Nashville VS Memphis (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Clarksville: house, professionals, shops)

[Legacy1230]

Although this is a fairly old thread, I feel compelled to respond since I am thoroughly familiar with every area being mentioned here, having been born and raised in Tennessee; spending much time in Memphis since early childhood and into middle-age, and working there as a professional involved in community affairs until 2002; thoroughly familiar with Nashville and it's surrounding counties; and thoroughly familiar with the Hermitage and Mount Juliet areas of Wilson County, having lived in what was and still is probably the most "upscale" neighborhood in Mount Juliet.

Last Memorial Day weekend, I biked from Hermitage to the riverfront in downtown Nashville and back. I know the whole area like the back of my hand.

First of all, there is nothing upscale about the Mount Juliet-Hermitage area in comparison with many other areas in and surrounding Nashville. It is about as middle class as you can get with the exception of just a couple of neighborhoods, which might be considered upper middle class.

I'm not even going to get into a point-by-point comparison between Nashville and Memphis. The initial post regarding this comparision is so horrendously inaccurate that it would take way to much time to rebutt.

I was doing some marketing research on Google when I ran across this thread and was pretty well horrified at how ridiculously inaccurate the comparisions were. I felt compelled to warn anyone who may even remotely consider the accuracy of the initial post to simply disregard it and this thread altogether and start over with their research. The water is simply too muddy here to get a meaningful idea of how one city compares with the other.

[Legacy1230]

(Sorry folks, I'd jumped from Google to straight to this post and thought it was the initial post in response to the question about Nashville and Memphis. This is the post I was referring to.


From Willdgate on 1/10/09.

I'm from Memphis, but currently live in the Nashville area, Hermitage.
Pros for Memphis:
Better downtown
a bigger city
developing city
a variety of public schools in Memphis and Shelby county areas
Cons for Memphis:
Bad crime everywhere, you can probably get away with less crime in Arlington or lakeland, tn, but those upscale neigborhoods are expensive to live in, but if you have it I would live there
the people are "wierd and nosey", they kept asking me and my boyfriend at the time were we sibling, also, some memphians are "rough and crazed".
Pros for nashville:
"less crime", but some areas do have a lot of crime at times
Cons for nashville:
A non-developing small city
boring
country, lack of diversity, surrounded by small towns and not upscale neighborhoods
except for Mt. Juliet
boring city for families nothing for kids to do here
few selections for public schools in nashville, that "may" be considered descent

[VolDude]

Originally Posted by CMartel2

As for music, truthfully, the Nashville music scene is much more alive than in Memphis. Beale Street is a bit overrated in my book. But you've got all kinds of local talent in Nashville in a wide variety of genres. There's a cultural richness to Nashville that was once present in Memphis. I just don't see it anymore.

I disgree. So much about the Nashville music scene is still about glorified karaoke singers who cound't write a song if they had a gun to their head. I will agree that there has been a great influx on many different genres into Nashville, like the Raconteurs for example, but still the majority of those performing in Nashville are singers who get up there and sing covers or artists who sings songs written by someone else. In Memphis there are a lot of blues of course and garage bands, but not as many "performers."

And don't even get me started on that alley in downtown Nashville that houses only karaoke joints. Barf.

[VolDude]

Originally Posted by Pimpy

- I don't see how you can conclusively state that Memphis's downtown is better than Nashville's. It is infested with bums and nightlife there pretty much doesn't exist outside of Beale St.

It's easy. Any moderately enlightened person would prefer visiting establishments on Beale, eating some of the best BBQ and listening to some of the best blues in America over a night on 2nd Ave listening to some chick from who thinks she deserves a record contract sing a Patty Loveless song, badly.

I don't live my life worried about random crime, so can't really relate to someone worried about being mugged or attacked. If Beale St were that bad, it wouldn't exist as it does today.

[scottv]

Originally Posted by Elrod

I always think of the Stack O Lee song (shot a man over a $10 Stetson hat back in 1900) when I think of what Memphis was like back in the old days. Seems not much has changed...

Now it should be "shot a man over a $100 pair of Jordans"

I do have to agree though-I like the Memphis downtown better than Nashville-talk about bums, you haven't seen homeless people until you've been to Nashville. But Memphis is way ahead of the curve as far as taking advantage of the river-Nashville will get there at some point hopefully-a downtown ballpark would have been great-Redbirds stadium led the recent change to downtown Memphis and I think it would have done great things for downtown Nashville as well. Maybe someday

[kingchef]

Originally Posted by scottv

Now it should be "shot a man over a $100 pair of Jordans"

I do have to agree though-I like the Memphis downtown better than Nashville-talk about bums, you haven't seen homeless people until you've been to Nashville. But Memphis is way ahead of the curve as far as taking advantage of the river-Nashville will get there at some point hopefully-a downtown ballpark would have been great-Redbirds stadium led the recent change to downtown Memphis and I think it would have done great things for downtown Nashville as well. Maybe someday

comparing nashville's downtown to memphis' downtown is similar to comparing madison to franklin, or nashville to red boiling springs. there really is little comparison. memphis is a very large urban center w/ a very defined urban core: nashville is more like the rural town square with some other rural towns around it. it just has no real urban feel, and it physically does not hold a candle to memphis. nashville does stack up pretty well to chattanooga and knoxville---and, they are both in east tn, and, that is a good thing!

[Tunky]

will this thread ever die?

[vivelafrance]

Originally Posted by kingchef

comparing nashville's downtown to memphis' downtown is similar to comparing madison to franklin, or nashville to red boiling springs. there really is little comparison. memphis is a very large urban center w/ a very defined urban core: nashville is more like the rural town square with some other rural towns around it. it just has no real urban feel, and it physically does not hold a candle to memphis. nashville does stack up pretty well to chattanooga and knoxville---and, they are both in east tn, and, that is a good thing!

Personally, I think Chattanooga has the best downtown in the state. It's very clean, pretty safe, and LOADED with things to do.

[VolDude]

Chattanooga is the best downtown for those with families. I'd take Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and even Johnson City in terms for nightlife for single professionals. Heck, I'd bet Cookeville, Crossville, Clarksville, and Murfreesboro are less tame.

[jabogitlu]

Dunno about Crossville mate, it's pretty dull.

Gotta rep Johnson City though.