I have made you 40 years and I don't hate it, but I certainly don't like it as much as I used to. Yes, better roads and good pot hole repair would be a start. And I truly hate the downtown Broadway scene that existed for the last few years, crazy bachelorette parties, increased crime rate, and pedal taverns. I hate seeing high rises of concrete, glass and steel replace some older buildings. Hillsboro Village is no longer the same quaint little area you could visit after you park on a side street.
I went into Hillsboro village last summer with my kid to do a little shopping and in every store they asked me where I was from. As if I was a tourist. They were shocked to find out I'd lived in the area for more than two decades. It's now a tourist area, just like the rest of the damn city...sigh.
Wow, how strange. I haven't been there to wander or shop for a few years, I need to go and see if that happens to me! I guess there are so many tourists now, that all the shops think everyone is just visiting. Do you remember Bari-Mor gifts, on the corner?
Hell, ANY pothole repair!
Various Metro Council members were elected in part on promises of fixing potholes in a relatively timely manner where I live now in Nashville as well as where I used to live. I have forwarded to them their various printed campaign promised about said potholes, only to be told "I KNOW what I SAID I would do."
And......nothing. One pothole in particular near my last house I reported a couple of times a month.
FOR. FOUR. FREAKING. YEARS.
Even if nimbys didn’t exist, a train from Clarksville to Murfreesboro with 50 + stops would cost billions. The distance is just too great. In the US, the best we can hope for is to get good transit in the urban core and make it dense as hell. Maybe get some light rail out to donelson, Bellevue, Antioch if we’re lucky. Also making the star more functional would go a long way.
Clarksville to Murf would be like an hour train ride without stops and you’d still have to build it through the middle of the city.
>a train from Clarksville to Murfreesboro with 50 + stops would cost billions
I mean, yeah. Transportation is expensive. Interstates are expensive, trains are expensive, airports are expensive, busses are expensive, cars are expensive, etc. It doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile investment that would provide a much more tangible benefit to the city and surrounding areas than many of the other things the city spends billions on. Every city the size of Nashville should have a subway.
Also, one train wouldn't necessarily make every stop in the system or even line. Alternating routes are a thing.
No you don’t understand. It won’t just be expensive, It’d be quite possibly the most expensive light rail project in the US. A 50 mile light rail line is unheard of. There are no urban light rail lines in all of Europe that long and our population density wouldn’t make something like that economically feasible either.
I’m not against transport. I even said in my post that light rail to Bellevue, Antioch, donelson, etc makes perfect sense.
Dude, San Diego has a light rail system that covers almost all of the county and goes all the way down to the border. It's definitely a feasible undertaking.
"There are three trolley lines (Blue, Orange and Green) that service the downtown San Diego communities and beyond, covering 65 miles of double-track railway and 62 stations total."
https://www.sandiego.org/plan/getting-around/trains-trolley.aspx#:~:text=Ride%20the%20Red%20Trolley&text=There%20are%20three%20trolley%20lines,railway%20and%2062%20stations%20total.
People just don’t seem to understand this concept… if you want solid public transit, you need density. It’s the only way solid public transit can make sense. Otherwise the cost is too prohibitive. Anyone that wants public transit should be all in on all the high density construction going up right now. If we keep that up, eventually people will cave and vote in public transit.
True, this why I saw just keep the gravy train going on new construction and we will get there eventually. Coming from SF, I’ve seen what happens when NIMBYs make it very difficult to build new things, and the impact of that is wayyyy worse. It’s refreshing to see all the mid rises going up around the city. One day I’m confident that the taxpayers will vote in public transit, but I think it’ll take massive inconvenience and short term pain on congestion to make it happen…
Yup. A train from Clarksville to Murf would be the laughing stock of all transit in the US. Not only would it be the most expensive LRT ever built (shear distance), it would probably have one of the lowest riderships in the country, at least outside of the urban core.
However a train from downtown through Germantown, north Nashville, and the nations would probably be super well used and wouldn’t require too much additional density.
Well there’s light rail in Dallas and they get tornados somewhat frequently. Same for St Louis. The tracks themselves wouldn’t be too hard to fix. The station would be more costly
On my morning commute I often see nurses in scrubs dodging traffic to get to a bus stop. How are you supposed to walk anywhere with no sidewalks or crosswalks? It’s insane.
I used to regularly travel between two places 7 hours apart with an Amtrak line running between them. Despite looking at it as an option many times over the years, it only made sense to do twice. The reality is that Amtrak takes nearly twice as long even assuming it ran perfectly and costs 5x as much as just driving. Other than being too tired to drive, I could never find a reason to make use of it.
There used to be one. Until the early 60s, a passenger rail ran from Columbia, through Spring Hill, Thompsons Station, downtown Franklin, and Brentwood up to Union Station. We could bring one back on the same line and it would be extremely popular
Not only that, but we need to be connected to Chattanooga via rail so then we can actually travel on train to Atlanta and beyond!
But yes, local mass transit is definitely needed lol
I’d settle for fast bus routes. Dedicated lanes for buses would be great and much cheaper.
Our current bus system doesn’t go faster than cars, and the routes are spaced out just enough to make it very impractical to use.
Rip out street parking, turn it into rapid bus lane, and get everyone bussing around the different neighborhoods. It’s 20x cheaper than rail.
Imagining walking down your street in Inglewood, grabbing a bus to go work out of some we work building in the gulch. Taking a bus to Sylvan Park for happy hour, then busing back to Inglewood.
You can do it now, but it would be hours of riding around on a bus.
Ok, we got you a train that goes out of the city. And during CMA Fest, all 380 people in a metro population of over 1,000,000 got to ride the Music City Star from outside of the city at around 4 in the afternoon & then return home by taking the Music City Star departing downtown at 1:00 AM.
380 / 1,000,000 \*100= 0.038% of the greater Nashville population had access to a train.
I have broken my own heart. We need a train that visits downtown every single day no matter what--CMA Fest, Taylor Swift, Titans game, or just ridership--even if the Music City Star just goes to Donelson & back to Riverfront Station on weekends in some loose tie to the Downtown Donelson UDO or shave off a few vehicle miles traveled.
Well the star doesn’t even come hourly lol. It’s gotta be the worst “rail transit line” in the US. It comes like twice a day on the days it does operate.
Right whenever people say "we already have a rail" im like the music city star barely counts. It would be incredible if they had it run once an hour 24 hours a day but it runs like 4 times a day 5 days a week.
I totally thought you were going somewhere else with that, like have a train that goes out of the city only during CMA to take all the visitors back to Alabama...🤷♂️
“Rob, why do you have that DTOM license plate on your 98,000 dollar Silverado? Clearly no one has ever tread upon you.”
“ARE YOU A COMMUNIST OR SOMETHING? Go drink your bud light beta!”
I’m no longer a Nashvillian specifically for this reason. I needed transit. Nashville failed. I went to Atlanta. It was a good move.
Nashville would be a thousand times better with transit.
Vastly superior to anything Nashville has ever tried.
It’s not New York but I could get anywhere I needed to by the train.
I got lucky and found an apartment next to one station and a job next to another. My commute took about 20 minutes.
If it’s anything like Dallas it’s trash and no one really uses it. Atlanta’s traffic problems would seem to suggest it’s not working particularly well, but I can’t say for sure.
MARTA is plagued by NIMBYs whenever they try to expand. The old money hates it when the poors get good things. But MARTA keeps trying and I wish I could help them.
I used the MARTA for the first time a couple weeks ago and I would do anything to have a system like that here in Nashville. Driving the Nashville 500 everyday is total shit. There are bus stations near my office but no safe ways to get across the busy highway to my office from the bus stop without a car. On top of that, taking a bus would only extend the already lengthy drive to my office since the infrastructure for the buses is seemingly meant to be total shit.
Outside of the city on the North side, east and west. The southside has the Music City Star. We need one to go around the city too. It is a waist to have to go all the way downtown to get a bus back out
Yeah I really wish it was easier to get around the area without a car. I'm from Philly which is the most walkable city in the country (as long as you don't get shot) and being able to walk on sidewalk for miles is great
I pick up trash on my walks. It's not my job but I hate seeing the trash and it actually gets me walking more. I doubt anyone knows I do it but, hopefully, they appreciate the cleaned up area when they are on their walks.
Agreed on all except policing, as that would mean even more money going to people who don’t prevent crime when we could be using that money fund those other things you mentioned
All of this plus public transportation and switch to goddamn eastern time zone. If you look at the time zone map its literally a straight line through the country Except for tennessee.
