AboutJan Duke Expertise Whether you are visiting Nashville for a day or a lifetime,I can humbly show and guide you through every aspect of what this great city has to offer.
Experience I've written over 1000 articles about Nashville and/or Tennessee, have one published book on the topic, and have had numerous articles and photographs published locally and throughout the world.
Currently I operate and or run several websites and blogs including Nashville.About.com (for the NYT) as well several other local websites.
I'm a longtime resident of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, having Tennessee Lineages that date back to the 18th century.
Question We have visited Nashville and have talked about one day moving there. While I hate country music, I believe Nashville is also the Contemporary Christian music capitol as well, so we'd be ok. I would like some information on a list of topics:
-cost of living/housing
-churches (sizes, denominations, etc.)
-schools/colleges
-traffic
-crime
-best suburbs and neighborhoods
-year round weather/threat of natural disasters
-arts for children (acting/theatre, music, etc.)
-community pools/skating, etc.
-homeschool co-ops
-bugs (yes I said bugs. where I live now we are swarmed with boxelders and asian lady bugs in spring and fall. Also in my area are silver fish, thousand leggers and various spiders. Florida has palmettos. Arizona has scorpians and snakes. New York has rats and roaches. What does Nashville have?)
thanks!
Answer Hi Darcey,
Yes Nashville does have a huge Christian base and is also home to Lifeway.
-cost of living/housing
Extremely low compared with the reat of the nation..Exactly How Low? I'm really not sure on the figures but you can also expect a pay-cut even with a lateral move. When I moved hereyears ago, I took a 35% paycut but my standard of living went up. Unemployment has always been low (under 5%) and this year it actually went down again.
-churches (sizes, denominations, etc.)
Nashville is in the top ten cities for churches per square foot, there's one on just about every street corner.
-schools/colleges
There's about 20 colleges within driving distance to Nashville these include Belmont, Vanderbilt, and MTSU.
Schools in Davidson County do not have high marks although they are scoring better than in years past,there are plenty in the suburbs that score as high-achievement.
-traffic
Most Commute to Nashville from the suburbs, the average comute time to get across town in rush hour is about 45 minutes. Locals tend to not use turn signals to change lanes and they will brake on the interstates too.
-crime
Nashville has a new police chief who's doing a great job,crime showed a huge decrease last year. There are a few gangs in the area but overall you can go nearly anywhere at night by yourself without a big worry.If I remember corrctly, the biggest crime is burgulary.
-best suburbs and neighborhoods
Williamson County, Belle Meade, Brentwood area although if you want more country style remote living I would move north and west of Nashvile as those area's are less developed.
-year round weather/threat of natural disasters
High humidity in the summer, a few ice storms and maybe some snow a few times a year. Great weather in the spring and fall 60-75 degrees average. Tornados are the #1 natural diaster.
-arts for children (acting/theatre, music, etc.)
Belmont offers a great music program and there is also a Children Theatre in town.
-community pools/skating, etc.
I have 2 children and am never at a loss for things for them to do in the area. Trust me your children will never get bored here. There are dozens and dozens of programs geared for children..from Ice skating to the museums.. It will take you years to venture into it all. From Nashville you can also get to several other area's within a few hours drive such as Huntsville, which offer a Space Museum, Atlanta, which offers Six Flags, Dollywood, Land between the Lakes, Metropolis, home of Superman etc.
-homeschool co-ops
Tennessee in general has more homeschoolers than most other places around the country. I know of at least a 1/2 dozen co-ops in the area. Every year at least one local homeschooler makes it to the nationals in either Spelling or other subjects.
-bugs
Nashville does have asian ladybugs, but not tons of them. We have recluse spiders, ticks and chiggers along with copperheads and a few rattle snakes.
