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I wanted to chime in here. I am from Brooklyn NYC as well. While I do not live in Nashville my mother does and I visit her often. Nashville by far is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever seen. I have been up and down the east, to Chicago, and all along the Gulf Coast. I mention all that to show I have seen a great deal of American states and cities.
The smog there is crazy though. I was there in September and while in that park right behind the farmers market I went to snap some pictures of the capital building and what not. I couldn't even get a decent shot because the smog was so disgusting looking.
As far as people go, I will say the whites there seemed to be VERY nice (I am black). On the flip side of that the native blacks there were not nice at all from what I saw. The non natives living there seemed to be pretty nice too. As far as lots to do, I can't call it, I don't go out much but if you like nature stuff there is plenty of that.
The drivers there didn't seem to be any different to me than any other major metro area. The only thing I didn't really like was how close the people seem to follow on your bumper.
The weather I thought was very nice. I mean you get nice change of seasons and all that. Although the whole drought in the summer, not raining thing is a problem.
as for the OP, I think this person had a really bad experience of there which killed it for them. I would say go visit it for yourself.
As for Charlotte, I have a family friend who moved from NYC to Charlotte and this person doesn't seem to be that impressed. To each their own I guess.
Don't let everyone get you down. I was born and raised in Alabama, but have spent the last 10 years living in large cities in the Midwest. I was quite excited to be transferred back to the south, Nashville. That is until I came here. I have to agree with many of your statements. I am not finding Nashville to be as nice as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, I am really not liking the South in general. I guess I have been gone to long and gotten used to a different quality of life. I wanted to be closer to family, but I have about decided that is what planes are for, they can fly up and visit me when I eventually move back to civilization. I hope you like your next move.
First, and before I offer my opinion on Middle Tennessee, I want to say that the initial response to this person's post should be seriously studied by anybody who is thinking about relocating to Middle Tennessee.
I found it interesting for several reasons; Firstly, I really couldn't find much to disagree with on the original post (other than the smog comments - I have never experienced that here). But unfortunately, the most interesting thing about the response from current TN residents to the original post is the fact that this is ALWAYS the response you get from Tennesseans if you express any opinion other than a completely complimentary one that paints a glowing picture of TN.
In short, take a look at the knee-jerk responses to this woman's post (the one that started this thread) when you consider making a life in Middle Tennessee. Understand that if you are not from here, and more specifically not from the south, you will be treated as an outsider and you will be considered a "bigoted and arrogant Yankee".
Now for my experience:
I moved to Middle Tennessee from Long Island, New York about 5 years ago, and I have regretted the decision for the last four of those five years. I should also preface this by saying that the onus of my decision is completely and 100% my own fault. I am guilty of making a rash and hasty move for financial reasons without performing the proper research and due diligence on the location I was moving to (Murfreesboro, TN).
Initially, and as someone who was not raised anywhere near Tennessee, I thought of the state as a mixture of northern and southern cultures. I always heard Tennessee referred to as "the South" and was also well aware of the "Music City" label and the country lifestyle, but geographically, the state falls just south of the Mason-Dixon Line and seemed like a place that would be filled with mixed cultures and not just traditional southern values.
When you consider the weather, there is certainly a northern feel to parts of the state in the winter months and snow is prevalent in several of the northernmost cities during the peak winter months. In Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge (where my wife and I had vacationed in the winter and later married) there is a good mixture of cultural diversity, but that is due mainly to the amount of tourism that the area encounters. Anyone who has grown up here or spent significant time here probably realizes that the area is not geared towards year-round living and is a poor location to base your geographical opinion of the entire state on. That was mistake number one for me; basing an opinion of Tennessee on the good times I experienced in the Smokey Mountains.
My wife and I did manage to visit Murfreesboro a couple times before making the plunge and buying a home here, but we obviously focused on the wrong items in our research and failed to get a true feel for local living. Of course, some of the items that we have come to dislike about Middle Tennessee are things that you would only realize if you spent a year or longer here. In the end, I believe that the biggest mistake I made about my relocation was not renting for a significant amount of time before buying a home.
