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March 18, 2026

Who Put Benches at Nashville Bus Stops — and Why Did the City Remove Them?

City Cast Nashville

Who Put Benches at Nashville Bus Stops — and Why Did the City Remove Them?

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Late last summer, the Nashville Department of Transportation removed the benches lining Korean Vets Boulevard … but Pastor Robin L. Owen just happened to have one in her car. Since then, she and a team of volunteers have built dozens of benches to place at bus stops across the city, part of a nationwide movement; locally, the project is called “To Nashville, With Love.” She joins host Marie Cecile Anderson to talk about why these community-built benches matter, and share her reaction to last week’s news that NDOT was removing their benches, too.

The next bench building party is this Saturday, March 21, at Riverside Commons in East Nashville. Volunteers are invited to join at 9 a.m. to build benches, or around noon if they’d like to drive a rescued bench back to its home.

If you’d like to donate to the bench building project, you can do so here.

If you enjoyed this interview with Cheekwood's Senior VP of Museum Affairs, Sarah Sperling, and artist Karen LaMonte, learn more here.

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