Nashville residents who oppose a proposed plan to privatize parking have upped their game and have released a new YouTube video to encourage people to protest.
Nashville resident David F. Roberts said in an emailed statement that the video is part of a digital ad campaign to get his neighbors active on this issue.
In the video, Nashville resident Mike Johnson warns that everyone needs to learn about what Democratic Mayor David Briley and members of the Nashville Metro Council “are trying to rush forward that will cost us a lot of money.”
“In their latest crazy scheme, they want to take away free parking. They want to raise the price to park citywide by 20 percent. They want to double the cost of parking fines, and they want to add up to 5,000 new parking meters to charge more people more money for parking in our own neighborhoods. We were having dinner the other night with some friends, and I saw this parking meter scam come up on the news. When the reporter explained that the city is about to sell a 30-year contract selling our parking assets to an out-of-state company it just got me fuming, and I had to do something,” Johnson said.
“Together, a handful of us have worked to send thousands of letters to our friends and neighbors, and we’re trying to alert them that they better speak up against this bad parking meter deal before the council votes and before it’s too late. My message to the community is simple. If you don’t think our city government should cash in on decades worth of long-term income just to pay off this one-year’s overspending, and if you don’t think the city government should be taking even more money out of our pockets and if you don’t think that you should have to pay for parking on your own street, then you need to tell the mayor and your councilmen to stop this foolish plan. Ya gotta stop it, before it’s too late.”
As The Tennessee Star reported last week, these residents say city officials are rushing through the plan so they can get more money out of people’s wallets and help cover their past mistakes.
Roberts, who lives in Nashville Metro Council member Freddie O’Connell’s district, said city officials aren’t seeking feedback from residents.
Roberts said the plan will take away free parking, raise prices, and give an unaccountable, for-profit company police-like powers to issue tickets and fines against Nashvillians.”
“This long-term contract would pay for the amount Mayor Briley and our elected Councilmen overspent the budget THIS fiscal year. Think about that—we’ll have to pay new costs for one third of a century to make up for one year of bad choices by them,” Roberts wrote.
“Under the new parking contract, Mayor Briley’s lack of responsibility is going to come right out of OUR paychecks. That’s not right,” Roberts wrote.
As the Nashville-based News Channel 5 reported, Briley intends “to award LAZ Parking a contract to privatize metered parking. It is a 30-year contract that would generate $300 million for the city.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
We have a mayoral election coming up on August 1. Carol Swain is running to become our next Mayor and Nashville needs her now! Nashville-Davidson County residents need to get out and vote. Nashville has almost been sold out from under those who live and work here and this needs to stop now.
I’m puzzled why the good people of Nashville voted for that looney liberal. With downtown parking currently costing $15-$25 dollars (or more), it’s cheaper to park at Target and take an Uber (or scooter 🙀).
Death by a thousand “cuts”. That’s what these liberal charlatans have been doing! Just like the proposed 7 billion dollar transit plan, this parking meter scam is a way to get more money to feed their “habits” and cover past sins! They were NEVER going to build light rail. Once they get the money, they’ll blow it on none value added things and then have to come up with the next ruse. How about we just stop spending money on…publicly funded sports stadiums, “pixie” stick artwork in the middle of roundabouts, “bubble” enclosures for tennis courts, and 24-hour security details for the Mayor.
But unfortunately there are too many uninformed voters, who just keep swallowing the BS, and keep reelecting the frauds.