A memo being reported by multiple Nashville news outlets claims Mayor Freddie O’Connell was informed of the plan by Elon Musk’s Boring Company to construct the Music City Loop, and that the mayor was “intrigued” by the plan, but his office later requested “distance” after the billionaire supported President Donald Trump during last year’s election.
First reported by The Nashville Business Journal last month, the briefing memo was prepared for Governor Bill Lee sometime before his June 9 meeting with the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
The outlet said it showed Musk’s company planned to spend nearly $300 million on the tunnel connecting downtown Nashville to the Nashville International Airport, and that O’Connell was listed among “principals who currently know about this effort.”
A later report revealed that O’Connell was first informed of the Boring Company’s plans sometime around May 2024.
“Mayor O’Connell’s office was intrigued,” the memo stated, according to The Business Journal. The mayor’s office reportedly, “requested we cease coordination until the November 2024 transit referendum concluded.”
The referendum was ultimately passed by voters, who gave a green light to the mayor’s plan to add new bus routes, traffic signals, and sidewalks, but O’Connell’s office was reportedly less than enthusiastic about resuming coordination.
“While the referendum passed, President Trump was elected and Elon Musk, the founder of the Boring Company, became a more visible public figure,” wrote Lee’s staff in the memo, according to The Business Journal. “Metro Nashville stated, while they believe this initiative would help mobility and they would not oppose the project, they needed to distance themselves and we should not plan to cross or proceed under any street that is city-owned.”
These details were corroborated by NewsChannel 5 on Tuesday, when the outlet noted O’Connell in July claimed he was informed of the plan, but then “didn’t hear about it for almost a year.”
O’Connell did not indicate that his staff asked for “distance,” but instead told reporters that he sent a “list of questions” to xAI after the Music City Loop was announced in a press conference that month.
Among those in attendance was the press conference was Boring Company President Steve Davis, who indicated the Metro Nashville government was supportive of their plans.
Noting that the Boring Company wanted its tunnels to be “useful” and placed in “welcoming” cities, Davis said, “Nashville has been fantastic, [and] moved at an incredible speed. So welcoming, so kind, it wasn’t even a difficult decision once we started talking to the governor, and the whole team in the state and the city.”
Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston told NewsChannel 5Â that the mayor’s remarks amounted to dishonesty.
“Whether you are supportive or not of this project, I think we all deserve to know the truth and not be lied to,” Johnston told the outlet. “When they say they were blindsided and that it was ‘informal chatter,’ it’s nonsense,” she added, before calling it “a straight-out lie.”
The Boring Company broke ground on their tunnel last month after a parking lot was leased to the company by the State of Tennessee. The company has stated that the Music City Loop will open to customers as soon as spring 2026.
O’Connell’s office is currently under investigation by Congress over the mayor’s actions in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in May, when the agency detained nearly 200 illegal immigrants.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
New mayor please!
O’Connell is guided purely by politics and not what’s best for Nashville citizens.
He could care less about them