Jeremiah Wooten

I'm planning to share a similar version of this during Metro Council's pre-budget public comment period tonight, if I'm able to get off the waitlist. I'm a middle school math teacher and the son of an accounting professor and an auditor, so budget season is actually a really fun time for me. I spend hours each month keeping track of where my money is coming from and going, and I love digging into data and seeing how the numbers for my city add up — or don't. As we enter this year's budget season, one idea that's been popping around in the news is that the Titans need a new stadium. But as a resident of Nashville and recent property owner in Nashville, I don't want to buy the Titans a new stadium. I think they can buy their own stadium. Before digging into the financial implications of this, I do need to take a moment and say that the Titans really don't need a new stadium. The Titans had one of the best seasons I can remember this year, so the stadiu...

The MNPS Board voted tonight to end their universal mask mandate on March 11, signing onto director Adrienne Battle's recommendation. Fran Bush voted no. Sharon Gentry was absent. I'll add an embed of the video once it's posted on YouTube. Of course, Fran Bush's "no" vote wasn't because she wanted the mask mandate to remain in effect; rather, she wanted it to be removed effective immediately. As usual, student board members Abenezer Haile and Angelie Quimbo had some of the more articulate comments of the evening. They gave some clear reasoning, provided evidence albeit anecdotal, and, most importantly, kept their comments relatively brief. But what stuck out to me most was the director recommendation part. I tried long and hard to think of a time that this board has voted against any of Battle's recommendations, and I can't think of one. Now, I haven't been watching school board meetings closely for all that long — really just the better part o...

There's been a lot of information swirling about license plate readers the last few weeks. Almost two weeks since Metro Council voted to approve license plate readers on third reading, there's some poetic justice found in the revelation that the new Tennessee license plates are invisible to LPRs at night. But whether they work or not, legislation was passed allowing them to be installed in public right-of-ways throughout Nashville. It was not surprising to see how the vote went but certainly disappointing. In a last minute campaign over the weekend proceeding the vote, Mayor John Cooper's administration was reportedly working the phones calling council members and whipping their support. Metro police chief John Drake and strangely the brand new NDOT director Diana Alarcon also threw their hats into the ring, releasing a statement urging council members to vote for LPRs. In that letter , Chief Drake made a claim that was pretty clearly false. Regardless of Chief Drake's...

One of the biggest challenges I encounter in MNPS is this idea that "we've always done it this way!" It's an attitude that seems to pervade many of the daily decisions in the district, and sometimes is (accidentally) explicitly stated. I wasn't raised in Metro Schools, so I know that while MNPS may have always done it this way, other districts haven't. At Tuesday's MNPS Board governance committee, board member Emily Masters said something that gave me a little bit of hope that students' voices are being heard and changes can be made, even in a district like MNPS. In the clip below, Masters proposed a change to district policy around dress code to state that the dress code should be gender neutral and not contain gender-specific language, and that "Dress code enforcement shall be based solely on the guidelines, and shall not be based upon biases, gender norms, or gender assumptions." At the 30:28 minute mark, after adopting the changes, Ms. Ma...