A Few Questions With

A Few Questions with At-Large Councilmember Delishia Porterfield

BY JUDITH TACKETT

During our conversation, it became clear very quickly that Councilmember Delishia Porterfield represents District 29 with as much passion as she brings to her day job at Stand Up Nashville where she serves as the director of leadership and advocacy.

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

What are some of the characteristics of District 29, and what are the main concerns your constituents have?

District 29 is a wonderful community of working people and goes from the airport down Murfreesboro Road to Hamilton Church Road and includes a majority of Anderson Road. I’ve lived in the district since 2010, and what I found is that there are a lot of residents who care about their community, who care about their neighborhood, who care about the city of Nashville.

I hear a lot about the basic city services that [include] concerns about trash not being picked up, traffic, public safety, flooding, and stormwater management. People want sidewalks to have walkable communities, and they have questions about schools and overcrowding. They want to make sure their schools are funded properly.

This year, I hear concerns about community changes and growth. With new people moving in, long-term residents want to figure out how to maintain the character of the existing neighborhoods.

Another thing that I hear a lot is making sure that all of Nashville benefits, that we’re not just seeing good things happen in downtown. People in Nashville pay taxes, the people in our community, they’re taxpayers, and they want to make sure those tax dollars are flowing into our neighborhoods as well.

As the vice chair of the Public Health and Safety Committee, what are some main safety and health issues you would like this committee to examine further?

I would love for us to ensure that we are doing everything we can to provide public safety. And what I mean by that, police officers address crimes one they have [happened]. We have to look at what causes crime and have a holistic approach to that. For me, that means it’s really important that we have affordable housing throughout the city of Nashville not clustered in one or two districts. We need to make sure that people have access to healthcare. We need to make sure that people have living wage jobs with benefits and pensions. We need to make sure people have access to mental health services.

When you take a comprehensive approach to public safety, and when you look at making sure people have access to what they need to operate in society and to be productive residents of their communities, those are the things that you look at to reduce crime, and those are the things that I would love for our Public Health and Safety Committee to look at.

You are a strong advocate for racial equity, affordable housing, and labor issues and work as the director of leadership and advocacy with Stand Up Nashville, a local advocacy group. How do you balance all your community work with your day job and your Metro Council duties?

I am truly honored to have a job that I love. The work that I do with Stand Up fights for working people and that is the reason why I got into my work with the Metro Council. I got into this work because I wanted to see funding for schools, because I wanted to see textbooks in classrooms, because I wanted to make sure that Metro employees can afford to live in the city and not get pushed out.

So, the things that are important to me and the issues that I stand on are in line with the organization that I work for. Thankfully, I am able to do work that I love in a city that I love helping people that I love.

I do make sure to keep those two lines separate. That’s important to me.

On the council, I’ve been able to pass legislation to get more money in the budget for a one-time bonus for support staff as well as get more funding for Metro General Hospital. That is a great win for the people in Nashville.

And then, on the other side, Stand Up was named one of [The Tennessean’s] People of the Year, which is an amazing honor and that just speaks to the work that we do fighting for the people here in Nashville. It’s definitely a lot, but I feel passionate about it, and it’s just so important to me that people in Nashville have a Nashville to call home. The people who work to make the city what it is — they shouldn’t be pushed out of the city. They should be able to work and live here.

Where do you think Nashville needs to go in terms of addressing homelessness and affordable housing?

That’s the million-dollar question. We definitely need more housing at all levels throughout the city of Nashville. When people hear the term affordable housing that can be really confusing to people because not everyone understands the difference between affordable housing and workforce housing. Not everyone understands AMIs (Area Median Income) and income levels and things of that nature.

We have a situation where people at various economic levels are having trouble finding housing. And it’s not just people from a lower socio-economic status, we have professionals, people who are middle class, who are still struggling to find housing. The price of childcare has gone up; the price of groceries has gone up; people cannot afford to buy eggs. So, everything has gone up except for wages. And while wages are starting to come up, they are still not in line with what people need to be able to live with dignity.

So, for me, the direction Nashville has to go in is, we have to build more affordable housing throughout the city. You can’t have this just in one district or one area. Adding to that, we also have to make sure we’re addressing workforce development. While we have to have the housing, we also have to make sure there are solid jobs with a true living wage, so people can have a life that they deserve.

To summarize it, we have to make sure that people have access to good-paying union jobs with benefits and pension. We have to make sure that people have access to healthcare so that they can be healthy and actually go to work to take care of themselves and take care of their families. We have to make sure that there is enough housing for people to access it, and we have to make sure that there is a solid transit system, so that people can get back and forth between home and work. We need a comprehensive approach so that Nashvillians can have a good quality of life and have the opportunity to live with dignity.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I really hope people understand that Nashville is at a pivotal moment. Right now, the state is being so hostile toward our city. We’re looking at legislation that would potentially reduce the size of Metro Council, which would disproportionately impact minority representation. We have a very diverse council. If that legislation passes, the council is at risk of losing that diversity.

There is also legislation where the state is looking to get control from our airport authority and our sports authority. And some state legislators want to rename a portion of Rep. John Lewis Way to Donald Trump Boulevard.

We’re in a moment of the state being very hostile towards Nashville. And we have to determine what type of Nashville we want to be, and if we, as a city, are going to fight for the city that we love.

One thing I want to make sure is that the city of Nashville knows that their councilmembers are fighting for them. We’re fighting not only for our city to have autonomy to operate without consistently being preempted by the state but also for the soul of our city. We’re fighting on every turn to make the city better and more inclusive for us all.

And that is a really hard fight.