New to Memphis

[bluff2085]

Memphis is quite sprawled, having 300 sq. miles. Outside of Shelby County, there isn't much population.

memphis can't keep up with nashville's booming metro population, but desoto county does has over 130,000 people and is growing extremely fast.

also, memphis' population density is almost double that of nashville's, and little rock's pop. density falls somewhere in between Memphis and Nashville's at about 1600 people per square mile.

little rock and nashville have more interesting landscapes than memphis, but we do have the might mississippi so i guess that makes up for it haha

[ricky_the_great]

Did they gobble up Germantown?

no, but they did gobble up more of Cordova in 2003 or 4. I lived in that portion one day we just all got the Memphis Trash cans.

Memphis cant annex Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, Bartlett, or Millington. is that it? everything else is fair game.

[mandrws1]

Memphis cant annex Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, Bartlett, or Millington. is that it? everything else is fair game.

You forgot Arlington

[Fellowmann20]

Yes, you missed something. At the beginning of the thread, the original poster mentioned Little Rock as being one of his choices given to relocate. He then went on to talk about landscape of cities. He also talked about Little Rock being small. I just provided information showing that Little Rock isn't as small as some people think. I also told him about the beautiful landscape here. While Little Rock may not be as big as Memphis and Nashville, it is not small. Little Rock actually has a higher, more dense skyline than Memphis.

After I provided the info, I tried stay closer to topic, but others kept talking about LR, so I kept providing info.

I think you missed something too timmy......If you want to talk about how much better Littlerock is than Memphis why don't you start another thread or go back to ur buddys in the Littlerock forums and quit posting in the Memphis forums.

[sleepy]

I'm curious as to which city memphis has gobbled up in the last few years.

It's funny how people are moving out of memphis, but the city is growing because they are so annex happy.

It was barely 600,000 not too long ago. It was 650,000 in the 2000 census, then in 2004, the estimate is 671,000. Did they gobble up Germantown?

One way to look at the urban density of cities is to look at the census urban area definitions--contiguous areas of over 1000 persons per sq. mile.

Urban areas--

Memphis--972,091 pop., 399.82 sq. miles, 2,431.3 per sq. mile

Little Rock--360,331 pop., 205.57 sq. miles, 1,752.8 per sq. mile

[Rural King]

I think you missed something too timmy......If you want to talk about how much better Littlerock is than Memphis why don't you start another thread or go back to ur buddys in the Littlerock forums and quit posting in the Memphis forums.

Everyone is free (and encouraged!) to post in the Memphis forum as long as things stay on topics related to Memphis/West TN or in comparision to them; but lets not let this degrade into a "who's city is better" competition. I would feel differently if LR forumers were bringing up LR in multiple threads, but with this one thread, which early had detoured into a Nashville/Memphis comparision, I'm not too concerned with the current comparision to Little Rock being discussed.

I think thats fair.

[Fellowmann20]

Your right rural king.....I just had to get my two cents in.

Anyway, on terms of which city has a denser skyline I would have to say Memphis because it has a lot of midrise older buildings. Memphis is defenitly denser than LR, and you don't need numbers to see that.

[soverbey]

I agree the Memphis skyline is defintely more dense than that of Little Rock, but Little Rock is well on its way. A friend of mine says it this way everytime we go to Little Rock or Nashville: At least they have skyscrapers built in my lifetime (the last 25 years). The Memphis skyline is nice in a nostalgic kind of way, its like looking at what Nashville and Little Rock might have looked like in 1955!

In other words, our skyline might be more dense than that of Little Rock, but one of the tallest buildings in Downtown Memphis is vacant and decaying while one of the other tallest has no signage on it and looks like black bubble wrap covers the top. At least the Little Rock skyline is appealing to the eyes, I think that's what the person from LR meant.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I agree the Memphis skyline is defintely more dense than that of Little Rock, but Little Rock is well on its way. A friend of mine says it this way everytime we go to Little Rock or Nashville: At least they have skyscrapers built in my lifetime (the last 25 years). The Memphis skyline is nice in a nostalgic kind of way, its like looking at what Nashville and Little Rock might have looked like in 1955!

