Nashville really wants to be a big city...

When I tell people that I grew up in Nashville, many times they are amazed. I get responses like "I've never met anyone FROM Nashville" everybody moves here from somewhere else. I had a friend that moved here from Chicago, he remarked that the quality of life here was so much better than it was up north. I told him "We are glad that you are here, you are welcome to stay, however, please don't call your family and friends and tell them how good it is here, you'll just mess it up"

I don't want to sound like a geezer, but Nashville really has gone through a lot of changes since I was a kid. I can remember NEVD which stood for "Nashville Extra Value Days". Back when all of the department stores were downtown, they would have a week during the summer where all of the stores would have outdoor sales. We would ride the bus downtown and spend the day. As a kid, it was amazing to see it all. It looked like New York City to me. Then came the malls...all of the stores left downtown and moved to the suburbs. Downtown Nashville was a ghost town for several years. It was sad to go there and see all of the boarded up stores.

The first time that I ever visited Chicago, I made a point to see the Chicago Art Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum of Natural History. I made the remark when I got back that the closest thing Nashville had to that was "Barbara Mandrell Country". Over the years, Nashville has come a long way. We actually have some really cool cultural places. The Ryman auditorium is now a very cool music venue, we have Frist Center for the Visual Arts and now the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

Here's the thing, Nashville is great. But, in my opinion, Nashville has always been struggling to become a big city. For some reason, the measure of a big city seems to be the number of sports teams that it can have. I can remember when the Nashville Sounds (AAA baseball team) began playing here. I was in high school and was a part of the opening celebration for the stadium. They have been the AAA affiliate for several pro teams over the years. Over the last few years, they've worked on a project to get a new stadium built downtown. The deal fell through and now some of the investors are suing the team to get their money back. It's a mess.

The Predators were the first real major league team to come to Nashville. They are in their ninth season now (does hockey have an off-season?) but the owner has lost money every year. A local team of business men are trying to buy the club and keep it in Nashville. My opinion is, that is not going to work, the team will wind up moving.

The Titans are our success story. They seem to be doing well, drawing plenty of fans and will likely stay for a long time.

But, will Nashville ever be a big city? I am not sure. I doubt that it will ever be like an Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago or New York. But that's ok. It's still a great place to live. Just don't go telling everybody...