We are publishing this open letter on dobetternashville.com because our repeated correspondence with Nashville's city leaders has failed to produce clear answers or a resolution for our community.
We appreciate the Nashville Scene covering our parking situation. But the article leaves serious questions unanswered about the contradictory instructions, broken assurances, and lack of follow-through residents have experienced.
In the news
We're honestly impressed they got a response from Terry Vo. Did they promise her an Instagram post? We've delivered three completed petitions and still can't get a clear answer. Apparently, getting quoted is easier than getting involved.
For anyone unfamiliar with our situation, residents at 807 18th Avenue South have spent more than two years trying to obtain residential parking permits. We are willing to pay for them. We have collected signatures, delivered paperwork, attended meetings, and repeatedly sought help.
NDOT recommended approval. The Traffic and Parking Commission deferred the application for 30 days. We subsequently received communication saying signs were coming.
They never arrived.
What happened after that deferral? Was the application returned for consideration, denied, withdrawn, or closed? Who made that decision, and where is the record?
Before directing residents to restart, the city owed us an explanation of what happened to the application already before it.
Instead, we collected and delivered two additional completed petitions. Three submissions in total. Our latest secured 86.8% support among eligible residents, exceeding the 75% requirement we were given.
There is no unfinished petition on our end.
We completed those additional submissions because officials kept directing us through the process. Our compliance does not explain or excuse the city's handling of the first application.
We want the original case accounted for and restored for consideration. If the city maintains that this cannot happen, identify the decision or rule supporting that position.
Terry told us the program was "on hold," but we received no formal notice explaining its authority, duration, or effect on our existing application. She continued requesting our third petition, which we completed and delivered.
Now the Scene reports that she supports the moratorium.
Terry, what was that additional submission supposed to accomplish? Why were you requesting it without first resolving the status of the original application?
Please identify the official action establishing the moratorium, its effective date, and the basis for applying it to our original request. A pause in 2026 cannot explain what happened after a 30-day deferral in 2024.
Other neighborhoods, including neighbors on our street, have received residential parking approvals. Why did those applications reach a different outcome?
Were they approved before the pause? Did different rules apply? Were exceptions available? What criteria distinguish those locations from ours?
The dates and rules matter. Please provide them.
Terry's comments about free parking and additional vehicles do not answer these questions. We have repeatedly said we are willing to pay for permits.
Our councilmember should not leave us arguing against a position we never took just to get an answer to the question we actually asked.
She says she supports our petition. What has that support accomplished?
Apparently, we have her support. We just can't locate it anywhere in the results.
Have you obtained a written determination of the original application's status? Have you sought its return to the commission? What action have you taken, when did you take it, and what response did you receive?
You clarified that the commission deferred our application rather than approving it. We accept that distinction. Now explain what happened afterward. Correcting our terminology does not resolve the city's unfinished business.
The commission record quoted in our correspondence identifies you as providing background on our application at the April 8, 2024 meeting. What information was required after the deferral? Who was assigned to provide it? Was it supplied, and where is the resulting record?
That same record identifies you as clarifying the applicable criteria. Please explain whether the city's determination changed after its recommendation and, if so, the documented basis for that change.
Who was responsible for tracking the deferred item and returning it for consideration? If the people named above did not hold that responsibility, identify who did.
Residents should not have to investigate the city's internal assignments to learn what happened to their own application.
The city-issued permit followed by a $75 ticket deserves scrutiny too. Calling the permit an administrative error acknowledges a failure. It does not explain how an invalid permit was issued, how affected residents were notified, or what prevents it from happening again.
We believe residents were misled. The communications and records deserve examination to establish how and why.
The Scene captured our frustration and published officials' explanations. But the published reporting did not resolve these contradictions. Giving officials room to respond is necessary. Pressing them to account for the record is just as necessary.
A future study cannot explain the handling of our 2024 application.
Our parking problem is modest in the larger picture. Yet we have spent years trying to obtain a clear outcome. That gives residents reason to ask how the city handles decisions involving far more money, more people, and greater consequences.
We started dobetternashville.com to examine these problems and connect with others experiencing them. We invited neighbors and communities to reach out.
They have.
Community members have shared similar frustrations about getting answers, navigating city processes, and finding someone willing to take responsibility. Their experiences deserve to be heard and examined on their own merits. They have also made one thing clear: we are not alone.
What began on one block is becoming a larger conversation about how Nashville serves the people who live here.
Our experience has convinced us that a councilmember can be very convenient for City Hall and very ineffective for the people who elected her. In our view, Terry Vo's handling of this case illustrates that problem.
Residents collect the signatures, send the emails, and repeat the process. The city's handling remains unexplained. The councilmember gets to sound supportive.
Two years later, everyone still has their title. We still have our parking problem.
Terry, City Hall could hardly ask for a more comfortable form of oversight. Your constituents could certainly ask for a more effective representative.
But Terry is becoming a smaller part of what comes next. Her handling of this case has convinced us that our community needs better representation. We are putting more energy into helping residents recognize effective leadership and supporting people prepared to deliver it.
Nashville's future is too important to spend years trying to persuade one councilmember to follow through on a parking application.
And let's be clear: this is not a red-versus-blue argument.
We likely share many political views with Terry, other councilmembers, and the mayor. That makes the disappointment sharper. We expect people who share our values to put those values into practice.
Wearing the same jersey does not earn anyone a lifetime exemption from the scoreboard.
We care about execution. Can you answer a question? Can you explain a decision? Can you bring the right people together, take responsibility, and finish something?
We have actually been encouraged by some of the councilmembers we have met through this process. They listen, ask substantive questions, and take their responsibility to residents seriously. Those meetings have shown us what capable representation can look like.
They have also made the contrast harder to ignore. There are grown-ups in the room willing to challenge an answer, and there are officials who seem content to pass it along.
Residents need someone who can say, "We understand what the city wants to do. Now let's talk about whether it works for the people who live here."
Taking instructions and representing constituents are different skills. We elect councilmembers for the second one.
To the councilmembers doing that work: we see the difference, we appreciate it, and we want to help you succeed.
To those who have received our correspondence but have not helped obtain an answer: being copied on a problem is not the same as helping solve it. Someone needs to turn "That sounds frustrating" into "Here is the answer, and here is who will act."
We are done putting all our energy into another round of emails. We will continue pursuing our original application, and we will use what this experience has taught us to build something useful for other residents.
Through dobetternashville.com, we intend to document problems carefully, share substantive responses, recognize people who deliver, and connect communities that might otherwise believe they are struggling alone.
To the councilmembers willing to challenge City Hall on behalf of their constituents: reach out to us. How can we help you?
Set our parking issue aside for a moment. Tell us what you are working to accomplish in your neighborhood. Where are residents being ignored? What questions are you demanding answers to? What have you changed, and where do you need more people standing beside you?
Shaking hands and kissing babies is great. Somewhere between the parade and the next Instagram post, somebody still has to call the department back.
Make the handshake mean something.
We will be meeting as a community to establish our next steps. We invite neighbors and elected officials to participate. That invitation includes Terry. Meaningful action can still change the outcome, and we will recognize anyone who helps deliver it.
We love Nashville enough to pay attention. We have learned enough to ask better questions. And we are meeting more people who are ready to do the same.
We have spent two years asking who will stand up for us. Now we are also asking: who should we stand beside?
A parking problem brought us together. What we do with that connection can reach much further.