'Gentrification Train': Activists Worry Nashville Transit Plan Will Drive Out Long-Timers

NASHVILLE, TN — Most Metro observers expected a push back against Mayor Megan Barry's $6 billion transit plan. A sales tax increase is part of the funding proposal — the mayor wants a Metro referendum on the ballot in May — and expected criticisms have already emerged among fiscal conservatives and others on the right.

But a group of protesters took to the streets from the Inglewood Public Library to Public Square Park with concerns from the left, in particular that the plan, which calls for a high-speed rail corridor along Gallatin Pike into East Nashville and Inglewood, will result in even more gentrification in neighborhoods that have already undergone rapid change.

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A coalition of anti-poverty activists, affordable housing activists and union members called the People's Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment issued a list of demands earlier this week it wants included in the nMotion transit proposal. To wit:

• 24-hour bus service.
• Expansion of bus service to neighborhoods with growing transit-dependent workers, including Antioch, Hermitage and Madison.
• No cuts to existing bus routes.
• Immediate construction of 31,000 low-income homes.
• All public funding for residential development connected to nMotion should be dedicated to those earning less than 60 percent of median household income.
• Don't sell any public property along transit corridors.
• Place all land taken through eminent domain in a 99-year land trust to prevent its sale to private developers.
• Allot public funding to maintain existing low-income housing in transit corridors.
• Only use construction contractors and subcontractors who pay a living wage and benefits.
• Dedicate city funds for certified apprenticeship programs targeting communities along transit corridors and Promise Zones.
• Pay a living wage to all rail employees, at least $15 per hour, and a right to unionize without retaliation.

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Tuesday, the group marched more than six miles down Gallatin Pike from the Inglewood library to the public square, calling the transit plan "the gentrification train."

"If they're going to take tax dollars to build something, they should be building 31,000 homes for low-income based people," Angelique Johnson told Fox 17.

The mayor's 2017-18 budget includes another $10 millon for the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing and sets aside $25 million to build and maintain existing affordable housing.

"Any transit project should place at the center of it transit equity and transit justice," Democracy Nashville's Sekou Franklin said, according to The Tennessean. "These are the concepts that we have to start emphasizing."

Franklin said that funding the plan through a sales tax is regressive, disproportionately effecting lower-income people, with no guaranteed benefit without a commitment on Metro's part.

“My concern with the nMotion plan is that it doesn’t spell out the way it is going to benefit the whole community as it stands right now. We are not against fixing the transit problems in Nashville, I agree that transit is a mess right now, we don’t want a $6 billion plan unless there are really explicit benefits for the whole community,” Lauren Plummer told News 2.

The bus drivers' union, among others, are worried that a pivot to higher-dollar, higher-profile transit priorities, like rail, will cut into funding for existing bus lines, though the nMotion plan does call for more bus routes running longer through the day

“Our biggest concern is making sure we keep the bus lines flowing. We have noticed in other cities, when they have installed rail lines, that it cuts out the bus routes,” driver Tamika Jones told WKRN.

"Promoting equity and affordability are top priorities of Mayor Megan Barry, and improved public transit options are a vital component of addressing inequality and making Nashville more affordable," mayor's office spokesman Sean Braisted said in a statement.

Image via Flickr user Ryan McGilchrist, used under Creative Commons