I also want to add that I am not entirely regretful of the decision to move here. My wife and I were able to purchase a very inexpensive home due to the extremely low housing costs, and it is now worth approximately 20% more than it was at the time of our purchase. 2000 sq. feet for under 200K is not bad, especially on NY standards where a home half this size would cost 5X as much. I am thankful for that opportunity and over the years we have been able to save enough money to escape the area in excellent financial standing. In short, the equity we built in our Middle TN home will allow us to move on to bigger and better things in another state. I always try to remember this positive among my list of extreme negatives.
My biggest problems with Tennessee are as follows:
1.) The Bible Belt is worse than I had imagined.
I always knew that living in the Bible Belt meant dealing with a large population of evangelical Christians, but didn't quite realize how invasive the subject of religion would be until I had purchased a home here. You could research the subject exhaustively and spend several weeks vacationing in the local area, but you would not know about some of these issues until you become a homeowner and open yourself up to the solicitation from local religious groups that you only experience as a homeowner.
I should also preface this by saying that I am a strict Catholic and consider myself to be a solid standing member of the church. My wife and I are very active in our Church and walk a straight line in our faith. Unfortunately, we have to travel to Nashville to attend our church because of the lack of Catholic congregations in our area. There is only one in Murfreesboro. One Catholic Church might seem ample for a small southern town, but Murfreesboro is supposedly the second largest city in Middle Tennessee, next to only Nashville.
I really didn't realize until moving to Middle Tennessee the degree of chasm that existed between "evangelical" Christians and "Catholic" Christians. In NY, Catholicism is very mainstream; it is rarely looked down upon by other sects of the Christian faith. Here, I have been called an "atheist" by more than one so called Christian and lectured to several times on the difference between my faith and "actual" Christianity. I have been told that I am going to Hell for not being "born again" and essentially treated like an outcast by many of the local "Christians" that apparently pride themselves on their faith.
Most people understand that the South is naturally going to be more religious than some of the more progressive Northern and coastal areas, but there is no preparing a person for the number of visitors that will arrive at your door trying to recruit you to attend their church, hand you information on being "saved" or sell you a bible.
The sheer number of evangelical congregations in my area is mind numbing. I live in a suburban section of Murfreesboro and there are 14 Christian churches in a 10 mile radius of my home. 11 of the 14 churches are enormous to the point of being ridiculous. They continue to expand more and more as the years have passed and gain a larger parish base despite the fact that they are already huge and already accepting an annual tithing commitment form their parish base that could feed 10 starving villages. I would have no way of proving this theory, but I would contend that if all 11 of these "mega-churches" in the ten mile radius of my home downsized and pooled their current annual offering amount, they could eliminate a portion of the suffering in Darfur. We are talking millions of dollars in profit among the lot of them.
If you try and discuss these issues and opinions with most of the local evangelical Christians, they get extremely offended and tend to get belligerent to the point of violence, despite the fact that they pride themselves on their faith and their "southern hospitality"... Which brings me to my second point of contention:
2.) Southern Hospitality - Following your insult with "Bless his/her heart" does not negate the insult.
People here love to talk about southern hospitality. They take a sort of strange pride in it that would indicate that it is in fact the friendliest and most hospitable place in the country. Unfortunately though, the South is no less rude or inhospitable than any other part of the country, they are simply more passive aggressive about their rudeness. They camouflage their insults by making light of them and following them with "bless his/her heart". They have a strong distaste for "Yankees" and a natural inferiority complex when it comes to northerners, but they mask it behind a sort of phoniness that you don't fully understand until you have lived here for a specific amount of time.
There is also an inherent hypocrisy in this part of the South. If you mention the unusually low education ratings here or indicate that people in the South are "slower" or "less intelligent", they get extremely offended, to the point where you will be called a bigot or even a racist. This is actually quite ironic when you consider that racism is more alive and well here in TN than any other place I have ever lived.
This hypocrisy goes hand in hand with the hypocrisy I mentioned earlier about evangelical Christians who act like anything but a proper Christian if you don't adhere to their religious ideals and beliefs.
