What about Neighborhoods in Nashville? (Franklin, Germantown: 2009, crime rates, daycare)

[Gettingaway]

We will be moving to Nashville in 2009 hopefully. Are there any good public Montessori schools in the city of Nashville or surrounding areas? Also, I hear a lot about moving to Franklin or Brentwood, but what about areas in Nashville. What areas or neighborhoods in Nashville do you recommend? I am from Milwaukee, WI and I am sure Nashville is much safer than Milwaukee. I would prefer to live in Nashville instead of the surrounding cities. What is the Nashville school district like?

[hml1976]

Actually this site ranks Nashville as more dangerous.
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I would never classify Nashville as a safe city. It may look safer than many places but we have serious crime here in certain neighborhoods.

As for public Montessori schools...not that I know of but there could be. My preschooler attends Montessori school in Franklin and the tuition is reasonable.

Unfortunately Davidson county schools are mostly awful. There are a few good elementary schools but in general they're terrible.

I understand wanting to live in the city. We lived in Green Hills when we first moved to Nashville and love Belmont and Germantown but we found the price of private school prohibitive and the city neighborhoods not very walkable so we moved to Williamson county and love it out here. Unfortunately we're moving to Portland but we've enjoyed our time here.

[scottv]

Have you visited Nashville yet? I've heard Milwaukee is a pretty cool town...you might want to investigate Nashville a little further to make sure you'll be happy here. I would not consider Nashville super safe-Brentwood, yes, Nashville NO.

[Gettingaway]

Thanks for the information. I have been to Nashville 4 times. The last time I was there was 2006.

[denawilliams]

Safe is a relative term. It is like any decent sized city...yes, crime exists in some areas. To some there may seem to be some areas that have a lot less crime than others. So your feedback will depend on where someone spends most of their time and their own opinion. Your best bet is to check out crime statistics for yourself to make a determination of safety for you. Here are a few sites that might help you.
www.crimeweb.net
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/
www.registeredoffenderlist.org
www.tbi.state.tn.us
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bis/ (broken link)
www.police.nashville.org/default.htm

If you are looking at suburbs, you can definitely call the local police department or visit that city's site to get the latest information for that area.

To learn more about the school systems, here are a few more sites to research:
www.greatschools.net
www.schoolmatters.com
http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/weblinks/schoolurls.htm
http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/weblinks...edistricts.asp

If you're looking at Nashville city schools, you'll be looking at Davidson County. A few other counties that neighbor Davidson County are: Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Cheatham, and Sumner, for example.

[Carol McCullough]

Glad you asked! Go ahead and get that cup of coffee or take that bathroom break, because this is going to be a long entry.

If you are working a normal 9-5 in Nashville, then I would definitely recommend that you live in the city. I VERY occasionally have to commute to the suburbs for my work during evening rush hour and find traffic is getting increasingly worse here. It’s not to Chicago proportions, by any stretch, but it is still a pain. My commute to my Germantown office from my East Nashville home is 3-5 minutes. LOVE IT.

Here are some areas (in no particular order—and I’m sure that I left several out) that I believe are about as safe as one would expect urban neighborhoods to be (and the house prices tend to reflect that):
12 South http://www.12south.org/
Woodland-in-Waverly http://www.nashvilleneighborhood.com/
Inglewood http://www.inglewoodrna.org/
Historic Germantown http://www.historicgermantown.org/site/
Hillsboro-West End http://www.hwen.org/
Richland-West End http://www.rwena.org/
West End Park http://www.westendpark.org/
Sylvan Park http://sylvanpark.blogspot.com/
Sylvan Heights http://www.sylvanheights.org/
Belle Meade Links http://www.nashville.gov/mhc/mhzc_districts_belle_meade.htm
Belmont-Hillsboro http://www.belmont-hillsboro.org/


Here are some areas that are in the earlier stages of gentrification—they have higher, but steadily decreasing crime rates and boast wonderful historic homes:

East Nashville (I think this article sums it up well: http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Special_Issues/Best_of_Nashville/2005/10/27/Best_of_Nashville_The_Near_Eas/index.shtml (broken link))
Also see http://www.rediscovereast.org/ and http://groups.google.com/group/East-Nashville
East Nashville covers a broad area and varies widely with some streets that are fully gentrified and others that are still quite dicey. As I said, I live here and I love it. It isn’t for everyone, though. Your post mentioned crime. If crime stresses you out, you should probably look elsewhere. Since I’m a neighborhood organizer, it’s my job to help neighborhoods reduce crime, so I’m working on it. Check back in 5-7 years.

