Nashville, TN Mayor Freddie O'Connell was compelled to run for office on a simple principle. For too long, transit and infrastructure had been neglected by city officials. Upon winning his race in 2023, O'Connell's north star has been making it easier for Nashvillians to get around their city.

"I don't know of a greater transit evangelist among the mayor fraternity than Mayor O'Connell," said Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt on this week's episode.

"My mom remembers a Nashville that still had streetcar lines," O'Connell told our podcast hosts, former Mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philly. "And then we ripped that all out. If you look at our old streetcar maps, we had a good transit system. I ran [for mayor] because I felt like we had priorities as a city that simply were not going to get addressed unless I forced the issue."

Join us for a discussion during this year's Infrastructure Week centered on a blue city in a red state pulling every lever to reestablish customer-focused government and "trying every day to showcase that we've made the right choices" in infrastructure investment.

But Mayor O'Connell isn't all work and no play down there in Nashville. He also moonlights as DJ Stay (he chose this nom de vinyl because "I want you to stay" in Nashville).

"Our man says he's on the ones and twos," laughed Nutter, who knows a few things himself about spinning records.

"I didn't have this on the bingo card for today," Reed said with a grin.

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As cities go, so goes the nation!