Moving to Nashville (Clarksville, Hendersonville, Germantown: cul-de-sac, transplants, apartments)

[princeton187]

Hello,
My family and I will be moving from NY to Nashville later this year. We are looking for a place to rent somewhere between Clarksville (my place of employment) and Nashville downtown (spouse's place of employment). We have a young child and are really concerned for safety. I am open to nearly an hour of commute to work. What we are looking for is a townhouse within walkable distance to either publix or whole foods. Safety is a major concern. We found a couple of apartments that we liked in apartmentguide, but some of them have really bad reviews in apartmentrating. Would anyone here have any suggestions?

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by princeton187

Hello,
My family and I will be moving from NY to Nashville later this year. We are looking for a place to rent somewhere between Clarksville (my place of employment) and Nashville downtown (spouse's place of employment). We have a young child and are really concerned for safety. I am open to nearly an hour of commute to work. What we are looking for is a townhouse within walkable distance to either publix or whole foods. Safety is a major concern. We found a couple of apartments that we liked in apartmentguide, but some of them have really bad reviews in apartmentrating. Would anyone here have any suggestions?

What kind of budget are you thinking of?


Also, Nashville, in general, isn't a terribly walkable place. Things are going to be a lot more spread out than you are used to. Being able to walk to the grocery store will definitely limit your options. I hate to say it, but you're probably going to have to just get used to driving everywhere.

There isn't a lot of development between Clarksville and Nashville. Really, the only towns along the way (about halfway in between) are Pleasant View and Coopertown. Neither is going to have much in the way of apartments, but it's a safe area. That would be your best bet from a logistical standpoint (if you live in either Nashville or Clarksville, one of you is going to have a 45 min-1 hour commute -- this would effectively split the difference).

As far as being close to amenities, your best bet will be in Nashville. There are several Publix spread around the area, but only two Whole Foods that I know of (Cool Springs and Green Hills). Cool Springs is a very nice and safe area...but it would be a hellish commute to Clarksville (probably adding at least 20-30 minutes). Green Hills is the upscale retail section of Nashville. You'll find more of the high end retail chains as well as high end local places. It's a bit more compact and crowded than a lot of areas of Nashville, but still not really "walkable" to amenities (you can try, though). The main drawback to Green Hills (besides traffic) will be higher prices for what you get. Again, you'll have to give us an idea of what your budget would be in order to tell you if this would be the right neighborhood.

I don't know much about Clarksville neighborhoods. Something close to the interstate (like Sango) might work...but you'll still be a good drive to the larger range of amenities and entertainment options that Nashville has to offer.

[vivelafrance]

Goodlettsville could be a good choice. It has a Publix and if you stay on the Sumner County side, your child will be zoned for Hendersonville schools which are excellent. It's a very safe and family-oriented area. It's also only a short drive to the Green Hills Whole Foods for occasional trips.

[princeton187]

We are looking for a townhouse below 1500, not interested in buying a house. Goodlettsville does look like a good area. I am worried about how crimemapping.com has many burglaries and thefts in that area though. Or are they just overestimated?

[El Passeaux]

Without looking at the map, its safe to guess most are by the mall.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by princeton187

We are looking for a townhouse below 1500, not interested in buying a house. Goodlettsville does look like a good area. I am worried about how crimemapping.com has many burglaries and thefts in that area though. Or are they just overestimated?

I don't think it's an overestimation...but the data is often not applied to any context. Goodlettsville isn't just a neighborhood, it's a separate city from Nashville with their own police force. A lot of the crime you see is a little to the south in the Madison area.

The city is split between Davidson County and Sumner County -- viva's suggestion was to look into the Sumner County side (which is in a different school district).

I'm not sure about townhouse availability, but you'll do better there price-wise than you will in Green Hills, though you can find things in the $1,500 range there.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by El Passeaux

Without looking at the map, its safe to guess most are by the mall.

