Large crowds are expected at City Hall today when the Metro Council takes up a series of high-profile measures seeking to rein in data centers in Nashville.

Why it matters: The main event at the meeting this evening will be the public hearing period, when residents will get a chance to come up to the microphone and give their opinions on data center policies.

• It is likely to be a lengthy and emotionally charged process.

Zoom in: In Nashville, proposals to build a data center next to the zoo and on the Fisk University campus have already drawn sharp criticism.

• The Nashville Zoo's petition to stop construction of a nearby data center has more than half a million signatures.

What we're watching: The Metro Council will consider an ordinance tonight that would create regulations for data centers. Another ordinance on the agenda would temporarily pause data center construction citywide.

If you go: Anyone who wants to speak on those two measures during the public hearing will need to get a ticket first. The ticketing process is intended to streamline the queue for a larger-than-usual crowd and limit the time people spend waiting in a long line at the podium.

• There is not a finite number of tickets — the council office said everyone who wants to speak will get a chance.

How it works: Speaker tickets will be handed out on the second floor mezzanine in city hall starting at 5pm.

• The council chamber will open to the public at 5:30pm. The meeting will begin at 6:30pm. The data center measures are listed at the end of the public hearing agenda, which also includes dozens of other items.

Zoom out: Mayor Freddie O'Connell's plan to block the data center next to the zoo by seizing the land is on the council's agenda as a late-filed ordinance. A public hearing on that measure would come later.

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The South was the only part of the country that saw its child population grow from 2020 to 2025.

Why it matters: Most of America is preparing for fewer students and young families, while the South faces the opposite problem: crowded classrooms, new housing pressure and rising political stakes.

Zoom in: In 2025, the Tennessee State Data Center reported the number of births across the state had been increasing for four straight years.

The big picture: The South had 303,969 more children in 2025 than in 2020, according to new Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates reviewed by Axios.

• The West had the largest under-18 decline: down 1,015,068, or 5.7%.
• Overall, the South's total population grew 6% from 2020 to 2025 — nearly double the nation's 3.1% growth.

State of play: The South's overall growth reflects strong migration patterns that are adding children, people in prime family-building years and retirees — making it the only region gaining population across all five age groups tracked by the Census Bureau.

• The numbers deepen a larger post-pandemic trend: America's growth is moving outward, especially across the South.

What we're watching: The South's child growth could give Black and Latino families more political and economic clout — but only if booming counties invest equitably in schools, housing, transit and health care.

Yes, but: Even with an uptick in younger residents, the overall population in the South and everywhere else is getting older because the older population is growing faster than other age groups.

• The 65-and-older population has been Tennessee's fastest growing age group for years.

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