In one breath, a Tennessean will call you a bigot for mentioning that Tennessee has extremely poor education statistics, and in the next breath they will tell you that your rudeness stems from the fact that you are an arrogant Yankee. Somehow they don't see the irony in the fact that they are targeting you as a bigot purely based on the fact that you are form the North, which is essentially feeding into a bigoted notion in order to prove you to be a bigot. It's almost humorous.
3.) Racism.
A neighbor that lives 4 doors from my home owns a big white Ford Truck with a confederate flag license plate on the front and a bumper sticker on the rear bumper that reads: "If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have picked my own Cotton".
It's probably the most egregious thing I am forced to look at on a daily basis as I pull out of my neighborhood on my way to work. I should also preface this by saying that I am not an ethnic minority. I am a middle-aged, middle-class, white male. Growing up in NY, there was always a nice mix of ethnicity in the neighborhoods that I lived. My high school was probably 40% white, 40% black and 20% Hispanic, Asian or other... so tolerance was a must and anyone who demonstrated racist qualities was soon shunned and considered an outcast. When I was 21 years old, I joined the military, and spent five years in the US Navy. As anyone who has ever been in the military can probably tell you, ethnic diversity is a part of everyday life in the service. There are so many people from different parts of the country that if you can't tolerate other races or religions, you will not make it. I can safely say (thankfully) that until moving to Middle Tennessee, I was never exposed to these beliefs that seem so commonplace here.
4.) Education.
This is easily the most volatile subject on my list, because as I mentioned earlier, the mere suggestion that southerners are not as well educated as the rest of the country will typically send them into a rage. I can only assume that this reaction is a classic example of the truth hitting a little too close to home. Psychology has diagnostic labels for this type of behavior and in the end the reason why people get so upset about it (in my opinion) because deep down they understand that it is true in more cases than not.
By and large, the people here are ignorant. Keep in mind, I said by and large. Before all the locals get in a twist, let me say that not every person who lives in Tennessee is poorly educated or ignorant. But education here is extremely poor. Google it. Do the research. If you have children, think hard about this fact before you move here.
Tennesseans will battle this argument by (as I mentioned earlier) calling you an arrogant Yankee, or citing college education statistics. They will discuss Vanderbilt University and the medical care that can be found locally. These are all solid arguments. The colleges here are more than adequate. Vanderbilt in particular is an excellent school. But I am not talking about colleges and universities. Those numbers will always be skewed because of the large number of transplants that come to TN specifically to attend the university. The medical care at places like Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital is top notch; there is no doubt about that. But many of the doctors that practice in that network are NOT from Middle Tennessee.
I am talking about the elementary, middle and high school systems in Middle Tennessee. I am talking about the systems that support the children that are born and raised here and who will likely spend the rest of their lives here living a blue collar lifestyle.
There are various articles on the internet on this topic, don’t take my word for it, do the research yourself. I certainly wish I had. My wife and I don't have children yet, but we have decided that children are not an option until we are far away from the TN education systems.
Again, Tennessean's will call you a bigot for expressing this opinion. They will say that you are profiling them as "stupid" based on their southern accent. They will say that you are judging them on their speech patterns. I am here to tell you, this has nothing to do with speech patterns or southern accents. This has everything to do with the extremely high percentage of ignorant and uneducated people that you find in this part of the country, plain and simple.
5.) Traffic.
I actually had to laugh a little bit when I read the original post in this thread about people down here thinking their directional signals are optional. I chuckled because it couldn't be truer.
I don't know how to explain the driving here in Tennessee other than to say that people don't know how to navigate themselves. It's almost as if Tennesseans have blinders on and only see where they need to go. Almost as if they don't possess any peripheral vision skills. It really is quite frustrating and in a strange way it makes a case for my earlier point that Tennesseans just aren't very smart.
This navigation problem is not just on the streets and highways of Tennessee, it is in the grocery store or the mall or any other place where you need to walk amongst a large grouping of people. They simply are not cognizant of other people around them. They bump into you, cut in front of you, fail to hold doors, fail to say thank you when you hold a door for them and generally get in your way no matter where you are.
