Twenty-one candidates qualified to run for at-large seats on the Metro Council.
The campaign for at-large is unique. Because the top five vote-getters win, candidates typically remain positive, and surprising candidates can sneak into the winners’ circle.
Early voting for Metro Council and mayoral elections starts July 14, with Election Day following Aug. 3. A runoff, if needed, would come in September.
Our latest Q&A with an at-large candidate features Jeff Syracuse, the two-term District 15 councilmember who has represented the Donelson and Opry Mills area for eight years. Syracuse’s day job is in the music industry at Broadcast Music, Inc.
Previously, we spoke with candidates Burkley Allen, Russ Pulley, Quin Evans Segall and Marcia Masulla. This interview has been edited for length.
Where do we stand on Red River? What else does Metro need to do?
We've definitely made considerable improvement. It almost got to a point where it seemed like Red River was too big to fail, so to speak, and that was part of the problem. I can't say enough to the hard work that Metro Legal did to strengthen the contract [and] allow for multiple contractors to step in to do the work. I believe the contract goes through the end of 2024, so at that time we can really put in the more comprehensive contract that recognizes multiple carriers so we aren't dependent on one and make sure any contractor's got the capacity to grow with us.
Why has preserving music venues become a priority for you?
We need a healthy music ecosystem in this city and across this whole county. We are seeing that musicians and songwriters have taken a one-two punch over the years. When the whole digital revolution began in the late '90s, early 2000s, we saw the stark decline of the working songwriter to be able to make it because of the reduced royalties. Then our rapid growth and development in the 2010s of not being able to afford to live here anymore, increase in property values stemming from that rapid growth and development. You've got increased corporatization of music venues. We've got to not take ourselves for granted anymore and be more proactive.
But why have you personally become invested in this? Exit/In was a big one, and that's not in District 15.
I came to this city to finish up my music degree at MTSU and get into a career supporting creatives. It is a piece of my own DNA of supporting creatives and supporting musicians and making sure they've got all the tools they need to be successful. I've seen the change of Music Row, Elliston Place, Jefferson Street a long time ago, even now downtown, where we had functional neighborhoods that support creatives. We're losing those. You've heard the quip that we're changing Music Row into Condo Row. Well, it's true. Out of my office window, I'm looking out at an 18-story apartment building where I couldn't put five songwriters in the smallest one. It's an example of our affordable housing crisis but specific to this critical sector of our economy. We've got to focus on it. It's a piece of our DNA, and certainly a piece of mine.
The effort to create this music commission seemed to be weirdly contentious. Why was that? Was that a misperception?
No, it wasn't a misperception. I had been working on this really ever since I've been elected. The Music City Music Council had some great successes. Especially during the times of instability in the mayor's office, we learned that this was a program that, unless it was a sustainable priority of the mayor's office, then it wasn't going to get the attention and resources that it needed. You can also say that the Music City Music Council, at one point it became a vehicle for driving tourism and the brand "Music City," and it was not focused on the critical needs of supporting the creatives. I was taking a bottom-up approach trying to gather those in the industry to take a hard look at what worked, what didn't and then how can we sustain it going forward. Ultimately, a couple other colleagues had some ideas, legislation was filed a couple different times, and what did transpire was I put together a compromise that was accepted by the lead sponsor. I didn't want perfect to be the enemy of the good. We have the opportunity now to seek the commissioners. The first goal of the commissioners is going to be to write a job description of the director that will sit in the mayor's office. No matter who's mayor, you've got a stable connection there. Hopefully when our new mayor takes his or her seat, we'll be ready with seated commissioners, a job description and moving forward with hiring the first director-level position in the mayor's office and move on from there.
Does it take away from issues that apply to a wider swath of the city to focus so much on entertainment?
It's important to recognize, for example, that affordable housing is a crisis across the board. Obviously it impacts teachers, nurses, municipal workers, our public safety officials. It affects everybody across the board. It should absolutely not take away from our focus as Metro government about an equitable solution for affordable housing and support for small business. Of course, we're Music City. We've got to make sure we protect our brand, our identity, our culture. I hear you. It doesn't have to take away from any other effort supporting anybody else who needs affordable housing. But the industry does need to step up and support us with specific solutions, such as Ryman Lofts.
