Nashville, Tennessee Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Law and government== {{See also|List of mayors of Nashville, Tennessee|Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County}} [[File:Tennessee State Capitol 2009.jpg|thumb|The [[Tennessee State Capitol|State Capitol]] in Nashville]] The city of Nashville and Davidson County merged in 1963 as a way for Nashville to combat the problems of [[urban sprawl]]. The combined entity is officially known as "the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County", and is popularly known as "Metro Nashville" or simply "Metro". It offers services such as [[Metropolitan Nashville Police Department|police]], [[Nashville Fire Department|fire]], [[Nashville Electric Service|electricity]], water and sewage treatment. When the Metro government was formed in 1963, the government was split into two service districts—the "urban services district" and the "general services district." The urban services district encompasses the 1963 boundaries of the former City of Nashville, approximately {{convert|72|sqmi}},<ref name="citypap20101121">{{cite news |url=http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/metros-two-tiered-revenue-system-raises-taxing-questions |title=Metro's two-tiered revenue system raises taxing questions |work=[[The City Paper]] |first=Charles |last=Maldonado |date=November 21, 2010 |access-date=February 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205195634/http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/metros-two-tiered-revenue-system-raises-taxing-questions |archive-date=February 5, 2015 }}</ref> and the general services district includes the remainder of Davidson County. There are six smaller municipalities within the consolidated city-county: [[Belle Meade, Tennessee|Belle Meade]], [[Berry Hill, Tennessee|Berry Hill]], [[Forest Hills, Tennessee|Forest Hills]], [[Oak Hill, Tennessee|Oak Hill]], [[Goodlettsville, Tennessee|Goodlettsville]] (partially), and [[Ridgetop, Tennessee|Ridgetop]] (partially). These municipalities use a two-tier system of government, with the smaller municipality typically providing police services and the Metro Nashville government providing most other services. Previously, the city of [[Lakewood, Tennessee|Lakewood]] also had a separate charter. However, Lakewood residents voted in 2010 and 2011 to dissolve its city charter and join the metropolitan government, with both votes passing.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14258754/residents-vote-to-surrender-lakewoods-charter |title=Residents Vote To Surrender Lakewood's Charter |work=NewsChannel5.com |first=Andy |last=Humbles |date=April 15, 2011 |access-date=August 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320024943/http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14258754/residents-vote-to-surrender-lakewoods-charter |archive-date=March 20, 2011}}</ref> Nashville is governed by a mayor, vice-mayor, and [[Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County|40-member Metropolitan Council]]. It uses the strong-mayor form of the [[mayor–council government|mayor–council system]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-voices/rein-council-redefines-mayoral-relationship |title=Rein of Council redefines mayoral relationship |work=[[The City Paper]] |date=April 9, 2004 |access-date=August 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813194108/http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-voices/rein-council-redefines-mayoral-relationship |archive-date=August 13, 2011 }}</ref> The current mayor of Nashville is [[Freddie O’Connell]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jeong |first1=Yihyun |title=John Cooper sworn in as Nashville mayor, pledges to make city that 'works for everyone' |date=September 28, 2019|url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/09/28/john-cooper-sworn-nashville-mayor-oath-of-office/2439607001/ |work=The Tennessean |language=en|access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref> The Metropolitan Council is the legislative body of government for Nashville and Davidson County. There are five council members who are elected at large and 35 council members that represent individual districts. The Metro Council has regular meetings that are presided over by the vice-mayor, who is currently Jim Shulman. The Metro Council meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:00{{nbsp}}pm, according to the Metropolitan Charter. Nashville is home to the [[Tennessee Supreme Court]]'s courthouse for [[Middle Tennessee]] and the [[Estes Kefauver Federal Building and United States Courthouse]], home of the [[United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee]]. ===Politics=== <!--Hold place for image of David Briley when available--> Nashville has been a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] stronghold since at least the end of [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]], and has remained staunchly Democratic even as the state as a whole has trended strongly [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]. Pockets of Republican influence exist in the wealthier portions of the city, but they are usually no match for the overwhelming Democratic trend in the rest of the city. The issue of school busing roiled politics for years but subsided after the 1990s.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxWf4Yup1twC |title=The Burden of Busing: The Politics of Desegregation in Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=The University of Tennessee Press |first1=Richard A. |last1=Pride |first2=J. David |last2=Woodward |date=1985 |isbn=0-87049-474-0}}</ref> While local elections are officially nonpartisan, nearly all the city's elected officials are publicly known as Democrats. The city is split among 10 state house districts, all of which are held by Democrats. Three state senate districts and part of a fourth are within the county; three are held by Democrats and one by a Republican.