Clement's Plan for Neighborhoods Is Not Enough

So Mayoral Candidate Bob Clement plans if elected to create a "Neighborhood Advisory Council" to meet with him once a month to "make Metro more responsive to neighborhoods." Given the strong executive branch that the Metro Charter defines along with the willingness of Metro Council to go its own way, I favor greater access to the Mayor's office, but there are flaws in Mr. Clement's idea.

One is that the Advisory Council will only consist of one representative from each of the 14 subareas. Each subarea is comprised of many neighborhoods with different needs. Our sub-area of North Nashville includes neighborhoods as diverse as East Germantown and Tomorrow's Hope. So, who would represent us and how could that person gather sufficient feedback from all of the neighborhoods to be effective for the entire sub-area? We need more progress in access to the Mayor than 14 people sitting down with the Mayor 12 times in a year. And we need to more far reaching plan than Mr. Clement offers.

This is progress over candidates like Buck Dozier or Howard Gentry, neither of whom seem to offer much beyond cursory steps on behalf of neighborhoods; but I am still waiting to see which candidate is going to claim the "Neighborhoods Mayor" mantle.