Are you supporting anyone for mayor? What do you want to see from the person who wins?
I'm not endorsing anybody for mayor. No matter who is elected I'm going to try very hard to work well with whomever it is. I don't want politics to get involved in that. I don't think it's appropriate for me to endorse. I'm looking for a mayor that's got some level of institutional knowledge about where we've been. I'm also looking for somebody who's got some level of experience with understanding the changing face of our neighborhoods and has some experience being able to lead and support neighborhoods. In years past, you've seen neighborhoods politicized for gain as opposed to really understanding how to build strong communities from the bottom up. We have all sorts of different kinds of communities and neighborhoods across the county, and I would like to see a mayor who puts strong resources into supporting the good balance of growth and preservation of our neighborhoods and communities as they change.
With so few bars allowing smoking indoors, why did you think a ban was such an important thing to pursue?
It sets strong policy towards ensuring the health of our musicians and hospitality workers. There isn't a need for it anymore. The data is crystal-clear that when you remove smoking from inside your business, your revenues will go up. With just a little bit of creative marketing, you're going to attract people that otherwise would not come to your establishment. I even gave it a six-month grace period in order for that business to figure out if they needed to add a little overhang so that somebody could step outside safely. I haven't heard of any issues with it thus far. We've got to do everything we can to protect the working environment of our musicians and hospitality workers. They are a huge piece of our economy. The benefits far outweigh the small inconvenience for smokers to step outside for a moment.
Should the city have another transit referendum?
Absolutely.
When, and what should it include?
We've got to learn from the past. Almost 70 percent of the county said no to the last referendum. It was basically those in the city said yes, those outside of the inner-loop basically said no. We are going to have to show how a regional transit plan will be scalable, how it will impact you if you live out in the county. It has to be a cohesive plan. It has to be a little more specific. We have to show what transit is going to be on your pike, and then how the cross connections are going to work. I hope we can tap into our regional partners a little more than they giving us a thumbs-up that they want Davidson County to pass a referendum. I would like to see a multi-county approach to multiple referendums so we can look at building out that regional network. For one example, if we can have a referendum that both Davidson and Wilson counties could take part in, we could immediately begin to work on the WeGo Star as being a real regional transit solution. I never want to leave the transit discussion without ensuring that we talk about affordable housing. We can't talk about one without the other. They are intrinsically linked. The work I've done around Donelson Station to try to find that chicken-and-the-egg scenario. Is it private development first, or is it public investment first? You have to do both. You have to be able to show that meaningful growth can happen around a transit hub that supports the investment publicly for that transit line. It does take that focused density around the transit line, and it's got to be affordable. We've got to return to figuring out how we're going to utilize that transit-oriented redevelopment district that I've tried to pass in my first term.
What’s going on with the WeGo Star? Why does it sometimes feel like it’s not a priority in the city’s transit efforts?
There is a study going forward about where other stops in Davidson County could be. I think about the Driftwood area just outside of downtown that is poised to really develop, and the Star line goes straight through there. If we are not developing with transit infrastructure at the forefront then we are losing a real opportunity. Between the state and Metro, we subsidize the WeGo Star to run during the week as a commuter train. We can't run it more than that. Outside of that, special events can happen with that $6,000 sponsorship. For the Taylor Swift concerts, it would have been a very small impact to the 70,000-a-night that was happening there, but it's not to say that we shouldn't do it. I've got some meetings coming up to look at the Taylor Swift concerts: Why was it not proactively pushed with the concert promoters? At every single opportunity, we've got to show that the Star can run, even if it's a small impact to the total number of visitors, it's still meaningful. I'm grateful CMA Fest is going to be running the train. We need to do more of that. The opportunities are there. The investment is nominal.
Do you feel good about how the license plate reader pilot is going? What are you looking for from the results of that?
I'm impressed that we have a dashboard that the public can look at daily about the data that we are getting from the pilot program. I'm very sensitive about the concern about the misuse of the data, especially to target some under-represented communities. This pilot program is going to hopefully show efficacy, that we are only using the data for its intended purpose. If that's the case, it could be a good, regular use to curb some crimes, stolen cars. That's why we're doing the pilot program. That's why we spent two years ensuring strong protections of public data.