In other words, our skyline might be more dense than that of Little Rock, but one of the tallest buildings in Downtown Memphis is vacant and decaying while one of the other tallest has no signage on it and looks like black bubble wrap covers the top. At least the Little Rock skyline is appealing to the eyes, I think that's what the person from LR meant.

While Memphis hasn't put up much in its old downtown in awhile, of Little Rock's 5 tallest buildings (the only ones above 300 feet), there hasn't been a new one to go up in 20 years (in fact, only 2 have gone up in the last 25 years, the other 3 were built between 1968-75), largely similar to Memphis (excluding the newly built "The Vue", which came in just 3 feet short of 300 ft), which has 5 300+ footers downtown (2 outside of downtown). Excluding the Sterick (built in 1930), the remainder were largely built between 1964-1985. I wouldn't say the current skyline resembles Nashville or Little Rock of 50 years ago, since Nashville had not a single "real" skyscraper in 1955 (not until the L&C went up in 1957), and until One Union National went up in 1968, the tallest building in L.R. was the State Capitol, with a smattering of much smaller low-rises.

[northernbizzkit1]

Actually, density of the cities are about the same. Memphis has 650,000 in 300 sq. miles, Little Rock has 200,000 in 116 sq. miles. Nashville's density is a little less than either of the other two. Memphis is quite sprawled, having 300 sq. miles. Outside of Shelby County, there isn't much population. There are larger cities all around in Little Rock's metro outside of Pulaski County. Because Little Rock is growing throughout its entire metro, it will be similar to Orlando and Salt Lake City's metro. Those two cities proper are smaller than Little Rock in population, but the metros are bigger.

I didn't include half the state, that's the census bureau that chooses the CSA. Look at Nashville's metro area...because of the size of TN, it takes up almost the entire middle of the the state from border to border.

Again, I wasn't trying to say Little Rock is bigger than either of the two. All I did was show the op that it's not as small as some people think. I also pointed out that Little Rock has the best mix of urban and scenery of the 3. The op was quite interested in landscape.

I'm curious as to which city memphis has gobbled up in the last few years.

It's funny how people are moving out of memphis, but the city is growing because they are so annex happy.

It was barely 600,000 not too long ago. It was 650,000 in the 2000 census, then in 2004, the estimate is 671,000. Did they gobble up Germantown?

a) Orlando is bigger than Little Rock and unless the Walton Family throws in a massive Wal-Mart Fun Land in LR, I doubt it will be similar in size to Orlando.

b) IMO, I have been to Little Rock and it really isn't that dense. If you look at sleepy's numbers, Memphis has roughly 700 more people per square mile than Little Rock.

c) Have you been to Memphis recently? Outside of Shelby County are two of the fastest growing counties in the nation, Desoto and Fayette. Olive Branch, Southaven, Tunica, and Fayette County in general are growing by leaps and bounds. Memphis MSA growth is certainly not restricted to Shelby County.

d) For a mix of urban and scenery, I still think Memphis is great. Does Little Rock have the largest Urban Park in the nation (Shelby Farms)? The Wolf River Green Belt is beautiful, and outer Shelby County is slightly hilly and gorgeous. Furthermore, Memphis is not limited to downtown for a skyline. You have downtown and East Memphis with noticeable skylines.

[memphman]

I didn't start this topic to compare skylines. Whoever thinks a city's skyline defines it is nuts! D.C. doesn't have tall skyscrapers, does that mean that the city is not moving forward? Absolutely Not! While it is true that Memphis' downtown skyline doesn't look like "Anycity, USA" it'll do just fine. I find it interesting that there are so many newer buildings in other parts of town and not downtown. I do believe thats why rush hour traffic in Memphis isn't as bad as other places, because there are basically "two" downtowns, midtown/medical center, and a number of other employment centers so everyone isn't bombarding the same part of town everymorning. It worked out great if you ask me!

[cdarr]

It's sad that a post intended to praise Memphis has turned into one focused on comparing it to Nashville and Little Rock.

Reading Memphman's original post, he wasn't downing Nashville. He was pointing out that SOME people he encountered there had harsh opinions of Memphis - opinions that he has personally found to be inaccurate. I have similar experiences. Yes, the folks that post on the Nashville forum (or the Tennessee forum when it was combined) are quite fair when it comes to Memphis. But I think it's safe to say that the average UP poster gives these matters a little more thought than the average Nashvillian. I believe that "Joe Nashville" tends to think of Memphis as a dirty, decaying, dying, inferior city of black ghettos. But it's a similar opinion held by many people in Germantown, Collierville, Lakeland, Arlington and Southaven. It's also wrong.

