Mayor Freddie O'Connell campaigned on creating a city that makes it easier for Nashvillians to stay, on creating a Nashville built to support the Nashvillians that live here, and on ensuring Nashvillians have a government responsive to their needs. Two years into his term, his impact on Nashville has been wide-ranging:
- Achieved dedicated funding for transportation to ensure our infrastructure can keep up with our growth
- Reached a robust agreement for East Bank development that prioritized quality neighborhoods and achieved a commitment to a century of affordable housing
- Brought crime down in all categories. Safety is up. 220 new officers have joined Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
- Built a local government dedicated to great customer service that responded to 600,000 hubNashville requests for assistance over two years.
- Filled 67,000 potholes, plowed 600 miles of roads that had never seen a plow, and picked up 77 tons of litter.
- Made the first investments in the newly created Catalyst Fund to preserve affordable housing, opened the first permanent supportive housing at Strobel House, launched an initiative to help faith-based land holders build affordable housing where they want to, and invested $48 million in 2025 toward chipping away at affordability.
- Made smart investments in schools to continue previously federally funded programs that have produced record high graduation rates and back-to-back years learning growth outpacing the state average.
"Every day, we've approached the job with two goals in mind: an affordability agenda for a growing city and improving quality of life," Mayor Freddie O'Connell said. "I want people to be able to say at the end of the term that we made it easier to stay here. We're going to continue to do our due diligence and be zealous advocates for getting the best results and opportunities for our residents. Doing big things like passing the Choose How You Move program and investing in housing affordability is important, but the value Nashvillians place in their local government is often found in the little things. Did we fill that pothole? Did their trash get picked up on time? Our results speak for themselves, but I'm excited for the work still to come."
Mayor O'Connell divided his transition committees into three groups upon taking office: how Nashville moves, how Nashville works, and how Nashville grows.
How Nashville Moves
Over the past two years, Mayor O'Connell has pursued a bold vision for a modern transportation system that both reduces transportation costs and helps get Nashvillians where they need to go conveniently, quickly, and safely.
Ten months after the passage of Choose How You Move, work is underway on improvements across all four priority areas: sidewalks, signals, service, and safety.
Also, the latest operating budget founded the first-ever transit security unit within Metro Police.
Wins
- Passed Choose How You Move, a historic and generational investment in our city's infrastructure.
- Filled more than 40,000 potholes in 2024 and 27,000 so far in 2025.
- Opened the Rip Patton North Nashville Transit Center.
- Opened the Transportation Management Center to expand live monitoring capabilities of our traffic flow.
- 3.7% increase in transit ridership in FY25.
- Made it easier to ride transit than ever with contactless payment – just tap your card.
- Hired 196 new bus operators from January to June 2025—a 204% increase year-over-year.
- Launched the transit safety division within MNPD.
How Nashville Works
Nashvillians want safe neighborhoods, housing they can afford, and educational opportunities to grow and thrive here. Underlying each of those goals is the need for a local government that provides city services that work well.
Upon taking office, Mayor O'Connell articulated his goal: making Nashville's government the premier customer-service organization in the city. That means a city that fills its potholes, plows its roads, picks up trash, and makes simple residents' interactions with government easy to handle and understand.
To achieve that, Mayor O'Connell stood up a new Department of Waste Services, so trash and recycling are picked up on time as residents expect.
He asked the Department of Transportation to revisit its snow routes, and they added more plows and 600 miles of new road to help Nashvillians dig out after snow.
What you see in the city around you affects how you feel about it: the city has patched 67,000 potholes and picked up 177 tons of litter. Those daily efforts – and countless others -- produce a big payoff for Nashvillians.
And all those successes aren't felt by residents unless they feels safe. With 220 new officers sworn in across 14 classes and precision policing strategies with great community partners, every crime category is down in 2025 year over year.
Wins
- Crime is down across the board. Green in all categories.
- In two years, hubNashville has received 598,000 requests – and response times are down.
- Stood up a Department of Waste Services for more reliable pickup of trash and recycling.
- Picked up more than 177 tons of litter off our streets.
- Started a Faith-Based housing initiative to partner with some of our largest land holders (Faith-based institutions) to help them elevate the use of their land for affordable housing if they choose.
- Added more staffing for codes with Nighttime codes inspectors, increased resources for permitting department to fulfill those more quickly.
- Started a nighttime codes inspector program and delivered technology improvements for permitting departments to increase processing times.
- Invested more than $150 million in deferred maintenance so all Nashvillians have facilities that work efficiently.
- Expanded the work of the Financial Empowerment Center. Launched the Raising Economic Security to Enjoy Thriving (RESET) program to connect older adults with millions in unclaimed benefits.
- Expanded the number of after-care programs at Metro Parks, Libraries and the Nashville After-Zone Alliance.
- Opened our largest solar installation to date at Omohundro. That now powers more than 2/3 of the Metro Water Services campus there.
- Funded the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Bridge – enabling Metro Schools to continue previously federally-funded programs that have led to such a strong learning loss recovery that has outpaced many of our peer school districts.
- Metro Schools had its best performance ever in English Language Arts (ELA), math and social studies in the 2025 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) results.
How Nashville Grows
Over the past two years, the O'Connell administration has worked to protect the integrity of neighborhoods and capitalized on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop 338 acres on the East Bank. There, the city secured an unprecedented 99-year affordability commitment for 700 affordable homes just in the first 30 acres.
New life is on the way for the aging Rivergate Mall and Global Mall sites, and new companies are calling Nashville home like the newly announced partnership with Nissha.
Wins
- Reached a master development agreement with the Fallon Co. on the East Bank.
- Announced the Unified Housing Strategy to provide a blueprint to chip away at our housing affordability issues. Invested an initial $45 million in operating budget.
- Achieved dedicated funding for our roads and transportation so we can keep up with growth.
- Opened Affordable Housing at the Fairgrounds and more than 20 other affordable developments across the city.
- Launched the Catalyst Fund to help preserve our existing affordable housing. Over 10 years, the estimate is that will lead to 3,000 affordable places to live. The Fund will provide fast, flexible loans to mission-driven developers to help preserve affordability for rental homes that would otherwise be lost to the market and to increase affordable housing production in Nashville.
- Repurposed $10m intended to update Burrus Hall to ensure long-term stability for Fisk University and elevate the role of entrepreneurship.
- Opened our first permanent supportive housing in Strobel House.
- In early 2024, Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority (MDHA) had more homes in development than at any point in the last 50 years.
- Cut the ribbon on three new or renovated schools (Lakeview, Percy Priest and Paragon Mills).
- Metro Parks is updating its plan to play roadmap to ensure that each neighborhood has the community assets it needs to enjoy the outdoors, parks, greenways, and community centers.