEx they actually do the overnight part and the

55:59

Postal Service delivers the other part right so this last General Assembly legislation was passed that allows in

56:06

fast-growing areas like Nashville that if the codes Department's not able to handle things like electrical permitting

56:12

and review that a privately permitted person who didn't build the project can put their license down and speed it

56:18

along so if we know we have a backlog how do we start to attack the backlog

56:23

and what we talked about earlier how do we start to think of metrics that somebody says not my job as policies and

56:30

procedures but my job is getting 19 code reviews done per day and then how do we

56:35

hold people accountable to that you know because I think when people don't have that very clear this is my this is what

56:41

is expected every day that it just turns into this like paper passing one of the big challenges too and I see it as an

56:47

opportunity as a sort of an entrepreneur what right we have a new regulatory environment that's coming the city

56:52

council will be half the size in some point in the future you know and I know there's as Alice does that mean you're

56:58

just not going to fight it or whatever um I I see it as as a business person

57:04

right you can wake up and complain about the interest rate today if I'm selling homes or I can wake up

57:11

and figure out how to get you in a home that your budget is going to work with and so I think cutting the city council

57:16

in half uh gives us actually an opportunity to rethink a lot of ways that we do

57:22

business because right now in the 60 departments in the city the ones dealing with codes zoning that they're in

57:29

totally totally separate verticals right and so no wonder they're spending half of their energy going sideways and I

57:36

think any business person you start to say how do I get the work out so that we can get the results

57:42

um so yeah yeah I'm just like I'm just you know and I know then I'll get a note like Alice

57:48

don't you think we've thought about that before but um it took us three years in the Haslam Administration to fight the whole at T

57:56

Lobby and I know Joelle I know y'all tried your best took three years

58:02

um to get a very practical solution which was allowing rural telcos a rural

58:09

electric co-ops around the state to be able to pull fiber we didn't have enough Broadband in the state

58:15

T wasn't going to be able to get it done for 40 years you know if you really looked at the whole thing you have tell

58:21

you have electric poles all over the all over the state that are

58:26

run by Electric Company let them pull fiber so we can have internet connectivity and it did it took three

58:32

sessions and you know and now you can and now you're seeing massive deployment of federal and state funds around the

58:39

state uh to bring internet connectivity rates up you know to what we've had in Nashville for a long time so I so I

58:46

think I think every like sort of protectionist group thinking you can't do it is probably just never met Alice

58:52

before I'm gonna well you know with uh with the uh with the council

58:58

um I mean I'll say I I was happy because the council was so big I think it was the third largest in the country oh yeah

59:04

no people say that all the time they're like oh yeah I know that you have to you know and I'm like what do I have to do like what like why can't we just say

59:11

like is a 60 year old experiment yeah it's a 60 year old car

59:17

maybe it needs a new engine to operate at the speed that the world works now and and to operate with transparency and

59:25

accountability but like you know it it's I mean sometimes they're all falling all over each other

59:30

to almost either claim credit or get in the way and you sort of think like can we

59:36

can we move on Yeah well yeah you know you think about that's that's the partisan part of politics because

59:42

um you know because the Republican uh State Legislature did that you know it's like oh it's awful and I'm like well I

59:49

don't think they did it without a lot of support within Nashville sure you know when you think about it

59:55

um actually the reopening of our schools so many parents pled with the school

1:00:00

boards to do what was right and it took a state law ultimately it took a state law that was passed by Governor Lee that

1:00:08

forced our school system to reopen and then it's like oh well the state made us right

1:00:14

maybe you knew you know and you needed somebody else to blame yeah they don't

1:00:19

want to be held accountable for for it like uh you know it became I would say it wasn't science it was political science that we went through because

1:00:25

that's really what was was going on and we all come back to fifth grade boys let my son just finished fifth grade and

1:00:31

sister Marie Blanchette who uh rules the roost there uh she um he had a little

1:00:37

struggle with um Foursquare the game it's very important and uh and he had he

1:00:43

had to go meet with her she's the principal and we went with her later and she said you know it was like really