[ariesjow]

I'm going to state my two cents on this and then I'll like the thread progress back to the something positive. I understand that OP didn't mean for this to spiral into yet another city vs. city thread but when you open a thread clearly comparing cities and stating things like "Nashville has great characteristics of many cities and none of itself" then feathers are going to be ruffled and counterpoints quickly become necessary. Personally, I'm not sure how a statement like this isn't downing Nashville. Yes, it's the poster's opinion but it's also the sort of statement that spurs these debates.

I don't think the post simply meant to praise Memphis. He was also comparing the towns from the outset. If the poster solely intended to praise Memphis, then he should take care to do so without resorting to negative comments about other towns. As it stands, the original post just seems somewhat retaliatory for whatever the poster experienced with some Nashvillians.

[sleepy]

I didn't start this topic to compare skylines. Whoever thinks a city's skyline defines it is nuts! D.C. doesn't have tall skyscrapers, does that mean that the city is not moving forward? Absolutely Not! While it is true that Memphis' downtown skyline doesn't look like "Anycity, USA" it'll do just fine. I find it interesting that there are so many newer buildings in other parts of town and not downtown. I do believe thats why rush hour traffic in Memphis isn't as bad as other places, because there are basically "two" downtowns, midtown/medical center, and a number of other employment centers so everyone isn't bombarding the same part of town everymorning. It worked out great if you ask me!

Just curious, where are you from originally?

[memphman]

I'm going to state my two cents on this and then I'll like the thread progress back to the something positive. I understand that OP didn't mean for this to spiral into yet another city vs. city thread but when you open a thread clearly comparing cities and stating things like "Nashville has great characteristics of many cities and none of itself" then feathers are going to be ruffled and counterpoints quickly become necessary. Personally, I'm not sure how a statement like this isn't downing Nashville. Yes, it's the poster's opinion but it's also the sort of statement that spurs these debates.

I don't think the post simply meant to praise Memphis. He was also comparing the towns from the outset. If the poster solely intended to praise Memphis, then he should take care to do so without resorting to negative comments about other towns. As it stands, the original post just seems somewhat retaliatory for whatever the poster experienced with some Nashvillians.

I don't think I downgraded any of these towns. I apologize for saying Charlotte is boring, but maybe I just couldn't find anything to do. Little Rock just didn't have the big city feel that I was looking for. Nashville is a beautiful town, but not once did anyone up there say anything nice about the other cities. When learning of my choices those from Memphis had extremely positive things to say about Nashville, Charlotte, & Little Rock. Maybe I just talked to all of the wrong people, but my associates in Nashville didn't tell me one good thing about their city while telling me all of the bad things about Charlotte, Little Rock, and especially Memphis. I wasn't trying to compare the cities, but I thought Nashville was a country music town and nobody said anything about it. Memphians had so much history to tell me about blues, rock & roll, civil rights, etc. and thats what I meant about the city's identity. Once again I apologize for sharing my experiences, I just thought it would be interesting to share with you guys. I was merely stating how I fell in love with such a humble city with such an interesting, laid back attitude. Do keep in mind that I'm not from either of these places and whatever rivalry is going on between these cities didn't start with me. I guess I blindly put myself in the middle of a sibling fight. I still love this place!

[memphman]

By the way, I visited the Stax Museum and took a tour of St. Jude! Absolutely wonderful! Don't think I'm just an out of control tourist with too much time on my hands. My work requires some of the visiting that I do, and I do some on my own. Either way, I enjoy seeing new things.

