Nashville’s Independent Artists Speaking Out About City’s Growth
“You can’t just roll into town anymore. It’s a fucking arms race to find the last affordable rental. More Wayne Newton than Waylon Jennings.” — Caitlin Rose
It’s that penultimate moment—that tipping point—when a town or neighborhood known for it’s cool, rich, and creatively-vibrant culture becomes so awash with interlopers, gentrifying hipsters, and retiring baby boomers that the critical mass point is reached in redevelopment, rising rents, and real estate prices and the entire thing implodes, leaving in ruin the whole reason people desired to be in the area in the first place, and taking with it the inspiration that brews beneath the streets, the collaboration that is fostered in its venues and low rent space, and a magical time and place on the musical timeline falls victim to imported money and urban renewal, maybe to be harbored once again in another part of town or another town altogether, or maybe not.
Nashville—not Music Row Nashville—but the independent underbelly of Nashville and specifically the East Nashville portion of town, have been the rallying point for the current generation of vibrant country and Americana artists that make up the heart of what independent roots music has been all about for the last half decade to decade or so, but even going back to the 70’s when songwriters from Texas were moving to the city to be closer to artists who may cut their songs. East Nashville’s affordability gave artists the ability to be flexible with their income, allowed them to be able to only work part time, or dedicate themselves solely to their craft in a way that wouldn’t be possible amidst a higher cost of living. East Nashville was the creative generator of Music City, churning out songs that inspired the rest of the town, and the rest of the industry.
But all that might be changing, or has changed, depending on who you ask.
In late June Saving Country Music published an article entitled How Nashville’s Economic Boom Could Kill Its Creativity, later to be reposed by American Songwriter. In just the short two-month period that has since passed, as more and more development breaks ground and other massive building projects get announced, Music City may have finally reached the point of no return; at least that is what some of the artists are now saying.
On August 21st, performer and songwriter Caitlin Rose, daughter of well-known songwriter Liz Rose, went on a Twitter rant about what she sees currently going on in Nashville.
“Everyone can stop moving to Nashville now. We’re full. Thanks.” Caitlin said in part. “Did y’all hear they’re tearing down all of Nashville and putting one giant Margaritaville in its place? People come to Nashville for the music. They stay for the expensive chain restaurants and condo culture. They never leave… Everyone’s got dreams of making it in Music City, USA. Most of them don’t. Like barely any of them.”
This marrying of concerns about the percentage of independent businesses and the ability for young artists to make it in the city speaks to complexity of the gentrification issue. It’s not just the low rents, or even the concentration of creative types in a certain locale that sees the formation of a creative epicenter, it’s also the inspiration that can be drawn from cool old buildings, independently-owned business, mural art and graffiti, and a menagerie of other community elements that go into building a creative forward environment. “Just saw badass dude biking down Charlotte with a raccoon on his shoulder and a box full of blankets. Fuck new Nashville and condo culture,” Caitlin Rose tweeted out a few days later.
Justin Townes Earle, son of alt. country forefather Steve Earle, has been another vocal opponent of Nashville’s gentrification. Earle grew up in the city, and regularly takes to Twitter to complain about the bulldozing of landmarks, the building of condos, and the general scrubbing away of everything Music City is supposed to be about. Earle recently told American Songwriter, “Nashville is where I was born and raised, I never got away from the city, but the city is definitely not the city that I grew up in…It’s pretty crazy, people here think they live in New York. They live in Nashville, and it’s hard to swallow sometimes. I had a fucked up childhood so I lived in over 30 houses in the city, and I think that maybe two of them are still standing, and one of them is part of an apartment complex.“
Otis Gibbs is one of East Nashville’s most identifiable musician residents, and offers a slightly different perspective. His Thanks For Giving A Damn podcast regularly features friends and neighbors from his East Nashville haunt, and he likes to hoot and harp on the East Nashville way of living regularly on Twitter.
“Amy Lashley and I moved here seven years ago from Indianapolis, but the growth in East Nashville started long before we came along,” says Otis. “People like Chuck Mead, Skip Litz, Joe McMahan, Kevin Gordon, Sergio Webb, Mike Grimes and later Todd Snider were living here and touring the world twenty years ago, or more. Back before that people like Guy Clark, Marty Robbins, Roy Acuff, Grady Martin and a lot of others lived here. This has been a neighborhood full of creative people over the last few decades, but the national media is just now catching on.”