1:00:48

mature he said he you know she said you know maybe Beno you just shouldn't be playing fourth grade seems like he get

1:00:54

kind of triggered and it gets you you know real real upset with your friends and he said well sister Marie Blanchette

1:00:59

if you tell me I can't play it then I won't do it but like if left to my own devices I'm still gonna do it I'm gonna

Discussion on the importance of local businesses

1:01:06

still get myself in trouble I'm still gonna make bad decisions and so there's something like you know maybe maybe we all need a

1:01:13

sister Marie Blanchette to be like you can't do that right no absolutely absolutely I mean that's that's uh

1:01:19

that's a good point human nature we're all still we're all still fifth graders yeah well it's like you know personal

1:01:25

responsibility is very underrated it seems like we're living in a society like the oppression Olympics where you

1:01:31

know it's like who's the biggest victim out there and um you know we've gotta we've got to bring people to a place of

1:01:38

responsibility because being being that like for instance let's say that the school board was trying to be a victim

1:01:43

to the the state government the reality was is they they weren't going to do anything they didn't want to take responsibility for it somebody had to do

1:01:49

something because the kids were suffering and we lost uh lost the the big picture the most important thing is

1:01:55

those kids getting the education they weren't keeping people safer uh at that point especially yeah the case rates

1:02:01

were no different and you know open or closed school system no and I and on the question of personal responsibility one

1:02:07

thing we haven't really talked about is crime um and and you know if you're still tuning in and deciding who to vote

1:02:13

for you you can go to my website Alice rowley.com or the Tennessee and I've written a lot of op-eds over the years

1:02:20

but a recent one is called a reset from a criminal justice system to a victims justice system because I do feel like

1:02:26

the pendulum has gone too far on the rights of criminals and what victims want most is to make sure someone else

1:02:33

is not victimized and that means Sometimes some people have to go to jail right because otherwise we're allowing

1:02:40

someone without any type of a timeout to re-victimize re-victimize re-victimize

1:02:45

and we see federal crime data shows us that right now two-thirds of our crimes reported are never cleared and so that

1:02:51

means if I'm a criminal I know there's two-thirds of chance that I'm actually never going to get caught held accountable it's never the case and

1:02:56

everyone be closed and I know a lot of those are smaller issues but but when you start to learn that's a

1:03:04

learned behavior like we start to teach there's no accountability

1:03:09

um and and then and then really I think it's not honoring the rights of victims who

1:03:14

um the victims the Tennessee voices for victims is a great advocacy group I met with them they hosted a mayoral debate

1:03:20

for us when I called their founder before the Forum I said what what do we

1:03:25

need to know and she said no mayoral candidate has ever called me that that called me she's she's founded this 20

1:03:31

years ago and they were just like completely floored you know and it was like like

1:03:37

if the purpose of our criminal justice system is to prevent victims like somehow we've missed it to your point

1:03:43

because we're um you know maybe worrying too much

1:03:49

about the rights of the criminal and I'm not saying that they don't have rights but I'm saying the pendulum maybe needs

1:03:55

to come back to the middle yeah sure I mean it's uh it seems like even with the

Views on the role of youth in Nashville's future

1:04:00

policing I'm interested to see what you think about the police in Nashville um I anyone who steps up to be a cop now

1:04:08

I mean they've they've got some guts because they're um you know they're they're abused now and the media they're

1:04:14

they're demonized in many ways uh by a lot of people and I thought it was good like uh I mentioned this yesterday I

1:04:21

thought I didn't uh when we had cops wear cameras because it helped it held them accountable and they if they were

1:04:27

doing something wrong it was shown but what it's really showed me too is how much they're abused yeah and like you

1:04:33

know they're human beings and they're being screamed at spit at fought you know all these different things and they

1:04:38

have to make very quick decisions sometimes and um you know what would you do uh what would be your approach to

1:04:45

crime in Nashville with the police force well first um it would be uh to ask Chief Drake to

1:04:52

stay I think one of the hardest things in an urban police force is to have a police chief that has the Public's Trust

