The announcement was no surprise. Murmurs of a referendum have circulated since well before Mayor Freddie O’Connell took office. As one of only four top 50 cities in the country without dedicated funding for transit, Nashville can only get dedicated funding through a referendum, which requires the mayor’s office to build out a plan and present it to the voters with a price tag attached.
In 2018, the $5.4 billion price tag on Mayor Megan Barry’s plan proved too much for Nashvillians to stomach, and 65 percent of voters said no. But concerns about traffic have only grown in the years since, with Nashville even topping a recent list of worst cities for commuting in the country, so the issue was at the top of voters’ minds when they elected O’Connell in September.
“Access to transit and commuting by bike were the keys to my own pathway to home ownership,” said O’Connell at a press conference Thursday morning where he announced his office’s decision to pursue a referendum. “More people deserve that opportunity. But my story shows how much of this isn’t about me. It’s about the people who live here and whether they can afford to stay here.”