The Tennessee Equality Project Political Action Committee (TEP PAC) has endorsed Kristine LaLonde for the Metro Council District 18 runoff.
The endorsement comes as a result of the candidate's outreach to the organization and strong answers on her questionnaire.
"We look forward to working with Kristine in the days ahead," said TEP PAC member Chris Sanders.
LaLonde has also been endorsed by Women in Numbers; SEIU and the Central Labor Council of Middle Tennessee. She will face Stephenie Dodson in the April 30 runoff election.
Former candidate David Glasgow, who placed third and narrowly missed the runoff by 31 votes, said that he will be watching both candidates what they plan to do for the neighborhood, saying "our district should be the leader on council issues because we have more resources and opportunities than most. Education, growth, green spaces and traffic all affect our neighborhood and the entire city."
Glasgow said he challenged the next council representative to take action to improve the quality of life for all of us.
He said he specifically would be looking for them to show leadership and take the following actions:
- Make our streets safer for walkers and bikers by adding crosswalks, at least at 21st and Bernard, Blair at Harris Teeter's back entrance, and two more along the south end of Belmont Blvd. The new crosswalk on Blakemore must also be made safer.
- Clean up Love Circle for good by breaking through the bureaucratic impasse that keeps the area in limbo. Work with the neighbors to solve the new traffic and parking issues created by new development and ensure that, when we have a community cleanup day, the city has not allowed 33 bags of trash and a mattress to accumulate.
- Improve traffic safety at Chesterfield/Fairfax by adding a traffic mirror at the bend in the alley between there and the Continental. This is a frequently-used cut through to West End that currently puts children, pets and property at risk every day.
- Add parking along Magnolia. Institute 2-hour parking between 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. and longer parking available between 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. in the outer lanes. This would help merchants in the Village, provide places for more people to start their jog or walk and help visitors and Belmont students avoid residential streets.
- Adopt the green space on the Brightwood overpass as a demonstration project. This requires gaining the necessary permissions from metro, state and federal agencies, inviting Civic Design Center staff to develop ideas for using this neglected space up to its full potential, and bringing together neighbors from the bordering neighborhoods to raise the funds and donate the time needed to put the plan into action. This could be used as an example of what can be done with other green spaces around our neighborhood and the city - including Love Circle. Other neighborhoods are doing it, so we can.
- Social issues. Our representative should take the lead on social issues that hurt Nashville's reputation and ability to attract new businesses and commerce. English Only was a huge waste of taxpayer dollars and time. Discrimination should not be tolerated in any guise. I hope our representative works actively to weed out discrimination in existing ordinances and to block future attempts to codify hate.
- Work with Metro Transit Authority to develop a pilot project to take people from residential neighborhoods to commercial districts from 6 p.m. - 2 a.m. on Thursday through Saturday nights. Skepticism and entrenched interests will have to be overcome. In the end, though, we can get cars off the road, support our business districts and build community by getting people together for the ride to and from similar destinations. Our neighborhood has the density to prove the concept. If we have a leader who sells the idea to MTA and neighbors we can take a big step toward a financially healthy, user-friendly mass transit system in Nashville.