Otis shared a picture with Saving Country Music of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Susanna Clark on Guy Clark’s porch in East Nashville that speaks to the history of East Nashville as a bastion for creative types.
“Nashville is home to the best pickers in the world,” says Otis Gibbs. “It’s an embarrassment of riches and it’s easily my favorite part of living here. I played a venue in Zurich, Switzerland a couple of weeks ago and saw a poster advertizing my neighbor’s band. He owns the house next to mine and he’ll be playing that same club next month. The first time I ever met that same neighbor was when we both played a festival in Springfield, Illinois. He walked up to me back stage and said, “I think you live in the house next to mine.” That sort of thing happens all the time. I once learned who moved into the house down the street from me by reading his name on his road cases as he was moving in.”
Otis says home ownership for East Nashville’s musicians is one way to hold on to heart of what the community has become over the years.
“It’s always nice to see musicians in my neighborhood who own their homes. It’s cheaper than renting and if property values get as crazy around here as some people suspect, they’ll have something to show for it. I have friends in South Austin who bought their homes back in the day and have seen their homes quadruple in value.”
The problem is when those homes values increase, if the musicians aren’t already locked into ownership, they are locked out of the community in rising prices and rents, and that is the new dilemma arising for many of East Nashville’s musicians. One of the biggest points of contention in the community is the splitting of lots so that two new homes can be built on the same original lot. Along with the demolition of older apartment complexes, this has seen the inventory of older and cheaper housing in the city dry up, and with it, much of the original character of East Nashville neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods, including East Nashville’s Inglewood and Rosebank districts are looking to restructure zoning laws to help stem the tide of gentrification.
Still, growth and lot division is occurring because of the demand for more living space in East Nashville, and where there are losers, there’s winners as well. Craig Havighurst, a writer and the co-host of Music City Roots has a different take on condos and all of the commotion about Nashville growth.
Urban creative hives require urban scale and urban density, which is something I feel we’re only beginning to approach from South of Broadway all the way out to Green Hills. Two houses on one lot are a way to provide critical housing supply without sprawling. It might prove to be one of the best accidental policy ideas the city’s ever had. Because better to build in and up than out. Complaints that the houses are too large for their lots are entirely subjective and based on the look and feel of a kind of neighborhood that isn’t necessarily compatible with urban dynamism. The new people fill new restaurants and coffee shops, where those aspiring musicians find jobs while they develop. And a lot of those new arts and music professionals bought starter homes in Inglewood and Sylvan Park. We can empathize with folks who are seeing their rents rise and still acknowledge that for many, this was a good investment that will make their future more secure.
What everyone can agree on is that the cultural dynamic that exists in Nashville at the moment and has helped give rise to artists like Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Caitlin Rose, Justin Townes Earle, Cory Branan, Tristen, Lindi Ortega, many more countless names in the past, and who knows who in the future, is in every music fan’s interest in seeing preserved because of the musical riches it has afforded us for the last few years, and for decades before.
September 5, 2014 @ 9:20 am
One thing I’ve noticed it the cost of hotel rooms..they’ve doubled in places, even the cheap ones, in the past year…don’t think I’ll be able to afford to play there next year…
September 5, 2014 @ 9:40 am
Absolutely! It’s ridiculous! We are coming next month for the Jason Isbell shows at the Ryman and I could hardly believe the hotel prices–I’ve gotten cheaper rooms in New York City! As of now, we have a reservation in Brentwood and are hoping for a last-minute deal on Priceline.
September 5, 2014 @ 6:33 pm
Goodlettsville Comfort Inn 69 a night. More than 1 night they will give it to ya for 65 or even cheaper. 10 miles from downtown
September 6, 2014 @ 12:35 pm
I was in Nashville during the week of the CMAS and the Knights Inn was less than 90 a night. That’s the inflated rate for the week of festivities. Yeah, it’s your typical flea bag motel but for the touring-minded individuals you can’t afford luxury.
September 6, 2014 @ 11:38 pm
Jeb, have you looked into air b&b? It’s not only frequently a more affordable option, but it’s gained so much traction in the past year here that I’m surprised the hotels aren’t on a fire sale with room rates considering the hype. Don’t let obnoxious hotel prices discourage a fun time.
September 5, 2014 @ 10:58 am
My city, for the first time since before my parents were born, is growing and outsiders are streaming in. Its ghastly.
