Bellevue Resident Views Charlie Tygard's "Edible" Intentions as Suspect

CM-at-large Charlie Tygard consistently panders to the Bellevue community he once represented, and his latest pipe dream for them (the rest of constituents-at-large can go to hell) is an "edible garden" project for Bellevue Middle School. A long-time community opponent expressed her suspicion at the Bellevue Exchange Club-linking City Paper last week:

I am sure that this is just another political ploy on Tygard's part. For instance, the Bellevue reporter for the Tennessean wrote a couple articles several months ago about Tygard's desire to build a new high school in Bellevue. He stated that he wanted it built on the Hill tract of land; however, he failed to mention that The Friends of Warner Parks have been very publicly raising money to purchase this tract for years now. (This particular tract of land contains an old-growth forest with trees estimated to be 200 years old.) When the Tennessean reporter was notified of this situation, the articles on Tygard's "proposal" suddenly stopped and, as far as I can tell, Tygard has not publicly made another mention of a high school being built on this plot of land since then. It is pretty clear to me that Tygard's only goal in this situation was to build up his political "clout". He had to have known the importance of the Hill tract and been aware of the efforts of The Friends of Warner Parks to purchase it because he has lived in Bellevue for years and was one of Bellevue's Council reps for several years as well. (His most recent term ended in 2007.) So it is pretty clear to me that his sole purpose in proposing a high school on this particular plot of unavailable land was PR.

And let's not forget how Charlie got a bill passed in the Council a few years ago to have an ILLEGAL (per state law) landfill put in the old McCrory rock quarry--the same quarry that some of his developer friends/campaign contributors wanted to purchase. (He advertised the landfill as a "land reclamation project".) Once the community found out about the true purpose of the project, the outcry against the proposal was deafening. Oh yes, and he is still pushing the LED issue in the Council, against the better judgment of countless neighborhood groups and individual citizens.

About the above article, Charlie has done some "favors" for Bellevue Middle School in the past, but if he wants to be a true friend to our community, why is he not providing help to HG Hill Middle School and Hillwood High School--schools for which many of Bellevue's children are zoned? Oh yes, I forgot, Tygard's daughter doesn't work at those schools, just Bellevue Middle.

I am sick and tired of Charlie's disservice to our community and, especially, to Bellevue. When is he going to put the needs of our community above the needs of himself and his developer friends? Besides, he is supposed to represent the entire city now, not just Bellevue. There are many people here in Bellevue who would like nothing more than for him to just leave us alone. The only saving grace about him being elected to an at-large position is that now he has P.O.ed countless people across Nashville with his antics. Maybe now that he has shown his true colors to the entire city he will never be elected to any political position ever again. Here's hoping.