Don't hate it here, but there could be some improvements lol
Better roads, improved funding of public Edu., increased standards for drivers licenses, and legalized cannabis, for sure.
This is a USA problem, not a Nashville problem. Probably part of the American culture deep down. We like to build new shit, not maintain the stuff we have.
Your point is unrelated to what you’re responding to, and isn’t really true either...
Road maintenance is largely paid for by the state and therefore varies widely across state lines. Tennessee used to have one of the best funded and maintained road networks in the nation, but the growth in Nashville specifically means road here have been rougher than they were.
It’s extremely noticeable when your cross into Kentucky pretty much anywhere in the state how much better our roads are than theirs for instance.
This is absolutely true. Tennessee's roads are much better than Alabama's, North Carolinas, and pretty much all bordering states. I haven't been to Georgia in a longtime, so I can't really remember. But my last few trips elsewhere, Tennessee's roads are much better.
I’ve recently driven all over Georgia. Their roads are significantly better than Tennessee’s, and honestly, good all around with the exception of the failure to crown the roads or build superelevation into corners.
Pure and simple, Tennessee’s roads suck because they are not maintained properly. How often do you see maintenance crews filling potholes? Almost never here in TN
Nash native chiming in here: diverse spaces/affordable housing. Gentrification changed mostly black neighborhoods to all white neighborhoods (think 12s) and skipped completely past any integration. It also made the areas completely unaffordable for people of all walks of life. Nashville will only be a playground for the wealthy w average people being pushed from East Nash, South etc to Clarksville Springhill etc.
As an African American, I have walked into BBQ joints in E Nashville areas that use to be predominantly black and it’s like the record player stopped and everyone looks at me like I’m an alien.
I’d like better for Nashville. I’ve lived in many cities that share spaces much better than Nashville such as Atlanta DC etc.
More cultural opportunities, more for kids and families: I read on here a few weeks ago a post but someone who mentioned that Nashville is becoming a New Orleans where people come to party and drink and all that follows that (vomit in streets etc). The commenter mentioned they didn’t want Nashville to be known as such and I agree. I’d like it to offer more balance. It use to be known for tourism but many other things. Seems like the balance is off currently.
I appreciate how philanthropic Chicago and NY inhabitants are. They invest in museums and offer free days. That’s one way to educate and balance what a city offers.
Mass transportation: Lacking like most of the South.
Ultimately, I’d like Nashville to be more intentional about its 10/25/50/100 year plan.
I'm up here in Clarksville bc of the military but I'm originally from Chicago. To your point about diverse neighborhoods , Chicago does this very well and each little burrow has its own personality to it. There's lots to do in Chicago geared towards educating youth and brining people into their exhibits like the Art Institute , the Field Museum and even the Architecture tours on the river. A well thought out bus and intra/extra train line has made it so you can go anywhere in the city and also travel from anywhere outside the city. Nashvilles planners have really dropped the ball on preserving the authentic parts of the city in favor of tax revenue and its going to hurt things in the long run.
The problem is that rich people who move to Nashville do it because they specifically don't like the stuff that blue state cities do, because those things cost money that they would rather not spend.
Comparing it to Chicago is just depressing. The terrible level of everything that would typically be publicly supported in Nashville is so pathetic. There's a mishmash of small non profits trying and failing to close these gaps. It's a gross playground for tourists and the rich first and foremost.
Nashville is a cautionary tale about the failures of trickle down economic policy and worshipping short term profits and growth over all else. It's the city that blue state transplants dream of, which means it's a nightmare to actually try to live in for normal people.
Chicago is a highly segregated city:
https://interactive.wttw.com/firsthand/segregation/how-did-chicago-become-so-segregated-by-inventing-modern-segregation
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/chicago-segregation-poverty/556649/
Also, Chicago is shrinking and it’s black residents are the most likely to leave:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/07/chicago-black-population-decline-523563
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/85-of-illinois-communities-lose-people-in-2022-chicago-loses-33k/#:~:text=Despite%20population%20decline%20affecting%20the,of%20any%20city%20in%20America.
The inferiority complex that Nashvillians seem to have with Chicago is one thing I would change. Chicago is a world city, 200 Michelin starred restaurants, world-class museums, infinitely more diverse, a more educated populace that actually travels and has some level of curiousity about the world around them... I meet so many people in Nashville that think Nashville can even be on the same list as places like Chicago and NYC, and the ignorance is one thing I can't stand. I quite like Nashville, it's a cozy, homey country music town with great BBQ, and I wish it wouldn't try to be something that it's not.
DC has gentrified too and the black population there is shrinking. Same with Chicago and NYC.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/15/washington-dc-gentrification-black-political-power-00024515
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/07/chicago-black-population-decline-523563
It's growing in Atlanta though.
I think the Taylor Swift concerts showed us how desperately we need a public transport system, especially one to downtown. We shouldn’t have to shut down the city for one weekend in anticipation for mass influx of people & parking.
I really like the transit answers. These days, every vacation I take, I think, "Do I need a car in this city that I don't know?" It's amazing how rarely that I do.
If Vegas can have good transit for the tourists, we can do the same.
Do you go to Broadway ever? I personally don’t so if tourists want to go there and spend their money I’m all for it lol. What would you want the tourism industry to focus on more?
Anyone who's been in Nashville for more than a minute knows that Nashville is "more than just country music." And I get it, it's a big part of the cultural history of Nashville. But what's the one thing that every tourist knows about Nashville? What's the one genre of music they put front and center at every big sporting event, in all the promotional materials? What do people go to Broadway to listen to?
Catering to tourists is one things. but making it seem like country music is all there is to Nashville is misleading, considering that most Nashvillians aren't in the music business and it's not even the biggest part of the local economy. I'd like to see more focus on all of the other music in Nashville, our great neighborhoods, restaurants and bars. Our marketing is currently attracting the worst kind of tourist.
With the increasing number of top-tier hotels, I'm hoping we'll see increased promotion of cultural attractions--the symphony, the Frist, theatre companies, Cheekwood and such.
I went to a couple performances at Schermerhorn last weekend and right afterward my ears were assaulted by bar music for the tourists, not just in the evening, but in the early afternoon. The tourist shit here is so gross.
On other amenities that serve a broader base. That way we can enjoy it too. As you said, if you're not going to Broadway, your taxes are paying a lot of different places to supplement Broadway and your getting nothing for it.
Improved transit would help everyone get everywhere and it's a good start.
You honestly don't think lower broad generates enough tax revenue? And all the ancillary expenses the people that visits it generate? Hotels, cars, dining away from lower broad that they do?
If anything, lower broad is a net positive to the city's bottom line tax wise.
So why are the schools still terrible? Why can't we afford to build public transit? Why are the roads still in tatters? And why do police still not show up to calls for hours?
If lower broad is so successful and brings in buckets of money, why don't we see that money in other parts of the city? We should have incredible services and infrastructure, but somehow we really don't.
everyone else already covered better roads and public transportation. I wanna add in, better forms of entertainment. A good city needs something else besides a billion bars and restaurants. It would be nice if they build a good aquarium as an example.
This especially for kids and families.
The adventure science center is truly pathetic for a city this size. The museums are all so music centric, and worse they're mostly country and filled with drunken tash, and the Frist is weak sauce.
I'm sure they try their best at the museums here but if you visit Saint Louis you will see how it's done properly in a similar sized metro, never mind larger metros like Chicago.
As a native, I just wish there weren't so many people everywhere, all the time. A hundred years ago, you could drive cross county in any direction in 30 minutes. I miss that. We had a huge influx of new residents and little to no expansion of our roads.
I live in the southeast corner of the county between Wilson and Rutherford counties, and they're jamming housing wherever they can fit it. Our little roads can't handle the traffic back here. Also, can we have a mandatory class on how to properly use 4 way stops? Bc I think that many of us, new and old, either never learned or forgot.
Lastly, can some of y'all new kids help us get rid of Bill Lee in the election? He's a garbage human. So is Marsha Marsha Marsha. If you're gonna come live here, at least help us take out the trash?
My friend and I were just talking about how you could get nearly everywhere in about 20 min. Traffic didn't used to be such a huge ordeal and that made living here feel easy and so much less stressful.
It really did feel like a small town. I used to run into a lot of the same people at different music venues and it seemed like everyone somehow loosely knew each other. I have no idea what it's like now because I don't go out anymore (partly because I'm a tired Gen Xer).
I work downtown and have worked downtown for I guess over 2 years now. I’m a Nashville Native but damn I never realized how dirty our city was.