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Tennessee: A Maturing Two-Party System |journal=American Review of Politics |first1=John M. |last1=Bruce |first2=John A. |last2=Clark |first3=Michael M. |last3=Gant |first4=Linda M. |last4=Daugherty |volume=24 |pages=165–182 |date=2003 |doi=10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2003.24.0.165-182|doi-access=free }}</ref> In the state legislature, Nashville politicians serve as leaders of both the [[Tennessee Senate|Senate]] and [[Tennessee House of Representatives|House]] Democratic Caucuses. Representative Mike Stewart serves as Chairman of the House Caucus. Senator [[Jeff Yarbro]] serves as Chairman of the Senate Caucus. Democrats are no less dominant at the federal level. Democratic presidential candidates have failed to carry Davidson County only five times since Reconstruction; in 1928, 1968, 1972, 1984 and 1988.<ref name="uselectionatlas.org">[http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/comparemaps.php?year=2008&fips=18&f=1&off=0&elect=0 David Leip's Presidential Atlas (Maps for Indiana by election)] Results prior to 1960 available through subscription only</ref> In most years, Democrats have carried Nashville at the presidential level with relatively little difficulty, even in years when they lose Tennessee as a whole. This has been especially true in recent elections, as the state capitol has continued to trend more Democratic even as most of the rest of the state has become staunchly Republican. In the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 presidential election]], Tennessean Democrat [[Al Gore]] carried Nashville with over 59% of the vote even as he narrowly lost his home state and thus the presidency. In the [[2004 United States presidential election|2004 election]], Democrat [[John Kerry]] carried Nashville with 55% of the vote while [[George W. Bush]] won the state by 14 points. In [[2008 United States presidential election|2008]], [[Barack Obama]] carried Nashville with 60% of the vote while Republican [[John McCain]] won Tennessee by 15 points. Despite its large size, Nashville was in a single congressional district, the [[Tennessee's 5th congressional district|5th]], for most of its history. A Republican had not represented a significant portion of Nashville since 1874, until 2023 when the GOP-controlled state legislature controversially split Nashville into parts of the 5th, [[Tennessee's 6th congressional district|6th]], and 7th districts in an effort to [[gerrymander]] an additional Republican to Tennessee's congressional delegation as part of the [[2020 United States redistricting cycle|2022 redistricting cycle]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Sutton |first=Caroline |date=February 7, 2022 |title=Gov. Lee signs congressional redistricting bill splitting Davidson County |url=https://www.newschannel5.com/news/gov-lee-signs-congressional-redistricting-bill-splitting-davidson-county |work=WTVF-TV |location=Nashville |access-date=February 7, 2022}}</ref> Republicans made a few spirited challenges to the 5th district in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. The Republicans almost won it in 1968; only a strong showing by a candidate from Wallace's [[American Independent Party]] kept the seat in Democratic hands. The last serious bid for the district while still a Democratic stronghold was in 1972, when the Republican candidate gained only 38% of the vote even as Nixon carried the district in the presidential election by a large margin. The district's best-known congressman was probably [[Joseph W. Byrns Sr.|Jo Byrns]], who represented the district from 1909 to 1936 and was [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] for much of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]]'s first term as president. Another nationally prominent congressman from Nashville was [[Percy Priest]], who represented the district from 1941 to 1956 and was [[Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives|House Majority Whip]] from 1949 to 1953. Former mayors [[Richard Fulton]] and [[Bill Boner]] also sat in the U.S. House before assuming the Metro mayoral office. From 2003 to 2013, a sliver of southwestern Nashville was located in the [[Tennessee's 7th congressional district|7th District]], represented by Republican [[Marsha Blackburn]]. This area was roughly coextensive with the portion of Nashville she had represented in the state senate from 1998 to 2002. However, the 5th regained all of Nashville after the 2010 census. ===Crime=== According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting database, Metropolitan Nashville has a violent crime rate approximately three times the national average, and a property crime rate approximately 1.6 times the average.<ref name="FBIUCR1">{{cite web |url=https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-6 |title=Table 6: Crime in the United States by metropolitan Statistical Area, 2017 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date=2017 |access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref><ref name="FBIUCR2">{{cite web |url=https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-1 |title=Table 1: Crime in the United States by Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants, 1998–2017 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date=2017 |access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref> The following table shows Nashville's crime rate per 100,000 inhabitants for seven UCR categories. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Crime ! Nashville (2017)<ref name="FBIUCR1" /> ! National average (2017)<ref name="FBIUCR2" /> |- |Murder and non-negligent manslaughter |style="text-align:right;"|16.29 |style="text-align:right;"|5.3 |- |Rape |style="text-align:right;"|72.89 |style="text-align:right;"|30.7 |- |Robbery |style="text-align:right;"|303.13 |style="text-align:right;"|98.0 |- |Aggravated assault |style="text-align:right;"|745.84 |style="text-align:right;"|248.9 |- |Burglary |style="text-align:right;"|631.31 |style="text-align:right;"|430.4 |- |Larceny-theft |style="text-align:right;"|2,806.6 |style="text-align:right;"|1,694.4 |- |Motor vehicle theft |style="text-align:right;"|380.03 |style="text-align:right;"|237.4 |} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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