[jkc2j]

Originally Posted by BigDipper 80

I think a lot of the "hate" Nashville gets from urbanists (which is an admittedly very small portion of the population) is really envy tinged with a bit of confusion. I don't have any particular beef with Nashville and think it's a perfectly nice New South city, but I think it faces more wrath than other cities in the New South precisely because it's a destination city in ways that Charlotte or Houston aren't. Plenty of New Yorkers have moved to Charlotte to keep working in the banking industry, but that's more a career move than a lifestyle move. I've heard a number of anecdotes from people practically begging to get transferred to Nashville. I think to some people, that just seems like a weird transition. Nashville doesn't have the beaches or weather or architecture or culture of other destination cities like Boston or San Diego. Again, this isn't a specific knock on Nashville, just an acknowledgement that it doesn't have a lot of the traditional amenities that have really drawn people to various cities for "non-career reasons".

And I think urbanists are just sick of walkable, well-built cities still being passed up yet again due to what they perceive as being a lot of marketing hype. Take Louisville, for example. It's home of one of the most famous sporting events in the world and is the perfect gateway into Bourbon Country, but the neighborhood around Churchill Downs is a dump, there aren't hundreds of hotel rooms being thrown up constantly to support people heading out to Bardstown and Frankfort, and vast swaths of the city languish in the typical Rust Belt fashion. Granted, I think hitching your horse (no pun intended) to tourism is always a bit of a risky bet, and Louisville has plenty of gorgeous, stable neighborhoods filled with people passionate about their city, but I can understand why some people would wish places like that would get more recognition than they currently do.

All that said, I'm really not complaining that Nashvegas is sucking up all of the bachelorette parties. Y'all can keep that nonsense.

You've made some good points. While Nashville may not have a lot of what traditionally has made cities desirable, it does have things that a lot of cities don't especially in it's size, one is an identity. The city has managed to capitalize on it's country music brand which drew in the tourists who then realized, Nashville isn't a bunch a toothless rednecks living in mobile homes and riding pick up trucks, which in the past this sort of stereotype hindered it's growth. Not too many cities it's size have it's combination of live, work, play environment that's not on the coasts and still relatively affordable, which in turn has contributed to a lot of it's current growth.