Nashville is SO over

It never had any redeeming qualities …no loss there.

Nashville’s ascendency has to do with three things

1. Austin filling up. Nashville deemed “close enough.”

2. Atlanta filling up. Nashville deemed “close enough.”

3. Charlotte still being too boring.

Impose state income tax and maybe people will stop coming.

I got to visit Nashville in 1989 and 1993. Loved it both times. But most of the bigger US cities have been experiencing the homogenization and corporatization in the last two decades that slowly remove their uniqueness that made them special to begin with.

Yep, R4, that's how I feel about New Orleans.

Same thing with Charleston - all of the old southern charm and gentility has been destroyed by Gatdang Yankee transplants.

I used to visit friends there from 1998 to 2009, and I found it to be one big suburb, and not a good one. ,

I used to work in Nashville back in the 90s. Back then it was a very cool town with a progressive view toward the future, but I guess not anymore ☹️

That's it, I'm out of here.

“Come on girls, let’s hit the party bus!” 🤡

Because of the politics, an otherwise okay state with some nice qualities is off my list. Sure, there are business owners in the state of Tennessee that are not in favor of the politics. But none of them will see me until things get objectively better.

Many influencers either live there or are moving there. That's a good enough reason to stay away.

R12, do they pronounce it "in-FLOO-encers"?

Hip and cool L..A. friends (from Silverlake) moved there with their kids 20 years ago. Not only have they since become gun-toting MAGAs, one of the kids now works for the Trump Organization! Not kidding.

I've visited Nashville a few times. Before it became at all hip it seemed a city with some interesting bits but little to connect them. At various stages after it "became a thing," the voids and the distances between things started to fill in, not altogether bad, yet not good on whole. The sense of overenthusiastic boosterism wasn't enough to make it something really special, demonstrating that it's very possible to have a boom without substance. All the new housing, all the new construction had a kind of moderately prosperous look, or.maybe moderately prosperous aspiring. The old attraction of music was replaced first by Oprylandia expectations decades ago, then by a kind of watered down Austin expectations: generic "live music", somewhere, somehow, for some reason, maybe, and some old fumes of peak Nashville replaced by Homewood Suites and Aloft hotels.

There are worse places to live in the US, by it's nowhere near a place I would want to live.

We went a few years ago and made the mistake of renting a car. There was no on the street parking, the hotel didn’t have it included, and every meter started at $14 and up every time we moved it- It cost more per day to park the car than rent it!

We wound up doing one early morning outing, and drove it into a garage by noon to get a day rate.

I just cannot idealize moving to that part of this country. I'm in Louisiana for one, which is like the US's little Haiti.

But this part of the country, especially through Appalachia, is truly impoverished. It is the Big White Ghetto. I have no interest in moving to the white ghetto regardless of how cheap it is to live there. That cost is only relative to where you do reside, and pretty much everywhere in this country is paying California-level pricing for many household items and groceries. Inflation fucking us all up badly with hardly any true relief in sight. Wage increases aren't solving the issue. It's all the corruption we can't resolve that's causing these problems.

The story I've attached to my response is pretty much how I feel about this part of the country. This goes the same for much of Alabama and the Florida panhandle all the way to Tampa. It is all poor, poor tourist-driven, with bad wages, education, healthcare, and of course low standards. When somewhere is cheap, there goes the neighborhood where it is.

Tennessee has three distinct cultural regions. In one sense similar to the divide between coastal vs inland California or downstate vs upstate NY, etc.

…so are posts proclaiming these things… essentially they are simply stupid.

It’s a cuntville

Find a cute town and make it home. So many of you who love to label and complain about cities are so predictable. You shit on any city that isn't "cool" then as soon as it is "cool" it is ovah and should be avoided. Instead of spending your lives looking for the perfect place, go create one.

Worlds largest statue of Bette Davis.

I went there recently for a conference and decided to stay an extra day. The Friday night room rate was more than dohble the conference room block rate. It was $880. For a room. The hotel didn’t even have a pool. It was in “the gulch”. Which my departing Uber driver noted was her least favorite area to drive. There is a ton of music but so much of it is just depressing or angry.

On top of the asthetics, what’s so memorable about Chinatown is the outcome: the bad guy wins—evil is victorious. Watching Jake watch Noah Cross take away Katherine is *shivers*.

Sorry, wrong number.

I think it’s wonderful.

I'm curious, was it ever really like the film 'Nashville' and if so when did that certain something go away?

