On Ice, But Not Dead

Though the Nashville Metro Council established a county-wide LPR program over a year ago, the process has been delayed since the new administration took office last September. After four years of debate, countless public discussions, and a successful LPR pilot program last summer, Mayor O’Connell elected to further extend deliberations by holding three more community conversations in April. While some have interpreted the slow-walk as an indication that the mayor hopes to prevent the program from ever coming on line, O’Connell assured the press that couldn’t be further from the truth.

During Friday’s media roundtable, things got dicey when Fox17’s Dennis Ferrier confronted the mayor about the delay. After pointing out O’Connell’s commitment to “using technology and precision policing strategies to keep neighborhoods safe,” Ferrier brought up “the elephant in the room”: LPRs. The mayor was quick to cut him off: “I’d say that’s your perspective.” Weathering a few more interruptions, the veteran reporter laid bare the devastation in wake of recent shootings and cited Chief Drake’s continued endorsement of LPRs. O’Connell ended their tit for tat saying that his administration is “very aware of the violent crime incidents," and is hoping to “find the right balance between privacy and security.”

Given that LPRs aren’t popular among progressives, we thought it fair to ask the mayor whether pushing their installation past the upcoming transit vote was a strategy of convenience. “This was not part of our plan,” said O’Connell, before shifting the blame to MNPD. “We thought we were going to be moving more quickly. We just got the feedback back this week, so we are intending to move forward. So I can say very clearly that it is not dead.”

“First we were told the delay was procurement, now it’s MNPD? MNPD has been begging for this technology for years, so a delay at their hands is doubtful,” said a frustrated Courtney Johnston following the roundtable. “Besides, any tweaks in the policy—which are not necessary at all and just another excuse for delay—have nothing to do with the approval of vendor contracts. MNPD executes the contracts, not the vendors. Additionally, the mayor failed to fund LPRs in this year's operating budget. So that will be the next excuse, I predict. And, by the way, there is money available.”

Though O’Connell denied intentionally delaying LPR installation in an attempt to placate possible transit voters, there’s no doubt that council members in league with Mayor O’Connell’s “Choose How You Move” initiative aren’t looking forward to addressing the issue in the future. In fact, it seems some may even know a bit more about the LPR timeline than the mayor has publicly disclosed. Last week, District 14’s Jordan Huffman urged his colleagues against delaying the vote for a contract to establish a surveillance camera network. “It…starts to bump up to the legislative calendar of some other very hot button items if we do a two meeting deferral,” he warned, insinuating the pending struggles the council will face over LPR legislation. “So I just would ask you to give a little grace to all of us as we're about to enter some tough conversations.”

Orchestrated or not, the LPR program has effectively been put on ice until after the election—though some fed up Nashvillians have elected to bypass the charade and install their own LPRs. In the meantime, O’Connell only has to keep his plates spinning for two more weeks until after all the votes are in; luckily for him, he doesn’t have a media roundtable this Friday. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🪧 The New Civil War A recent opinion from a Nashville judge could set a new precedent regarding petitions to rename streets in Tennessee. Two weeks ago, Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal overruled the Tennessee Historical Commission’s citation of the Heritage Protection Act that prevented Forest Hills from changing street names inspired by the Civil War era. You may recall a similar battle over Forrest Avenue., which took place in East Nashville a year ago. Now Forest Avenue, an “r” was dropped despite there being no evidence that Forrest Avenue was named after Confederate States Army general Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

🏘️ Rent in Nashville Decreases Real estate prices are slightly down, but mortgage payments are still leaving Middle Tennesseans feeling pinched. “Median sales prices still feel expensive considering that prices have increased by 44 percent since January 2021 and 6 percent within the past year,” explained MTSU Associate Professor Michael Peasley in a recent Tennessee Housing Market Report. In August, the amount of time Tennessee homes remained listed on the market increased by 12 percent.

Meanwhile, rent in Nashville continues to drop faster than in any other city in America. “You kind of have Nashville getting hit with a double whammy of a record amount of apartments supply, hitting all at the same time, as well as the seasonal cooling off that we see with rent prices,” Joel Sanders of Apartment Insiders told WKRN. 

📹 Frontier Mentality Fed up with the dilly-dallying, some Nashville residents are planning to install their own LPRs. "...We feel like we are threatened in our own community," Bart Smith, member of the Harborview HOA board, told Fox17. Tired of waiting for Metro to deliberate over initiating the LPR program that was established over a year ago, Smith said the yearly $2,500-per-camera investment is a small price to pay for safety.

DEVELOPMENT

• Restaurateurs to open second restaurant in Sylvan Park (NBJ)
• One City-area property listed for sale (Post)
• Pinewood Social owner buys in Sylvan Park (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 Farmer's Wife @ The Blue Room, 7p, $20.72, Info

🪕 The Shedhouse Trio @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

🎸 Matthew Welde @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $5, Info

🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.