On Saturday, January 27 from 9 to 12 a.m., a group of alternative thinkers are trying to get their voices heard on transit.
Hosted by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, at Belmont University there will be a wide range of thinkers in panels talking about wide-ranging issues they take with the direction of the plans for transit going on right now in Middle Tennessee in general and Nashville in particular.
“We are holding this transit event to look at both sides of this issue,” Mark Cunningham, spokesperson for Beacon Center of Tennessee said. “The only people being heard from right now are the government cheerleaders and the businessmen who will personally benefit from this plan. We want to show the real effects this train plan will have on Nashville, including the real costs and overall ineffectiveness of this plan to reduce traffic. We are bringing local and national experts to Nashville to discuss the real issues with this plan and offering actual solutions to the traffic problems in Nashville rather than the talking points and meritless predictions of the other side.”
There are two panels. The first will address the questions What is wrong With the Nashville Transit Plan?”
Ralph Bristol, Nashville Morning’s host will moderate a discussion between Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute; Michael Sargent, of the Heritage Foundation; and Ron Shultis, of the Beacon Center.
The second panel, “A Better Plan for Nashville,” will be moderated by Justin Owen, of the Beacon Center.
Here Baruch Feigenbaum, from Reason Foundation, Marc Scribner, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Emily Hamilton, Mercatus Center, will talk about what they think are better alternatives than the plan put forth and a better future for mass transit in the region than the one that apparently the region is on track for.
The panels will be in the Frist Lecture Hall on the 4th floor at the university.
Attendance is free, but to rsvp email [email protected].
Wonderful idea as opposing views have not had enough coverage or discussion. Please keep posting. Thank you.