How did you arrive at your position on the Titans stadium deal? How will you handle future deliberations about development on the East Bank campus?
You had two options. You had an existing stadium that was poorly constructed, that had an incredible amount of deferred maintenance that we were now going to have to encumber our capital spending plans that we use to fund critical needs of schools, sidewalks, affordable housing and the list goes on. The other option was to use performing debt, which is a revenue bond that does not impact our credit rating, and only utilizes new revenues to be able to support our piece of the debt to pay for the new stadium, which is a long-term revenue-generating asset that we will own. Our tenants are the Titans and the other large events, and those who use it will be the ones to help pay for it. The option of putting our general obligation debt, which is ultimately the Metro credit card, into a poorly built stadium, was not the best option for Nashville taxpayers. When I compared the two, when I looked at even the minimal amount of debt that we would have had to put into the existing stadium, versus the amount of debt via a revenue bond, a more performing debt tool, the options were clear to me. We are going to have a much better revenue-generating asset for the city long-term that we wouldn't have been able to achieve by putting general obligation debt into an older stadium. What I like about the new stadium option is it wasn't just based on a stadium. It was based on a really thoughtful East Bank plan that puts Nashville residents first.
You mentioned putting residents first with the East Bank plan. What exactly do you mean by that?
It's both about the general obligation debt that takes it off the Nashville-Davidson County property taxpayers, and it also looks at the opportunity that we have to recapture all of those parking lots that aren't serving us at all. With this conversion from a suburban stadium to an urban stadium, we can build an East Bank that does include affordable housing as part of it.
Is there a way for the council to be more involved in negotiations of this magnitude earlier in the process? You said there were two options, but the mayor presumably had many more than two options.
Ultimately, you either have to invest in your current stadium or you have a new stadium. Those are the two fundamental options. That is an excellent point about getting council more engaged in negotiations. That is a decision of the mayor, whether or not he or she wants to pull in some councilmembers, the vice mayor, and be part of negotiations on the front end. Would that be a good idea? Sure, absolutely. It would help to bring out some fundamental questions before any formal process starts. I like the bottom-up approach about engaging community first, having discussions, making sure everybody is speaking with one truth and the facts and then move on from there. Would it be advantageous to bring in electeds or community leaders on the forefront for large projects like this … I do think there would be a lot of value that would pay off in dividends as the formal process starts.
Is there a role for Metro to play in supporting or subsidizing child care?
Absolutely. Child care options has become almost a crisis in this city. I know of friends and neighbors who have signed up their child for child care the day they were born and are still on a waiting list. The cost of this is a critical issue as well. We need to find ways to utilize Metro resources to make certain incentives available so that as development happens we are putting the right kind of investments as part of these developments. We need to figure out how we use tax-increment financing for Main Street not for Wall Street, and this is a perfect example. If we can find a way to incentivize a developer to put a critical asset like child care as part of their development, then we absolutely need to figure out ways to do that.
Do you think the city has been successful in its efforts to clear camps and get people in housing? How should that be improved or changed?
This is a problem that did not pop up overnight, and we're not going to fix it overnight. I was riding my bike through town yesterday and I saw the progress of our first 90-unit transitional housing development, which seems over halfway complete. That is hopefully the first of robust investment towards addressing the homelessness issue. We certainly have had stumbling blocks. We have had a lot of learned experience from humanely addressing our encampments that we know cannot be there permanently, but we've got to take care of people first. You're now finally starting to see that we're picking up the pace of getting the right resources in there, because we've invested in the resources and the people to do it. We are finally starting to see the fruits of our labor. We've got the right people in place. We have now transitioned from a division to an actual office of homelessness. That will allow us to be competitive for federal grant funding, so we're not going to be in this alone. We've certainly taken some missteps, learned from our mistakes, but I do feel we are on the right path finally to being able to address that. I know neighbors want camps cleaned out immediately. They weren't formed overnight. We can't solve them overnight. But I share the frustration. We've got to do it right. It's just going to take time.
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