Nashville must have more multimillion dollar homes relative to its population, incomes, and stature than anywhere else maybe besides Austin. They're very fond of "transitional" residential architecture (which I often like).

OP, it's very cliche to complain that too many new people have moved to your city so now it's ruined.

R28 there are more multimillion dollar homes in West LA alone than the entire state of Tennessee.

R30 it's LA. Nashville is Nashville. Read what I said again.

I did. And relative to its stature (by which I assume you mean its importance re entertainment) and population, I made a valid point. That is all.

*

R31. West LA, not LA. Read it again.

r23 I used to LOVE the gulch, when it was still industrial and just beginning to transform to the hell it is today. Back in the early 2000's, the gulch was nothing more than an empty, deserted rail yard. There were some really cool EDM events held there, and I partied a LOT there. I have so many fond memories of clubbing downtown, staying out all night at this gay(ish) afterhours EDM club, then hauling ass into work still wearing the same clothes I had on the previous day (with lots of stares from co-workers.....eventually getting a reputation). I'm thinking about moving to Detroit, just to experience a raw, industrial scene that's beginning to transform. Such fun days!

Tennessee gives you the lovely Senator, Marsha Blackburn.

Middle and Eastern Tennessee gave her.

R17- Maine is pretty much the same way-- And they have all of these folks from Boston moving in who work remote or who are wealthy-- Its becoming a state of poor and rich only-- and the job situation in Maine is HORRENDOUS- like beyond terrible. (And also tourist based, and low paying)

I a gulch like a gulley?

I live in a gulley where the trolls live!

R38, yes my family owned lots of property in Maine and wanted me to oversee it. No way. It’s demise happened somewhere in the late 80’s when the shipyards closed and Wal Mart Super Centers started growing off the highways like fields of poisonous mushrooms

[quote]Nashville is SO over

Or is it just beginning?

^ Minnie Pearl

I was in Nashville a couple of weekends ago. Broadway was ridiculously crowded with drunken rednecks and skanky women. It was like a trashier version of Vegas, if you can imagine that.

Kathie Lee lives in Nashville now.

Nashville is a huge, huge magnet for bachelorette parties r43. So yes, you will always see a ton of drunk white women celebrating and being annoying

I saw many of those bachelorette parties, all wearing their hot pink cowgirl hats, short skirts, and boots.

Sort of like Riga?

I lived there at the end of the 80s. It was more "Southern" than Atlanta but also far less annoying and a more pleasant place than Birmingham, Memphis or some other older cities. The city fathers were trying to take things to the next level--trying to establish the zoo, building toward an actual art museum, attracting a pro sports team and reviving the downtown, which had been ruined by construction near the state capital. There were some interesting neighborhoods and lots of great music. But it was a third tier city without a lot of good weekend trips nearby--the lack of state parks probably was a by product of segregation. It was an easier place to like than Memphis which struck me as a Southern version of Detroit or Knoxville, which seemed like a big nothing. Branson was taking away the tourist trade, but there were still people looking for Twitty City. Now, it's very expensive--maybe cheap compared with LA, but is it good value? The climate sucked--no one goes out in summer and damp and grey in the winter. What people think is better than snow often isn't.

[quote]But this part of the country, especially through Appalachia, is truly impoverished. It is the Big White Ghetto.

R17, this is almost farcically ignorant. Are you even aware that Appalachia – using your own definition of it, including areas that aren't literally *in* the mountains, e.g. Nashville – includes 80% of the Northeast? Suburban NYC & Philly are in it, as is the entirety of Vermont. It even extends into Quebec *and* New Brunswick FFS. I'm also guessing you have no idea that Nashville is barely 50% white, and will likely become a majority-minority city by 2030.

[quote]R28 there are more multimillion dollar homes in West LA alone than the entire state of Tennessee.

R30, you seem to be missing the point: this is a false-equivalency argument. Yes, there are more multimillion dollar homes in West L.A. than the entire state of Tennessee – problem being that metro L.A. *alone* has *double* Tennessee's entire population.

R28 is correct, however, that it's now effectively impossible to buy a single-family home in, or even near, areas like the Gulch for under $1 million, and most new-build infill houses are priced north of $2 million. OTOH at least it's cheaper than Austin, where $1 million will buy you nothing more than a teardown in any of its hottest, closest-in neighborhoods (and infill homes routinely sell for over $1,000/sq ft, and that's *after* falling from around $1,200/sq ft during the market's peak in late 2021 & 2022).

