All of Nashville’s candidates for mayor agree the city needs to be more aggressive about creating public open space. At a forum with conservation groups on Wednesday, candidates floated their ideas. Some of them were fairly unconventional.
What about turning some of Nashville’s least-used public golf courses into more general parks, suggested at-large councilwoman Megan Barry. She said it might even save the city money on mowing and maintenance costs. The Metro Parks Department, which manages the courses, has been adding acreage in recent years without hiring more staff.
“We do have a lot of wonderful public golf courses throughout Davidson County,” Barry said. “We need to look at the ones where you’ve got proximity to another golf course, where you could push golfers to that other golf course and still maintain that open space.”
Barry says Shelby Golf Course would be an obvious option since it has less traffic and a 9-hole course nearby.
Former school board chairman David Fox has his eye on what he calls the “bucolic” surroundings of the state prison complex north of downtown. He said it should be moved to make way for a public park.
“I’d love to begin the conversation of making sure that as these facilities become obsolete, they’re repositioned off the river bank and probably outside of Davidson County so we can use it for green space and possible commercial use as well,” Fox said.
All the major candidates acknowledge that fast-growing southeast Davidson County — which has no anchor park — deserves the most attention in the near term. However, no one expressed a clear vision for where to get started.
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