In the local supermarket, the women use these enormous NASCAR style wagons (oh I'm sorry you have to say "buggy" down here) to push their kids around. These buggies are three times the size of a normal shopping cart and they take up an entire aisle of the supermarket. What makes it even more frustrating is that they will stop in the middle of the aisle to look over the products while traffic is building behind them. They don't think to turn around and look to see if they are blocking the aisle, they don't say excuse me, they just stop in the middle of the aisle to gander over the canned foods or juices... this goes back to my earlier point about "southern hospitality". This isn't hospitality, this is downright rude.
The use of cell phones is also a major distraction here. Tennesseans have to be on their cell phones at all times, I think it may actually be a state law. They must talk on the phone while they're driving (which probably explains why they don't have a free hand to turn on their directional) or while they are in the supermarket. It's just part of life in Tennessee, there must be a cell phone in your hand at all times... Which is fairly humorous because Tennesseans never seem to have anything worth while to say. They talk for hours and hours about trivial things that most intelligent people would consider "small talk", like the weather.
6.) The Weather.
The weather patterns in Tennessee are probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever witnessed. On a typical day, the average low temperature can run as low as 35 degrees with a high of 70 degrees. As the comedian Lewis Black would say, it's like malaria. I have literally never seen anything like it.
You will get the flu at least twice per year in Tennessee because of the bizarre weather patterns. It is actually the worst of all worlds because it can be bone-chillingly cold and quite warm on the same day. You will have no idea what to wear to work because the temperature when you are leaving could be 30 degrees higher or lower when you get off work at 5PM than when you left the house that morning.
These weather patterns are accompanied by some of the worst allergy problems that you have likely ever experienced. The pollen in Middle TN Dustbowl is the worst in the country.
Again, don't take my word for this, do some research. I wish I had. You can find weather and allergy information in several places on the internet. If these are things that you think might be tolerable, you may want to truly think about how allergies and weather can affect your life. In the North, I grew up with severe weather and some (functional word being SOME) allergy issues. But at least in the north you know what you are going to get. You may have 5 feet of snow, but you know that it is going to be cold and lousy outside. Then summer arrives, and you know that it is not going to dip below 65 degrees. It doesn't change throughout the day.
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Now I already know the response that this post is going to get. Just like the woman who started this thread, people will talk about how "home is where you make it" and "sounds like you are looking for things to complain about"....
Like I said earlier, these are typical responses from Tennesseans who don't like what you have to say.
First of all, why would I look for things to complain about? I chose to move here. When I made the decision, I thought it was going to be the first and last home that my wife and I would ever purchase. Does it really make sense that I would look for reasons to be miserable?
I didn't leave NY because I was miserable there. I left because the cost of living was becoming an impossible hurdle to overcome. I left because the price of a home there was at least three times as much as other places in the country. But it wasn't because I wasn't happy there. And trust me when I tell you that NY is a place where you can find many reasons to complain if that is what you want to do.
As I mentioned earlier, I was in the military for 5 years. If there was ever a time in my life that I could have "looked for reasons to complain" it was during my time living on a ship in the US Navy. And you know what, I was extremely happy living there as well as the many areas that I was stationed: Connecticut, San Diego, Japan, Vancouver and even Alaska for 2 months. Never before in my life have I "looked for reasons to complain". And I haven't done that in TN either. No, you don't have to look for reasons here, the reasons find you.
Now as I said at the beginning of this post, my unhappiness in Middle TN is 100% my own fault. Like I said, I was not aware of just how "southern" Tennessee was. So if you are somebody who is coming from Arkansas or Mississippi or Alabama or one of the other "deep south" states, and you already know about all of the items that accompany southern living, then disregard this post.
If you enjoy NASCAR and SEC sports, men who wear John Deer hats and chew Copenhagen, racism, poor education, bad driving, ridiculous weather patterns that feature highs of 65 degrees and lows of 30 degrees in the same day, country music, pageant hair, not using your directional when you drive, stay at home wives (notice I said "wives" and not "moms"... you don't actually have to have a child to give up on a career in TN) and not being able to find friends, then Tennessee is the place for you.
