Lee Spain said:
What's it like in Nashville, TN?
Which suburbs are nice, safe, & low crime?
Is the place a teeming hive of scum and villainy?
Do I need a good blaster at my side at all times?
Are there any decent places to rent?
Is the city rising or declining?
How are utility costs?
How's the economy?
Inquiring minds want to know... 8)
From what I know of Nashvegas, it is a city I could stand to live in. Haven't been up there in a couple of years, but over the years have done numerous biz trips up there for up to a week duration and have always got the impression I could tolerate living there. I'm pretty picky and there are not many largish cities I'd say that about. I wouldn't be especially thrilled to even visit Atlanta for instance. Wouldn't want to live in Knoxville, though that region is OK I guess. I would be even less interested in visiting Memphis than Atlanta.
Nashville has bad sections of town as all cities do. It is probably somewhat expensive in the nicer parts of town. The countryside is pretty. Almost as pretty as the countryside around Chattanooga, but Chattanooga has some of the prettiest eastern scenery.
Nashville people are generally friendly and laid-back. I don't know of a city > 1 million population that is friendlier. There are some places right down-town where it is not dangerous to walk the streets in the wee hours of the morning.
Me, wife and coonhound drove up there a couple years ago and stayed at a hotel in Gallatin (north east of Nashvegas) when I bought a used scope from a Nashville fellow. Me & wife thought the Gallatin and Hendersonville vicinity looked scenic and quite livable. Looked maybe too upscale for our income. Lots of absolutely beautiful palacial country estates with horse pastures and such. Many of those "modest country hovels" probably have million dollar recording studios in the barn.
I once visited a lady in Hendersonville who had at least a quarter-million dollar recording studio in her upper-yuppie suburban attic! Can't swing a cat without hitting a recording studio in Nashville.
If I was gonna ask details about moving to Nashville, I have a few acquaintances up there, but would also ask on a forum www.tngunowners.com
That is a friendly forum with quite a few down-to-earth Nashville folk who wouldn't pull any punches with advice about living there.
If I was gonna move, would be most inclined to move further out in the sticks in the Chattanooga area. But it is not a great place to find a high-pay job and remote enough that only a true masochist would commute. It is so beautiful out in the Reliance Benton Tellico area that property values are quite high, though most people buying are looking for "as many undeveloped acres as they can afford" and it is 99.9 Percent vertical landscape woods with narrow twisty 2 lane paved roads leading to even narrower twisty 1 lane roads that have gravel if you are lucky. And most folks paying the big bucks for the property intend to keep it that way. We drove out there last weekend, and I couldn't stand to visit out there very often. It was an irresistable compulsion to sell everything, buy 40 acres, pour an RV slab and go hermit in the RV the rest of my life. I'd live in a two room tin shack for the privilege of living out there, but wife wouldn't get that extreme about it.
