Editorial: Dean is best choice for mayor

Metropolitan Nashville needs a leader in the mayor’s office who understands the city is at a pivotal point in its history and facing a future filled with both enormous opportunity and daunting challenges.

Nashville needs a mayor who understands how the forces of local government, the business community and our public education system must work together to help chart a course for Nashville that is positive and forward thinking.

That is why The City Paper endorses Karl Dean to be Nashville’s next mayor.

Nashville has made enormous strides in the last 20 years. The vibrancy of Nashville is palpable and easy to see in a revitalized urban core, including a return to downtown living and a focus on the importance of neighborhoods and community.

The city has literally been reshaped in the eyes of the world, with professional sports, a booming entertainment industry and a vital entrepreneurial spirit in the business community. Our brand, the Music City, is known worldwide.

Yet, there are also mixed messages about Nashville’s future. The city is experiencing an alltime low in its overall crime rate, but juvenile crime is on the rise. Additionally, Metro’s public schools are failing in several instances under federal No Child Left Behind statutes. The pitfalls faced by many other modern urban cities now face Nashville.

During this campaign, Dean has been the candidate who has expressed a real understanding of how crime and education are issues inherently joined. His emphasis on both improving public safety and leading on the issues facing our education system reflect the kind of direction and understanding of our problems Nashville needs from its next mayor. From his time as a public defender, Dean has seen the ravages of poverty up close, and how it can decimate families and young lives through the crime that inevitably follows poverty to a family’s doorstep. In our minds, this is one of the crucial issues in the race, and Dean understands it and appears poised to actually address it where others have failed.

Dean has also given open, honest answers on issues rather than simply focusing on a series of hot button topics as so many candidates have tried to do in both the general election and run-off phases of the mayoral race. His campaign has been about discussing a vision for Nashville’s future rather than simply trying to score sound bites with talk of things like immigration and taxes.

Karl Dean sees the entire picture when it comes to Nashville’s future, and he understands that governing Nashville will not be about an ongoing cycle of retail politics but professional management and understanding the social and economic landscape of the city. Nashville needs an experienced hand to navigate the next phase in the city’s life. We believe Karl Dean is that person.