Making the Case
And a political career, too
By Liz Murray Garrigan
In the midst of a mayoral race involving candidates who are scrambling to find relevance, a sense of community interest in their causes, or anything else to hang their political hats on, one young politico may have found the issue everyone else has overlooked.
At-large Metro Council member Chris Ferrell, a first-termer now running for re-election in August’s countywide races, is not even 30 years old. He could pass for a freshman frat boy. But, in the wake of the affordable housing summit he hosted last week, his reputation is growing even more solid. Ferrell is managing to pull together constituencies not often found in the same room. His idea isn’t novel—that is, to create enough affordable housing in Nashville to meet the needs of lower-income Nashville families who either live in substandard housing or who spend a disproportionate share of their income on housing costs. That’s a $600 million goal over 10 years.
What is new is Ferrell’s political mastery of the effort. The assemblage last week at Ferrell’s housing summit, for example, numbered nearly 300 people at one point, including Mayor Phil Bredesen, two of the current mayoral candidates, about 10 Metro Council members, dozens of social-service-minded people, and sought-after national experts on the topic. What’s more, there is what appears to be genuine cooperation and support from the Metro Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) about stepping up Nashville’s efforts.
While much of MDHA’s work involves affordable housing, the efforts aren’t sweeping enough to keep up with the growing need. Beyond that, the agency, led by the notoriously cantankerous Gerald Nicely, gets more attention for its sometimes overly aggressive development deals downtown than it does for improving the housing landscape across Metro.
Nicely, though, like Bredesen and many others in Nashville, appears to be a sympathetic character in the deal. And Bredesen even went so far last week as to say that, were he running for a third term, he would take up affordable housing as one of his mayoral projects.
Ferrell is one of those local political figures who’s managed to avoid being pigeonholed. Much like the more experienced outgoing district Council member Stewart Clifton, Ferrell has maintained relationships despite taking positions that could have proven to be politically adverse.
Like Clifton, Ferrell had the courage to vote against the stadium deal, but he still managed to keep peace with Bredesen and his office and is now leveraging the mayor’s influence to further his own issue. Meanwhile, those who showed questionable political savvy—Council members Eric Crafton and Lawrence Hart, for example—were vilified for their anti-stadium stances and, from there on out, were cast not as independent thinkers but as consistent contrarians.
For the issue-minded, Ferrell’s summit was significant because it foreshadows improvements and growth in affordable housing in Nashville. For the politically minded, the summit means Ferrell’s got a hook for his hat.
Candidate Corker
Among the speakers at last week’s affordable housing summit was former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Corker, who co-founded an affordable housing initiative in Chattanooga more than 10 years ago.
Corker told the story of the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, which constructed 4,500 affordable housing units at a total cost of $150 million over 10 years. At one point, Corker described the compellingly sad situation of two high school brothers in Chattanooga who lived with their mother and her boyfriend in an unheated, one-room apartment. As Corker told the audience about the crude hole in the floor the family used as a bathroom, he started to lose his composure and fought back some tears.
The sentiments were clearly genuine, and one couldn’t help but think such an impromptu display of emotion is precisely the kind of characteristic that would make Corker an attractive candidate were he interested in running for governor in 2002.
Corker, Gov. Don Sundquist’s former commissioner of finance and administration, seems absorbed with business and family interests right now. But it’s widely believed that Corker will run for governor in 2002. Before he left the governor’s office several years ago, there was even talk among legislative Democrats and other party influentials across the state about recruiting Corker to their party. That talk could surface again.
As the Scene has predicted before, Corker may, after all, be the only candidate in Tennessee both parties want to nominate.
To reach Liz, call her at 244-7989, ext. 406, or e-mail her at liz@nashvillescene.com.
As the Scene has predicted before, Corker may, after all, be the only candidate in Tennessee both parties want to nominate.
To reach Liz, call her at 244-7989, ext. 406, or e-mail her at liz@nashvillescene.com.