1:04:59

and particularly after Covenant particularly after the heroics of those

1:05:07

men but also his empathy towards the families his recognition of Faith

1:05:14

um I think that families all over the county say that that's that's a police chief I can trust and so I think Step

1:05:19

One is asking him to stay and then I think it is what you were saying it's a difference in the attitude at the top so

1:05:26

I've never worn a uniform but my husband did for 20 years he was in the United States Army and so I think uniquely in

1:05:33

the race as a military spouse I think I see that that act of service is serving

1:05:40

other people first and I see our First Responders Chief Swan and the fire department and also Chief Drake and the

1:05:48

police I I see them first as serving us right and I know that the decisions that

1:05:53

they're act asked to make are not all black and white they are very gray people are spitting at them right these

1:05:59

other things are happening I would continue to ask that we follow what

1:06:05

we're doing now really well and I think that the nation sees how quickly we release our body warrant camera you saw

1:06:10

like in Memphis or days go by more days that go by the more doubt comes in the harder it is to be a police chief when

1:06:18

you lose the Public's trust right and so keep doing that though in the question of oversight a new state law will mean

1:06:25

that this next mayor and hopefully it's me Will appoint seven people to that board that should be a balanced board

1:06:31

but their their function should really be around accountability to the now right now I think one of the challenges

1:06:38

of the community oversight board it is going back so far and if the goal for oversight and citizens oversight is to

1:06:45

quickly adjudicate matters to take what's happening today and feed that feedback back to the front line like how

1:06:50

are we getting better based on what we're learning not how are we going back years and years and you know making

1:06:56

officers kind of feel like oh are they gonna you know I'm gonna somebody's gonna get mad about something

Final thoughts and closing remarks

1:07:01

for seven years ago like what do I need to know today the situations have changed today

1:07:06

um so so I will look forward to appointing that board um and I do believe

1:07:12

um that we can be the best Urban police force in America and I think we have to think of that the same way as an asset

1:07:18

to the city um that that we want the best like look at the Special Forces right the best men

1:07:25

and women want to be with the best men and women and they want to be work somewhere that they feel supported and

1:07:31

that they feel like what they do matters and so um you know I I did not earn the

1:07:37

fop's endorsement um I think there were they they called me and we had a nice talk about that but I

1:07:43

was the only candidate for every single meeting that was open when they hadn't endorsed someone to go to those meetings

1:07:49

I was the only candidate four days after Covenant to go not to say anything except for thank you and that I think is

1:07:56

just a different I I just think um you know I know one of the officers said well other candidates sort of worry

1:08:03

about the baggage that comes with us and I'm like what baggage is that like you're suiting up and wearing a uniform and trying to help us so I I don't I

1:08:10

don't see it as baggage I see it as um as pretty important that people feel like officers feel like that's a police

1:08:17

force I want to go to and we have to let officers do their job right I think that there is a lot of confusion now as if I

1:08:24

arrest one type of a person they're not going to be prosecuted if I rest another type of person they are

1:08:31

um and I and I also you know said to Glenn Funk we got to stop the Catch and Release right I mean our jails went to

1:08:38

see Sheriff Hall we used to book in a hundred people a day now we do 60. there's not less

1:08:43

people here there's not less crime but if you are an officer where when you bring someone in they are released the

1:08:49

next day for sometimes fairly violent crimes you start to think what am I doing so we also have to let police do

1:08:56

their job and we have to hold people accountable and we have to say Thank you

1:09:01

so yeah the the releasing people my property manager I was telling me about

1:09:07

his weddings coming up in September he was in Krogers and uh this is about gosh

1:09:12

a year year and a half ago a guy randomly in the line turns around starts trying to stab him and he had been let off of a homicide

1:09:20

charge the day before and uh I mean it was all over the news he got cut his finger bad uh luckily he blocked the

1:09:27

knife coming at him and uh you know to find out the guy was released from a homicide it's like what you know what

1:09:34

are we doing yeah the green the lady who was shot she was a medical student running I think it was in February uh