East Nashville neighborhoods include the higher priced areas like
Lockeland Springs http://www.lockelandsprings.org/
Historic East End http://www.eastendnashville.org/
Eastwood Neighbors http://www.eastwoodneighbors.org/
Historic Edgefield http://www.historicedgefield.org/
and Maxwell Neighbors http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_czg4r4. Street level drug dealing is not as common in these neighborhoods as in some of the others. Some of them are, however, adjacent/nearby to an area that has significant problems: CaseyHomes off of Shelby Avenue.

Some other neighborhoods in East Nashville (such as South Inglewood, Cleveland Park http://www.cpnanashville.org/, McFerrin Park, Greenwood, Renraw http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/nashville/renraw/history.html, East Hill and Shelby Hills) are less expensive but have more problems with street level drug dealing (and sometimes the violence that tends to accompany it). This activity, varies block by block, however, so that you can find a fabulous home on a quiet street for a pretty good price if you do your research (meaning talk to the locals—a lot). I live in Cleveland Park. There are threads here about it: http://www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...d-park-tn.html and http://www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...-gallatin.html

Other early gentrification areas (not in East Nashville) include:
Salemtown in North Nashville http://www.salemtown.org/ ; http://enclave-nashville.blogspot.com/
Chestnut Hill (formerly Cameron Trimble) close to downtown in the Southeast http://www.civicdesigncenter.org/cameron-trimble.html
Wedgewood-Houston close to downtown in the Southeast http://www.wedgewoodhouston.org/home
Glencliff, Radnor and Woodbine Neighborhoods in South Nashville http://flatrockheritagefdn.org/
Edgehill near Vanderbilt http://www.civicdesigncenter.org/edgehill.html

That should keep you busy for a while. Please remember that this is not an exhaustive list, just groups that I am familiar with and areas that I find appealing for one reason or another. Take a look and feel free to ask more questions.

The one thing all of these neighborhoods have in common: an active neighborhood association. That is one of the best indicators for future increases in property values for urban neighborhoods.

Cheers!
Carol

P.S. I have very little confidence in the Davidson County Public School System. That said, the school system is going to be just like neighborhoods--there are gems out there just waiting to be found. I just don't have the energy.

When my son is of school age, he will likely be going to East Academy http://www.eastacademy.org/. Their tuition is significantly cheaper than our current cost for daycare, so we can probably swing it. Nashville has MANY private Montessori Schools. The Nashville Parent http://www.nashvilleparent.com/ often has information about them. Good luck!

[kcnative]

nice post, carol...

[kpellatiro]

Second that - thank you Carol.

[mxj1614]

As far as Nashville areas, I would recommend Green Hills, Belle Meade, West Meade and West End. These parts of Nashville are more established and have character along with being close to everything. Don't be fooled by the appeal of Brentwood. I grew up there and it is not the same today as it was then. Brentwood is now very nouveau riche with McMansions showing up on every corner. Most people in Brentwood seem to be stuck in a bubble and never venture outside of it to experience all that Nashville offers. Nashville has some great private schools but the public schools are very questionable. Some of the public schools in West Nashville are decent but can't say much for the others. If you want to be around more culture and diversity, live in Nashville, not Brentwood.

[hml1976]

Ha! Our Brentwood neighborhood is way more diverse than the neighborhood we lived in in Green Hills. I always get a kick out of people from downtown talking about how diverse their neighborhoods are and then paying a fortune to send their kids to all white upper class private schools!

We spend loads of time in Nashville but some of us appreciate decent public schools, less traffic and beautiful scenery. If you didn't grow up in the nashville area its hard to live in Green Hills or (save me!) Belle Meade because everyone there went to highschool with each other. I think you have to bleed blue to even set foot in Belle Meade.