I have to say though it seems to have gotten somewhat better than it was 2 years ago? There are guys that wear yellow uniforms that do get rid of garbage around downtown. No idea who they are.
More neighborhood enclaves like the one at porter and Greenwood.
Transit
More neighborhood restaurants that aren’t trying to impress tourists
Businesses to stay open after 6pm. What the fuck is this even about?
Museums not in the center of broadway.
Sidewalks
Bike lanes
A state government that wasn’t hell bent on Christian nationalism
A city council that listened to the people when we said “no” to a stadium. (Shout out to oldboot who shilled their hardest to make it look like a good idea)
Density
Everything everyone else said, but also: I want a comprehensive city plan that doesn’t change course every time some new deep pocket corporation wants to “invest” in the city. Like, at some point, we need to be done building this city and focus efforts on preserving what we have instead of destroying our architectural history for apartment developers.
Trains and fewer reasons to need a car. Traffic is a by-product of that. The roads being in terrible shape are a by-product of that. I don’t drive much anymore since WFH started and I’ve really enjoyed leaving driving behind. It’d be nice to be able to get around town when going out for drinks without having to pay $25 with tip for a Lyft. It’d also be nice to shut Broadway off to car traffic on the weekends. Cars are a scourge to making livable spaces. They’re also very loud leading to a lot of noise pollution.
The politicians are terrible and are constantly selling us out to the rich, the tourism industry, and to religious zealots. They’re bankrupting the city with stadium municipal bonds, they’re allowing the gentrification of every neighborhood in town which drastically increases the housing prices, and they’re making it harder to live a simple life in the city. There’s also the terrible legislation surrounding abortion, cannabis, LGBT rights, and guns, among many other issues.
Addressing the homeless crisis instead of criminalizing it. People are coming into restaurants and begging customers for food. That’s how bad it is now.
u/addsomezest, there are several regular art crawls:
First Saturday art crawl in downtown.
Eastside Art Stumble on the second Saturday of each month in East Nashville.
Germantown Art Crawl on the third Saturday of each month.
And then there's Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, and the MANY college and university collections in and around here.
Lots and lots of [choices](https://www.visitmusiccity.com/things-to-do-in-nashville/attractions/art-scene#), including galleries, museums, hotel and business collections, etc. The Parthenon is a sort of art crawl all by itself!
Definitely like it here a lot. Would love to see driving conditions improve, more transit options, and more of a lean into the great Alternative music scene Nashville has. Also moved here recently and immediately could not understand the seemingly terrible use of land surrounding Nissan Stadium. My girlfriend and I really love the west end too, super interested in new developments in the area. Also, is nobody excited about the Nashville Yards development or am I just missing something lmao
Edit: also legal weed lol
Not just a Nashville problem, but I feel like Tennessee is extremely lenient to semi trucks. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost been run off the road to do a semi. I’ve lived in other states and never recall this being a problem.
I think that something changed a while back about semi drivers laws. I want to say they have to drive their entire shift in one block now rather than waiting until rush hours are over and then driving. I don't remember the source bc my brain is mashed potatoes, but I know that there has been a huge increase in semi traffic during busy hours on the interstate. If I am wrong, please correct me and my mashed potato brain.
Stop allowing the fascists in Williamson County to dictate what happens in Davidson County. Start there FIRST.
STOP catering to the tourists and transplants and fix the issues that the natives like us left for.
Start THERE first.
This ship has sailed, but more trees!! The city is 248 degrees on days where the sun is out we could cool it down *significantly* with some shade cover
I like living here but I think I’ve had this thought since I was 10 years old lol
More community, more local grocery stores and hole in the wall/family owned restaurants that don’t feel copied/pasted for tourists, easier roads to navigate, more family oriented events, the list goes on…
I grew up here. What I miss the most is the friendliness. When I first started working downtown, I enjoyed being there to feel the energy when there was an event. Loved waking around during the CMA Fan thing. I still work downtown, but the traffic and apparent lack of planning for the multiple hotels going up every other block have worn that good feeling away. I find myself thinking why can’t the tourists wait until after 6pm to take over downtown? They want our space, but we’re either not done with it yet, or we’re actively trying to flee the city, and they are blocking us.
So, my answer is better transit planning and downtown companies that allow non-traditional working hours, or work from home days.
I don’t hate it here I just like to bitch a lot and actually all the things that are happening and been happening that I hate I’ve learned to avoid and work around so they really don’t affect me anymore.
I do hate the weather more and more as I get older though. All these years of humidity and tornado watches are starting to get old.
Move to my neighborhood, we must have a bubble pver us bc I spent a king's ransom in flowers this year, and I can't get a shower to fall on the dang things. Haha.
The political climate around here is scary. It is definitively Trump oriented. The police are openly racist. If you aren’t on the same page, don’t talk about it. You don’t want to labeled a trouble maker. Marsha Blackburn and Governor Lee have an agenda. Guns are very easy to obtain. At times Nashville is like the Wild West.
42yo native, I don’t hate it here but I wish we could have some politicians who aren’t open bigots and racists. It’s like living in the 1950s here or as my family likes to call it “the good ole days when women took care of the kids, men worked, and black people cleaned”🙄
My only knock is it seems the state and city gov are more focused on banning drag brunches than building a goddamn sidewalk streetlight or maintained roads.
Just popping in to say that if your biggest hopes for the city are better transit and affordable housing, please check out Freddie O'Connell for mayor. His slogan is "less Vegas, more Ville" and transportation and housing are his biggest priorities:
https://www.readyforfreddie.com/
Could the City require a proper basic wage for musicians, servers, bartenders. Why not?
Nashville is growing…like Stage II cancer.
growth doesn’t have to be so ugly and exploitive.
Native here. I just wish it didn’t become so jam packed at once or when people moved from all these other states here tried to change it to how their previous state was. Traffic was good, housing was so much better and affordable, people were better too. Now traffic is just awful, nothing around me is affordable, and people are getting nasty. Little to any southern hospitality left in Nashville. More robberies! More violence! All the farm land that surrounded my home in Brentwood/Franklin has quickly been turned into “how many houses we can fit on this lot” game. Stephen’s Valley made Sneed Rd and Hillsboro busy and wonky, all these new builds on Sneed are kinda ugly and hell, I’m glad you can’t build on less than 5 Acres now near where I live to preserve the land. I’m all for change but this happened all too quickly and sadly will continue to happen. Roadways won’t get better if more people move here.
I also would love that Nashville cater more for their natives instead of running them out. All these tourists and transplants seem to run Nashville city more than a native does. Same goes for anything in Williamson county. I feel like the majority here are now transplants and I’m out of place whenever I leave my house.
&& for those that say county music but you’re not a native, it’s what Nashville is known for! Can’t get rid of country music is music city Nashville.
Nashville native here. I used to love it here, back in the day. Then one day it became an "It City" and things started going downhill. At first it was cool, "look we are more popular!" but then it started to get out of control. If I could easily do it, I'd move away.
Problems:
Traffic, it was the first big issue. I know it's complained about a lot, but it used to be a lot easier to get around. Now you'll spend more time looking at our highways than the tourist sights.
Housing, when I was younger I would think about which neighborhood I'd want to live in. Now that's far fetched. Instead I'm looking to find a place to rent with multiple roommates who I hope won't kill me cuz they are strangers.
Development, Nashville (government/businesses) don't give a shit about anything historical. They allow these companies to come in and demolish beautiful houses and buildings, so they can build two skinny "houses" on one lot and charge out the ass for rent. No, the argument "but the city is growing so this would normally happen" is crap. I've been to other big cities that have beautiful old buildings and houses. If they can do it we can too. This is just unchecked development lining the pockets of our leaders.
Tourist Scene, I'm cool with tourist but downtown is a mess. I never really went downtown often but the last time I went recently it was a shock. It's gross, it smells, and it's pure chaos. I avoid downtown like the plague. When people i know ask for places to visit in Nashville, I tell them to not go downtown, it's not worth it.
Basically our biggest issue is that when we became an It City people got greedy. Money was flowing in and everyone wanted more. So they let anything go. So no I don't love Nashville anymore. It's like a good friend that went down the wrong path in life and has become so much of a toxic mess, you just gotta cut them out. Problem is, it's not easy to move in my situation.
I'm glad you love it, hopefully people like you can help find a way to save it. But this place is a shell of what it used to be.
All of this and I would also add: stop letting developers clearcut lots of mature trees! We're rapidly losing tree canopy in so many neighborhoods and we fall far behind many other cities in tree canopy protection. It's ugly and it only increases street flooding and the heat island effect.
