Walking around Nashville, TN - Downtown & Germantown

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

LOL at "n'ville". you're saving a whole 2 keystrokes.

so u good with the ‘vuhl then?

but seriously its not me thats a couple of the ways they would write it sometimes when i was there.

i used to think the latter was the stupidest think ever, but then recently my homies started calling cleveland the land, so now i have to go silent like a zoomer about it.

[Texcitement]

Originally Posted by Chef

Nashville looks like it is in the process of transforming from a sprawly town into and urban big city in one fell swoop without the in between stages. It looks kind of disjointed now but eventually they will run out of vacant lots and strip malls to redevelop and it will arrive, fully formed.

Lots of density coming fast. Nashville's downtown has 24 new skyscrapers just started or about to start.
Gibson
Vorhees
Alcove
Prime
Gulch Central 1 & 2
Hensler
Albion
Ritz 1 & 2
2nd and Peabody 1, 2 & 3
Pinnacle
Circle South 1 & 2
Amazon 3
Nashville Yards - AEG 1, 2, & 3
Nashville Yards - Residential 1 & 2
Gulch Union 2 & 3

[Murphy de la Sucre]

Downtown Nashville is so much better and vibrant and prosperous than most of the cities of same size and status, let's say St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Kansas City, and so on.

Really.

Originally Posted by Murphy de la Sucre

Downtown Nashville is so much better and vibrant and prosperous than most of the cities of same size and status, let's say St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Kansas City, and so on.

Really.

if you're solely talking about downtowns (as in central business districts) then yes, Nashville's is more vibrant these days. but overall i would say that St. Louis is still a tier above Nashville and the other cities you listed. St. Louis City is ~4 times denser than Nashville City with substantially more historic urban fabric, and St. Louis City + County has about twice the population of Nashville City (~1.3M versus ~700K) within the same land area as Nashville City (~500 sq. mi.).

[hauntedheadnc]

It looks like an absolutely horrid place where people lie about their chicken, and full of closeted homosexuals having furtive sex in public. How ever did you survive more than fifteen minutes in that awful, awful place, jmeck?

[Texcitement]

Originally Posted by Murphy de la Sucre

Downtown Nashville is so much better and vibrant and prosperous than most of the cities of same size and status, let's say St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Kansas City, and so on.

Really.

Yes, Nashville is much more prosperous than those cities it's left behind. The closest city to it at present is my hometown Austin. However, I'd rather be in Nashville right now. Amazon and Oracle are not even ramped up; the latter just now getting started. Plus, we have better proximity to eastern centers and better scenery. And Nashville isn't overshadowed by "bigger" siblings in its own state, much less nearby. The closest city that matters is Atlanta, and it's having its own share of issues. This is Nashvillle's time.

I mentioned the 24 (actualy 25 now) new buildings over 250', but there are another three dozen underway in downtown and midtown between 7-16. The Oracle campus will be similar to the Austin one, but will have two more buildings.

[tdawg]

What are these issues in Atlanta you're referring to? Atlanta is booming just as much as Nashville. I love Nashville but I'd say Nashville has issues too with constant flooding and tornadoes, not to mention the recent bombing.

[Texcitement]

Oh I don't know... um, a woman walking her dog was killed just last week in a random murder, and her dog! Wow!!! And here's the point... it happened in Piedmont Park, in the city's premier inner ring neighborhoods. I grew up in Dallas, with twice the population and still it's not nearly as dysfunctional as Atlanta.

You're talking of course about the general area around Atlanta. If not for the vast swaths of suburbs, Atlanta would be Detroit. Even their baseball club left for the burbs.

Then of course there's Buckhead's desire to break from the city, but don't mention the fact that their downtown is dead after business hours. There's still very little residential in the CBD (Midtown has done well enough). Let's face it, Atlanta is becoming Chicago without all of the nice amenities. Someday the good people of Atlanta will figure out what's wrong and stop electing such incompetent people.

And there's this from PBS! http://www.occidentaldissent.com/202...on-a-solution/

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by Texcitement

Oh I don't know... um, a woman walking her dog was killed just last week in a random murder, and her dog! Wow!!! And here's the point... it happened in Piedmont Park, in the city's premier inner ring neighborhoods. I grew up in Dallas, with twice the population and still it's not nearly as dysfunctional as Atlanta.

You're talking of course about the general area around Atlanta. If not for the vast swaths of suburbs, Atlanta would be Detroit. Even their baseball club left for the burbs.

Then of course there's Buckhead's desire to break from the city, but don't mention the fact that their downtown is dead after business hours. There's still very little residential in the CBD (Midtown has done well enough). Let's face it, Atlanta is becoming Chicago without all of the nice amenities. Someday the good people of Atlanta will figure out what's wrong and stop electing such incompetent people.

I think it's pretty clear how much I love my hometown, but Nashvillians don't have much room to point fingers when it comes to issues of crime. In 2017 (the most recent stats I could find in a quick search) Nashville's violent crime rate was higher than both Atlanta and Chicago. I mean, I'm all for cheerleading where you come from, but let's remain realistic and not let recent successes go to our heads too much.

