Politics

Top City Hall Contenders Play the Plaza Mariachi

THE TENNESSEE TRIBUNE — On Monday three of the four top candidates for Mayor answered questions from Nashville’s refugee and immigrant population at the Plaza Mariachi. The plaza has a food court and performance space in the middle of a strip mall on Nolensville Rd.

Published

7 years ago

June 17, 2019

Peter White

By Peter White

NASHVILLE, TN – On Monday three of the four top candidates for Mayor answered questions from Nashville’s refugee and immigrant population at the Plaza Mariachi. The plaza has a food court and performance space in the middle of a strip mall on Nolensville Rd.

There are 13 eateries with different kinds of food, two Spanish language radio stations, a Dominican Barber Shop, a Dubai Jewelry store, a Latin American clothing store, Latin American grocery store, an international calling and money transfer business. There are also regular outlets for H&R Block, GameStop, and Sprint. It’s not like the new Bellevue Mall or Opry Mills but has bits of both.

Some 2019 events at the plaza were Noche de Carnaval, Bollywood Night, Arabian Night, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter Celebration, African Roots, and Chinese New Year. The plaza hosts a bi-lingual story time on weekday mornings for kids.

Last Monday evening Mayor David Briley, Representative John Ray Clemmons, and At Large Councilman John Cooper were the headliners. Carol Swain told the Tribune she wanted to attend but had a prior commitment.

Like the At Large candidates, the mayoral candidates were asked questions about workers’ rights, immigration enforcement, affordable housing, criminal justice, access to services, the economy, and neighborhoods. Each candidate had a short time to answer each question. There was no debating between candidates. Briley spoke about immigration enforcement.

“At this moment in our country our President everyday seeks to divide us. Our state legislature is anti-immigrant, and the last line of defense for folks in our community is city government. And I am running to make sure that your city stands up for folks who have moved here one week, one year, or ten generations ago. That is what is most important to this city,” said Briley.

On the question of workers’ rights and wage theft, John Cooper said people need to report safety issues and that Metro must begin to treat wage theft as a crime. “The first way to address it and the big stick that Metro has is “we’re not doing business with anybody who has that record,” he said.

Cooper also said the city needs to stop measuring police output by the number of traffic stops and instead commit to a community policing plan where the point of contact between law enforcement and the community is a positive one.

“That lack of trust that exists in some places needs to be replaced by reliability, communication, and hard work, and it can happen,” Cooper said.

Alex Macias of Conexion Americas asked, “As mayor, how would you support immigrant-owned businesses to launch, to survive, and to thrive in Nashville’s economy?

“We should be showing our small businesses just as much love as these big corporations we’re trying to recruit to Nashville,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons. The audience applauded.

“To help launch small businesses we need to make the business process and the permitting processes more friendly. We need to make the government work for the people and help facilitate the overwhelming number of immigrants who start their own business.

We need to facilitate and encourage more 504 loans with the Small Business Administration so more small businesses can get loans to buy real estate and buy their own buildings so they are not beholden to landlords,” Clemmons said. Again, the audience applauded.

He said Metro needs to make serious investments in the infrastructure throughout the city and that the Nolensville corridor is a rich corridor of diversity and culture.

“We need to make sure that people can get to it. We don’t need to be making cuts to our public transportation system. We need to be investing in sidewalks and we need to be making this an opening and welcoming district,” Clemmons said.

Clemmons was the most polished speaker on the stage. Briley acknowledged problems but defended his record and noted his accomplishments as any incumbent would. Cooper answered questions with brief but surprising answers. For example, he challenged the premise behind the question about developing the Nolensville corridor.

“The future comes when we realize that Nolensville Rd is not a corridor, it is a destination,” Cooper said. He said all of Nashville deserves investment, not just downtown.

“We almost completely ignore small business downtown. If you look at the lists of abatements and incentives, this is all very large corporations usually employing people who are not here now. You have to change that. You have to focus on small business. You have to focus on jobs that can come to people who are living here now,” he said.