[Clobber]

I don't think I downgraded any of these towns. I apologize for saying Charlotte is boring, but maybe I just couldn't find anything to do. Little Rock just didn't have the big city feel that I was looking for. Nashville is a beautiful town, but not once did anyone up there say anything nice about the other cities. When learning of my choices those from Memphis had extremely positive things to say about Nashville, Charlotte, & Little Rock. Maybe I just talked to all of the wrong people, but my associates in Nashville didn't tell me one good thing about their city while telling me all of the bad things about Charlotte, Little Rock, and especially Memphis. I wasn't trying to compare the cities, but I thought Nashville was a country music town and nobody said anything about it. Memphians had so much history to tell me about blues, rock & roll, civil rights, etc. and thats what I meant about the city's identity. Once again I apologize for sharing my experiences, I just thought it would be interesting to share with you guys. I was merely stating how I fell in love with such a humble city with such an interesting, laid back attitude. Do keep in mind that I'm not from either of these places and whatever rivalry is going on between these cities didn't start with me. I guess I blindly put myself in the middle of a sibling fight. I still love this place!

It's always great to hear different perspectives about our fair city. No reason to apologize for that.

[cdarr]

Memphman, I agree with Clobber. No need to appologize. Perhaps some of the folks from Nashville aren't used to hearing much outside criticism. Memphis gets it all the time, so we're used to it!

I lived in Nashville as a teenager and return there at least once or twice a year to visit, but I've lived in Memphis for most of the rest of my life and consider it my home town. I think Nashville is a great city, and I wish Memphis had some of its characteristics - particularly its higher self-image. But I agree that Memphis has a more distinct and original culture than Nashville. This is not a slight against Nashville - it simply isn't the same city it was even 22 years ago when I moved there, due in large part to high growth rates and a conscious effort by its leaders to take on a more progressive, upscale image and to leave behind the Hee Haw days of the 1970s and the Bill Boner days of 1980s.

Memphis, lacking some of the economic advantages of Nashville and thus the high growth rates, took a different route...embracing and promoting its traditions and its history. This is why you often hear people say that Memphis feels more "authentic". It's all there to take in, pretty or not-so-pretty.

[northernbizzkit1]

I agree...why should Memphman have to apologize for being one of the few people to have a long praise of Memphis? So what if he's the first person on here to say Charlotte, Nashville, and Little Rock aren't as great as some of the others on UP...it's great to have him in Memphis!

[mandrws1]

I'm new to Memphis and I'm already in love with the place. Out of all the southern cities I've been too, this is definitely the realest (besides New Orleans maybe). Atlanta is "Atlanta", Charlotte is definitely boring, Nashville has great characteristics of many cities and none of itself. I had the opportunity to relocate to Memphis, Nashville, or Little Rock. Little Rock being too small was out of the question and so many people in Nashville exerted so much energy into putting Memphis down instead of telling me good things about their city. The people of Memphis were so laid back and acted as if they could care less if I moved here or not, while being the nicest people ever. I've been to an NBA game, Overton Square, Beale Street, Cooper-Young, the Pinch, and club after club. When do you people find time to sleep or work?!!!! Memphis is so gritty and has so much character. Its not too big, but not too small either. I hope I don't get transferred anytime soon. Is the crime as bad as some people make it out to be? My company's offices in Nashville had me to believe that I'd be a murder victim as soon as I entered the city limits LOL!

You should really enjoy yourself this month! The city is full of events and activities.

[AmandaHugginkiss]

Hopefully, I will be posting a "I'm new to Memphis" thread. Me and friends like to visit Memphis once a year, preferrably around Memphis in May. I agree with the nightlife. I left Beale Street at 5:00am once and saw people STILL partying. My kinda' city.

[HKG]

Hopefully, I will be posting a "I'm new to Memphis" thread. Me and friends like to visit Memphis once a year, preferrably around Memphis in May. I agree with the nightlife. I left Beale Street at 5:00am once and saw people STILL partying. My kinda' city.

May is when this city is best! I think you just missed it.

[AmandaHugginkiss]

Yeah, I am in the city now and today is the last day, but the city has so much more to offer; something else will keep me busy .

Mayor Herenton vs. Joe Frazier for charity event? Interesting?

[Bears]

Yeah, I am in the city now and today is the last day, but the city has so much more to offer; something else will keep me busy .

Mayor Herenton vs. Joe Frazier for charity event? Interesting?

The mayor vs Smokin' Joe Frazier? Only in Memphis I love this town

[AmandaHugginkiss]

The mayor vs Smokin' Joe Frazier? Only in Memphis I love this town

I saw Herenton "running off at the mouth" about the fight. I would love to go but will be leaving Tuesday . When is the "fight?"