Transit For Nashville campaign kicks off with message that time is now

A campaign kickoff was held Saturday to push a multi-billion dollar mass transit plan for Nashville that supporters attending will take to the streets with urgency.

Transit For Nashville conducted the Get Out the Vote kickoff at Plaza Mariachi on Nolensville Road. Coalition members, transit supporters and community leaders and officials were there.

The campaign was set in motion Tuesday when the Metro Council voted to make Mayor Megan Barry’s transit referendum part of the local primary election on May 1.

More: Nashville transit coalitions enter campaign mode with May 1 ballot set

“Today we’re kicking off a lot of neighbor-to-neighbor conversations about transit and about why this plan is so important to pass on May 1,” said Ethan Link, the co-chair of Transit for Nashville coalition and assistant business manager of the Southeast Laborers. “I think it is a good time. The reason is that it’s such an urgent issue.”

The campaign begins after Barry recently acknowledged an extra-marital affair with the former head of her security detail. The mayor was among a number of public officials who attended Saturday’s kickoff, and she talked informally with a number of people, but didn’t speak as part of the program.

“We’ve always said this would be really good to have on the ballot in May, and that hasn’t changed,” Barry said. “I think you’re going to see an overwhelming number of citizens of Davidson County be for transit.”

Saturday’s kickoff included distributing yard signs and signing up volunteers who will knock on doors, make calls, host house parties and work on election day in support of the transit initiative. T-shirts, TV and radio advertisements and social media will also be part of the plan.

More: Analysis: Mayor Barry's affair complicates already difficult transit fight

Michael Sharpe, 56, signed up to volunteer Saturday with Transit For Nashville, pointing to opposition he said also includes oil and car companies.

“It’s not just a local battle,” he said.

“I think overall people want us to address transit, address traffic, no matter what else is going on in the city or is in the headlines,” Metro Councilman Jeremy Elrod said. “People see traffic every day.”

The cost of the transit plan is being listed with a present-day figure of $5.35 billion paying for light rail and bus improvements with a cumulative $8.95 billion price tag that considers operating and other long-term costs.

More: Nashville council votes to add transit referendum with two dollar amounts to May ballot

Nashville voters will decide whether to raise four taxes, including the sales tax, to pay for the mass transit plan.

NoTax4Tracks, a group that opposes the plan, hopes to convince voters the transit initiative will put Nashville at the top of the nation in sales tax for a plan that won’t work.

“Do you have a message that works with voters?” NoTax4Tracks spokesman Jeff Eller said. “We do, they don’t.”

Transit for Nashville, which formed in the fall, reported more than 30,000 signatures on a petition to put transit on the ballot from a number of community events, spokeswoman Kelly Brockman said.

"This is our time, this is our issue," U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, said at the kickoff. "It's time for the citizens of Nashville to decide how they feel about it."

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @ AndyHumbles.