Jump to content

More Accolades for Nashville


Guest 5th & Main Urbanite

Recommended Posts


Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are also joining Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter  and 500 other volunteers in the Park Preserve neighborhood building 20 homes for Habitat for Humanity.  They started on Saturday, and will be there thru Thursday.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/10/03/jimmy-carter-habitat-humanity-nashville-tennessee/1509141002/

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are still not growing as fast as Austin or Charlotte. Out growth rate is no where near where it needs to be to get into a boom situation. We need to be 3% . Just not there and the number of people moving here is below a 100 a day. 

Housing prices need to drop some and we may be seeing that with the drop in home sales three months in a row. We have way too many Air B & Bs taking away from the housing inventory and keeping apartment prices inflated as well.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel that Nashville's growth trajectory is about 4-5 years behind places like charlotte, portland or austin, and that as Nashville continues to grow the speed at which it grows will rise as well. As far as I have heard the Nashville region is still growing at 90-100 people a day (the Tennessean initially said that the growth slowed but then revised their claim to be more factual, here is the source for this: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/09/13/nashville-population-growth-census/1265855002/), which is definitely boom town like growth if I have ever seen it. I have relatives in North Carolina in the Triad in which that area is lucky if they have 30 people move there in one day, and even the triangle only has around 75-80 people moving there a day. Either way, the notion that Nashville isn't growing or isn't a boomtown is strange to me, Nashville is growing just like Charlotte, Austin, Portland etc.. I think the only reason why those areas are growing a bit faster is because their city's image for business and leisure prosperity has been established for longer than Nashville's has, and I believe Nashville will eventually grow that fast (or become as large as those cities are) in the future at some point (Plus Nashville has a MUCH more diverse economy than those cities which really is nothing to scoff at)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its all a matter of competition with our peer cities. Recruiting talent is huge and when the people you need are not moving to a city, it presents an issue. I think of a lot of the folks that  have moved here, just move here because of the vibe. Granted there are a number of folks moving here because of work, but we will need a lot more large financial and tech firms here to compete and when that kind of talent is not here then its a problem.

 

Austin and Charlotte have been seeing huge numbers move to those areas. They have continued to grow their tech and financial communities respectively. You have to have that in order to grow healthy. I don't think we are growing as  a healthy community and have huge amounts of visitors which is a good thing for the most part, but we have a lot of folks taking advantage of a situation and being greedy driving up hotel rates, home prices, and apartment rentals.

Austin is not as affordable as it use to be but in the rankings below several of our peer cities are listed, including, Charlotte, Raleigh, Indy, Salt Lake, Louisville, KC MO, ST Louis, to name a few. A lot of the problems we have here,  we have brought on ourselves. Like, mismanaging the Air B & B's, like Metros response to the scooter situation, like Metro sidewalk program. 

https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/slideshows/best-affordable-places-to-live-in-the-us

Nashville was not listed. 

Folks we are not growing anywhere near where we could or should be. Everyone is whining  about the growth, but most of this has been in the last five years. The main problem is that Metro was and is ill equipped to handle it as Metro didnt see it coming, failed to respond when it got here, and is now having trouble keeping up due to short sightedness. Many of the  policies were from the 1960's when Metro chartered. 

I do understand Austin is having the same problems as a city, but they are not a Metro form of government either.

Contrary to what some have stated, we are not Atlanta and are 45 years from being where Atlanta is today based on population figures. Many of you are excited when there are new buildings announced, like River North or West Trinity, but in a manner of speaking, that is sprawl. We are no where near building out the core where it should be. Throw in the fact that our leaders in the past have not been forthcoming on mass transit and have tried to push projects that were either too big or in the wrong place. Again this should have been done 40 years ago. The only true visionary we had was Bredesen who saw what we could be. 

We have grown despite ourselves and despite the fact that we don't a have a good mass transit system.  Our Interstate system in a lot of ways is better tan most cites and I have driven in Austin and Charlotte during rush hour. If you have a wreck then it does not matter what city you live in, you will get stuck.

You don't want the growth but you are on here and happy when these projects are announced. Don't complain about the growth as the only constant is change and if you don't grow and change you lose.

Sorry for the rant!

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You won't see anything new in road/transit construction. Just visited for the third time this year.  Transit advocates are turtling right now as they wait for another shot at a revised plan. The previous plan was botched nearly from the start (too big! too ambitious! too expensive! too unrealistic!). Nashvillians are conservative at heart (no matter what they may call themselves politically) and they don't like huge projects. Little dribs and drabs... or "sensible" phased-in projects. Of all the cities frequently mentioned on these boards, Nashville (more than the others) does NOT want to be a big city. I grew up in Atlanta and all I can remember is how much it "needed" to be a big city. Charlotte tends to be more like Atlanta in that regard. I agree with the comment above that faster growth indeed washes out a city's character/culture in so many respects. I only go home now to visit family, but never to explore or "escape" from my world.  Today Atlanta is both bland and stressful, especially for its citizens. I could really trash what it has become, but I am so past that. Nashville will eventually wash out its own quirky character, but there's a general resistance to growing that fast. 

