We live here. We pay taxes here. And when we ask our city for help, too often nobody answers. This is where we keep track of it, out loud and in public, until Nashville does better.
On April 16, 2024, NDOT told us in writing that our parking signs were two to three weeks away. Watch every month since then go by, exactly like we did.
One street. One simple request: the residential parking program our block qualifies for. Here is what more than two years of following the city's own rules got us. Every entry below comes from written correspondence we keep on file.
NDOT installed paid parking on 18th Avenue South. Residents received no notice. Neighbors with one garage space and two cars now had nowhere to park. So we did what the city says to do: we applied for Residential Permit Parking.
The staff analysis prepared for Metro's Traffic and Parking Commission found our block met every one of the four criteria and recommended approval.
"Recommendation: Approval of new Residential Permit Parking for 150 ft on the west side of 18th Ave S at 807 18th Ave S, 24/7."NDOT staff analysis, Traffic and Parking Commission agenda, 2024
The Traffic and Parking Commission did not reject our application that day. It did not find it deficient, incomplete, or short of the criteria. It deferred the matter 30 days to get one piece of information: the number of available spaces. So on April 8, the official record held two things and only two things:
NDOT: criteria met, approval recommended.
Commission: no adverse finding, a 30-day deferral for one number.The official record, April 8, 2024
Everything the city has claimed since has to be measured against this baseline. If the outcome changed after April 8, the record should say what changed, what new information justified it, and who made that call. It says none of those things.
"NDOT will install RPP signage at this location so that it may be enforceable... I'd expect the sign shop to take 2-3 weeks... Once signs are up, you should contact Marcus Jackson for your RPP permits."J. Andrew Smith, P.E., NDOT, email to residents
No signs. No permits. No follow-up. Communication simply stopped. When we asked our council office, we were told the application "was denied." But the reason kept changing: first the criteria, later a signature threshold, later the paperwork. To this day, no 2024 denial appears anywhere in the record. What the record holds is an approval recommendation, a written promise of signs, and then silence.
Councilwoman Terry Vo met with NDOT and relayed their position: the old application was dead and we would have to begin a brand-new process from scratch. When we pointed to NDOT's own written promise from April 2024, no one addressed it.
"I was hoping to write you all back with an update but I am still waiting to hear back from NDOT. I have done a few follow-ups but haven't received a response."Councilwoman Terry Vo, email to residents, May 2025
Days later the answer arrived: no other pathway. Resubmit everything.
Our new application was flagged as a duplicate of the one they had already denied. Read that again: they told us to start over, then rejected the restart for matching the original. Our compliance became the defect. More weeks lost untangling that.
Subject line: "URGENT: Midtown Residents Denied Access to Parking Permit Program for Over One Year." One council member's reply said more than she probably intended:
"Metro can be horribly disorganized."A Metro Council member, April 2026
Our HOA met with Councilwoman Vo and NDOT leadership. The instructions were explicit: collect signatures from 75% of eligible residents and submit the petition. We started knocking on doors that week.
Weeks of door-knocking, printed forms in a green folder by the elevator, signatures collected one unit at a time under rules that disqualified e-signatures, out-of-state owners, and anyone without a Tennessee license. We did not clear the bar. We cleared it by almost twelve points.
"At this time, the RPP program is on hold. I have asked NDOT to inform me as soon as the program resumes."Councilwoman Terry Vo, email to residents
Two years of process, a finish line we crossed, and the race was called off.
Residents discovered Metro's Residential Parking Permit portal accepting applications for our address. Neighbors applied, paid the $10 fee, and printed official permits the same day. We believed it was finally over.
Less than 24 hours later, a vehicle displaying that brand-new permit received a parking citation. Metro accepted the application, took the payment, issued the permit, then ticketed the car carrying it.
NDOT said the permits were generated by mistake, refunded them, declared them invalid, and offered to dismiss the citation "as a gesture of goodwill." NDOT now also says the 2024 commission item was deferred, not approved, despite its own staff recommendation and its own engineer's written promise of signage. The program remains on hold. Our street remains without the protection the city's own analysis said we qualify for.
NewsChannel 5's Hannah McDonald covered our fight: two years of process, permits sold in error, tickets issued to the cars carrying them, and a program on pause while neighbors pay the price. Watch the NewsChannel 5 story.
This site exists so the whole record stays public. We will keep posting every development here, word for word, until Nashville does better.
Nothing on this page is our opinion. These are direct quotes from the people running our city, dated and on file.
The city keeps offering explanations. Errors, holds, process, goodwill. But as one of our neighbors put it this week:
"Governmental accountability should not be asking NDOT to explain its conduct; it should include determining whether NDOT's conduct breached the standards governing the agency and, if so, what corrective action is required. Our community's application should and does not shield NDOT from being held responsible for their actions regarding this matter." A neighbor of 807 18th Avenue South · August 2026
Criteria and evidentiary standards must be applied consistently and transparently. An agency cannot retroactively convert its own request for clarification into a finding that the application was deficient.
An applicant should not have to prove a negative that the agency created after its own evaluation was already complete.
Accountability here is about how the agency behaved, not about an applicant's supposed failure. Our application does not shield NDOT from responsibility for its own actions.
So here is what accountability actually looks like. We are asking Metro for four things, in writing:
Every address below comes straight from our own correspondence with the city. These are public officials, at their public government addresses, paid with your tax dollars. Be respectful. Be specific. And ask them one question: when will Nashville do better?
One email when something happens. No spam, and we never share your address.
It is obvious a lot of us have problems with the city. When we send emails one at a time, nobody listens. So this is your place to have a voice. We read every single one. If you have a valid concern, we will help you get attention on it.
Your complaint comes straight to us, not to the city. We keep your email private and only use it to follow up with you.