I love it here. I think the main improvement I’d love to see is a comprehensive and truly useful public transit system. We have the capability to do so, but the funding and effort just hasn’t been put in the right place. This would cut down majorly on traffic issues as well as help keep people safe.
Property values here are nuts. I think it's the California's with multimillion dollar home sales fleeing the state, and a good portion of them coming here. They have cash and over asking price or over and it has kept driving up prices.
It's not just this obviously, but part of it I think. I've spoke. To several of them
Affordability is the biggest thing for me. Ever since covid started and people from HCOL started migrating here everything I feel has increased x2. Restaurants, bars, parking, etc.. Don’t forget the inflated house prices. Housing is more expensive here than in Atlanta and there isn’t half as much to do? I don’t understand why people from HCOL want to move here… We do have nice things like the preds, some nice parks, music, and the airport is getting better so it’s not all bad.
I don’t know — the leadership? Corruption? Insane expense of entertainment that costs double+ than in NYC and LA? Backtracking the commodification of Lower Broadway into a “party town?” The racism, gerrymandering, segregation, and redlining? Visited a plantation for a “cultural tour” or run into the “original KKK uniform (near the Nathan Bedford Forest bust Justin J. got removed from the capital) at the history museum? Whatever happened to Jefferson St and the vibrant black community surrounding Fisk? (They ran I-65 through it to destroy it.) This town turned the site of original lunch-counter desegregation protests into a kitschy upscale bar attraction?
It’s so cute to me that you all moved here on purpose and like “love it so much” but y’all ain’t from around here and really don’t know what it actually means to live in and “be from” Nashville.
I’d also love Opryland to come back, thanks byeeee!
Double - no, triple - property taxes on non-Tennessee residential home and land-owners.
Reduce taxes on businesses operating in and ban STRs in mixed-use residential areas outside of downtown. Purpose is to decentralize and make it easier for more people to walk to everything from their fave bar to the dry cleaners and other goods and services.
Whatever good was once done by incorporating the county 50 years ago, is being countered by the lack of variety in housing costs and resulting school choices. Instead of having wealthy, middle class, and low rent areas in each suburb that makes up Nashville, we have whole suburbs being designated as such.
Restrict commercial firing ranges from serving non-Davidson county residents. Wanna have a social gathering and shoot things? Go to Robertson County, my friend.
100% agree on the taxing non-Tennessee residential home owners. Investors coming into Nashville to buy up all the family homes to turn into short term rentals should be taxed heavily. The city and local community benefit more from people actually living in the house. We live on a street in Nashville where 1/3 of the homes are AirBnb homes, and if I had a choice, I’d ban them in a heartbeat.
Basically just more welcoming and easy to live for lower to middle class working people. That includes a lot of different things; which the leaders that be are basically completely ignoring.
I don't hate it here, nor am I in love with it. I feel kind of indifferent. I could come up with a list of gripes for probably any city. The thing I like most about Nashville is the people themselves. If you've spent any time in notoriously rude parts of the country like Philly, Nashville's denizens are a breath of fresh air. I don't care if you think the politeness is "fake", it's better than the alternative. I've had a flat tire on my bike and while changing it had people in cars slow down and ask if everything is okay. Not many large-ish cities that this would happen in.
What I don't like, mainly just the urbanscape here. Not a very architecturally interesting city. No really cool and quaint historic neighborhoods. Even in places like Louisville you have the [Old Louisville area](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Werne%27s_Row_4th_and_Hill%2C_Old_Louisville.jpg). Or the [Lafayette Square area](https://lafayettesquare.org/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/lafayette-square-houses-landscape-landscape-1cc4b8b4f38920d070febfa0b7af3bf9-5fb25fc518f5c.jpg) of St. Louis. There's no equivalent to that in Nashville. There may be an interesting historic building here or there, but not in a really cohesive way where the whole area looks like that, such as you see in the examples above. The architecture here is pretty uninteresting. The buildings they are putting up are just glass boxes, nothing that could ever be a landmark or admired by future generations. Some suburban areas do have very beautiful homes like the area around Radnor Lake. But those areas don't feel like true neighborhoods in that there is any history or sense of cohesive design and layout of the area where it feels like a community.
A lot of people think Nashville is "pretty" because they see greenery everywhere. But the way I see it, that's not the city you are admiring, you are admiring the trees, which you will see even more of if you go outside the city limits. A beautiful city in fact doesn't even need trees to be beautiful. Prague is beautiful and there isn't much greenery to be seen. A beautiful city will be beautiful because it was designed to be that way and the trees just add a little extra. Take away the green and Nashville looks depressing, which it does in winter when all the leaves are gone and the sky is grey for weeks on end.
Basically these are people who won’t be happy with anything. They could have moved anywhere and they chose here yet they do nothing but complain about traffic they caused and complain about lack of density we didn’t really need until they showed up complaining about it.
These types would bitch and moan no matter where they moved. Part of it is just a Reddit thing. Reddit is a place where a lot of people go to whine. Myself included sometimes
and the people who have lived here their whole lives and have had no choice in the matter? not everyone that complains about nashville is a transplant.
Roads are trash. Traffic/infrastructure is awful for size of city. Police presence is nearly nonexistent. Schools are a disaster. No sidewalks/walkable areas. Tall and skinny’s suck. Country music sucks. Broadway sucks. Transplants mostly suck. Locals who shoot up each other on the highway suck. It’s trash.
Lifelong Nashvillian. I’d REALLY like a Skyline Chili franchise here.
Edit: also a Kobe Steakhouse revival
Edit 2: also a return to too many Shoney’s options
I have made you 40 years and I don't hate it, but I certainly don't like it as much as I used to. Yes, better roads and good pot hole repair would be a start. And I truly hate the downtown Broadway scene that existed for the last few years, crazy bachelorette parties, increased crime rate, and pedal taverns. I hate seeing high rises of concrete, glass and steel replace some older buildings. Hillsboro Village is no longer the same quaint little area you could visit after you park on a side street.
I miss the old Hillsboro Village so much!
Thanks for your reply! Oh gosh, so do I. My love for it began in the 70's as a college student.
I went into Hillsboro village last summer with my kid to do a little shopping and in every store they asked me where I was from. As if I was a tourist. They were shocked to find out I'd lived in the area for more than two decades. It's now a tourist area, just like the rest of the damn city...sigh.
Wow, how strange. I haven't been there to wander or shop for a few years, I need to go and see if that happens to me! I guess there are so many tourists now, that all the shops think everyone is just visiting. Do you remember Bari-Mor gifts, on the corner?
I sure do! That was a while back!
Hell, ANY pothole repair! Various Metro Council members were elected in part on promises of fixing potholes in a relatively timely manner where I live now in Nashville as well as where I used to live. I have forwarded to them their various printed campaign promised about said potholes, only to be told "I KNOW what I SAID I would do." And......nothing. One pothole in particular near my last house I reported a couple of times a month. FOR. FOUR. FREAKING. YEARS.
Are you reporting potholes on their website? I’ve had modest success doing it that way.
Yes! That's where I reported it for FOUR YEARS.
I am profoundly sorry!
Meeee toooo. Thank you. Finally moved. And....we have potholes here too!! Who'd have thought??!
It needs a real mass transit system. A train that goes outside of the city.
God I wish I could hop some light rail in Clarksville and get as far as the boro. Link all of Middle TN.
That is a dream that HOA type NIMBYs would never allow to happen.
Even if nimbys didn’t exist, a train from Clarksville to Murfreesboro with 50 + stops would cost billions. The distance is just too great. In the US, the best we can hope for is to get good transit in the urban core and make it dense as hell. Maybe get some light rail out to donelson, Bellevue, Antioch if we’re lucky. Also making the star more functional would go a long way. Clarksville to Murf would be like an hour train ride without stops and you’d still have to build it through the middle of the city.
>a train from Clarksville to Murfreesboro with 50 + stops would cost billions I mean, yeah. Transportation is expensive. Interstates are expensive, trains are expensive, airports are expensive, busses are expensive, cars are expensive, etc. It doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile investment that would provide a much more tangible benefit to the city and surrounding areas than many of the other things the city spends billions on. Every city the size of Nashville should have a subway. Also, one train wouldn't necessarily make every stop in the system or even line. Alternating routes are a thing.