West LA is still pricier than either one, and I assume areas like Santa Monica and the Palisades will remain perennially desirable (at least until California is destroyed either by fire or literally running out of potable water, and the latter is effectively guaranteed if the atmospheric storms that dumped mass quantities of rain & snow throughout the American West the past two winters stop coming).

Metro LA is not West LA

My friends live in “Nashville” but it’s the suburbs part. They go to the mall, never to downtown or the “city” part. They’re always on the Interstate to get anywhere, but There is very minimal. Guess Nashville is like Anywhere USA aside from the big cities.

r44 Kathie Lee lives in Franklin, which is without doubt one of the most pretentious places imaginable. The county it's in is rabidly Republican, and Marsha Blackburn lives in a nearby community. There is absolutely nothing special about Franklin, despite how many times the local news tries to convince people. Yes, it has a town square from the 1800's, but there are plenty of communities here JUST as historic AND nice. Everyone I have ever met that are either from Franklin or live there are just like a Stepford wife. They have drank the cool aid, have CLEARLY never been anywhere truly nice, and they NEVER shut up about Franklin. Anytime I'm around anyone that mentions that place I just say its a pity it didn't get burnt to the ground during the Civil War. Maybe there will be better luck next time.

Is there a more obvious urban death knell than the 'pedal tavern'?

Somehow I overlooked OP's photo in my first read.

Yes, I want this cunt representing me!!

I have visited New Orleans several times over the past couple of years and it still feels very unique to me.

I heard they shoot a lot of porn in Nashville

Kathie Lee and lots of gay porn? I want to move to Nashville!

I live in Cheviot Hills, which is south of Westwood, west of Beverly Hills, East of Santa Monica. It was always a nice middle class neighborhood but in the last decade or so, something really happened. Houses are now going for 6 -10 million dollars and these are homes without any real land. It is centrally located but the way the prices have increased is unbelievable. In 2019, The NY Times did an article calling Cheviot a modern day Mayberry. The little house I grew up in and inherited was bought for 320k in 1985. It was just appraised for 2.6 million. All my life I dreamt of living in a million dollar home. It came true, but not the way I thought it would.

[quote]Metro LA is not West LA

Still missing the point entirely. And stating the obvious. And oddly seeming entirely oblivious to the reality that metro L.A. has tons of million-dollar houses that aren't on the Westside, including huge portions of the Valley. Even Alhambra and other parts of East L.A. now have them FFS!

Literally no one is denying that West L.A. has a huge number of expensive houses. It is still a false equivalency to compare it to a city 1/10th LA's size, which is true whether you're measuring metro area sizes or solely city-boundary sizes. Further still, a huge number of West L.A. houses have features nonexistent in Nashville, e.g. being walking distance to an actual beach (and in some cases directly fronting the beach) and/or utterly astounding views of the ocean, hills and/or DTLA.

Let it go, hon.

I used to visit friends there-they’ve all moved. I used to love to visit with the dad of one my friends. He’d grown up in Nashville and had worked a bit in the entertainment industry and had lots of fun stories about Nashville celebrities. Mostly people from HEE HAW!

My high school crush moved there years ago and is now a producer of “faith-based” movies. Ick.

[Quote] all of the old southern charm and gentility has been destroyed by Gatdang Yankee transplants.

Old southern charm and gentility

Love Nashville! The best biscuits and gravy!

Nashville is just so charming and pleasant

I also live here and it’s a MAGA hellscape. I miss so many great funky places that have either been turned into MAGA-overlord Steve Smith-owned bars or blown to smithereens by MAGA fanatic in a camper.

We used to have THE best gay bar (The Connection) I’ve ever been to. It was amazing but it, too, was destroyed to make way for some hideous condos. Peckers is ok but it’s like going from Ruth’s Chris to the Outback.

If you want to glory in the trash scape that we have become, Scoop:Nashville is worth a look.

Now I want to move to Nashville

It's a wonderful city

Larry Ellison has just bought up a huge tract of land on the east side of the Cumberland, across from Germantown (just NE of downtown). He plans on building a huge Oracle HQ-campus, and moving half the company there in a couple of years. That will transform the city and landscape even further, an influx of techies and high-paying jobs.

Wow R67. Sounds like the economy's booming there

What's the best place to get fried chicken in Nashville?

Tennessee makes up for not having an income tax by having a high sales tax. Even groceries are taxed, which is cruel. The sales tax in Nashville is almost 10%, which is higher than NYC.

