“Our biggest challenge is how to transition from that climate where people left their doors open and took care of each other and fed each other … to a rapidly growing urban center that is an economic dynamo but brings with that growth even more dramatic challenges for people in need. I think our biggest challenge as a city is to literally identify who we want to be and how we are going to become that.”
Avi worked as a middle school teacher and principal in Chicago for 35 years before he moved to Nashville with his wife, an advertising writer who invented the dancing California Raisins. She wanted to become a songwriter; he enrolled at Vanderbilt to receive his doctorate of education. He says he takes immense pride in our community’s development but recognizes the burden that growth places on those who can’t afford it and are left in its wake. Now as a retired administrator, Avi uses his time and energy to advocate for social and economic change in Nashville.