1:09:40

the guy had been twice arrested for pretty violent crimes within the previous 90 days and almost immediately

1:09:47

released yeah that's just so again the rights of the victim how are we not creating another victim how are we

1:09:53

honoring the person who was just victimized by creating an appropriate sentence by removing that person from

1:10:00

you know getting them maybe the help that they need and and I do know that aspects of sheriff Hall's uh you know

1:10:06

mental health units and places that somebody does have to voluntarily agree to go there

1:10:13

um and we don't have enough mental health beds broadly I do believe in this next legislative session and that there

1:10:19

is State legislation coming that should should help quite a bit like 100x the

1:10:24

current number of mental bad Health beds that we have now um yeah but but I do I think people

1:10:31

start to sense that if no one is held accountable yeah you're going to stand in the line at

1:10:36

Kroger and be scared somebody's going to turn around and stab you that's not enough somebody we grew up and that's not in Nashville you want your kids to

1:10:42

grow up there absolutely not so we can definitely do better than that yeah uh we got to wrap up here a minute I want to go over the uh the stadium and the

1:10:49

East Bank project what is your position on that with your views yeah well again in the taking the Baton where it's

1:10:56

passed I was not in the city Council it did pass two-thirds the folks passed um I think at my job at this point as

1:11:03

the mayor is to get that built with the most uh help we can from the state if

1:11:09

they put in a third of the dollars for actually financing the stadium and yesterday the Sports Authority

1:11:15

um issued the bonds the 760 million dollars of Sports Authority bonds so

1:11:20

what I think about is how do I bring to bear uh the asset that we have now 80 acres I appreciate that we brought that

1:11:28

land back under Metro control that we now own it right and so that means I I

1:11:33

think how am I going to maximize the revenue how am I going to think about getting TDOT and others to help with

1:11:41

creating that Transit spine that should help quite a bit on this side of town and broadly and then how do I get built

1:11:49

things that the city needs affordable housing one but also Revenue producing properties that can help pay for that

1:11:57

and how you know and how at this point do we get that stadium open event so I see it as an opportunity for um

1:12:04

you know to make sure that we make good on the projections that we built that stadium for and that then we also build

1:12:12

out now that that land is under City control things that we can't do typically we can't require levels of

1:12:18

affordable housing and private developments but we're the landlord now we can require that so yep yeah so I'm

1:12:25

looking forward to it it's going to be a big it's a project yeah yeah another project this is a project yeah two more

1:12:31

questions and I know we got to go um uh the affordable housing and for instance like the The Envision Casey

1:12:38

project would you still be continuing uh you know to finish that or uh what would

1:12:44

be your plan on that you know I don't I three quarters of the way done things if

1:12:50

the financing is in place we should carry it out right I don't think there's a reason to pull pull the plug out same with a funding for homelessness the 50

1:12:56

million dollars so it's only about a quarter deployed why would you stop when you're part part way done yeah that was

1:13:03

actually my last question I wanted to bring it up uh I just found this out like 3 000 Metro school kids are

1:13:10

homeless we've got to do something about that that's not okay how do we oh do you have

1:13:16

an idea of how we can start to fix that problem yeah well it's built I mean it's we we as a city

1:13:23

set aside more coveted relief money than any other City to tackle homelessness

1:13:28

which I appreciate so but only about a quarter of that those dollars have actually been deployed to build more

1:13:33

permanent Supportive Housing um so I I mean I and and the new homeless impact division that's been

1:13:39

built um office within Metro I've heard actually yesterday met with the folks

1:13:44

from brookmead Park the homeless encampment that was you know closed and to actually think that we're going in

1:13:51

the right direction they're sent to because there are a lot of children living there as well

1:13:57

um and and I think it's another area that we can bring to bear both Federal and

1:14:02

State dollars you know it was a real tragedy that our state was ranked number

1:14:08

one for not deploying Tana funds those are temporary assistance to needy families so

1:14:14

um there is now about three quarters of a billion dollars for temporary assistance and needy families working its way through

1:14:21

um and and I think what we've what we've got to do is to say at the school site our our families aware of the

