Make Nashville Weird: Embracing Portlands Sustainable Practices in Music

City
In an episode of the eccentric satire series Portlandia, the fictitious mayor
of Portland, Ore., declares his immense pride over the citys crowning
achievement: its receipt of the 2011 Best Official Website for Cities with
Populations under 700,000 in the Pacific Northwest Area Award. In real life,
however, Portlands public officials have clearly been committed to many
more substantive political accomplishments. Following years of dedicated
environmentalism, Portland continues to reap the economic and social
benefits of its sustainable policies. Meanwhile, Nashville has only recently
begun to grapple with the planning challenges it faces in the midst of rapid
growth.
In the coming decades, Nashville is poised to accelerate the investment
and growth that have made it an it city. As the city continues to grow, the
critical systems that hold it together are proving insufficient and out-of-date.
The Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization anticipates an additional 1
million people living in the Nashville metropolitan area by the year 2030, a
result of the inviting economic and cultural climate that the Nashville region
has proudly cultivated. This growth must be met with suitable infrastructural
improvements in order to ensure the livability, prosperity, and, most
critically, the sustainability of the city.
Despite their geographical distance, Portland and Nashville share a
surprising number of characteristics. Both are emerging mid-sized cities
(with metropolitan populations of around 2 million people), both are hotspots
for millennials1 and retirees2 alike, and each has even proliferated its own
glut of gentrification, complete with hipster-laden coffee shops and esoteric
natural food stores. Yet when it comes to smart and sustainable urban
planning, Portland has successfully adopted several principles to which
Nashvilles citizens and institutions should aspire.
Through a series of legislation in the 1970s, the State of Oregon
pioneered the use of urban growth boundaries as a means of both restricting
sprawl and regulating rents and home prices. Since the enactment of the
boundary in Portland, urban density has nearly doubled3, while pristine
farmlands outside the boundary have been spared the encroachment that
1 Miller, C. (2015). Where Young College Graduates Are Choosing to Live. The New
York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/upshot/whereyoung-college-graduates-are-choosing-to-live.html?_r=0
2 http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2015/08/06/nashville-areabecomes-retirement-mecca/31077097/

unregulated sprawl in Middle Tennessee continues to wield on its once-rural

communities. Nashville would be wise to consider establishing an urban
growth boundary in order to more responsibly manage ensure protection of
the regions existing landscapes.
One of the amenities that new Nashville residents say they miss the most
is access to quality mass transit4. In a city and region where development is
moving with unprecedented speed, policymakers and planners must act to
provide amenities like transportation in order to ensure retention and future
growth in neighborhoods. Increased urban density (a per-unit measure of
residents and jobs) directly corresponds to fewer cars and more bicyclists,
pedestrians, and public transit services; all are changes that significantly
reduce a citys carbon footprint5.
The AMP, an east-west Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route that would have
designated an exclusive bus travel lane along the median of West End
Avenue, was proposed in 2013 as a sensible approach to accommodating
this growth. The route was intended to provide a stepping stone to future
investments in high-capacity public transportation services (e.g. streetcars,
light and heavy rail). However, the AMP met its demise at the beginning of
this year in the wake of citizen concern over costs, location, and community
impact. In an effort to reassess the citys transit needs, Nashvilles civic
leaders have collaborated over the last several months to develop the multiphase Nashville MTA/RTA Strategic Plan. The Plan outlines several important
steps for the city to take in making transit a priority, however the Plan would
benefit from incorporating the lessons learned in Portlands more sustainable
approach6.
Transit planning in Portland reflects the principle of transit-oriented
development, wherein cities plan growth to prioritize and facilitate mass
transit and other alternative transportation modes7. Portlands MAX Light
Rail lines streamline movement throughout the city and offer access to the
3
http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/urban_growth_boundary/#.VizolfmrRsd
4 Nashville MPO. (2014). Nashville Area MPO: Regional Transportation Plan.
Retrieved from http://www.nashvillempo.org/plans_programs/rtp/
5 Sinha, K. (2003). Sustainability and Urban Public Transportation. J. Transp.
Eng., 129(4), 331341.
6 http://nmotion2015.com/materials/
7 http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files//tod_final_report.pdf

metropolitan regions most important areas, while extensive BRT and bus
routes provide supplemental local access. Portland has evolved is cityscape
around its transit, while Nashville has until recently treated transit as an
afterthought. Even more remarkably, Portland powers 98 percent of all of its
transit operations with bio-diesel and electric propulsion, while Nashvilles
MTA bus system still runs entirely on traditional gasoline and diesel fuel.
Committing to investment in higher capacity transit would enable Nashville
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by implementing these fuel-saving
alternative energy technologies.
In 1993, Portland enacted the nations first Complete Streets program
with the goal of making all roadways in the city inclusive of pedestrian,
bicycle, and transit right-of-ways wherever feasible. The Complete Streets
ordinance paved the way for numerous new public transportation projects
while yielding carbon savings for the city worth nearly $50 million annually 8.
Nearly two decades later, Nashville finally followed suit, with Mayor Karl
Dean issuing an executive order in 2010 that all new roads and upgrades to
existing city roads aim to incorporate similarly inclusive, context-sensitive
design strategies9. This initiative was a small but crucial step as it
demonstrates the increasing political will for alternative transportation and
smart grid systems in the city. As pressure continues to mount for better
planning solutions from the citys community and business leaders,
Nashvilles public officials must commit to more comprehensive reforms that
enable and encourage transit investment.
In conclusion, Nashville is right to begin addressing the long-overdue
upgrades and procedures needed to foster more sustainable systems. As we
look to develop new ways of getting around, it is valuable to look at
exemplary peer cities like Portland to plan our vision for sustainability
through careful planning. Although we Nashvillians may not all be ready to
embrace Portlands stereotypical lifestyle of green juice and hemp sweaters,
we can practice sustainability through other more palatable actions that
protect the citys triple bottom lineits people, its economy, and its
environment. Smart growth habits will position our city as a new leader in
the fight against environmental degradation and climate change, and
ultimately bolster the progress of our thriving community.

8 http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets/complete-streetsfundamentals/factsheets/climate-change
9 http://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Getting-Around-Nashville/CompleteStreets.aspx