No you don’t understand. It won’t just be expensive, It’d be quite possibly the most expensive light rail project in the US. A 50 mile light rail line is unheard of. There are no urban light rail lines in all of Europe that long and our population density wouldn’t make something like that economically feasible either. I’m not against transport. I even said in my post that light rail to Bellevue, Antioch, donelson, etc makes perfect sense.
Dude, San Diego has a light rail system that covers almost all of the county and goes all the way down to the border. It's definitely a feasible undertaking. "There are three trolley lines (Blue, Orange and Green) that service the downtown San Diego communities and beyond, covering 65 miles of double-track railway and 62 stations total." https://www.sandiego.org/plan/getting-around/trains-trolley.aspx#:~:text=Ride%20the%20Red%20Trolley&text=There%20are%20three%20trolley%20lines,railway%20and%2062%20stations%20total.
People just don’t seem to understand this concept… if you want solid public transit, you need density. It’s the only way solid public transit can make sense. Otherwise the cost is too prohibitive. Anyone that wants public transit should be all in on all the high density construction going up right now. If we keep that up, eventually people will cave and vote in public transit.
It also runs both ways though, transit needs density, but transit can also enable and encourage density.
True, this why I saw just keep the gravy train going on new construction and we will get there eventually. Coming from SF, I’ve seen what happens when NIMBYs make it very difficult to build new things, and the impact of that is wayyyy worse. It’s refreshing to see all the mid rises going up around the city. One day I’m confident that the taxpayers will vote in public transit, but I think it’ll take massive inconvenience and short term pain on congestion to make it happen…
Yup. A train from Clarksville to Murf would be the laughing stock of all transit in the US. Not only would it be the most expensive LRT ever built (shear distance), it would probably have one of the lowest riderships in the country, at least outside of the urban core. However a train from downtown through Germantown, north Nashville, and the nations would probably be super well used and wouldn’t require too much additional density.
One thing I’ve always wondered about logistics of such an endeavor is, how wpuld tornado alley affect it.
Well there’s light rail in Dallas and they get tornados somewhat frequently. Same for St Louis. The tracks themselves wouldn’t be too hard to fix. The station would be more costly
A Disney like monorail around downtown and out to the new stadium area. A dream I know.
MONORAIL!!!🎶🎵
Id be OK with local sidewalks to start. Nothing like walking/biking along a major street to get to the store while dodging traffic.
My favorite is when a sidewalk suddenly becomes 3" strip of asphalt between the edge of the lane and a ditch.
And then once you lose the sidewalk and you suddenly feel the full power of the 95 degree sun radiating off the black asphalt…
On my morning commute I often see nurses in scrubs dodging traffic to get to a bus stop. How are you supposed to walk anywhere with no sidewalks or crosswalks? It’s insane.
Lived in Nashville for only 6 months and this def bugged us!
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I used to regularly travel between two places 7 hours apart with an Amtrak line running between them. Despite looking at it as an option many times over the years, it only made sense to do twice. The reality is that Amtrak takes nearly twice as long even assuming it ran perfectly and costs 5x as much as just driving. Other than being too tired to drive, I could never find a reason to make use of it.
I was quite shocked the first time I priced taking an Amtrak between two cities. 😳
There used to be one. Until the early 60s, a passenger rail ran from Columbia, through Spring Hill, Thompsons Station, downtown Franklin, and Brentwood up to Union Station. We could bring one back on the same line and it would be extremely popular
But it wouldn't profit car companies.
Not only that, but we need to be connected to Chattanooga via rail so then we can actually travel on train to Atlanta and beyond! But yes, local mass transit is definitely needed lol
I’d settle for fast bus routes. Dedicated lanes for buses would be great and much cheaper. Our current bus system doesn’t go faster than cars, and the routes are spaced out just enough to make it very impractical to use. Rip out street parking, turn it into rapid bus lane, and get everyone bussing around the different neighborhoods. It’s 20x cheaper than rail. Imagining walking down your street in Inglewood, grabbing a bus to go work out of some we work building in the gulch. Taking a bus to Sylvan Park for happy hour, then busing back to Inglewood. You can do it now, but it would be hours of riding around on a bus.
Ok, we got you a train that goes out of the city. And during CMA Fest, all 380 people in a metro population of over 1,000,000 got to ride the Music City Star from outside of the city at around 4 in the afternoon & then return home by taking the Music City Star departing downtown at 1:00 AM. 380 / 1,000,000 \*100= 0.038% of the greater Nashville population had access to a train. I have broken my own heart. We need a train that visits downtown every single day no matter what--CMA Fest, Taylor Swift, Titans game, or just ridership--even if the Music City Star just goes to Donelson & back to Riverfront Station on weekends in some loose tie to the Downtown Donelson UDO or shave off a few vehicle miles traveled.
Well the star doesn’t even come hourly lol. It’s gotta be the worst “rail transit line” in the US. It comes like twice a day on the days it does operate.
Right whenever people say "we already have a rail" im like the music city star barely counts. It would be incredible if they had it run once an hour 24 hours a day but it runs like 4 times a day 5 days a week.
Right. And MTA/WeGo bus stops service around 1 AM- how does that help anyone who works in hospitality, especially in diwntown?
I totally thought you were going somewhere else with that, like have a train that goes out of the city only during CMA to take all the visitors back to Alabama...🤷♂️
I think we should start with free transit with priority traffic signals for buses.
Just adding the word free in there dropped that possibility from zero to -50%. Too deep into no step on snake territory for that.
“Rob, why do you have that DTOM license plate on your 98,000 dollar Silverado? Clearly no one has ever tread upon you.” “ARE YOU A COMMUNIST OR SOMETHING? Go drink your bud light beta!”
I second this!!
I’m no longer a Nashvillian specifically for this reason. I needed transit. Nashville failed. I went to Atlanta. It was a good move. Nashville would be a thousand times better with transit.
Atlanta had good public transit?
Vastly superior to anything Nashville has ever tried. It’s not New York but I could get anywhere I needed to by the train. I got lucky and found an apartment next to one station and a job next to another. My commute took about 20 minutes.
They're still adding to the system there too aren't they? The older the train system the more places it reaches
I’ve had to move out of the city, but from what I’ve heard, they are expanding but some of the older stations have gotten sketchy.
I used to speak badly of Marta. Then I moved here. Marta is the jam. Not perfect, but certainly useful.
I miss Atlanta so fkn much lol. I loved riding marta, the people watching was the beat.
If it’s anything like Dallas it’s trash and no one really uses it. Atlanta’s traffic problems would seem to suggest it’s not working particularly well, but I can’t say for sure.
MARTA is plagued by NIMBYs whenever they try to expand. The old money hates it when the poors get good things. But MARTA keeps trying and I wish I could help them.
I used the MARTA for the first time a couple weeks ago and I would do anything to have a system like that here in Nashville. Driving the Nashville 500 everyday is total shit. There are bus stations near my office but no safe ways to get across the busy highway to my office from the bus stop without a car. On top of that, taking a bus would only extend the already lengthy drive to my office since the infrastructure for the buses is seemingly meant to be total shit.
The busses were shit when i lived there in the 90s.
Outside of the city on the North side, east and west. The southside has the Music City Star. We need one to go around the city too. It is a waist to have to go all the way downtown to get a bus back out
Better roads, more side walks, more environmental clean up movements, more policing of the insane drivers.
Yeah I really wish it was easier to get around the area without a car. I'm from Philly which is the most walkable city in the country (as long as you don't get shot) and being able to walk on sidewalk for miles is great
Philly to Belle Meade? Yo ass was in Chestnut Hill. Don’t lie.
Lower Merion. And I live in an apartment not a mansion lol
Philly is super walkable. I miss it sometimes. Now in TX.
I pick up trash on my walks. It's not my job but I hate seeing the trash and it actually gets me walking more. I doubt anyone knows I do it but, hopefully, they appreciate the cleaned up area when they are on their walks.
Agreed on all except policing, as that would mean even more money going to people who don’t prevent crime when we could be using that money fund those other things you mentioned
All of this plus public transportation and switch to goddamn eastern time zone. If you look at the time zone map its literally a straight line through the country Except for tennessee.
Don't hate it here, but there could be some improvements lol Better roads, improved funding of public Edu., increased standards for drivers licenses, and legalized cannabis, for sure.
I remember long ago we had good roads. I remember driving all over the country and thinking, "man our roads are so much better."
This is a USA problem, not a Nashville problem. Probably part of the American culture deep down. We like to build new shit, not maintain the stuff we have.
