📚 Library garage fire updates

🏙️ How You Can Help Shape Nashville

Nashville is growing fast — but who gets to decide our future? On today’s City Cast Nashville podcast, Veronica Foster, Community Development Director at the Civic Design Center, shows us how everyday Nashvillians can influence their neighborhoods, streets, and citywide projects. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

📚 Library Garage Fire Update

The Nashville Department of Transportation has released an update on June’s library garage fire that caused significant damage and the closure of the downtown branch. Engineers say repairing the damage on the garage’s lower levels is the best course of action, though some demolition will be necessary. [WKRN]

• The downtown library remains closed with no word on its reopening. While they’re not the same, NPL has many other wonderful branches throughout the city to visit. [Nashville Public Library]

🧑‍⚖️ Councilmember Files Lawsuit

Metro Councilmember Joy Kimbrough has filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against Best Brands owner Ryan Moses, following his failed ethics complaint against her. Kimbrough accuses Moses of slander, libel, and inflicting emotional distress. [Nashville Scene]

• The Metro Board of Ethical Conduct unanimously voted to dismiss Moses’s claims against Kimbrough. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🥫 More Attempts To Lower Sales Tax on Groceries

State Representative John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) is sponsoring a bill that would exempt low-income families from paying sales tax on food. Tennessee currently has a 4% sales tax on groceries. [Fox 17]

• A Republican-sponsored bill from last year to eliminate the grocery sales tax is still up for consideration this session. [WKRN]
• State Representative Aftyn Behn’s (D-Nashville) bill to eliminate the grocery tax failed last year. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• Behn has decided against running for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District this year, though she plans to continue her work as a state representative. [Nashville Scene]