Dear constituents:
To my constituents in District 19, I wanted to take the time today, on my last day as your Metro Council member, to say thank you.
What began as encouragement from fellow neighborhood leaders after serving as president of the Salemtown neighborhood association turned into a truly inspiring relationship between me and you, the residents of this beautiful, diverse, challenging, promising district.
During my time in office, we saw some major achievements for District 19.
Our amazing urban core serves as the economic engine for the city. We’ve welcomed more neighbors, more jobs, and—yes—more visitors than any other part of the city. And you’ve partnered with me as we’ve worked to curb excesses from our destination economy so we keep the great place to live that so many love to visit.
Focused leadership and strong partnerships moved Napier Elementary from being a Priority School to a Reward School based on growth. And amazing community leadership made the neighborhood safer and continues to create opportunity.
We overhauled the Metro Homelessness Commission to better help our most vulnerable Nashvillians—who are often concentrated in District 19—and then worked to get better data than we’ve ever had to inform important policy choices. And we’ve worked to limit the impact of poverty, to strengthen our neighborhoods, and to make sure everyone participates as our economy has grown.
We delivered safer infrastructure everywhere we could, with miles of new and improved sidewalks and policies to protect them, multiple new crosswalks, and the North Nashville Bikeways network.
All of this, while weathering the brunt of some of the toughest years in Nashville’s history, including a tornado, wind storms, civil unrest, a bombing, and a pandemic—all in a single year.
I’ve been proud to have been entrusted with the opportunity to lead the residents of this amazing part of the city through both extraordinary opportunities and challenges. I’ve worked with so many incredible people, and this email would go on for pages and pages if I tried to thank all of you.
So again, to everyone in District 19—from Pie Town to Salemtown, from Napier to Fisk, from Edgehill to Hope Gardens, from Downtown to Germantown and everywhere in between—it has been an honor and a privilege.
Thank you for hiring me to do the best job I’ve ever had (besides being a dad): representing you for the past eight years on the Metro Council. And now I’m applying for the next one.
I’m proud to hand things off to Jacob Kupin. I look forward to being his constituent as he represents us.
—
Freddie O’Connell
Metro Council, District 19
Mayoral Candidate, 2023