In the forums the Tribune has covered, Clemmons has been the crowd favorite. Mayor Briley and Councilman Cooper are the other liberal alternatives. However, Cooper is a fiscal conservative like Carol Swain, a Republican.

The candidates have just released their first TV spots and it is too early to talk about the smart money in the Mayor’s race. But as the incumbent and supported by the Chamber of Commerce, Briley has a distinct advantage. His machine in City Hall pumps out new initiatives and photo Ops every other day and the TV stations dutifully cover them.

The one thing nobody is talking about much is the Swain factor. Her last challenge to Briley didn’t force a runoff in May 2018. She got 23% of the votes but Briley won that special election with 54% of the total votes cast. With two smart and able liberal politicians challenging Briley now, the conservative Swain could poll well enough to force a runoff after the election on August 1.

You can see the candidates’ forum held Monday at the Plaza Mariachi here: https://www.facebook.com/tnimmigrant/videos/2567091839990997/

This article originally appeared in The Tennessee Tribune.

Peter White

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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NPRC Joins National Grand Jury Proceedings Seeking Accountability, Constitutional Restoration

Organizers state that testimony will explore historical and political developments that they believe have contributed to the expansion of corporate influence over public institutions and governmental decision-making. Participants are expected to discuss concerns regarding constitutional governance, individual liberties, property rights, and the protection of vulnerable populations, including seniors and persons with disabilities.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Billie Powers.

Special to The Post

The National Probate Reform Coalition (NPRC) has joined Toll and Roll and a growing coalition of advocacy organizations, victims, whistleblowers, and citizen groups in support of a nationally broadcast People’s Grand Jury proceeding scheduled for July 1 and July 7.

Organizers describe the event as a public forum designed to examine allegations of government abuse, judicial misconduct, legislative failures, and the erosion of constitutional protections affecting millions of Americans.

The proceedings will feature testimony from victims, families, advocates, and organizations from across the country who contend they have experienced harm through government actions, institutional neglect, and failures of oversight.

According to organizers, the People’s Grand Jury will focus on concerns involving probate courts, guardianships, conservatorships, child welfare systems, property rights, civil liberties, and what participants view as a growing disconnect between government institutions and the constitutional rights of the people they are sworn to serve.

NPRC is participating because many of the issues being examined mirror the concerns raised by advocates, victims, and families who have participated in its monthly town halls. For years, families have reported cases involving exploitation of elders, questionable guardianships, estate depletion, denial of due process, and a lack of meaningful oversight within probate court systems.

“This proceeding gives victims and advocates an opportunity to place their experiences on the public record,” said Tanya Dennis, lead facilitator of NPRC. “For too long, families have struggled to have their voices heard regarding elder abuse, probate exploitation, and government inaction. This forum allows those stories to be shared before a national audience.”

In keeping with principles of transparency and fairness, invitations have been extended to legislators, members of the judiciary, law enforcement representatives, and other public officials who may wish to respond to concerns raised during the proceedings or defend actions taken by their respective institutions.

One of the primary outcomes sought by organizers is public consideration and support for the People’s Remedy and Restoration Act, a proposed legislative framework that advocates believe would strengthen oversight, increase accountability, provide remedies for victims of governmental abuse, and restore constitutional protections.

The proceedings are expected to be broadcast nationally, providing citizens throughout the United States an opportunity to observe testimony, review evidence presented, and participate in an ongoing conversation regarding government accountability and the protection of individual rights.

Advocates hope the hearings will encourage meaningful dialogue, legislative reform, and renewed public engagement in the democratic process.

Individuals, organizations, public officials, and members of the media interested in attending or obtaining access information may contact the organizers at tollandroll2025@gmail.com.

As Americans continue to debate the future of constitutional governance, judicial accountability, and the protection of vulnerable citizens, the July proceedings are expected to serve as a significant forum for public testimony and civic engagement. For more information, go to https://tollandroll.com

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Local Civil Rights Attorney, Activist Walter Riley Reveals Life Lessons from 70 Years in the Movement

Widely known in Oakland for his unifying leadership on issues of social justice and human rights, Riley is also recognized for his famous son, Raymond “Boots” Riley, a rap artist, political activist, and successful filmmaker, whose latest film, “I Love Boosters,” is now in theaters and capturing national attention.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Walter Riley. Courtesy photo.

