- No, because when I hear the Nashville Way, I think about the book, "The Nashville Way," which was all about Nashville putting on this facade and acting like it was something other than what it actually was.

We're not Birmingham, even though we are still bombing elementary schools and still bombing Z. Alexander Looby's home, but we're not that, right?

And it is all spin and it is all narrative.

and it's all press.

And so that very much exists because that is what Nashville was built on, right?

It takes people, and I won't even say institutions, because I think for all of the reasons that they have mentioned about technology and wading through the muck of that, and then corporate interest, and where is the money from.

And then also I will just be completely upfront at the Tennessean.

I'm checking page views daily.

Please read my stuff because we got to hit page view goes, right?

So there are all of these factors that make it difficult.

And this is me being glass half full as much as I possibly can.

- [Jerome] Okay.

- And saying, I don't think anybody is maliciously not telling the stories, but I think all of this other stuff gets in the way that makes it harder.

You have to be so intentional.

You have to have the willingness to hit the wall of the systems of Metro government and MMPS and all of that and then turn around and do it again, and turn around and do it again, and turn around and do it again, when it is easier to do what Nashville has always done, which is spit shine this thing real, real good and be like, "Yo, we chilling.

Look at all them cranes in the sky."

- Jerome] A Slice of the Community is made possible by the support of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and R.H.

Boyd.

(soft music)