But if you are form the north and think you are going to come down here and meet lots of great people that you have things in common with, you are sadly mistaken. You can probably find a decent job here, but you will be surrounded by simpletons that you have nothing in common with and who have nothing in common with you and you will be miserable.
Like I said, I know this will elicit another typical response from the Tennesseans on the board who disagree. I'll get the same responses the girl who started this thread got. But if this post makes at least one person who is thinking about moving to TN do a little more research... if I save at least one family from going through what me and my family have gone through, then this extremely long post will have done its job.
"extremely long post" is being a little modest. dear god.
theres a few things you complain about that i, as a lifelong TN resident, have seen little or none of, but im not gonna refute, it aint worth it, ill just look at your biggest problems
1. agreed fully. im atheist, and its bad
2. cant really say how northerners are treated, as im obv not one, so im prob treated a lot more friendly...all i know is that my communications teacher is from NYC originally, and i havent heard complaints about him. oh well.
3. it exists, but not to the extent people say. though my family are racists youll see a lot of confederate pride, but i dont think much of it is race based, more like southern pride.
4. cant comment, i homeschooled from 6th-12th and am in a CC.
5. sometimes i like taking a drive on a sparsely populated road, but they arent there unless its like 2 am. i dont see cell phone use as bad as you say, ive seen it much more in other big cities. one reason drives may be worse is because of the simplicity of the driving test. i took mine when i was 18. the extent of my driving test was backing out of a parking spot, driving for around 15-20 mi, then pulling back into the spot, but i swear i remember a study of TN/nashville having some of the safest drivers in a big city, but i cant say for sure.
6. well theres a reason we say "if you dont like the weather, just wait 5 min, itll change". it can be volatile. i cant comment on the flu, as ive never had it (but im probably just better conditioned to colder temps then those around here). but also ive never heard of a major temp swing that wasnt forecasted beforehand, so youll keep at least a basic idea of whatll happen.
hell i dont like it here either, but im jus tryin to keep the middleman, and not all TNers are like u described. and im half their age prob (20 as of a few days ago)
I am sure more eloquent people will respond to you....all I can say to whomever may be reading this...everything is perspective. My sister who lives there is very happy and she is not from the south.
I'm a west coast (San Diego/Arizona) transplant and I love it here. My husband went back to San Diego to visit family and cut his trip short because he was 'home' sick. He wanted to be back here.....in Tennessee.
I'm sorry to hear you people have had a hard time here, but I can't help but wonder if you haven't brought it on yourselves. I have two sons that moved here from San Diego with their families and they wouldn't live any where else but here. I also have a third son that moved back to San Diego proving it just depends on the person.
Regarding your post (yes, I read it all)
1. I have had people try and recruit me to their church and simply say no thank-you. End of story with no problems or rude remarks.
2. Rude people are everywhere! Yes, even here, but I have found far less than I did while living out west due to the southern hospitality that I have found here. I visited N.Y. once and I was shocked at how rude people were, but I certainly wouldn't condemn an entire state based on the jerks I met during my week there.
3. Racism rears its ugly head everywhere. I haven't seen any more or less in Tn than I have anywhere else I've lived.
4. I don't know anything about the schools here. I have a grandchild in Gallatin and her mom is very happy with the school. I also have a grandchild in Nashville and his parents will be puting him in a private school. I have made friends here both educated here and else where and I have found little difference.
5. I had to laugh at the traffic comments. Try driving in Southern Calif. if you want to see cell phones attached to some ones head!! Out west if you turn on your turn signal they speed up so you can't get in front of them. Here they let you in......go figure!
6. As far as the weather goes...........well, ya got me there! It is crazy but it doesn't bother me at all.
I think it all depends on what you make of where you live.
For someone who is so disdainful of the locals' intelligence...
I have one major problem with your post. My problem is not that you're unhappy here, it's that you decided to make your points using statements as fact.
You may believe that you are "surrounded by simpletons" in TN. That does not make it fact.
You may believe that everyone who moves here will be "treated as an outsider." That does not make it fact.
