Banking on a New Generation for Nashville
I had the opportunity to sit down with Brady Banks the other day for the fourth in my series of At Large Candidate interviews for the Metro Council. Brady so far is the youngest candidate I've interviewed, but don't mistake his youth for inexperience or naivety. Brady's journey through life has taken him from growing up in the then sparsely populated area of Hermitage, all the way to Harvard Divinity School, and now back to Nashville to try and make a better life for himself, while improving the lives of all Nashvillians. A self-described populist with principles, Brady looks to FDR for inspiration as to what a leader should be, and how they can positively impact the lives of their constituents.
Politics wasn't always in the cards for Brady. As he left his hometown, he had originally intended on becoming a minister, possibly doing something overseas. However, once he got to the Harvard Divinity School, he met some people who made him realize that he could use his Christian ethics to effect lives in the public realm, just as well as he could in the spiritual realm. One of the first issues Brady got involved in while at Harvard, was affordable housing. He authored a case study on Mayor Purcell's efforts to bring all walks of life, religious, secular, public and private, together in order to accomplish this task. Brady plans on using this effort as a base for future development for the city, and he feels that if we are going to remain competitive, a comprehensive plan to deal with affordable housing must be worked out.
Interestingly, housing is one of the reasons Brady decided to run for Council At Large, instead of a 
district seat. Brady, like many young people, is in a state of transition in his life; he's in a committed relationship with his (hopefully) (Update: As of last night Brady and Kristin are now engaged to be married) soon to be wife Kristin Clark, who is a minister at the Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin, and because of that, once married, he plans on moving away from the West End area to live with her in South Nashville. So because of that, a district council seat made less sense. However, that isn't the only reason he wants to go for At Large. Brady feels that the At Large role is more oriented towards deciding the future vision of Nashville and he wants "to look at what
Part of that vision is insuring that Nashville becomes, and remains, one of the best cities in the South. Brady feels that we can and should be competitive with other large cities in the South, such as Atlanta, and that affordable housing is one important component in that equation. Along with that, we also need to make Nashville more sustainable and "we need to do everything we can, environmentally, to make sure that Nashville is a cleaner, healthier city." That includes requiring that Metro facilities be LEED certified, and also looking at other ways to help the Private industry become more "green".
While we tend to focus on environmental issues when we say "sustainable", another key component is attracting and keeping young workers in Nashville. One small way might be looking into improving (or creating) Nashville's hi-tech infrastructure. I asked Brady if he would support some sort of Municipal wi-fi or broadband program:
Oh yeah, well any city now, we know there is a trend that any city which is technically savvy, that’s dealing with computers, that’s dealing with the Internet resources; they’re just going to be a better city for it. It helps not only education, but it helps communication, it helps connectivity in the city, there is no good reason why we shouldn’t pursue that. Now, the question always becomes money, you know how do we fund something like that? And there is a multitude of options there too. So there is no real set answer…but we should pursue it, explore it, and see what we can come up with. It’s a great idea and something we may not be able to do feasibly right now, but definitely something we should do in the future.
In addition to attracting young American workers, we also need to be open to immigrants. According to Brady the English First measure was "discrimination".
We have a very diverse group of folks who are moving to Nashville, and whether we like it or not, we need to be sure we accommodate those folks who are trying to learn English. For us to say as a Government that we’re simply not going to work with you…I don’t think does any good.
Brady approves of the plan by Daron Hall to work with the Federal Government in dealing with unauthorized immigrants, but that its still largely a Federal issue and it shouldn't be all consuming on the local level.
On education, Brady pointed out that Nashville was the first public education system in the South, and although we are doing well, we can always do better:
I think we are cusp of having to make a real good plan for our education system. I think what we need to do is we need to reconsider ideas, practices, and concepts that we might take with us for the long term, and really put those into practice. I think we need to explore those options, besides just saying, “more funding for public education,” which is an obvious answer, to put more money into it. Let’s start really looking at what we might do that would be an innovation in terms of education.
One important task for a councilman is being a good steward for the money Metro receives in tax payments. I asked whether he supports the 50K allotments that Councilman get for allocating as they wish. While he isn't entirely opposed, he thinks that $50,000 per councilman might be too much because of our current financial strain. He says that "[u]ltimately those organizations are private organizations, and they are responsible for raising their funds. The work they do is very important, but at the same time, we are strapped for cash." Brady says that we can partner with faith-based organizations to do good for Nashville, so long as they aren't involved in outright proselytizing.
In addition to Education and Affordable housing, Brady feels that we should invest more in public transportation, because as Nashville grows in population, there is only so much room for growth on the urban roadways.
If you’ve ever been on West End after 4 o’clock on a weekday, you know what the condition is, and we have density issues with condos going up over there. There is going to be a bit of a problem with traffic. Honestly, what Nashville needs is something to run straight down West End, all the way down to the railroad, maybe even down to the river and into a little bit of East Nashville. That will relieve some of that congestion. And then we might look at other corridors that are key in terms of transportation but are also congested and see if we might do the same thing. And run it perpendicular to that line. Again, this is all about making Nashville a good city, and controlling the growth.
While improving the public transportation system, Brady agrees that new systems should be environmentally friendly and energy sustainable. Especially because Nashville's air quality isn't exactly the best in the country.
Ultimately, with Brady Banks, you should always be sure not to confuse his youth with an inability to grasp the issues. He's young for sure, but he's also incredibly smart, personable, and dedicated to making Nashville a better city. When talking with him, I got a sense that his faith has influenced his desire to serve Nashville. He has no allusions that this race will be anything other than an uphill battle, because of his lack of name-recognition and finances (though he has raised 14.5K, which is not too bad for a young candidate like Brady), but he's bound and determined to do what is necessary to improve the lives of his fellow Nashvillians here, and he wants to be "a new voice with a new vision" for all of Nashville.
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Read the transcript of the interview with Brady Banks
Visit the Brady Banks Website
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