At the Wild Horse Saloon Wednesday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced his $20 million plan for restoring Second Avenue after last year’s Christmas Day Bombing.
“Our community came together, to create a shared vision for the future of our historic downtown,” Cooper said.
“Generations from now, we want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to look at what we created and say, ‘they did well.’ And that’s a destination we can only reach, all of us, working together.” He added the Nashville citizens turned a tragedy into an opportunity.
Cooper said the Nashville Metro Council met early this week to vote on his “Future for Second Avenue” plan, which would begin funding the early work of restoring the historic downtown district. Dubbed the “Second Avenue Task Force” more than 500 people contributed to the efforts unveiled Wednesday.
He said that the council members’ vote to approve the money “funds the first phase of this vision, which begins at Broadway and Second, and that’s where we’re going to introduce a better streetscape.”
Plans include wider sidewalks, more outdoor dining, public art, food kiosks, and a restored tree canopy. The streetscape is predicted to serve visitors and about 78,000 downtown employees. Cooper added that the “downtown partnership tells me that’s about 15,000 neighbors.”
Phase two of the downtown restoration and revitalization project is to bring downtown closer to the Cumberland River by building a park. He said that the “sizeable park in the urban core – which really has just not had the right amount of green space for a great city.”
Joining Cooper to announce the Future for Second Avenue plan were Andrea Fanta, Cooper’s Press Secretary; Mark Fioravanti, President and Chief Financial Officer at Ryman Hospitality; Councilmember Freddie O’Connell; Lucy Kemp, Nashville Metro’s Planning Director; and a resident of Second Avenue known as Miss Betsy, or, the Queen of Second Avenue.
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Morgan Nicole Veysey is a reporter for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow her on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Mayor John Cooper” by Mayor John Cooper.
Commie “The Taxman” Cooper, FJC !
sorry homeless people maybe next year.
Randall – This actually sounds like a wonderful place for the vagrants to hang out and beg. Maybe Cooper can include porta-potties for all.
My question is simply why government money? Shouldn’t the majority of the cost be borne by the owners of the 2nd Ave properties?
Agreed
And how is this paid for? Tax revenue has to be down. Just another tax and spend liberal doing what they do best which is spend other people’s money.
A Covid re-education Camp?