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How is Atlanta not leading the poll. It blows Nashville, Austin, and Phoenix out the water in every category.
Atlanta's in the midst of a big demographic change.
We left an Atlanta suburb countywhere there was white flight--replaced by blacks, Koreans and especially Hispanics. The county's had a change of 300,000+ people.
The entire Northern Perimeter of Atlanta has had a change of parties in voting.
We loved Atlanta, but the traffic was debilitating. We do keep a place in the mountains 90 miles north.
I honestly don't know where Nashville's going to get high techies to work at Oracle and Amazon. The people are going to be moving in.
And Amazon has really been tightening their belts lately--closing warehouses and facilities. Are they still going to be putting 4,000 new employees in the "city" being built and still pay them $150K per year?
Home prices in Nashville are about 2x what they should be. We considered moving there 2 years ago, but the place is simply unaffordable for us retirees. Homes in Williamson County have a median price of about $1 million.
The home sales in Nashville were down 27% last month, and the market is cooling drastically. Only time tells whether people can move there making normal salaries.
I think Nashville will get the tech folks by many folks moving there. Just like Austin, Raleigh, Atlanta and many other cities have become a draw for tech folks, due to abundant jobs.
This is what is helping fuel the downtown Nashville residential high rise and skyscraper boom. The city's tallest building is going to be all residential, under construction currently, headed up to 60 stories.
There are many other high rise towers that are all residential going up downtown and midtown Nashville.
But, I do agree that Nashville--and Tennessee as a whole--has seen its real estate prices skyrocket to unaffordable amounts in many areas, over the past several years. I read an article and saw a Youtube video recently, that said Tennessee is a state that is still rising with its real estate prices in 2023, but could come crashing down in 2024.
Atlanta's in the midst of a big demographic change.
We left an Atlanta suburb countywhere there was white flight--replaced by blacks, Koreans and especially Hispanics. The county's had a change of 300,000+ people.
The entire Northern Perimeter of Atlanta has had a change of parties in voting.
We loved Atlanta, but the traffic was debilitating. We do keep a place in the mountains 90 miles north.
If you're talking about Gwinnett County, it's not really white flight, just an influx of immigration population. In the early 90s, it used to be a county of 350,000 with 250,000 Whites. Now it's a county of 1 million with around 310,000 Whites (White population around the same) but the Asian/Hispanic/Black population boomed.
*Best economy in 2023: Austin
*Best dense building development downtown: Nashville
*Best infill development in the city limits: Atlanta
*Best neighborhoods: Nashville
*Best infrastructure growth: Phoenix
*Best future outlook in terms of livability: Raleigh
*Smartest growth (sprawl limitations, public transportation, density infill growth): Salt Lake City
*Best economy in 2023: Austin
*Best dense building development downtown: Nashville
*Best infill development in the city limits: Atlanta
*Best neighborhoods: Nashville
*Best infrastructure growth: Phoenix
*Best future outlook in terms of livability: Raleigh
*Smartest growth (sprawl limitations, public transportation, density infill growth): Salt Lake City
I voted for Nashville overall.
Nashville does not beat Austin for dense development building downtown. Nashville does not beat Atlanta for best neighborhoods.
*Best economy in 2023: Austin
*Best dense building development downtown: Nashville
*Best infill development in the city limits: Atlanta
*Best neighborhoods: Nashville
*Best infrastructure growth: Phoenix
*Best future outlook in terms of livability: Raleigh
*Smartest growth (sprawl limitations, public transportation, density infill growth): Salt Lake City
I voted for Nashville overall.
Good picks! Here's my take--
*Best dense building development downtown:
Austin first, followed by Nashville second.
