Big up to my friend and colleague, Freddie(!) O’Connell, who was honored this week as “Best Transit Activist” by the Nashville Scene:
By day, Thomas “Freddie” O’Connell—Nashville native, computer programmer and Brown/MBA alum—stirs up the airwaves as Mary Mancini’s dry-witted co-host on WRVU’s popular liberal call-in show Liberadio(!). The rest of the time—make that all the time—he advocates tirelessly for improvements in Nashville’s public transportation system, and he practices what he preaches. For the last four years, O’Connell and his girlfriend Whitney refused to own a car, a major stand in a city as car-centered and transportation-backward as Nashville. He finally relented this year, but only when he found an environmentally friendly vehicle. And what a vehicle: On eBay he purchased a matte black, biodiesel El Camino (complete with rear-window Gothic lettering reading BIODIESEL) from none other than Kill Bill’s one-eyed death-dealer Daryl Hannah. He now sits on Metro Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors—where, with any luck, he’ll help kill our bills for fossil fueling. —JOEL RICE
When Mayor Karl Dean appointed Freddie to the board of the MTA he got a man who not only talks the talk, but who, quite literally and figuratively, walks the walk. Congrats, Freddie!