September 5, 2014 @ 11:33 am
I see this is SF constantly, especially in The Mission where hipster and startups wannabes think it is now cool to live. And what is even more disgusting is that Google and the like provide buses for these people to ease their commute and hardship, so you get to see these giant commute buses with Goggle on the side role through town. Meanwhile, the Hispanic and Latino community (what made the area cool to begin with) is being pushed out and onto the streets and let’s face it the only reason many of these low income families made it all was because of rent control but that could go away.
But what I find really appalling is that many of these transplants are just down right heartless saying things like, “If you can’t afford to live there then you shouldn’t be living be on your means. Suck it up and move on.” WTF? They could afford it before you asshats showed up. And how do expect a family of five or more to MOVE the family and the damn restaurant, there loyal client base in there not out in fucking Antioch where everyone goes to Taco Bell because that’s what they can afford. These are totally clueless as to the difference between living and a house and having a place you call home.
And now Oakland next door is seeing it too. SF was too expensive for the creative people that made the city so quirky and awesome so they moved to Oakland and now the startup hipsters think that’s a cool artist community to live and are driving up the prices there. You talk a lot about the monognere on here I am seeing the mergence of the evil and behemothic monoculture and I don’t like it.
In my hometown we have the same problem, they tore down a historic building because it wasn’t to code and were going to fix it. When we all saw the design plan it look like a fucking outdoor mall. It had no artistic or design elements that separated our town from the next one over. Of in a bit of irony I had my mother tell in a lack to total self-awareness that when they and their boomers moved here they raised the prices and pushed out all the local farmers to live in this safe and cool new town.
It is scary and sad and I am kind pissed that young people 25-35 think it isn’t their problem people are losing the culture and what they consider home. Luckily SF Chinatown is basically owned by the Chinese so that for now is safe.
Lastly I drove by the oracle offices the other day I swear to god it was like looking at sci-fi film of what Earth will look like in the next twenty years. And it remined me of this computer wallpaper I have. I think this picture is a pretty good look at the future and what I am seeing all around me.
http://s5.goodfon.su/wallpaper/previews-middle/66198.jpg
September 5, 2014 @ 11:57 am
Housing prices in the Bay Area are a whole different story altogether. None of the East Nashville prices are on the same level with even the poorest parts of the Bay Area.
September 5, 2014 @ 12:00 pm
Ultimately, I do not blame the gentrifiers themselves for making the cities unaffordable. I blame the lack of adequate rent control.
September 8, 2014 @ 12:14 am
Rent control does not cause new housing to be built that would increase the supply of housing to meet demand. Price controls result in shortages. It’s basic economics. Big government will not solve most of our problems.
September 8, 2014 @ 12:36 am
Rent control should apply to already existing housing units, so that the residents are not driven out by rising rents. Preventing landlords from increasing rents on existing units would actually stimulate the construction of new housing, due to the incentive of the landlords being able to charge higher rents on new units.
September 5, 2014 @ 12:01 pm
Good stuff.
I mentioned in the first article I did about this subject that the Haight Ashbury part of San Francisco and the affordable supply of big old Victorian houses was one of the primary factors in the emergence of psychedelic music. You had all those great bands living in one place affordably and they could collaborate with each other. Then when it got too expensive to live there, the music was shoved out of the city and scattered to the four winds. This could happen in Nashville, and in a matter of months, not years.
September 7, 2014 @ 12:23 pm
Good point about how it happened to the farmers years ago.
September 5, 2014 @ 12:45 pm
I remember reading a few years ago about an East Nashville apartment complex the singer songwriter residents named “Coolsville” back in the 1990’s. The writer doing the reminiscing was Americana artist Lonesome Bob Chaney and two of his fellow residents and close friends at the time were Allison Moorer (now Mrs. Steve Earle) and Tim Carroll (now Mr. Elizabeth Cook! lol). Its too bad to think cool, moderate rent apartment complexes like that are quickly becoming a thing of the past in East Nashville which has truly been a breeding ground of creative musical energy for decades.
I’m not familiar with the Nashville area, so I’m wondering if there are any relatively nearby small town, older suburb cities which still offer reasonable apartment rental rates that aspiring artists could gravitate towards? Hmmm….
September 5, 2014 @ 1:18 pm
I’ve never been to the Nashville area, but I have done some research on the place in the past.
Murfreesboro (about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, and home to Middle Tennessee State University) seems to already be an artistic magnet.
