Endorsements: Kevin Mack for Mt. Juliet Mayor

I haven't lived in Nashville's eastern suburbs long enough to be familiar with all the key players in local politics. Thus I've had a hard time deciding for whom to cast my vote for mayor, especially since we have five candidates running in a winner-take-all election (no runoff).

But I've done some research and have decided that I'll be voting for former Mt. Juliet mayor Kevin Mack to return to office. At first, I dismissed Mack because I felt that he was just recycling his 2000 campaign. (And he is.) But as I've gotten to know a little bit more about what Mack has done and what he stands for, I've come around.

The biggest issue facing Mt. Juliet is growth. This area is growing, and it will continue growing, and all the mayoral candidates are talking about responsible growth—growing while maintaining the area's natural beauty. (Some also talk about maintaining the city's small-town charm, but I think that Mt. Juliet moved to quickly from being an unincorporated rural area to being a densely populated suburb to have picked up any small-town charm along the way. We have neither a Main Street nor a town square, for instance. I digress.) But Mack is the only candidate who provides specifics: requiring new subdivisions to set aside "permanently protected greenspace" and developing a system of bike paths, sidewalks, and greenways.

I also appreciate that Mack is clear about his priorities and that among his priorities is a put all of the city's public records on the Internet. I support this plan, not because I'm concerned about corruption, but because I believe in using the Internet to its full potential.