To Sustain Success, Nashville Area Must Think Regionally

"Almost every issue is a regional issue now," says Freeman, chairman a Nashville-based real estate investment, management and brokerage company. "Traffic, transportation and mass transit. Economic development. Crime and public safety. Tourism. Education."

"While Nashville paid the whole bill for LP Field, Bridgestone Arena and the new Music City Center, the entire region reaps the benefit of those assets, and I believe we will need a more regional approach to funding regionally beneficial projects in the future, especially when it comes to expanding and enhancing our transportation infrastructure — widening roads, building mass transit and adding people-friendly assets like a regional network of greenways and bike trails."

"How we get there from here — how we evolve regional cooperation from the planning level to the funding and operational level — is a discussion we need to be having now, not in 2035."