[Texcitement]

Chicago was fine. I wouldn't go there now with 491 shootings in July alone! The last I saw from the census bureau shows it's shrinking. Give me the large cities in Texas and the Southeast over any place in the midwest. At least you can still own a gun in the South. Houston will be larger than Chicago by 2030.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by Texcitement

Chicago was fine. I wouldn't go there now with 491 shootings in July alone! The last I saw from the census bureau shows it's shrinking. Give me the large cities in Texas and the Southeast over any place in the midwest. At least you can still own a gun in the South. Houston will be larger than Chicago by 2030.

Not enough time in the day to address everything wrong with this post. In any case, the fact still stands that Nashville has no room to lecture other cities on their crime rate. That was my only point.

[Texcitement]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Not enough time in the day to address everything wrong with this post. In any case, the fact still stands that Nashville has no room to lecture other cities on their crime rate. That was my only point.

One or two will suffice! Please, don't hold back.

[tdawg]

In 2019, Nashville was the 18th most dangerous city in America. Atlanta wasn’t even in the Top 50.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbs...es-in-america/

[Texcitement]

I appreciate the effort, but even the FBI warns that their CDE data cannot be used to compare places because of the wide differences in the data supplied by the reporting entities. Their own website states that agencies in the National Incident-based Reporting System (NIBRS) covers 46% of the population of Georgia vs Tennessee's 100%. So the Georgia/Atlanta data is assumed to be undercounted in the FBI's CDE. That said, CBS (source cited here) can hardly be considered as reliable because they use FBI CDE figures exclusively. Also, I've never known a journalist to even understand statistics, much less use them correctly in a report. Not to mention the data cited is from 2019, and thus does not cover the noted spike in violent crime in the cities.

According to the AJC (via APD), Atlanta has murders up 58% and Nashville shows a rise of 41% based on local police data as reported in local media, and the Metro Nashville PD Annual Report for 2020. Property crimes have shot up even more sharply in Atlanta according to the GBI's website. On top of the obvious rise, the more troubling statistic is that the APD has lost a total of 221 officers in 2020. Nashville lost half that amount, and its population is 37% larger.

Crime is up everywhere, and that has much to do with the attacks on law enforcement officers. So let's not fool ourselves that "the other" is worse. Then we'll take our eyes off any hope of reversing the trend. This should serve as warning to all who love their cities. People may not voice their fear of crime, but they'll sure as heck move away from it. And no place illustrates this more than Buckhead https://www.wsj.com/articles/atlanta...bs-11615467182

We're getting way off track of this thread, which was a wonderful walk through my beautiful "newish" hometown. You work on Atlanta and I'll work on Nashville. I hope our respective cities will be better for the effort, and the honesty we must share with each other.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

It looks like an absolutely horrid place where people lie about their chicken, and full of closeted homosexuals having furtive sex in public. How ever did you survive more than fifteen minutes in that awful, awful place, jmeck?

I need to dig up that crazy letter from that time I was "discovered" in the 90s while working at a Nashville video store by the creeper putting together the Christian boy band.

Nashville, writ large, uses the same technique. It flatters the tourist/transplant while reaching around for their wallet.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I need to dig up that crazy letter from that time I was "discovered" in the 90s while working at a Nashville video store by the creeper putting together the Christian boy band.

Nashville, writ large, uses the same technique. It flatters the tourist/transplant while reaching around for their wallet.

Like literally every other city with a major tourism industry? Seriously, go to any major spot for tourism, go to Myrtle Beach, Miami, Las Vegas, Asheville, Savannah, Branson, or anywhere else that attracts tourists and see how long the welcome lasts with an empty wallet.

[Yorkie]

Booming it is.....stunning not so much.....the first part with the houses was a no for me.....Did not see any thing special....except Vanderbilt....Liked "The Wagon", it's name, where you could fall off of and not get hurt..

[subterranean]

Nashville is getting nashtier everyday. Bravo

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by Yorkie

Booming it is.....stunning not so much.....the first part with the houses was a no for me.....Did not see any thing special....except Vanderbilt....Liked "The Wagon", it's name, where you could fall off of and not get hurt..

k thnx

[Texcitement]

Originally Posted by Yorkie

Booming it is.....stunning not so much.....the first part with the houses was a no for me.....Did not see any thing special....except Vanderbilt....Liked "The Wagon", it's name, where you could fall off of and not get hurt..

The pics by JMecklenborg were from just one intown residential area that was a slum up until 10 years ago. Lots of areas close to downtown were destroyed 50/60 years ago, and they're now being replaced by the new "tall skinnies" you see. I'm not a fan of many of the new t/s but they bring lots of density and people with high disposable incomes, not to mention cleaning up the area. Aside from the Germantown area shown, there are many areas that have been transformed from slums into very expensive and trendy areas. Edgehill is perhaps the most dramatic example over the last decade. Now that's moved over to Wedgewood-Houston.

JMecklenborg's photos show remaining ramshackle houses that are being replaced by the new townhouses. Yes, some are not as attractive as others. Whole blocks are being filled with multi-level apartment buildings. Now one of them is a 15 story office tower with a pedestrian bridge to the new Oracle campus. Twenty years ago no sane person would venture into that neighborhood shown in the pictures.

For the classic early 20th Century suburbs, there are many of them. The best examples can be found in West End, outside I-440, Belmont, 12th Avenue, Melrose, Inglewood, East Nashville/Lockland Springs and Green Hills.