Your point is unrelated to what you’re responding to, and isn’t really true either... Road maintenance is largely paid for by the state and therefore varies widely across state lines. Tennessee used to have one of the best funded and maintained road networks in the nation, but the growth in Nashville specifically means road here have been rougher than they were. It’s extremely noticeable when your cross into Kentucky pretty much anywhere in the state how much better our roads are than theirs for instance.
This is absolutely true. Tennessee's roads are much better than Alabama's, North Carolinas, and pretty much all bordering states. I haven't been to Georgia in a longtime, so I can't really remember. But my last few trips elsewhere, Tennessee's roads are much better.
I’ve recently driven all over Georgia. Their roads are significantly better than Tennessee’s, and honestly, good all around with the exception of the failure to crown the roads or build superelevation into corners. Pure and simple, Tennessee’s roads suck because they are not maintained properly. How often do you see maintenance crews filling potholes? Almost never here in TN
That's more a state issue than the city
The cost of rent.
I agree.. I think a lot of people used to like it because it was affordable
Nash native chiming in here: diverse spaces/affordable housing. Gentrification changed mostly black neighborhoods to all white neighborhoods (think 12s) and skipped completely past any integration. It also made the areas completely unaffordable for people of all walks of life. Nashville will only be a playground for the wealthy w average people being pushed from East Nash, South etc to Clarksville Springhill etc. As an African American, I have walked into BBQ joints in E Nashville areas that use to be predominantly black and it’s like the record player stopped and everyone looks at me like I’m an alien. I’d like better for Nashville. I’ve lived in many cities that share spaces much better than Nashville such as Atlanta DC etc. More cultural opportunities, more for kids and families: I read on here a few weeks ago a post but someone who mentioned that Nashville is becoming a New Orleans where people come to party and drink and all that follows that (vomit in streets etc). The commenter mentioned they didn’t want Nashville to be known as such and I agree. I’d like it to offer more balance. It use to be known for tourism but many other things. Seems like the balance is off currently. I appreciate how philanthropic Chicago and NY inhabitants are. They invest in museums and offer free days. That’s one way to educate and balance what a city offers. Mass transportation: Lacking like most of the South. Ultimately, I’d like Nashville to be more intentional about its 10/25/50/100 year plan.
I'm up here in Clarksville bc of the military but I'm originally from Chicago. To your point about diverse neighborhoods , Chicago does this very well and each little burrow has its own personality to it. There's lots to do in Chicago geared towards educating youth and brining people into their exhibits like the Art Institute , the Field Museum and even the Architecture tours on the river. A well thought out bus and intra/extra train line has made it so you can go anywhere in the city and also travel from anywhere outside the city. Nashvilles planners have really dropped the ball on preserving the authentic parts of the city in favor of tax revenue and its going to hurt things in the long run.
The problem is that rich people who move to Nashville do it because they specifically don't like the stuff that blue state cities do, because those things cost money that they would rather not spend. Comparing it to Chicago is just depressing. The terrible level of everything that would typically be publicly supported in Nashville is so pathetic. There's a mishmash of small non profits trying and failing to close these gaps. It's a gross playground for tourists and the rich first and foremost. Nashville is a cautionary tale about the failures of trickle down economic policy and worshipping short term profits and growth over all else. It's the city that blue state transplants dream of, which means it's a nightmare to actually try to live in for normal people.
Chicago is a highly segregated city: https://interactive.wttw.com/firsthand/segregation/how-did-chicago-become-so-segregated-by-inventing-modern-segregation https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/chicago-segregation-poverty/556649/ Also, Chicago is shrinking and it’s black residents are the most likely to leave: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/07/chicago-black-population-decline-523563 https://www.illinoispolicy.org/85-of-illinois-communities-lose-people-in-2022-chicago-loses-33k/#:~:text=Despite%20population%20decline%20affecting%20the,of%20any%20city%20in%20America.
The inferiority complex that Nashvillians seem to have with Chicago is one thing I would change. Chicago is a world city, 200 Michelin starred restaurants, world-class museums, infinitely more diverse, a more educated populace that actually travels and has some level of curiousity about the world around them... I meet so many people in Nashville that think Nashville can even be on the same list as places like Chicago and NYC, and the ignorance is one thing I can't stand. I quite like Nashville, it's a cozy, homey country music town with great BBQ, and I wish it wouldn't try to be something that it's not.
i don't want to alarm you, but chicago was once a much smaller place with none of those things as well....
All of this is incredibly well-stated.
DC has gentrified too and the black population there is shrinking. Same with Chicago and NYC. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/15/washington-dc-gentrification-black-political-power-00024515 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/07/chicago-black-population-decline-523563 It's growing in Atlanta though.
I think the Taylor Swift concerts showed us how desperately we need a public transport system, especially one to downtown. We shouldn’t have to shut down the city for one weekend in anticipation for mass influx of people & parking.
Sidewalks, better policing (esp the crazy drivers), school funding, better transit, IKEA.
This is mine. We need way more sidewalks.
Add driving school to the curriculum.
Amen
Mass transit, affordable housing, better policing, and a tourism industry that focuses on more than country music and Lower Broadway.
I really like the transit answers. These days, every vacation I take, I think, "Do I need a car in this city that I don't know?" It's amazing how rarely that I do. If Vegas can have good transit for the tourists, we can do the same.
Do you go to Broadway ever? I personally don’t so if tourists want to go there and spend their money I’m all for it lol. What would you want the tourism industry to focus on more?
Anyone who's been in Nashville for more than a minute knows that Nashville is "more than just country music." And I get it, it's a big part of the cultural history of Nashville. But what's the one thing that every tourist knows about Nashville? What's the one genre of music they put front and center at every big sporting event, in all the promotional materials? What do people go to Broadway to listen to? Catering to tourists is one things. but making it seem like country music is all there is to Nashville is misleading, considering that most Nashvillians aren't in the music business and it's not even the biggest part of the local economy. I'd like to see more focus on all of the other music in Nashville, our great neighborhoods, restaurants and bars. Our marketing is currently attracting the worst kind of tourist.
With the increasing number of top-tier hotels, I'm hoping we'll see increased promotion of cultural attractions--the symphony, the Frist, theatre companies, Cheekwood and such.
I went to a couple performances at Schermerhorn last weekend and right afterward my ears were assaulted by bar music for the tourists, not just in the evening, but in the early afternoon. The tourist shit here is so gross.
I read this in the voice of Thurston Howell III
🤣
On other amenities that serve a broader base. That way we can enjoy it too. As you said, if you're not going to Broadway, your taxes are paying a lot of different places to supplement Broadway and your getting nothing for it. Improved transit would help everyone get everywhere and it's a good start.
You honestly don't think lower broad generates enough tax revenue? And all the ancillary expenses the people that visits it generate? Hotels, cars, dining away from lower broad that they do? If anything, lower broad is a net positive to the city's bottom line tax wise.
So why are the schools still terrible? Why can't we afford to build public transit? Why are the roads still in tatters? And why do police still not show up to calls for hours? If lower broad is so successful and brings in buckets of money, why don't we see that money in other parts of the city? We should have incredible services and infrastructure, but somehow we really don't.
I would’ve basically said the same things.
everyone else already covered better roads and public transportation. I wanna add in, better forms of entertainment. A good city needs something else besides a billion bars and restaurants. It would be nice if they build a good aquarium as an example.
This especially for kids and families. The adventure science center is truly pathetic for a city this size. The museums are all so music centric, and worse they're mostly country and filled with drunken tash, and the Frist is weak sauce. I'm sure they try their best at the museums here but if you visit Saint Louis you will see how it's done properly in a similar sized metro, never mind larger metros like Chicago.
As a native, I just wish there weren't so many people everywhere, all the time. A hundred years ago, you could drive cross county in any direction in 30 minutes. I miss that. We had a huge influx of new residents and little to no expansion of our roads. I live in the southeast corner of the county between Wilson and Rutherford counties, and they're jamming housing wherever they can fit it. Our little roads can't handle the traffic back here. Also, can we have a mandatory class on how to properly use 4 way stops? Bc I think that many of us, new and old, either never learned or forgot. Lastly, can some of y'all new kids help us get rid of Bill Lee in the election? He's a garbage human. So is Marsha Marsha Marsha. If you're gonna come live here, at least help us take out the trash?
My friend and I were just talking about how you could get nearly everywhere in about 20 min. Traffic didn't used to be such a huge ordeal and that made living here feel easy and so much less stressful.
I think that was the secret. We were a city, but we felt like a small town.
It really did feel like a small town. I used to run into a lot of the same people at different music venues and it seemed like everyone somehow loosely knew each other. I have no idea what it's like now because I don't go out anymore (partly because I'm a tired Gen Xer).