Gallatin (about 30 miles northeast of Nashville) may also become a magnet in the future, especially if Murfreesboro goes the way of East Nashville. However, I am not sure if Gallatin would fulfill many artists’ desire for a relatively densely populated setting with a high concentration of cultural amenities.
September 5, 2014 @ 2:03 pm
Maybe some music or other organization with big money could provide lower rent housing, rent or house payment assistance funds to verified working artists in need. A big lower cost parcel of land outside the city or county might be the most cost-effective to build such a place. Maybe this is something that could be done with RCA Studio A or turn it into a business incubator of sorts for artists, or with old apartment buildings.
September 5, 2014 @ 3:23 pm
Same thing here in Portland. I think it’s just everywhere now.
I live in a rent controlled apartment in an area that used to be ALL artists and musicians – AND all music venues and galleries. There’s still a few galleries left, but NO – as in ZERO – music venues left in this area. It’s all become condos and yuppie-boomers. The music venues have been replaced with cafes and restaurants that no musician around here could ever DREAM of affording. I’ve only been here 7 years, and have seen HUGE change in that amount of time – but the stories I hear from people who have been here 20 years are amazing. Hell, even when I moved here 7 years ago, there were still 5 major music venues within a few blocks of here – now none. Everyone you ran into was an artist, musician, or worked in one of the galleries or venues – now it’s a seriously thinning herd.
And, it’s of course not just this music/art area that’s affected – that’s just what I see every day. Across the river they’re getting rid of all the poor people, black people, anyone who can’t afford $9 ice cream cones, and replacing them with white rich people. Small, affordable markets are being replaced by New Seasons Markets…
I’ve never been a fan of Nashville, but love the people of EAST Nashville – shit crazy over there. I have a lot of friends there and have has some great times. Portland has a lot of similar areas scattered around where creativity is just IN YOUR FACE 24 hours a day – it’s great – but it’s dying quickly. Rumors run through this building all the time about some big assholes trying to buy it and turn it into condos. When that happens – I’ll have to move 5-10 out of the city to find something this affordable – and it ain’t cheap as it is!
September 5, 2014 @ 11:16 pm
Gentrification is about class, not race. There are also poor white people in East Portland being replaced by rich people of all races.
September 6, 2014 @ 7:15 am
Same scenario here in the Vancouver area, Sam . Unaffordable place to live anymore . Foreign money has driven real estate prices through the roof ( no pun intended ) . I live about 30 miles south and the value of the house I live in ( a small two bdrm bungalow ) has increased from 200,000 to nearly 800,000 in about 12 years FOR THE PROPERTY ALONE . Unfortunately I rent . They displaced low income residents in Vancouver several years back to make way for the 2010 winter Olympics ( facilities , rental units , athletes village etc.. ) .
There are tons of bands/artists but very very few , if any , affordable hubs of creativity -areas where artists can hang out and share common passions /ideas etc..and even fewer live music gigs . Yes you can still play music in places but you won’t be paid any more than a meal and gas money if you’re lucky . Very sad after being a part of such an thriving music scene for several decades or more . Many of the big studios are quiet ….MUSHROOM sound , a mainstay since the 60’s where Bon Jovi , AC-DC , Brian Adams , and tons of other great acts recorded , shut its doors a few years back and moved operations to Toronto . THAT was a heart-breaker . ” The times they are a changin’ “
September 11, 2014 @ 4:16 pm
Not everywhere – just places with a healthy economy. Come to the rust belt. Plenty of urban decay and cheap real estate here! Historic house, three bedrooms, goes for less than 80,000 on my block.
September 5, 2014 @ 5:07 pm
Caitlin’s comments are interesting, especially considering most of the artists mentioned at the end of this article (including herself) are not Nashville born/natives.
Pretty disheartening and grim commentary to a guy from Delaware who is an aspiring sideman, has some friends in the Nashville (and Broadway) scene, and overall just loves the city and plans to move there.
September 6, 2014 @ 11:43 pm
Whether or not you’re born somewhere doesn’t make it your home and Nashville especially has always had a gravitational pull for outsiders. I personally know a handful of people born here, but we moved to Nashville in 1993. I was 7 or 8 years old. This is where I was raised and where I plan to stay so I’m in the same boat with anybody who loves this town for what it really is and not the lifestyle branding message that’s being shot all over the country to draw people in on a “hot spot” tagline.
September 5, 2014 @ 5:34 pm
Caitlin Rose’s mouth disgusts me .
