Luke Elliott and Sandy Ewing, candidates to represent District 34 on Metro Council
With term-limited Metro Councilmember Angie Henderson making a bid for vice mayor, District 34 will see a faceoff between seventh-generation Nashvillian Luke Elliott and 20-year resident Sandy Ewing. District 34 is situated at the southern edge of Davidson County; it includes Forest Hills, Edwin Warner Park and Vaughn’s Gap, and stretches north to Green Hills.
Elliott, a financial analyst, tells the Scene his greatest asset to voters would be his ability to mediate the relationship between the city and the state.
“The biggest issue that the council faces is that they are having all these blockades with the state,” Elliott says, citing relationships he formed while attending the University of Tennessee.
“I think our district in particular needs somebody who can negotiate, and I can get meetings with these people,” Elliott says. “I’m not going to grandstand on social issues and things like that. I am a Republican, but I mainly am a numbers guy — that’s what I do for a living.
“I want to preserve the culture of Nashville,” he continues, “not just in our district but in other districts, and I want to enforce zoning laws — I don’t think they’re being enforced properly. I want to make sure developers can’t ransack our communities, and I want to make sure that we act in a fiscally responsible manner, and I don’t think we’re doing that right now. That’s not to kick the current council in the pants, but I just don’t think there’s strong enough leadership and an understanding of municipal bonds and zoning laws.”
Elliott’s campaign website lists issues including collaborating with community organizations, the city and law enforcement to “address the root causes of crime,” and working to make sure communities benefit from tourism. He says he’s seen a shift in “modesty and politeness” in Nashville and sees unsustainable growth as one of the biggest challenges in the city’s future.
“Right now it seems like there’s a bunch of trust-fund babies moving in with Range Rovers, building massive houses, and that’s just not the Nashville I know,” Elliott says. “I’m talking about focusing more on the people that live here, rather than tourism, rather than huge projects.”
Meanwhile, Ewing’s main campaign issues include traffic-calming measures, stormwater management, protecting greenspaces, supporting increased police presence throughout the district, investment in public transportation and the addition of more sidewalks. Her campaign website also lists “resilience” among the issues she’s focused on, calling for “collaborating, coordinating and maintaining transparency in how the mayor’s office, council and city functions work together as stewards of Nashvillians’ tax dollars.”
According to her site, Ewing currently works in the private sector on sustainable military housing. She tells the Scene she’s married to a ninth-generation Nashvillian, and moved to the area to be near family. Over the past 20 years she’s seen the population boom and with it an increase in traffic and development, continued growth that she says is inevitable in Nashville.
“I think that a lot of that development has been done with developers taking the lead,” Ewing says. “Sometimes that has worked out fine, and sometimes I think that it would have been nice to have more input from the community and more guidance from Metro, from the council and the mayor’s office.
“As we grow,” she continues, “we need to make sure that we do so in a way that is sustainable, economically, environmentally, socially, that pays attention to issues like providing affordable housing for our first responders, for our musicians, for our artists, for people who are at lower income brackets and need options close by where they work, so that they can live in Nashville proper, because that’s better for everyone.
“I think that Nashville’s strength is its diversity, the vibrancy of the artistic community,” says Ewing. “We’re called Music City for a reason, so I think we need to hang onto the people who make our city shine.”
All 40 Metro Council seats are up for election, and early voting begins in one month
