As Nashville becomes an increasingly popular destination for tourists and major companies, multiple local residents lamented the changing nature of their home.
While Nashville has long been known as a popular destination for country music enthusiasts, barbecue lovers, and bachelorette parties, it has also emerged more recently as an American boomtown. The Wall Street Journal released a piece Sunday headlined, “Nashville Is Booming. Locals Fret About Their Future in Music City,” about how this change stirs mixed feelings among locals.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison announced Tuesday that he plans to move the software giant’s corporate headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, which he added is at the center of the healthcare industry. While moving the company’s “world headquarters” there may be an economic boon to the state, the question remains whether incoming tech companies will raise the local cost of living beyond what longtime residents can afford.
The Journal wrote about how one resident, Remacia Smith, fled from the city to the suburbs to avoid skyrocketing housing prices. “It almost doesn’t look like Nashville anymore,” the mother of 5 said. “Whew Lord, I wish people would stop moving here.”
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Healthcare industry worker Danielle Dunaway, who moved to the area about 5 years ago, said that she is concerned about affordability as well.
“I already pay a pretty penny to live here,” she told the WSJ. “I can afford it, but I don’t know how much longer I can justify it.”
There may also be a cultural price as well, as there is when much of the local population of a city becomes tech workers from other parts of the country.
“Nashville’s always been a big town that felt like a small town,” lifelong resident John Michael Morgan told WSJ, “Now we’re a big town that feels like a big town.”
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The Journal also included a comment from a local realtor who defended the changes happening to the area.
“There are pain points of this growth,” 35-year-old real-estate agent Kate Webster said, who has lived there for the past 14 years. “But at the end of the day, I’d rather live in a city that is growing than one that is declining.”