My buddy and I went to Nashville a few years back. There was this awesome cigar bar along the main drag. I can't remember the name of it, but it was so much fun

It's settled. I'm going to Nashville for my summer vacation

R59 blathers on…having not read the original post. But enjoy your “verbal” diarrhea.

Another lovely city in the south is Little Rock.

How about that: I blocked R73, and ALL of the posts stupidly slamming me all vanished! Should've known I had an OCD talks-to-self troll on my hands...

Hey R27, not anymore. For one, Opryland is gone, replaced by a tepid outlet mall. There’s also not a lot of homegrown people around anymore, like the faces you see in the crowd at the end.

Loved Nashville in the 80s when my family lived in (ugh) Clarksville. I moved back for college in 1993 and stayed until early 1999. It still had some of that kinda sweet hometown feel. Green Hills was ritzy but realistic, East Nashville was just what it was. I lived off 12th Avenue and paid cheap rent.

Last time I went back was 2016, the dawn of the woo girls. I haven’t had an inclination to return.

Lexington, KY has much of the feel of Nashville in its pre party days. I was there a few weeks ago and liked it a lot!

I didn't even know Nashville had any gay bars.

R76 I like how Lexington kind of looks like a European city from the air, with only a ring road and no freeways entering the core.

R78 From an urban planning perspective it’s a win. Easy city to navigate.

Lexington seems like a characterless sprawlburg.

What do we know about Albuquerque, NM? I've lived in TN. It's a Maga shithole. Gun nuts abound.

R77 we have several. Lipstick Lounge and Pecker’s are the best. Tribe is good. There’s a “gay friendly” sports bar that is dull as fuck.

None of them can touch The Connection but time marches on.

R55, “very unique”?

Like kind of pregnant?

So it’s very one of a kind?

Oh, dear.

It's lovely, I had a mother who lived there once.

Nashville is dead.

LOL @ the gay bar called Peckers. I guess it's better than Dicks.

The way OP feels about Nashville is the way I feel about Austin.

Austin was over 20 years ago. You could see remnants of what had made it "cool", but it also had become a congested sprawlburg and the loclas were complaining about how the quality of life had been compromised.

R88 That’s exactly what Nashville has become.

Nashville has amazing food

R90: Compared with where? Clarksville?

How's the food at Peckers?

Better yet, how's the dick at Peckers?

R76, my dad lives in Lexington, so I'm there fairly often. My friends in blue states are nearly always stunned to hear that Fayette County (where Lexington is located) is one of the state's only blue strongholds, mainly because of UK and the city's large Black population. I truly hope it does *not* end up as tacky as Nashville's become, however, but that seems unlikely. (The connective fiber with Nashville & Austin is a combo of both being renowned for live music, along with an extremely party-happy population.)

R80, you're unfortunately correct that Lexington is growing fairly rapidly, and that this has already produced a fair amount of suburban sprawl. Still, its downtown area – which has numerous restored 19th-century townhouses on its side streets – definitely has charm, aside from the truly hideous '70s-era Rupp Arena/Hyatt Regency center plopped in its middle. OTOH drive all of 15 minutes in any direction from downtown, and it's 100% Trump country, though this is true for Nashville as well. (And Austin, but only if you're 45 minutes or more away.)

OP, it sounds like you really enjoy living in Nashville.

Looking forward to my country-fried trip to Nashville this summer.

Odd that even though Nashville and Tennessee in general are getting larger and larger with people moving there - the state still has only 11 electoral votes. It never changes.

The focus has shifted to Mar-a-Lago. Last night was a karaoke contest in the grand dining room. The winners, as determined by the voting of the Trumpettes, were the duo of South Carolina’s Miss Lindsey.and Tim Scott who did a rendition of the Baccara hit song: “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie”. The donor/club audience went wild!

[quote]It's at the point now that I tell people that the only thing that'll help Nashville is a big mushroom cloud.

We'll agree, since at least that will get rid of you, your miserable thing.

In addition to Kathie Lee in the area (a born again Christian in Franklin is no big surprise as TBN does many shows in that area), doesn't Bible addict E. Hasselbeck & hubby still live in the area?

I'm more curious of the country music stars that won't buy a home in the Nashville area.

Nashville was a better city to live when the population was under 1 million. By 1990 it had surpassed that and currently it is over 2 million.

Nashville's favorite son.

In 1990, it had some great music venues, few good restaurants, a lot of ugly suburban sprawl, and small town-ish vibe. It wasn't a great city to live, just different. I didn't mind it, but I was happy to leave it.