Ideally, you’d have more than a few days to explore a city – let alone two cities. My stepdaughter, Carolyn, comes in to Memphis late tonight. I think tomorrow, we’ll stick around here for a little bit – maybe go to the Civil Rights Museum, and then around lunch time hit the road towards Nashville (which reminds me, I still have to sell my extra ticket for the show tomorrow night). We should be able to get in to town early enough for her to see Broadway, have some dinner, and make our way over to the show. I figure we’ll spend the morning in Nashville, and then try to get back down to Memphis in the early afternoon on Saturday. I’ll show her around town a bit – we’ll go t Beale St. and maybe the S. Main area (Ernestine and Hazel’s, Central Station, Green Beetle). She flies back out mid-morning on Sunday. Not nearly enough time to see either city.
I’ve only been to Nashville one other time – I spent a weekend there when I was interviewing for the CEO position of the United Way of Western Tennessee. I also made my way down to Memphis for an informal coffee interview at the job that brought me here. Nashville wasn’t my favorite city. Granted, I only got to see downtown, and I don’t doubt there’s much more to the city than what I saw. Broadway was fun, in the way that Vegas is fun – in fact a lot of people call the city Nashvegas. There were dozens of Bachelorette parties – it’s the Bachelorette party capital of the country. I heard it was quite the cultural mix when the NFL draft was in town. The Bachelorettes all wear the same t-shirts, and ride in booze buses up and down Broadway. The music from the buses drowns out the music from the Honky Tonks, and there are plenty of drunken shrill screams of woo-hooo. When I was there, to get away from the hustle, I walked over towards Vanderbilt University and the large park that has the Parthenon (yes, the city has a full-size replica). I also walked through a couple of downtown neighborhoods (Music Row and the Gulch). I’m not a Country music fan, so the Hall of Fame had no interest for me. I suppose if I had more time, I would have liked to explore East Nashville – it’s supposed to be one of the cooler neighborhoods. Carolyn and I won’t have time either.
When I moved to Memphis, one of the things I learned was that people here don’t like to talk about Nashville. There’s a bit of a chip on the shoulder down here. For many years, Memphis was the largest city in the state. Nashville is now the fastest growing city in the country (I’ve heard anywhere from 50 – 100 new residents a day). I know a guy on the city council – he says the infrastructure can’t keep up and the traffic is terrible. There’s no traffic here in Memphis. There’s also no infrastructure. Not only did Nashville outgrow Memphis, but many of the best BBQ joints in Memphis opened up shops in Nashville – making Nashville a legit spot for BBQ. Then there’s the music. Memphis is the birthplace of Blues, Soul, and Rock and Roll – but Nashville has been dubbed music city. Nearly every artist that was big in Memphis, got bigger in Nashville. Musicians from all genres are going to Nashville to record and play and be seen. Both cities have their version of Bourbon St. Nashville has Broadway and Memphis has Beale St. – a small strip with lots of bars, all of them with live music everyday of the week. The difference is, not nearly as many people visit it Beale St., it has more crime, and it is considerably more black – people will and have drawn correlations between race, crime, and commercial viability. The locals in both cities avoid those streets as tourist traps. Race is a huge difference between the two cities. Nashville is 65% white and Memphis is 65% black. The history in Memphis is also much more troubling. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated here, race riots took place here, lynchings and murders too – that type of history doesn’t go away – it’s in the bones of this place. Yet, there’s also an honesty and acceptance of what’s happened here. Apparently after Dr. King’s assassination, the city nearly collapsed. Everybody left, and while it’s had some revivals, only now is it starting to come back – the question is for whom. For as much as Memphis doesn’t like Nashville (as the state capital, Nashville also gets the lion’s share of appropriations, and the Tennessee Titans used the city of Memphis for a year as a springboard in to Nashville…) the folks in Nashville aren’t always too keen on Memphis. The general perception (according to the 2.6 people I’ve talked to) is that it’s a dirty city with too much crime. According to statistics, Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities in the country – I doubt any busloads of bachelorettes (mostly white) are going to venture down here to party. It bugs me that Memphis has that reputation – it hasn’t been my experience. To it’s credit, Memphis has leaned in to it’s reputation… it’s called itself Grind City. There’s a grittiness here that reminds me of Philly, but nicer.
As an outsider to both cities, I have no real reason to dislike either of them. As a resident of Memphis – I think it’s a city on the move. I’ve felt perfectly safe here – I walk around fairly late at night and alone. Most of the people I’ve met have been incredibly nice and helpful to me. With only three hours between the two cities, I’ve been making some friends up in Nashville – I’m hoping to one day get the insider’s scoop and tour. For now, I’ll continue to jump in to Memphis culture with both feet (until I decide not to), and maybe be a little skeptical of that city to the north.