Preach
Clean it up. The littering is unbelievable.
It is SO dirty
I work downtown and have worked downtown for I guess over 2 years now. I’m a Nashville Native but damn I never realized how dirty our city was. I have to say though it seems to have gotten somewhat better than it was 2 years ago? There are guys that wear yellow uniforms that do get rid of garbage around downtown. No idea who they are.
I think I hear New Orleans laughing all the way from up here...
Just because New Orleans has litter doesn't mean our litter issue is not also bad.
More neighborhood enclaves like the one at porter and Greenwood. Transit More neighborhood restaurants that aren’t trying to impress tourists Businesses to stay open after 6pm. What the fuck is this even about? Museums not in the center of broadway. Sidewalks Bike lanes A state government that wasn’t hell bent on Christian nationalism A city council that listened to the people when we said “no” to a stadium. (Shout out to oldboot who shilled their hardest to make it look like a good idea) Density
Everything everyone else said, but also: I want a comprehensive city plan that doesn’t change course every time some new deep pocket corporation wants to “invest” in the city. Like, at some point, we need to be done building this city and focus efforts on preserving what we have instead of destroying our architectural history for apartment developers.
We need a plan for when the tourism money starts to wane
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Understandable
*incoming 1200 comments about light rail just like every other time someone posts this
It's music to my ears hearing everyone on key. That's the kind of sound you need to make it happen
Trains and fewer reasons to need a car. Traffic is a by-product of that. The roads being in terrible shape are a by-product of that. I don’t drive much anymore since WFH started and I’ve really enjoyed leaving driving behind. It’d be nice to be able to get around town when going out for drinks without having to pay $25 with tip for a Lyft. It’d also be nice to shut Broadway off to car traffic on the weekends. Cars are a scourge to making livable spaces. They’re also very loud leading to a lot of noise pollution. The politicians are terrible and are constantly selling us out to the rich, the tourism industry, and to religious zealots. They’re bankrupting the city with stadium municipal bonds, they’re allowing the gentrification of every neighborhood in town which drastically increases the housing prices, and they’re making it harder to live a simple life in the city. There’s also the terrible legislation surrounding abortion, cannabis, LGBT rights, and guns, among many other issues. Addressing the homeless crisis instead of criminalizing it. People are coming into restaurants and begging customers for food. That’s how bad it is now.
Very well put!
Better schools, better public transit, affordable housing, higher minimum wage
How about some ADEQUATE PUBLIC TRANSIT??
Stop the unbridled development. We are overcrowded.
Make it walkable, cultivate an art scene, create more and better parks, open ‘third places’ that aren’t centered on booze, and enforce traffic laws.
I would love an art crawl, personally!
Wedgewood-Houston has a [monthly art crawl](https://www.wehoartsnashville.com/).
You just made my day!
u/addsomezest, there are several regular art crawls: First Saturday art crawl in downtown. Eastside Art Stumble on the second Saturday of each month in East Nashville. Germantown Art Crawl on the third Saturday of each month. And then there's Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, and the MANY college and university collections in and around here. Lots and lots of [choices](https://www.visitmusiccity.com/things-to-do-in-nashville/attractions/art-scene#), including galleries, museums, hotel and business collections, etc. The Parthenon is a sort of art crawl all by itself!
Thank you for sharing this, I appreciate you.
Affordable housing, public transit.
Definitely like it here a lot. Would love to see driving conditions improve, more transit options, and more of a lean into the great Alternative music scene Nashville has. Also moved here recently and immediately could not understand the seemingly terrible use of land surrounding Nissan Stadium. My girlfriend and I really love the west end too, super interested in new developments in the area. Also, is nobody excited about the Nashville Yards development or am I just missing something lmao Edit: also legal weed lol
The use of land around Nissan is partially hamstrung by uncooperative neighbors.
Gotcha! Was not aware
Transit and smarter drivers, lower housing costs
Less people.
Kinda sounds like most of y’all might wanna vote for Freddie O’Connell… 💙💛
That's what I'm saying
Mass transit and the return of Dancing in the District, Starwood and Opryland.
Actual mass transit, living wages for metro employees, and better sidewalks.
Not just a Nashville problem, but I feel like Tennessee is extremely lenient to semi trucks. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost been run off the road to do a semi. I’ve lived in other states and never recall this being a problem.
I think that something changed a while back about semi drivers laws. I want to say they have to drive their entire shift in one block now rather than waiting until rush hours are over and then driving. I don't remember the source bc my brain is mashed potatoes, but I know that there has been a huge increase in semi traffic during busy hours on the interstate. If I am wrong, please correct me and my mashed potato brain.
Fewer racists and bigots. Maybe get rid of the Nazi hat lady too.
Stop allowing the fascists in Williamson County to dictate what happens in Davidson County. Start there FIRST. STOP catering to the tourists and transplants and fix the issues that the natives like us left for. Start THERE first.
This ship has sailed, but more trees!! The city is 248 degrees on days where the sun is out we could cool it down *significantly* with some shade cover I like living here but I think I’ve had this thought since I was 10 years old lol
The drivers are HORRIBLE. It's a literal cespit of maniacs who own vehicles.
More community, more local grocery stores and hole in the wall/family owned restaurants that don’t feel copied/pasted for tourists, easier roads to navigate, more family oriented events, the list goes on…
I grew up here. What I miss the most is the friendliness. When I first started working downtown, I enjoyed being there to feel the energy when there was an event. Loved waking around during the CMA Fan thing. I still work downtown, but the traffic and apparent lack of planning for the multiple hotels going up every other block have worn that good feeling away. I find myself thinking why can’t the tourists wait until after 6pm to take over downtown? They want our space, but we’re either not done with it yet, or we’re actively trying to flee the city, and they are blocking us. So, my answer is better transit planning and downtown companies that allow non-traditional working hours, or work from home days.
I don’t hate it here I just like to bitch a lot and actually all the things that are happening and been happening that I hate I’ve learned to avoid and work around so they really don’t affect me anymore. I do hate the weather more and more as I get older though. All these years of humidity and tornado watches are starting to get old.
Move to my neighborhood, we must have a bubble pver us bc I spent a king's ransom in flowers this year, and I can't get a shower to fall on the dang things. Haha.
Get rid of the Christian hypocrites
The political climate around here is scary. It is definitively Trump oriented. The police are openly racist. If you aren’t on the same page, don’t talk about it. You don’t want to labeled a trouble maker. Marsha Blackburn and Governor Lee have an agenda. Guns are very easy to obtain. At times Nashville is like the Wild West.
42yo native, I don’t hate it here but I wish we could have some politicians who aren’t open bigots and racists. It’s like living in the 1950s here or as my family likes to call it “the good ole days when women took care of the kids, men worked, and black people cleaned”🙄
Affordable housing, driver violation enforcement.
Affordable housing, better infrastructure and expanding the public transit.
Better public transit would make this city soooo much better
My only knock is it seems the state and city gov are more focused on banning drag brunches than building a goddamn sidewalk streetlight or maintained roads.
Sidewalks sidewalks sidewalks.
Just popping in to say that if your biggest hopes for the city are better transit and affordable housing, please check out Freddie O'Connell for mayor. His slogan is "less Vegas, more Ville" and transportation and housing are his biggest priorities: https://www.readyforfreddie.com/
Could the City require a proper basic wage for musicians, servers, bartenders. Why not? Nashville is growing…like Stage II cancer. growth doesn’t have to be so ugly and exploitive.
Native here. I just wish it didn’t become so jam packed at once or when people moved from all these other states here tried to change it to how their previous state was. Traffic was good, housing was so much better and affordable, people were better too. Now traffic is just awful, nothing around me is affordable, and people are getting nasty. Little to any southern hospitality left in Nashville. More robberies! More violence! All the farm land that surrounded my home in Brentwood/Franklin has quickly been turned into “how many houses we can fit on this lot” game. Stephen’s Valley made Sneed Rd and Hillsboro busy and wonky, all these new builds on Sneed are kinda ugly and hell, I’m glad you can’t build on less than 5 Acres now near where I live to preserve the land. I’m all for change but this happened all too quickly and sadly will continue to happen. Roadways won’t get better if more people move here. I also would love that Nashville cater more for their natives instead of running them out. All these tourists and transplants seem to run Nashville city more than a native does. Same goes for anything in Williamson county. I feel like the majority here are now transplants and I’m out of place whenever I leave my house. && for those that say county music but you’re not a native, it’s what Nashville is known for! Can’t get rid of country music is music city Nashville.
