By Ronald W. Weathersby
Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has led the metropolitan area in a time of unprecedented growth in many areas. Under his guidance Metropolitan Nashville has shrugged off its small town persona and has assumed a place as one of America’s premier urban centers.
Dean is the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected on Sept. 11, 2007 and was re-elected on Aug. 4, 2011 with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. During that time Mayor Phil Bredesen chose him to serve on the Commission of Twelve, a specially formed crime prevention task force.
Dean served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007 under Mayor Bill Purcell, advising him on legal issues and bringing people together to solve problems. During his tenure as law director, Dean led the effort to revitalize neighborhoods by closing down over 30 massage parlors and other adult businesses that operated as houses of prostitution.
Upon learning of his selection the mayor expressed his appreciation.
“Thank you to the Tennessee Tribune for this recognition. I consider myself very fortunate to be Mayor of Nashville and to have the opportunity to work with many in the community as we make our city a better place.”
During his time in office, Mayor Dean has invested in schools, public safety and economic development — the three areas most important to the city’s continued success. While many other cities across the country have laid off police officers and cut schools due the economy, Nashville has done just the opposite under Dean’s leadership. The city’s has the largest police force in its history, and overall major crime is down. Mayor Dean has fully funded public schools every year, and the school district is seeing success with truancy rates going down and graduation rates going up. Additionally, Nashville’s top two private employers — healthcare and tourism — are thriving.
Since he was elected Dean has increased the Metro schools budget to $746 million, an increase of almost $150 million, or 25 percent. The city has also invested nearly $400 million in capital improvements to renovate, expand and build new schools during that same time period.
Public safety which, along with education and a strong economic base are the factors used to evaluate the livability of cities is another one of the mayor’s crowning achievements. The MNPD Academy trained and graduated 131 new officers during 2013, including the largest class since 1971. With Dean’s support, the police department is has filled its authorized 1,373 sworn positions. Additionally, through November 2013, violent crime in Nashville (murder, rape, robbery & aggravated assault) is down 8.6 percent when compared with the first eleven months of 2012. Homicide is down more than 30 percent through November. Property crime (burglary, larceny and auto theft) is down 4.9 percent.
The mayor has also managed one of the most prolific periods of economic development in Nashville’s history. The Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development working in partnership with the state and private groups has recruited new and expanding businesses to Nashville. Since the mayor took office, these efforts have led to 11,428 gross new jobs being created in Davidson County, representing private investments totaling almost $1.5 billion.
Construction in Nashville is booming. This month the mayor proposed a $65 million Sulphur Dell ballpark in North Nashville which was approved by the state and city. The development will greatly increase the financial viability of the Jefferson Street corridor, in ways not seen in decades. Two other planned developments adjacent to the new ballpark could generate nearly $100 million in investments.
Other massive projects include the $585 million 2.1 million square feet Music City Center. Additionally Dean spearheaded a move to bring true rapid transit to the region in the form of The Amp, a proposed 7.1-mile bus rapid transit system using dedicated lanes planned for one of Nashville’s major corridors.
In most cities the emergence of the Music City Center would have been the death knell for the Nashville Convention Center but the mayor is leading a groundbreaking transformation of the old convention center into a 1 million square foot plus development that will feature office, retail and restaurant space. It would also include underground parking and entertainment complexes.
The redesigned Convention Center will also include underground parking and entertainment complexes, including the new National Museum of African-American Music which Dean has taken a leadership role in developing and attracting critical financial backing.
During this expansion Dean along with Metro Councilmen Jerry Maynard, III and Lonnell Matthews, Jr. established the Procurement Nondiscrimination Program. Since its creation the Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance has greatly increased the number of certified minority and women-owned businesses from 30 to 496.
During the last four years, 19.5 percent of Metro’s total procurement spending has been with small, minority and women owned businesses. Additionally, Dean’s administration created legislation to reduce the bonding requirements for small and disadvantaged businesses and reduced Metro’s small business eligibility requirement to make it easier for true small businesses to qualify. Both of these improvements have worked to remove barriers to participation.
The downtown riverfront has long been blighted and severely underutilized. However, Dean’s plans on the west bank include construction of a flood wall along a new pedestrian promenade at the edge of First Avenue and developing a 12 acre park on the former Thermal Transfer Plant site which will include an amphitheater, green space and greenways. On the east bank, construction of a riverfront landing is part of a new 4.5-acre park in front of LP Field to include new green space, pedestrian and bike paths and access to the river for boaters. The new park and landing will connect with the 6-acre Cumberland Park play area just south of the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge.
Another initiative with far-reaching economic and quality of life ramifications is the 28th Avenue Connector that unite parts of West End with North Nashville, the one-third mile road connects 28th Avenue in North Nashville to 31st Avenue in West Nashville with a bridge spanning the CSX railroad that runs behind Centennial Park. The Connector creates a better line of traffic for several key destinations, including universities and hospitals. It serves the new University Connector cross-town bus route that connects six universities, including TSU, Meharry Medical College, Fisk University, Vanderbilt University, Belmont University and Lipscomb University, as well as important healthcare centers like HCA, Centennial Medical Center and Vanderbilt.
In the southern part of Nashville Dean has worked with community leaders, elected officials and private business interests to redevelop a portion of the old Hickory Hollow mall with an expanded branch library, new regional community center and park and a community ice rink and hockey center as part of the city’s mixed-use complex planned to open next summer.
Nashville has experienced an acute need for affordable housing and to address this need Mayor Dean Barnes Fund helped establish the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing which is an affordable housing trust fund that allows Metro to take a more active role in creating affordable housing, encouraging rehabilitation of existing homes, maintaining affordability and building mixed-use, mixed-income developments. Existing grants will be used to establish the fund with an initial $3 million, and, with ongoing investments, the fund is expected to generate 100 new affordable housing units and improve the affordability of an additional 200 existing units each year.
The list of Dean’s accomplishments is far too long to list but there is little doubt that the mayor has been an exemplary leader. Other outstanding programs include the Mayor’s Workplace Challenge, Mayor’s Challenge 5K Walk/Run, Open Space Initiative and The Office of Innovation.
Additionally Dean has reduced the administrative costs of Metro government while maintaining services.
The mayor says that Nashville’s growing population and economic base is a source of pleasure for him as the leader of one of the country’s fastest growing regions.
“One of the things I’m most proud of about Nashville is how welcoming and diverse it is,” Dean wrote in a statement.
Many will argue that much more needs to be done especially in North Nashville. But, even his critics must admit that so much has taken place in six fast-paced years. We believe the pace of growth and prosperity will continue in the future and we look forward to learning about new initiatives designed to address the economic and social needs of the historic North Nashville community in the next two years.
Undeniably Mayor Karl Dean has been a forceful and progressive voice for positive change in Nashville as he has held the reins of municipal government during one of the greatest eras in this city’s remarkable history.