September 5, 2014 @ 6:35 pm
I think her mouth is pretty cute!
September 5, 2014 @ 8:03 pm
First off, I’m not sure you want to blame her “mouth” since she typed her words, but whatever. She felt passionate about what she saw as the destruction of a city she loves, and spoke out.
September 6, 2014 @ 7:00 am
Yeah … I hear ya Trigger. I just kept thinking about a young Loretta Lynn or Dolly or Patty Loveless speaking like that in a public forum while trying to establish themselves in the biz . Kinda hard for an old school guy to grasp from that perspective.
September 7, 2015 @ 7:29 am
An old school guy in a discussion about musicians losing their roots and artistic foundations and he’s talking about someone’s mouth.
September 6, 2014 @ 2:57 pm
Pretty sure Loretta Lynn was way more outspoken than that in her day. Can definitely see her using the same colorful language as Ms Rose if she had been born in the same generation.
September 7, 2014 @ 12:28 pm
(Off-topic—Ms Lynn is apparently more culturally conservative than her songs would make her appear, but I myself can see how she could champion things such as birth control and double standards on a personal level but still be a basically conservative person. She has said that she’s not a big women’s libber, and records show her few known political contributions to be to Republicans).
September 8, 2014 @ 12:05 am
I think that Loretta Lynn may have been somewhat socially liberal by the standards of the 60s and early 70s, but not by today’s standards.
September 6, 2014 @ 2:53 am
I’ve considered moving to Nashville for years, but I’m starting to think maybe it was good I didn’t, the way things are going it’s reminding me a lot of LA.
September 6, 2014 @ 4:06 am
I think if everyone they holds on for a few more months, they won’t have to worry about rising home prices. The national housing market is built on shifting sands, unsustainably low interest rates, fake money, boom-time jobs, etc. and is due for a massive, massive correction. Ditto the stock market. Of course, when this does happen, a lot of people won’t have the jobs to afford the houses, but the price on the houses will be cheaper.
September 6, 2014 @ 10:04 am
As for the scenario you describe: been there, done that.
Although the regulations on the banking sector are still weak, they are likely strong enough to prevent another recession like the one that happened in 2008. As for the jobs, it is highly unlikely that the ones created since the recession will vanish, since most of them are low-paying, part-time, non-unionized retail and fast food jobs anyway.
My greatest worry about the economy is not that we are heading toward another recession, but that we have permanently become a two-tiered economy with the middle-class fading (due to the disappearance of manufacturing, construction, and other decent-salaried unionized jobs) and splintering into the working poor (primarily employed in low-wage service jobs such as retail and fast food) and the managerial/professional upper middle class (centered around high-tech, finance, etc.).
In fact, I think that this growing inequality and the decreasing size of the middle class can explain why cities are increasingly transforming in a whiplash manner between poor-dominated and wealthy-dominated. The middle-class just does not exist in large enough numbers in urban areas.
September 6, 2014 @ 5:25 am
Time devours all things, so passes the glory of the world…
September 6, 2014 @ 9:21 am
I wonder if this will drive independents artists out of Nashville and into other cities. I don’t think country artists would move since all of the country labels are in Nashville.
I could see the Americana, indie and rock scenes moving someplace more affordable though. Forbes just named Knoxville as one of the U.S.’s most affordable cities and they already have a good music scene. It’s been called Austin without the hype. Maybe Americana artists will start moving there.
I could totally see Memphis drawing in the rock crowd. The city already has such a rich blues and rock history it only seems natural. I can picture a bunch of Black Keys type bands moving there and developing a scene. Memphis is a very inexpensive place to live.
I actually am really hoping this does draw some artists out of Nashville and into Memphis. Not that I’m against Nashville, but Middle Tennessee has had so much great growth over the past 10 years and Memphis seems to always get ignored. This could be a nice boost for Memphis’s economy and image. I think it would be really cool if some good stuff starts happening in Memphis again.
September 7, 2014 @ 11:15 am
Memphis? No, no, no. Everyone should come east, to Johnson City. Cheep Rents, a cool music spot (the Down Home), and a half hour drive to Asheville, NC, which has a huge music scene.
🙂
September 7, 2014 @ 11:29 am
“I actually am really hoping this does draw some artists out of Nashville and into Memphis. Not that I”™m against Nashville, but Middle Tennessee has had so much great growth over the past 10 years and Memphis seems to always get ignored. This could be a nice boost for Memphis”™s economy and image. I think it would be really cool if some good stuff starts happening in Memphis again.”