Addendum: TDOT has frequently been mentioned on these boards as "not up to the task" they face; primarily catching up to the growth. They're still stuck in a rural mentality that feels need to build more for sparsely populated areas and it does not leverage debt to build roads.  Several noted public finance gurus agree that a public debt load of 2-2.5% of net tax revenues is actually good if spent on the right things. That would be apx.  $300M a year. Still quite conservative and a fraction of annual contributions to the state's "rainy day fund". 

One beneficial (unintended!?) consequence of Nashville's late start on transit could well be continued densification of the downtown and close-in neighborhoods, as ppl choose to live closer in b/c traffic is so bad and getting worse. I've been to Charlotte five times over the past two years and the TOD building along the Lynx is no bigger or numerous than what Nashville has seen along its main radial arteries from the cbd.  However, I have wondered if their rents are lower than the comparable new apartments in Nashville. If so, then that's a bonus.  

 

Edited by MLBrumby
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nashville has never been more desirable in the eyes of real estate investors than right now, according to the latest edition of a benchmark national survey.

Professionals in the real estate industry rated Nashville as the fifth-best market for investment and development in 2019, according to a newly released report from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

More at Nashville Post here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21026788/report-nashville-no-5-for-overall-real-estate-health

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/10/10/nashvilles-popularity-reaches-all-time-high-in.html?ana=twt

The full report is here:

https://media.bizj.us/view/img/11084259/2019-etre-report.pdf

Here are some specific thoughts on Nashville in the South Region:

South: Central East: “Nashville continues to attract capital from all over the world. Outside money is willing to pay higher prices than local capital.” The South’s Central East region is somewhat bifurcated, with Nashville, which has become a perennial top-ten Emerging Trends in Real Estate® survey market, and the other four markets that make up the region. While Nashville continues to outperform the national average in a number of demographic and economic measures, 2019 survey respondents also feel that opportunities exist in the other markets as well. The survey respondents see the investment and development potential for all markets in the region as good or fair.

"With the exception of Nashville, population growth in the region’s markets is expected to trail the U.S. rate in 2019. Despite the slower population growth, Birmingham, Knoxville, and Louisville all enjoyed positive net migration over the past five years. Local focus groups in Memphis and Knoxville emphasize the quality of life as being attractive to new migrants. Housing remains very affordable in all of the markets in the region, and this is spurring a variety of housing development in Knoxville, Memphis, Birmingham, and Louisville. The development ranges from new suburban housing, renovating historic houses, converting other property types to housing, and including housing as part of larger mixed-use projects. The attractive cost of living has been cited in the relocation of a major financial services firm to Nashville.

"Population growth and net migration are important to the markets in the region to support economic growth. While Nashville employment growth is well above the U.S. rate, only Louisville and Knoxville are expected to equal the U.S. rate in 2019. In addition, the labor force participation rates in Birmingham, Knoxville, and Memphis are well below the U.S. rate. Only Memphis has a slightly higher unemployment rate than the United States as a whole. A shortage of qualified labor has been identified by focus groups in Knoxville and Memphis."


Here are some of the national lists showing how strong Nashville is in various categories:



 

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 1.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 2.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 3.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 4.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 5.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 6.png

Urban Land Institue Report, Oct 10, 2018, list 7.png

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the explosive growth of cities like Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Charlotte, etc shows that transit is pretty irrelevant to whether a cities keeps up insane growth. 

I guess I just don’t understand the mentality that we’re not growing as much as we should. I’m not afraid of Austin-style growth, or advocating shrinkage, but I think we’re doing pretty damn well with our current growth and it doesn’t seem to be affecting our ability to attract talent. We seem to have no problem attracting tech and finance companies here, along with everything else that makes our economy extremely diversified, so I don’t think adding gasoline to the population fire is necessary. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Charlotte and Nashville are growing at almost the exactly the same rates.  Look at the population growth since 2010 to 2017.  Charlotte metro has grown by 13.91% Nashville by 13.89% 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas

Austin 23.8% Atlanta 11.31% of course 2x as large or more than any city mentioned.   I never get hung up on how many people per day or month are moving in as I never know if that stat is a metro wide stat, core county or city limits only.  

