Belated Mayoral Information Does No Good, and Lack of Follow-up is Insult to Injury

Recently, there was a discussion on the Nashville neighborhoods list over the question of why so few leaders showed up to the Mayor's June 22 Night Out event for neighborhoods. One answer to the question was that not all neighborhoods are in the Mayor's communication loop. Then came the retort that said neighborhood leaders should sign up for the Mayor's e-newsletter.

Not so fast with that last retort. It really does no one outside of the Mayor's office any good to publish information on the Mayor's Night Out in the newsletter 4 days after the event. The previous e-newsletter listed no information on the June 22 event, and neither did the one before that. Here's the backlog of newsletters for your consideration. Publishing information about the Mayor's Night Out after the event is not a community-serving invitation, it's self-serving PR. Are our tax dollars spent wisely on an after-the-fact report?

And there remains questions over whether this event has lead to any demonstrated results or follow-up to neighborhood requests. Two community leaders on the Nashville Neighborhoods list expressed their dissatisfaction with the event. One commented that she came away with the sense that her concerns were not heard. Another south Nashville leader shared his disappointment that there was no follow-up over a week later on an overgrown vacant lot in his neighborhood. When I canvassed the Salemtown e-list to find out whether our expressed concerns had been addressed by Metro, I received an e-mail response off list this week that expressed concerns about crime to the Mayor had received no follow up since June 22. The only positive feedback that I've read is that Metro Transit did respond to a request to put a bench at its Meharry Hospital bus stop.

Please comment below or e-mail me with any feedback on whether the Mayor's office has followed up on its June 22 night out event. It would be rather shameful if the only follow up from the Dean administration is a bus stop bench.