You made several statements about Tennessean's low intelligence. You seem outraged that telling folks they're stupid and ill-educated didn't go over well. Gee, I wonder why you don't have any friends here.
In the spirit of fair-mindedness, re-read a few of your statements and tell me how you think you came across. Comments in bold print are mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GroverCleveland
Understand that if you are not from here, and more specifically not from the south, you will be treated as an outsider and you will be considered a "bigoted and arrogant Yankee". I'm not from here, not from the South, and we have friends here who are like family. I have never felt like I was an outsider, despite the fact we are politically active, liberal, United Methodists!
If you mention the unusually low education ratings here or indicate that people in the South are "slower" or "less intelligent", they get extremely offended. Some people are so sensitive.
A neighbor that lives 4 doors from my home owns a big white Ford Truck with a confederate flag license plate on the front and a bumper sticker on the rear bumper that reads: "If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have picked my own Cotton". Okay, this is heinous. Luckily, I have never seen this sticker. That's disgusting. In your defense, I can see how seeing that every day would take a toll on you.
I can safely say (thankfully) that until moving to Middle Tennessee, I was never exposed to these beliefs that seem so commonplace here. Commonplace? Are you joking?
By and large, the people here are ignorant. Still trying to understand why you nice folks haven't made any friends....
My wife and I don't have children yet, but we have decided that children are not an option until we are far away from the TN education systems. My neighbor's daughter just scored a 35 on her ACT. My guitar teacher's son got a PERFECT score on his SAT last year. Both public educated Tennesseans. Just sayin......
Tennesseans never seem to have anything worth while to say. They talk for hours and hours about trivial things that most intelligent people would consider "small talk", like the weather. Feel better?
If you enjoy NASCAR and SEC sports,nope men who wear John Deer hats nope and chew Copenhagen don't like it personally, but knowsome nice guys who do, racism enjoy racism? Come on., poor education well, hoo dont lyk thet? , bad driving,yep, we're all tree-crashing idiots! ridiculous weather patterns that feature highs of 65 degrees and lows of 30 degrees in the same day, country music love it!!, pageant hair that would be TX, my friend., not using your directional when you drive, stay at home wives (notice I said "wives" and not "moms"... you don't actually have to have a child to give up on a career in TN) and not being able to find friends, then Tennessee is the place for you. Not being able to find friends? I can't relate to that one at all, but I'm sorry. That would make me miserable too.
But if you are form the north and think you are going to come down here and meet lots of great people that you have things in common with, you are sadly mistaken. You can probably find a decent job here, but you will be surrounded by simpletons that you have nothing in common with and who have nothing in common with you and you will be miserable.
I'll agree that allergies are more of a problem here, but Flonase changed my life. I hope you're happier in your next home.
I have one major problem with your post. My problem is not that you're unhappy here, it's that you decided to make your points using statements as fact.
You may believe that you are "surrounded by simpletons" in TN. That does not make it fact.
You may believe that everyone who moves here will be "treated as an outsider." That does not make it fact.
You made several statements about Tennessean's low intelligence. You seem outraged that telling folks they're stupid and ill-educated didn't go over well. Gee, I wonder why you don't have any friends here.
I can guess what Grover's reply is going to be . . . "See, I told you some people would disagree with me. That's typical. That just proves all my points."
I've said it before, and will probably say it again, not every place is right for everyone. Some people will move to Nashville and love it, some with dislike it, and many will like some things and not others. Come visit, look around, see if it's right for you or not. I never try to talk anyone into moving here; just provide information when they ask for it (and sometimes mention the negatives as well as the positives).
I think Grover has some valid points but I think the one that sticks out the most to me is that he moved to Murfreesboro...NOT Nashville. There's a huge difference in my opinion.
On my street in Brentwood are people from California, New York, Florida, Mexico, Kentucky and North Carolina. We have several ethnic groups represented and everybody has a college education, at the least. I worked with a lot of people who lived in Murfreesboro, I kind of get what Grover's alluding to.
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For someone who is so disdainful of the locals' intelligence...
. I hope you're happier in your next home.