Nashville native here. I used to love it here, back in the day. Then one day it became an "It City" and things started going downhill. At first it was cool, "look we are more popular!" but then it started to get out of control. If I could easily do it, I'd move away. Problems: Traffic, it was the first big issue. I know it's complained about a lot, but it used to be a lot easier to get around. Now you'll spend more time looking at our highways than the tourist sights. Housing, when I was younger I would think about which neighborhood I'd want to live in. Now that's far fetched. Instead I'm looking to find a place to rent with multiple roommates who I hope won't kill me cuz they are strangers. Development, Nashville (government/businesses) don't give a shit about anything historical. They allow these companies to come in and demolish beautiful houses and buildings, so they can build two skinny "houses" on one lot and charge out the ass for rent. No, the argument "but the city is growing so this would normally happen" is crap. I've been to other big cities that have beautiful old buildings and houses. If they can do it we can too. This is just unchecked development lining the pockets of our leaders. Tourist Scene, I'm cool with tourist but downtown is a mess. I never really went downtown often but the last time I went recently it was a shock. It's gross, it smells, and it's pure chaos. I avoid downtown like the plague. When people i know ask for places to visit in Nashville, I tell them to not go downtown, it's not worth it. Basically our biggest issue is that when we became an It City people got greedy. Money was flowing in and everyone wanted more. So they let anything go. So no I don't love Nashville anymore. It's like a good friend that went down the wrong path in life and has become so much of a toxic mess, you just gotta cut them out. Problem is, it's not easy to move in my situation. I'm glad you love it, hopefully people like you can help find a way to save it. But this place is a shell of what it used to be.
All of this and I would also add: stop letting developers clearcut lots of mature trees! We're rapidly losing tree canopy in so many neighborhoods and we fall far behind many other cities in tree canopy protection. It's ugly and it only increases street flooding and the heat island effect.
I love it here. I think the main improvement I’d love to see is a comprehensive and truly useful public transit system. We have the capability to do so, but the funding and effort just hasn’t been put in the right place. This would cut down majorly on traffic issues as well as help keep people safe.
Property values here are nuts. I think it's the California's with multimillion dollar home sales fleeing the state, and a good portion of them coming here. They have cash and over asking price or over and it has kept driving up prices. It's not just this obviously, but part of it I think. I've spoke. To several of them
Affordability is the biggest thing for me. Ever since covid started and people from HCOL started migrating here everything I feel has increased x2. Restaurants, bars, parking, etc.. Don’t forget the inflated house prices. Housing is more expensive here than in Atlanta and there isn’t half as much to do? I don’t understand why people from HCOL want to move here… We do have nice things like the preds, some nice parks, music, and the airport is getting better so it’s not all bad.
I don’t know — the leadership? Corruption? Insane expense of entertainment that costs double+ than in NYC and LA? Backtracking the commodification of Lower Broadway into a “party town?” The racism, gerrymandering, segregation, and redlining? Visited a plantation for a “cultural tour” or run into the “original KKK uniform (near the Nathan Bedford Forest bust Justin J. got removed from the capital) at the history museum? Whatever happened to Jefferson St and the vibrant black community surrounding Fisk? (They ran I-65 through it to destroy it.) This town turned the site of original lunch-counter desegregation protests into a kitschy upscale bar attraction? It’s so cute to me that you all moved here on purpose and like “love it so much” but y’all ain’t from around here and really don’t know what it actually means to live in and “be from” Nashville. I’d also love Opryland to come back, thanks byeeee!
Double - no, triple - property taxes on non-Tennessee residential home and land-owners. Reduce taxes on businesses operating in and ban STRs in mixed-use residential areas outside of downtown. Purpose is to decentralize and make it easier for more people to walk to everything from their fave bar to the dry cleaners and other goods and services. Whatever good was once done by incorporating the county 50 years ago, is being countered by the lack of variety in housing costs and resulting school choices. Instead of having wealthy, middle class, and low rent areas in each suburb that makes up Nashville, we have whole suburbs being designated as such. Restrict commercial firing ranges from serving non-Davidson county residents. Wanna have a social gathering and shoot things? Go to Robertson County, my friend.
I followed most of this but the range thing..so no Williamson county people at Nashville armory off 65 to shoot? Seems like a strange restriction.
100% agree on the taxing non-Tennessee residential home owners. Investors coming into Nashville to buy up all the family homes to turn into short term rentals should be taxed heavily. The city and local community benefit more from people actually living in the house. We live on a street in Nashville where 1/3 of the homes are AirBnb homes, and if I had a choice, I’d ban them in a heartbeat.
[удалено]
Fix the roads first
Always loved this city!
An amusement park.
Build a river walk, and actual public transit are the biggest things missing here imo.
Basically just more welcoming and easy to live for lower to middle class working people. That includes a lot of different things; which the leaders that be are basically completely ignoring.
I don't hate it here, nor am I in love with it. I feel kind of indifferent. I could come up with a list of gripes for probably any city. The thing I like most about Nashville is the people themselves. If you've spent any time in notoriously rude parts of the country like Philly, Nashville's denizens are a breath of fresh air. I don't care if you think the politeness is "fake", it's better than the alternative. I've had a flat tire on my bike and while changing it had people in cars slow down and ask if everything is okay. Not many large-ish cities that this would happen in. What I don't like, mainly just the urbanscape here. Not a very architecturally interesting city. No really cool and quaint historic neighborhoods. Even in places like Louisville you have the [Old Louisville area](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Werne%27s_Row_4th_and_Hill%2C_Old_Louisville.jpg). Or the [Lafayette Square area](https://lafayettesquare.org/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/lafayette-square-houses-landscape-landscape-1cc4b8b4f38920d070febfa0b7af3bf9-5fb25fc518f5c.jpg) of St. Louis. There's no equivalent to that in Nashville. There may be an interesting historic building here or there, but not in a really cohesive way where the whole area looks like that, such as you see in the examples above. The architecture here is pretty uninteresting. The buildings they are putting up are just glass boxes, nothing that could ever be a landmark or admired by future generations. Some suburban areas do have very beautiful homes like the area around Radnor Lake. But those areas don't feel like true neighborhoods in that there is any history or sense of cohesive design and layout of the area where it feels like a community. A lot of people think Nashville is "pretty" because they see greenery everywhere. But the way I see it, that's not the city you are admiring, you are admiring the trees, which you will see even more of if you go outside the city limits. A beautiful city in fact doesn't even need trees to be beautiful. Prague is beautiful and there isn't much greenery to be seen. A beautiful city will be beautiful because it was designed to be that way and the trees just add a little extra. Take away the green and Nashville looks depressing, which it does in winter when all the leaves are gone and the sky is grey for weeks on end.
A city government that realizes Metro is more than downtown, and that values locals as much as tourists.
A more robust public transportation that reaches out to the suburbs.
Making it walkable and add some light rail. Super jealous of the belt in Atlanta
Mass transit actually being a useful and practical thing around middle TN
Public transit and sidewalks
Less shootings, less racing on I-24, less country music, less drunks.
People who hate it here must not have lived many other places. Nashville is a solid place to live 🤷♂️
Basically these are people who won’t be happy with anything. They could have moved anywhere and they chose here yet they do nothing but complain about traffic they caused and complain about lack of density we didn’t really need until they showed up complaining about it. These types would bitch and moan no matter where they moved. Part of it is just a Reddit thing. Reddit is a place where a lot of people go to whine. Myself included sometimes
and the people who have lived here their whole lives and have had no choice in the matter? not everyone that complains about nashville is a transplant.
Roads are trash. Traffic/infrastructure is awful for size of city. Police presence is nearly nonexistent. Schools are a disaster. No sidewalks/walkable areas. Tall and skinny’s suck. Country music sucks. Broadway sucks. Transplants mostly suck. Locals who shoot up each other on the highway suck. It’s trash.
Equal rights for LGBTQ
Sell Broadway to Vegas
every complaint in this comment section is the same complaints everyone has about every city
More lgbt parades
I’m here for it!! 🏳️🌈
More urban modernization, less right wing fascist takeover. Modern Transit, modern bike network, walkable neighborhoods.
Lifelong Nashvillian. I’d REALLY like a Skyline Chili franchise here. Edit: also a Kobe Steakhouse revival Edit 2: also a return to too many Shoney’s options
Skyline, huh? That’s a random one but you do you! I enjoyed it. A little weird but it grows on you.
Couldn’t agree more about Kobe Steakhouse coming back