Going back to the beginning of the month, by far the most are to the south, but there is a thin line running along the Gallatin Rd commercial area (as tends to be the case with a lot of the commercial areas).

[princeton187]

Went up to Nashville last weekend and visited a few town homes. Liked a few, but realized that walk scores there were really low. We often go out walking to the grocery store or simply for walks with the family and Nashville does not seem to be a really pedestrian friendly place. But I did like Green Hills a lot. Unfortunately, townhomes there are priced really high. Any other area like Green hills near Nashville with a high walk score?

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by princeton187

Went up to Nashville last weekend and visited a few town homes. Liked a few, but realized that walk scores there were really low. We often go out walking to the grocery store or simply for walks with the family and Nashville does not seem to be a really pedestrian friendly place. But I did like Green Hills a lot. Unfortunately, townhomes there are priced really high. Any other area like Green hills near Nashville with a high walk score?

Most of the "walkable" neighborhoods are going to be closer in to downtown. The catch is, there is more crime there...and where crime is lower, the prices are generally higher. If safety is one of your biggest concerns, you might want to lower the priority of being able to walk to the stores.

Some of the closer in neighborhoods are becoming safer, with more families and young children moving in...but if something like a crime map scares you, then it might not be for you. Even in the areas where violent crime is less, you might still have to contend with some property crime. It really depends on the area.

If you can deal with an area where there is crime present, but isn't really "unsafe", then you might look in to parts of East Nashville, Germantown, and a few places on the south side, north of Green Hills (Waverly-Belmont, 12th South, Melrose).

Otherwise, your best bet will probably be to deal with your car being your primary mode of transportation, but live in a quieter outlying community.


A little historical FYI

A lot of people who move here from other places don't realize that the majority of Nashville's growth is post WW-II, in the auto age. Nashville was still a good sized city before that time...it was the 50th largest city in 1940, slightly smaller than Youngstown, OH, and slightly larger than Hartford, CT. It was a small, densely populated city (167,402 people crammed into 22 square miles - 7,609 ppsm). You can see what the "old city" of Nashville's boundaries looked like by just looking at a map...most of the close in areas are in some sort of grid pattern.

Google Maps

In contrast, the rest of the county (480 square miles) only had about 90,000 people...and much of that was right around the present city.

The city adopted a metropolitan government in 1963, and annexed nearly the entire county (outside of 7 satellite cities) to become a whopping 473 square miles...one of the largest cities by land area in the country. During the auto age boom, there was a lot of white flight, and not a whole lot of desire for urban living. The development style reflects that (pan around the map to the outer edges of the city/county). Rather than extending the street grid, developers built more weaving street patterns and a number of cul-de-sacs. In a lot of this suburban style development, sidewalks were not even considered. Who needed them, anyways? You could just drive your car where you wanted to go.

So that leaves us where we are today -- the suburbs and outer edges of the city continue to build out in a suburban style manner. Recently, though, there has been a shift of interest back towards living in town, and a number of mid and high rise condos and apartments have sprouted up. More focus has been put on neighborhoods, and making them safe for pedestrians. Slowly, the city is building more sidewalks and making the idea of walkable neighborhoods more of a reality, and exploring options for improving the use and availability of public transportation to catch up with our peer cities -- but there is a long, long way to go.

In the meantime, transplants who are used to a more urban style of living have the option of moving to Nashville's established core, where a lot of kinks are still being worked out (but has a very promising future), or to embrace a car-centric lifestyle a few miles away from town, or in the suburbs.

[princeton187]

Nashvols, you have a really good point regarding the correlation between walkability and crime. We'd rather be in an area that is safe than anything else. We are from a nice suburb in New York where we are used to walking for icecream and to buy groceries without having to worry about anything else. I have heard that Nashville has a lot to offer, hopefully we will be able to figure that out early.

Anyone here ever stay in Blythewood apartments? Would like a frank view on it.

Thank you for all your responses.