By Ken Epstein

Prominent civil rights attorney and activist Walter Riley recently went on radio station KPFA 94.1 to discuss his new book co-authored with local veteran organizer Jesse Strauss: “Civil Rights and Structural Attacks: Conversations with Walter Riley.”

Born in North Carolina, Riley has lived in San Francisco, Chicago, and Detroit, but his longtime home is Oakland, California.

Over the years, he was a leader in the South against Jim Crow, participated as a student in the historic 1968 San Francisco State University strike that created Black Studies and Ethnic Studies in the U.S. and scored victories in the fight for open college admissions.

He was also a labor organizer and was involved in early Black Panther Party formations, anti-war protests, and was a leader of the Progressive Labor Party, a pro-Mao, Marxist Leninist party.

In an interview on KPFA’s “Upfront” with host Brian Edwards-Tiekert on June 18, he discussed some of his formative experiences, born in 1944 to a family of sharecroppers who worked on a tobacco farm near Durham, North Carolina.

“I came from a farming family, the ninth child of 11 children,” Riley said. “My mom and dad got married as teenagers, and they were together for their entire lives. Growing up in this large family, we had to deal with various aspects of what it meant to live in an economically depressed area with parents who had come through what they called “Hoover times” (the Great Depression) in the South.

“They were proud of every one of their children when they took some stand, to develop and show some sense of dignity,” he said.

In his neighborhood, slavery was not a distant memory. There are many people “who knew firsthand what it was to have family members that had lived as enslaved people and lived in communities where enslaved people had lived.

“(Under tenant farming), the landowner negotiated for the entire family: the farmer, the wife, the children – everybody was involved on the farm. Kids were often engaged. We had to shovel, hoe tobacco to keep the weeds from taking over, to make sure that tobacco worms didn’t eat up the tobacco. If a child was old enough to plow, they would walk behind a horse or mule and plow a field, working from sunup to sundown,” he said.

The houses did not have indoor bathrooms, running water or electricity. “A lot of the names in the Black community were the same names as these slave owners. We could see the names of folks on the streets, street names of people who had enslaved people, and they were symbols to me of a world that did not see me as a human being, that has not treated my ancestors as humans, has treated us as chattel to be sold, to be owned, to be property,” Riley said

“When we were counted by our government, we were counted only for the purposes of allowing white people, white men, to have a vote.”

By 1950, when he was 6 years old, his family moved to another house, leaving tenant farming. His father took a job in construction.

“My parents wanted the younger kids to have education,” he continued. “The older kids had to work on the farms. By the time I came along, I was the second child born in a hospital. “My parents looked forward to younger kids to have more sense of independence from the economic and social depravities that they saw around them.”

Watching television, he became aware of the suffering under Jim Crow, including the lynching in Mississippi of Emmett Till in 1955 and Mack Parker in 1959.

When he was 13, he joined a picket line in town in front of a variety store chain that did not hire Black people and became active in the Civil Rights Movement. By time he was in high school, he had become a leader in the local chapter of the NAACP and met Malcolm X and later Medgar Evers, leaders who were both assassinated.

Married and with a child, he moved with his family in the early 1960s to San Francisco, attending San Francisco State University while working full time.

He participated in the San Francisco State University strike, the longest student strike in U.S. history, where students and their supporters prevailed in the face of mass arrests and daily violent police attacks.

While many people remember the strike for its historic victory – the creation of the first Black Studies and Ethnic Studies programs in the country. “But open admissions was the thing,” he said. “Open admissions had to do with people being able to go to school for free. People should be able to go to school just because they come here and say, ‘I want to go to school. I want an education’ (because) we live in a rich country.”

Studying Marxism, including dialectical materialism, he gradually began to understand structure of the system that needs to be changed, he said. “It requires a lot of study, and it still does.”