1:14:29

availability of those dollars and then how do we think about getting kids and families first in line for that

1:14:34

permanent housing as it comes online wow yeah so that's a lot of money for that oh it is yeah yeah go Google that'll

1:14:41

make you really sad um somebody somewhere along the way decided it was a good idea to not spend

1:14:47

it and then we ended up with three years of a single year fund balance wow I'm kind of like not you can see I'm

1:14:53

like all about the money I'm like where's the money how are we going to match the money how are we gonna make sure we use the money uh performance

1:14:59

manage the dollars so that we can if we don't spend it well if we just you know if we don't spend it well we're not gonna get it again yeah yeah well it's

1:15:06

just when you got when we have 3 000 kids I mean it breaks my heart that we would have that that you know yeah that

1:15:11

money needs to go out and somebody needs to be held accountable if they don't get it out because I mean that's uh that's

1:15:17

these kids lives you know getting uh meals every night yeah yeah and you you

1:15:22

know and you shouldn't be punished for being poor no and and we have programs to do that look this I you know I'd say

1:15:29

this uh as well right for everything that Tennessee doesn't get right um we became the first state in the

1:15:35

country to pay for Community College two years Tennessee promise right we did that we did that without raising taxes

1:15:42

by reallocating um dollars The Hope Scholarship as you know the four-year scholarship that

1:15:48

people weren't necessarily finishing it and so we kind of backward mapped this was in the Haslam Administration and figured out how you could use those

1:15:55

Lottery dollars and support two years of free community college for everyone this

1:16:00

Governor's budget just now through really smart work by a lady named Lauren Barca who I've met with a couple of times

1:16:06

um here's a problem we don't pay no federal programs pay for diapers for low-income

1:16:13

families and it's a failure right of of all of these Federal programs you say like why

1:16:19

can you not use those things for diapers EBT SNAP all these different programs can you use that for diapers that's

1:16:25

crazy right so they're 250 000 babies roughly uh under the age of two covered

1:16:31

on 10 care they went through and did the math and said the filings for urinary

1:16:36

tract infections for diaper rashes for babies and how much we were spending but also the difficulty those families were

1:16:44

having that that baby was crying through the night in a wet diaper right like the pain that they got to bring that child

1:16:50

in and then looked at it and said how much would it actually cost for us just to provide diapers and so this budget is

1:16:56

paying for half the diapers I think probably similar to 10 care I mean to Tennessee promise once they figure out

1:17:02

the throughput I'm pretty confident it'll be 100 but we always like to say like under promise over deliver but

1:17:08

Tennessee is the first state to do that why is that right so I so I think that we've got homeless children here in

1:17:13

Davidson County we probably probably have them in the rest of the state too of course we do the state has 16 billion

1:17:20

dollars unallocated last year meaning our actual revenues that are allocated our recurring revenues we're collecting

1:17:25

that much more so how do we walk in the door and say we need more mental health Beds which they're already working on

1:17:32

how do we say what are additional supports that we need for families and children in particular experiencing

1:17:37

homelessness how do we do that and I think it's walking in and not saying I hate you but it's saying like I got 20

1:17:43

000 babies now in Davidson County that are going to do better because of that so who else you know who else can I help

1:17:49

and who can I bring with me um to figure it out so we're going to do it you're going to help me figure out AI

1:17:55

for cars and like some kind of testing thing and all these smart there's so

1:18:00

many on this campaign who meet so many smart everyday Nashville people they

1:18:06

don't have a title you know I know everybody makes a big deal about who's endorsing who they don't have titles

1:18:11

they never held elected officials and they love this city and they know that we can do better we can we can

1:18:17

absolutely yeah well thanks for that do you have anything in closing you want to send to people well just ask early

1:18:22

votings through July 29th um election day is August 3rd I would love to have the opportunity to earn

1:18:28

your vote um if I if I can't earn your vote I would like your prayers because it's

1:18:34

been a journey and um yeah and and I'm glad to be here so

1:18:39

thank you awesome well thanks for uh for coming on the podcast