I will be in Nashville next month and what I want to see if there is any new transportation improvements since my last visit about 1.5 years ago.  I know Nashville has large amounts of construction all over just like Charlotte.  But you have to plan for future growth.  Mass transit and other alternatives don't cure congestion but give people options for moving around.   Charlotte just opened this year another 9 miles of light rail (now a total of about 19 miles of rail) and has these major highway improvements underway:  I-77 north toll express lanes for 18 miles, new 4 lane toll highway in county to southeast of Charlotte, widening the last section of I-85 northeast of the city to 8 lanes so it will be 6-8 lanes from Charlotte to Raleigh.  Toll express lanes coming on our southern side of our beltway I-485are starting soon.  One thing about Charlotte right now much of growth of apartment complexes has been along our light rail line which is good.

Raleigh metro area is growing at 18% while smaller than both Nashville and Charlotte metro areas is planning major bus rapid transit.

In terms of Austin I do think it is far more congested than Charlotte and probably Nashville too.   Looking forward to my visit next month!

Charlotte and Austin have a huge head start on Nashville. 

The key here is that we need to sustain that growth.

As far as transportation improvements in the last 1.5 years, you will see nothing. It seems as if they want to study things, not approve things, and vote anything that helps the situation down.

Enjoy your visit. If you get a chance drive the length of Broadway all the way down to 440 via West End. Not too many mid-size cities have a stretch like that.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

Charlotte and Austin have a huge head start on Nashville. 

A head start on what? What are we competing for? We’re not in a race with them, none of us seem to have any problems creating jobs, etc. I guess I’m not seeing any relevancy between us trying to get to 130+ population increase per day and remaining a successful city.  Plenty of cool cities aren’t growing like Austin. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

………..

Addendum: TDOT has frequently been mentioned on these boards as "not up to the task" they face; primarily catching up to the growth. They're still stuck in a rural mentality that feels need to build more for sparsely populated areas and it does not leverage debt to build roads.  ……...

There has been a lot of TDOT bashing on the board lately, but critics have to understand that TDOT and all State departments are political entities under the administration of the Governor and under the strong influence of the Legislature. 'They' are more subject to the whims and wishes of the politicians than the planners and engineers. If they do something in Nashville, then the other big three want the same regardless of need.  Thus, the budgets for transportation tend to be balanced between the four regions.

They are beginning the $152 million, I-440 project to provide a minimum of 6 lanes (3 in each direction) all the way from I-40 in the west to I-24 in the east.  And this map will give a little detail on what is in the works and where. Davidson County has a lot of expensive bridge work planned.

Tennessee is only 34th in the nation in percent of urban population. So we are skewed in a rural direction when it comes to political decision making.

There is, however, some reasoning applied to the selection of projects through the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organizations) process, and there is a moderate amount of discretion TDOT leaders can use as they determine to be appropriate, but it is limited.

The building of transportation infrastructure is a messy, democratic process.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I did mean transit. Charlotte much more so than Austin. But you can throw population in there too. Austin and Charlotte were booming years before Nashville started.

However we are doing a stellar job at making up for lost ground and zooming past a few of our peer cities.

This is not really a competition but as far as jobs and growth for particular cities, it is a competition. We are competeing with many cities on many levels trying to recruit business here.

I think the recent ULI report Mark posted makes a good case for how we are doing. Just in case any of you did not know, Nashville will host the ULI meeting next year. That is huge. Mark Deutschmann pointed that out at the UP meet up Saturday. 

That will shed a huge spotlight on us as developers from across the country will be here looking us over.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cannot see the Statista info but generally agree with the comment. However,  this really isn't a case of how TN spends its $ vis-a-vis other states. It's a matter of addressing the highest priorities. Just SWAGging, I'd guess there are 3.5M to 4.0M residents of Tennessee who live in the state's top 5 metro areas. So my point, besides the lack of debt spending, is a budget that does not adequately address the most pressing needs. Yes, it's political, and that's why the most critical needs are not dealt with first.  As a resident of Hamilton County, it's frustrating as hell to see how antiquated TDOT has allowed I-24 to become through town and to the state line, to the point of being extremely dangerous. And yes, I get frustrated too when I learn of improvement projects that get delayed because of say, a project in Davidson County, or worse, Bledsoe County. We have a road project in the eastern part of our county that has been u/c for 5 years... and that's after 3 years of study. And it won't even be completed to its planned terminus for another 5 years!!!  It's only a widening, and it was interrupted for the Interstate connector to VW.  In the process of construction, they have actually made the road more dangerous as the widened portion stops short of a blind intersection.  People used to have to negotiate only one lane in both directions, but now have to negotiate two lanes from one direction (basically a continuous flow of cars at peak times) but with no improved visibility.  That's a great example of how TDOT should have issued bonds to complete both. Even with an emphasis on rural roads, TDOT is falling way short. For example, I-24 between Hamilton and Rutherford looks exactly the same as it has since the 1980s; and I'd guess now takes up to 3 times more traffic. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.