Birdsnest wrote:
That's some crazy stuff in your hood Chandlerman.
Not to mention the scooter crashes!
Seriously, though, East Nashville is an area that's "in transition." It's just over the river from downtown (I'm two miles away from downtown and can see the skyline from my front windows) and Oracle is building their new global HQ about 3/4 of a mile from me.
The original 1920's houses here are being bought up and either renovated or torn down and replaced with 2-3 "
tall skinnies," which are as the name implies, tall skinny houses much like a greystones/brownstones or townhouse in older cities, but that's a piecemeal process. Nashville's government is really into increasing housing density, which is creating some interesting economic dynamics, especially when combined with the large numbers of people moving here from California, Chicago, and other major cities where even the high-end housing here is considered "cheap" and thus crowding local buyers out of the market.
A non-trivial number of those "tall skinnies" are being bought by investors and used as AirBnB's until they flip them, resulting in a lot of DUI's, Public Intoxication, and general stupidity by tourists, too. There are three such properties a block up my street, and there's one a couple blocks over from me that has had multiple parties that turned into brawls or shots fired this year. I slept through the shooting, but all the news helicopters circling it for "live morning reports" woke me up early the next morning.
Several big housing projects and Section 8 (subsidized housing) apartment complexes around me have also been closed and are being renovated or torn down for redevelopment, which is displacing a lot of long-time residents, too.
You can really see it in the turnover of the businesses on the local commercial strips, though. The sketchy restaurants, used tire stores, payday loan places and pawn shops are all going away, being replaced with wine bars (yay!), hip restaurants, and boutiques.
And as is always the case with major demographic and economic disruption, it creates a lot of chaos for the local criminals. I remember when they started closing down
Cabrini Green in Chicago and it led to some unbelievable gang wars and shootouts as the gangs in one high rise would be displaced and forced to try and take another gang's territory.
Funny thing is, even with all that, my insurance is significantly *cheaper* here than it was in Chicago.