*Best infill development in the city limits:
Austin (all over the city limits, it is getting much more dense, with lots of infill and adaptive reusage/new developments), Nashville (the infill is just jaw dropping with the Gulch, downtown, Sobro, Pietown and midtown, more areas too), then Atlanta (downtown has been slow to grow. But big things should happen in the next decade)
*Best neighborhoods:
Atlanta, Nashville, Austin
*Best infrastructure growth:
Phoenix has a good and growing rail system, a great airport and their interstate highway system is impressive and expanding well. I'd rank Salt Lake City second here. And third, I'd go with Austin barely over Nashville, due to Austin's rail implementation. Atlanta gets a lower ranking just due to their rejection of rail and focus on automobile transportation.
*Best future outlook in terms of livability:
Raleigh is first, Nashville second, Atlanta third, Austin fourth
*Smartest growth (sprawl limitations, public transportation, density infill growth):
Salt Lake City first, followed by Phoenix, although sprawl is bad there, but their rail gets big points, encouraging density
How is Atlanta not leading the poll. It blows Nashville, Austin, and Phoenix out the water in every category.
The OP even specifies that the time horizon for growth could be decades.
Atlanta only, at the same time, completed perhaps the two most ambitious infrastructure projects in the history of the southern United States at the end of the 1970's.
I guess that's just nothing compared to Nashville's sidewalk and intersection improvements, in the minds of some.
Lots of data out there that suggests Nashville+Austin still doesn't equal one Atlanta.
In the last decade, I'd say Phoenix has done the most to shed the image of "state capital" and embrace being a major metro. Atlanta did this 50 years ago, and the other poll choices have yet to do this.
*Best dense building development downtown:
Austin first, followed by Nashville second.
*Best infill development in the city limits:
Austin (all over the city limits, it is getting much more dense, with lots of infill and adaptive reusage/new developments), Nashville (the infill is just jaw dropping with the Gulch, downtown, Sobro, Pietown and midtown, more areas too), then Atlanta (downtown has been slow to grow. But big things should happen in the next decade)
*Best neighborhoods:
Atlanta, Nashville, Austin
*Best infrastructure growth:
Phoenix has a good and growing rail system, a great airport and their interstate highway system is impressive and expanding well. I'd rank Salt Lake City second here. And third, I'd go with Austin barely over Nashville, due to Austin's rail implementation. Atlanta gets a lower ranking just due to their rejection of rail and focus on automobile transportation.
*Best future outlook in terms of livability:
Raleigh is first, Nashville second, Atlanta third, Austin fourth
*Smartest growth (sprawl limitations, public transportation, density infill growth):
Salt Lake City first, followed by Phoenix, although sprawl is bad there, but their rail gets big points, encouraging density
Dense urban development I gave to Nashville based on current structural density and number of projects, which was more according to the bizjournal's crane watch. It is more structurally dense in the core than Austin, especially if you include the Gulch. If you are referring to height and size (sq. ft.) of the projects then it is Austin. Nashville lacks height overall. Atlanta's downtown is not very good compared to the others, but makes up for it with Midtown.
It was almost a tie for best neighborhoods between Nashville, Atlanta, and Austin. I voted for Nashville based on The Gulch (current and future developments are astonishing). Atlanta and Austin don't have an all LEED certified urban neighborhood. Austin has Mueller, but it is not downtown and more suburban in character. I also like Nashville's West End Ave/Midtown with its fabric of historic neighborhoods, Vandy, Belmont, Hillsboro Village, Music Row which Austin does not really have. Midtown Atlanta beats both Nashville and Austin with its dense commercial/office space and transit options. Neither Atlanta or Austin have anything like Broadway (which may be a good thing...it really has gotten out of control with the party rides, drunks, and pickpockets).
I voted for Atlanta for best infill due to sheer volume and cool use of spaces across the city and even ring suburbs. Not really downtown, but Old 4th ward is really changing. MLK blvd radiating out from Mercedes Benz stadium. Downtown West and even the city of College Park are transforming. I wish Nashville would focus on threading its HBCUs into the the activity zones. They seem to be more isolated.
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