A Few Questions With

Councilmember Mary Carolyn Roberts, District 20

BY JUDITH TACKETT

District 20 Councilmember Mary Carolyn Roberts and I met when she served on the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, the precursor to the Homelessness Planning Council. She’s a realtor, a pet rescuer, an arts lover and a leader who knows how to implement a vision.

The Contributor talked with Roberts as part of a series called A Few Questions With where we interview council members about their district’s most pressing issues.

How would you describe District 20?

District 20 is an interesting hybrid. We have young and old residents. There is industrial and residential zoning. We have brand new buildings budded up to very old ones. We have a prison, a rock quarry, a TV station, an airport — we’re just about as diverse as a district can be.

I’ve been really lucky to have a group of people where I don’t have the outrageous community meetings where people yell and scream. It’s really just a harmonious community.

What are the main concerns you hear from your constituents?

My constituents want sidewalks, which is part of the walkability factor. They want traffic calming. They want more amenities in our parks, less construction, and they want to help the homeless. That speaks to the harmonious heart that they have. They are constantly asking for ways to help.

District 20 includes a neighborhood called The Nations. It has seen huge growth changes in recent years. As the Council representative what were your concerns about this quick growth, and what did you do to address them?

The tsunami of change was coming my way the minute I took office eight years ago. Growth is inevitable in a city that’s exploding as ours has. And with our district’s proximity to Downtown and having so many good restaurants and amenities, I had to try to lean in and shape it into the type of growth that’s sustainable; that’s smart growth.

When I took office, I implemented something like a moratorium on apartments. I didn’t want it to become an area that was just predominantly apartments. It was a different vibe that I was trying to create. The hybrid of having residential zoning next to commercial for me was an opportunity because there are places like Wynwood down in Miami that have taken areas similar to mine, demographically and geographically, and created a really amazing art space.

What happened was, after I put a moratorium on apartments eight years ago, my [constituents'] businesses were starting to struggle to survive. I realized I needed people with expendable incomes that were actually spending money in my District. So, I allowed a handful of apartments to be built. It did offer some relief to my businesses, but not enough. In year six, I did two more huge projects that came out of the ground last year.

To me, my biggest challenge has been keeping the balance between the existing residents who have been there sometimes for generations and the gentrification of a neighborhood that they no longer recognize.

Can you talk a little more about a councilmembers ability to shape a community?

Ultimately councilmembers are re-zoners — maybe glorified re-zoners — and with that you’re allowed to figure out what you want your community to look like.

I had a big-picture goal when I took office, which was to create a walkable neighborhood, and I just moved backwards from there. Sidewalks, restaurants, bars, and public arts are things I wanted not only for The Nations but also for Charlotte Parks, Beacon Square, for Robertson Road. Those areas started out with a hodgepodge of zoning that would have allowed a lot of things that you might not want in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I knew with that precarious zoning pattern, I needed to be extremely careful to get that right for the neighborhoods to thrive. I really wanted to draw the creatives over there. To do that, I had to be really smart about the zoning that was industrial and commercial.

What we ended up with doesn’t include every detail of the big picture goal I started with, but it is generally what I wanted as far as how to implement a road map for growth.

What is the feedback you receive from residents about the changes that happened?

Sadly, in certain places there aren’t a lot of long-term residents left. It sets up a real juxtaposition when you have somebody who’s been there for three generations and their grandmother may have paid $10,000 for a house next to some 25-year-olds who have paid $800,000 for a house. Those two being next to each other sometimes created some resentments.

The one thing that unified us as a community is public arts. For instance, when Guido Van Helten came to paint for two weeks — and the young, the old, the new, the transplants, everybody came out and sat in lounge chairs together, united, and watched this man paint a silo. It was the most magical thing I’ve ever seen. It’s what art can do in a community. (Van Helten painted the mural of The Nations resident Lee Estes who taught art at St. Luke’s Community House.)

The same was true in the other big projects like the sewer tower we painted in West Park, which is the largest piece of art in the Southeast.

Public art is important to you.

Yes, I mean I inherited a sewer tower in the middle of a park, and then Eric Henn painted the West Park mural. It’s over on Morrow Road. For Metro Water allowing that to be painted made a huge difference. It’s spectacular, you can’t grasp the size of it until you see it.

I ask every developer to incorporate public art into their sites. Most try to be accommodating, and there are tons of great examples sprinkled throughout the district.

What other projects have you been involved in?

When I took office, I had three big goals for my district. Of course, I had a lot of small goals, too.

But the first of the big goals was to make 51st Avenue a complete street. That happened and created viability and walkability. It’s the fi rst domino that fell for us. Without Mayor Barry that would have never happened.

The second goal was to get the trucks off Robertson Avenue to alleviate the commercial rock quarry traffic from the residential neighborhood thoroughfare. We negotiated a deal that took seven years, but we made it happen.

We got the Rogers Group to build a bridge that essentially took all of the 2,000 trucks a day off of Robertson Avenue. It has made monumental differences. I’ve had people call me telling me how it’s changed their lives.

My third goal was to save the Tennessee State Prison, which has not happened yet. I’ve done two out of three, but I really need the support of the people of Nashville in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office to be able to save the Tennessee State Prison. I’m just in hope that the Mayor’s Office is going to keep their promise to do that.

I recall we once brainstormed how to utilize faith communities more to help people transition from street to housing. That thought stuck with me and I kept working with local faith communities. What else do you think could Metro do to partner with congregations to help address homelessness?

I do remember us brainstorming. That felt like we were at least trying to move toward a solution.

The one common denominator and I think the best thing congregations can do is to bring volunteers out. If Metro could work to coordinate with those entities to combine the people who want to help with the people who need the help — that would be monumental.