Given the experience of East Nashville, this Daughtry quote seems quite appropriate here:
“Be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it all, then some you don’t want”
September 7, 2014 @ 12:51 pm
Absolutely true, Eric. I don’t want the exact the that happened to East Nashville to happen to Memphis but I would love for the city to regain some of it’s reputation as a destination for musicians and a place of great music.
Also, a bit off topic, but has anybody else noticed that Bowling Green, KY is developing a pretty fair alternative scene? Cage the Elephant, Morning Teleportation and Sleeper Agent all came out of there and have released well received albums in the past 5 or so years. Cage the Elephant in particular has become pretty popular. All of these bands signed record deals around ’07-’08. Is it possible that some alternative artists are choosing Bowling Green over Nashville for cost reasons?
September 7, 2014 @ 11:02 am
In Nashville, I see wealth drowning out culture.
The two are not the same, notwithstanding Belle Meade’s notions to the contrary.
Nashville isn’t New York and Vandy isn’t Harvard.
From my perspective, what culture it had was in the downtown and east parts of town, not the guilded suburbs and countless neighboring municipalities.
I live across the street from the Tn River in Knoxville and commute 3 – 4 miles.
I would dread the notion of being a functionary or drone in those big glass Nashville office buildings (e.g. an associate in a mega Nashville law firms).
It is sad to see the east side of town being gentrified, bulldozed and rebuilt, and I like the way that Caitlin has articulated the reality of what is going on.
I have to spend 4 – 5 days in downtown Nashville at a convention and the only parts of Nashville which interest me are the Ernest Tubb Record Store (Lower Broadway location) and Grimey’s Record Store (on 8th Avenue).
September 8, 2014 @ 6:10 am
It’s simple.
If someone can make money doing something, nothing else matters. It’ll get done.
That includes everything you can think of, including destroying the character of East Nashville.
There is no respect, concern, or interest in culture, art, people, places, the only thing that makes things happen is getting more money.
Everything is a product.
after Katrina
“Now a study from University of Minnesota geographer Kate Derickson shows that the storm was not the only thing that wiped away neighborhoods. In Mississippi, the storm provided an opportunity for city officials to reclaim entire neighbourhoods”“mostly predominantly poor, black ones”“in the name of “revitalization” and “opportunity.”
http://urbanful.org/2014/08/21/katrinas-destructive-effects-led-gentrification/
Look at things this way, and you have explanations for most things that happen or don’t happen.
From what happens in your neighbourhood, to the war in Iraq.
Good article thanks.
September 9, 2014 @ 10:19 am
I understand that the “loss of the way things were” and that things changing and getting more expensive/exclusive, etc. can be frustrating. However, those are the signs of a vibrant and growing city which is what should be wanted. Here is a solution for those that don’t like it…If you want a city with a rich musical heritage that has the complete opposite situation as Nashville, with falling property values and people leaving in droves…move to Detroit!
September 7, 2015 @ 7:45 am
It’s not a sign of a growing and vibrant city, because once you look at the foreclosures which are more than the houses for sale you realize it’s more like a gimmick. There are only so many Nissan Factories in Cool springs. Where does the money come from? Are you serious about some of these houses selling for a quarter of a million dollars? They look like a refurbished ex con’s house. There are 459 pre foreclosures, and 158 foreclosures when the houses for sale equal 359. Vital and Growing indeed.
February 24, 2017 @ 4:46 pm
This is what happens when you think growth is great and it wipes out the reason you wanted to come here in the first place. Why did you move here? Cheap taxes? Cheap land? The southern culture of Nashville? You think Nashville is some hipster haven? Well you can kiss all that goodbye. To say East Nashville leans to the liberal side is an understatement. An ideology that touts “caring for equality, racial harmony”, etc. Those awesome hipster neighborhoods you love so much have destroyed a ton of long time colored residents homes….all for the sake of your vision of “togetherness” and comfort. A community based on harmony right? Only a certain type of harmony….the gaudiness and disgusting transformation of that area should be a slight concern. You turned it into the thing you claim to hate. Lol its the most capitalist project ever. No matter though..the damage has been done. But make no mistake, the outlying cities have seen enough of what has been done to Nashville and want zero to do with it. Caitlin Rose is exactly right….you can quit moving here now.
November 23, 2018 @ 6:15 am
Good Article, Thank You.