Nashville

Still going backwards in time... to Nashville, the third city I identified ahead of time as a possible future home.

Downtown Nashville is pretty empty on Sundays.

Nashville felt... weird.  It wasn't a bad place and I could see how a lot of people would really like living there.  But something about it felt off to me.  I can (and will) talk about some of the more objective factors about of the city, but it really just didn't capture my attention the way some previous cities have.

I began my visit with my typical driving tour, only I used several of the city's public libraries as waypoints, instead of random houses and apartments I found in the classifieds.  The libraries achieved the same goal of showing me different neighborhoods, since libraries are usually in neighborhoods.  I can't say whether I drove through the worst or the best parts of town, but none of the areas I drove through on my mini tour were total crapholes.  Yes, some neighborhoods were nicer than others, but the run-down ones seemed just that... run-down, not dreadful.

A downtown arcade.

But speaking of libraries...  I looked up Nashville's library system before I got to the city, mostly so I could find its main branch and its hours.  And as noted above, I used some of its branches to guide me around the city.  And I was saddened to see that the Nashville libraries have the shortest hours of any medium or large city I've checked out so far.  Not a single one is open later than 8pm and many of them are closed or have limited hours several days a week.

More downtown.

I can't remember if I've written this in my blog, but I start my visits to cities with libraries in part because they are a good source of local information about a city and because they sometimes reveal a lot about a city's pulse and priorities.  Is the library bustling or quiet?  Does it have a large selection?  Does the library allocate resources to the latest best-selling Danielle Steele novel, or does it go for a diversity of reads?  I've worked in two different libraries (years ago) so I know things things can reveal a lot about a community.

So back to Nashville... I was disappointed in the relatively limited access to the library system, although its main branch is quite large and really nice.  I was always a little skeptical about the prospect of living in Tennessee.  Nashville might be nice, but it doesn't seem like one of those states that's big on education (like, teaching evolution for example).  This impression was, unfortunately for Nashville, reinforced by the hours of the libraries.  It was further reinforced when, upon learning that Nashville had just lengthened its school year by 5 days, a local paper ran an op-ed opposing the move in part because it will cost more money to air condition the schools.  Guess what, Tennessee?  Less education is never the answer to any problem, even saving money on air conditioning.

On to other things.  One thing I really liked about Nashville was how clean everything was.  It didn't have that big city dirt or dark feeling or stained buildings or anything.  This is true of downtown, at least.  (As noted above, I'm not sure I ever saw the worst of Nashville's neighborhoods.)  And it's not a particularly difficult place to get around.  There were  minor/moderate traffic jams during afternooon and morning rush hour, but nothing terrible, and at all other times of the day, traffic was pretty easy.  Depending on where one tried to park, it could be free or cheap or moderately-priced, but overall it's just not a really crowded city.

Largest existing row of 19th century buildings in the country (it continues way left and right).

There's a lot to do in Nashville.  Places to eat, shows to see -- mostly country music, but the downtown theater center gets the Broadway shows, etc.  There are sports teams, etc.  It's not New York City, but it's lively.

A couple of old and famous Nashville standards.

The people are nice.*  I had a reasonable amount of interaction with locals while shopping, dining, and getting a chink in my windshield repaired.**  No one was in a real big hurry, but no one was as slow as some other places I've been to, either.  Seemed like a nice mix of being laid-back without being terribly inefficient.

But after about 48 hours in town, Nashville just wasn't grabbing me.  I think mostly it was the city itself.  As I noted before, it was weird.  The cleanliness and beauty were offset by all the drunk homeless people wandering around downtown.  The music and dining scene was offset by the clear commercialism that pervades much of the city.  I kept wondering if I was at Disney or if I were in the rough-around-the-edges South?  The pieces didn't fit.  I'm having a hard time saying why Nashville didn't feel right to me... it just didn't.  And I should add, it didn't feel right as a place for me to live.  I would return again to see sights and would encourage others to check it out.  It's not a bad place at all, just not for me.

One thing I'll never be sure of is whether my feelings on Nashville were solely about the town itself or because outside factors influenced my feelings about it.  Realistically, this might be true of the places I like, too.  For example, I didn't know anyone in Nashville.  I knew people in Des Moines and Ashville (a future post, keep reading!) and so I had locals to show me around and talk about the great things in their cities.  And in Philly's case, I'd explored it before with friends and had a good time both times.  But in all of these cases, was it the people I liked or the city?  But Nashville didn't have any familiar people going for it, so it might have suffered by comparison.  (Then again, I only "knew" someone in Des Moines my last couple of days there, and I liked it right away.)

I also felt a little lackadaisical about my visit there.  So far, I've really enjoyed my trip around North America and as general matter, it's not hard to motivate myself to get out and see stuff or to keep moving to my next destination.  Especially when I'm on my way to see people I know.  But I suspect I hit a bit of a low patch while I was in Nashville; I didn't feel as fresh or enthusiastic, and I was missing people I cared about.

A few wrap-up items:

*  The day before arriving in Nashville, I crossed the border from North Carolina and almost immediately saw about 30 motorcyclists pass the other way all carrying Confederate flags.  Big ones.  So, um... yeah.

**  I'd read in one of the local papers that Nashville had a "thriving gay district," centered around a certain intersection just west of downtown.  When I needed to get my window repaired, I saw there was a shop right in that neighborhood, so I chose it to get my repair done, so if it took awhile, I could explore that part of the city.  Sadly, it appears this is what constitutes the thriving gay district:

Not my definition of "thriving."

Yes, that's it.  The girls at the repair shop said there was also a lesbian club a few blocks down the street, but there weren't any cafes or shops or anything nearby.

Oh, and at the library I discovered that the "Nashville Pride" newspaper is written by and for african-americans, not the GLBT community.  Seeing the paper initially got my hopes up that Nashville was a modern and progressive place, then reading the paper returned my hopes back to normal.

One last tidbit about Nashville:  I stopped in a tiny little sushi shop.  I think only one person worked there, a really crabby sushi chef from Japan.  It was really cheap ($6 for two large rolls, including tax and tip!) and good.  But that crabby little chef was determined to give me what he wanted to give me, not what I wanted to order!  He wouldn't make me sashimi (even though it's on the menu) because he wanted me to get my money's worth.  He wouldn't even make me nigiri for the same reason.  He wanted me to get the avocado and cucumber in the rolls, too.  I'm glad I stopped in, because it was an amusing experience and the price was great for what I got.  But it added to my impression that Nashville is weird, and it felt like the episode of Seinfeld at the soup restaurant.

The sushi chef didn't want to be photographed, but he looked like this, only crabbier.

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