Friday, June 3, 2011
Phillips / Politics Renard Francois Meet-and-Greet: How to Make Davidson County Competitive with Williamson County
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 6:08 AM
Francois, whose Nashville roots go back a long way, already had the good sense to leave his adopted home of Peoria. Fun facts: Pekin, part of the greater Peoria metropolitan area, had a newspaper briefly owned by the Klan. Their school mascot until 1980 was — and I am not making this up — The Chinks. Evil white supremacist cult leader, murder solicitor and now prisoner Matthew Hale is from East Peoria. Peoria itself is famous for smelling like a whiskey distillery and being the home of Big Al's strip club. Can't imagine why he'd want to come home.
Anyway, I was curious to hear about Francois as a candidate.
Francois has a few obvious themes to his campaign — common sense, transparency, and accountability. He also stressed inclusivity and having an agenda that embraces everyone. He says he wants to focus on education, the economy, infrastructure, and improving the quality of life for all Nashvillians.
He had a nice take on that last issue: "We will never continue to be a great city, to be the city we hope to be, if we leave whole segments of our community behind."
He also talked about how he and his wife had considered moving to Williamson County for the educational opportunities it would provide their kid, but had decided they wanted to stay in Nashville. That led to an interesting discussion about how that's a calculation not only a lot of parents make, but a lot of businesses make — and how often Davidson County's loss is Williamson County's gain.
Francois was very realistic about the challenges of making Davidson County more appealing than Williamson County. He says it's not just going to be a matter of some quick solution, but will require having long-term goals and plans for how to improve education in Metro public schools. But he also seems to understand that even though we as a city need some long-range educational solutions, parents can't wait.
If it takes 10 years to really change our schools, that wouldn't be surprising. It's a huge and complex school system, and that would be a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things. But 10 years, when it's your kid in the system? It's too long. He spoke some about the parents of the kids at the Bridges Academy, who were so relieved to find a school their kids could attend where they weren't bullied for being bright. Asking kids like that to just wait for change means you're asking them to curtail their futures and risk their well-being.
I came away feeling Francois is a guy who knows Nashville and cares a lot about it, who understands the monumental complexities and challenges in steering a city into the future. He seems like a guy who can talk about nuanced issues from a lot of angles, which is refreshing.
But he's running against no fewer than five at-large incumbents, and as Joey Garrison points out, incumbent at-large council members in Nashville have never lost a bid for re-election. At the very least, he's got an uphill battle. But it's great to see him in the fight, raising these issues.
Comments (8)
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"It's a huge and complex school system..."
And that is the crux of the matter. Williamson county has a largely homogeneous upper, middle class student body and they simply don't have the challenges urban districts have. I have said, and will continue to say, that your kids can get just as good an education in Metro as Williamson. Mine are in Metro and we are happy with their education. Parents will continue to believe the perception, but there is not much you can do about that short of a public messaging campaign. The stats will never be as good because Metro has far more poor kids and kids from cultures where English is a second language. That is more a societal issue than a problem with the quality of the schools. It's why when Metro has had openings for their school director position in the past they don't look to people who run districts like Williamson to hire. They look for people who have experience in similar atmospheres with the same type of challenges.
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Hey Betsy,
In defence of Peoria: Why all the hate? Let's name several townships a stone throw from Nashville and see who wins the most racist suburb award. Not too long ago, Peoria produced more whiskey than any other city in the US. When you have the largest distillery in the world on your riverbank, you're going to smell some whiskey. Unfortunately, I have never been to Big Al's. But if it's famous, those farmer's daughters must be doing something right. Go Rivermen!
That being said, good luck to Renard. I look forward to hearing his take on the issues for the coming election and he will probably receive my vote. Common sense and transparency are something any government needs, and education is the most important and often overlooked key to any successful city.
Bradley, it's all in good fun. I passed many an evening in my youth watching the Rivermen play hockey while the strippers from Big Al's worked the crowd. Peoria's welcome to make fun of the shitholes I grew up in. I'll laugh along.
>> "We will never continue to be a great city, to be the city we hope to be, if we leave whole segments of our community behind."<<
Perhaps if certain "segments" got off their GD asses & picked up the trash in front of their residences, mowed their yards, quit drinking quarts of beer at 7am & ensured their kids went to school & not assaulted their teachers, then MAYBE those "segments" wouldn't be the cesspool they have become under 50 years of liberal welfare policies, eh? But, nah, that wouldn't be PC now, would it?
"Perhaps if certain "segments" got off their GD asses & picked up the trash in front of their residences, mowed their yards, quit drinking quarts of beer at 7am & ensured their kids went to school & not assaulted their teachers, then MAYBE those "segments" wouldn't be the cesspool they have become under 50 years of liberal welfare policies, eh? But, nah, that wouldn't be PC now, would it?"
More jumps in logic from the right. Of course, they hate it when a liberal uses a jump in logic. For instance: the high violent crime rate is because of the easy access to guns in this country. You can't say that (it's conservative political correctness) but you can say people not mowing their yards and drinking in the morning is the result of "liberal welfare policies." Nice try Gast, er Bobsguns.
He had a nice take on that last issue: "We will never continue to be a great city, to be the city we hope to be, if we leave whole segments of our community behind."
Exactly right. If you want to have a good community, you have to work at it. You can't expect outsiders to come in and solve your problems. Don't abandon your neighborhoods, make them vibrant and strong! We can do it!
