Bachelorettes, Bibles and Amazon: the Nashville boom causes growing pains | towns

If you're looking for signs of Nashville's entrepreneurial spirit, ask Robbie Goldsmith why he decided to quit his job.

"I lived downtown and we went out on Broadway because it was fun and we naturally saw more and more of these bachelorette parties and they came up [me] and ask what [they]What Goldsmith has done is to leave his job in the company to create his company, Bach Weekend, he says while walking in Broadway, which, despite the beginning of the afternoon, gives already a party atmosphere with a puddle of beer spilled and hamburgers drifting across the wide sidewalks.

According to Goldsmith, the sidewalks had to be widened when the number of tourists soared in recent years.

About 14 million people visit the city each year, according to the Chamber of Commerce. This year, about 100,000 people are expected to appear at the end of April only for the draft National Football League (NFL). To explain its choice of city, the NFL has released a listing citing Nashville's music, barbecue and Broadway among the factors that make it the perfect location for 2019.

Nashville, unequivocally, is an example of economic success, not just in recent years, when outlets like the New York Times dubbed it the "city of computing."

The mid-sized city in the south of the country is firmly anchored in the health services sector and publishing Christian books since the 1980s and has been growing strongly for some time. With the development of a thriving tourism industry, the success of its economic development is evident, among the gentrified neighborhoods and the crowds of visitors pbading neck and neck as they explore the live music options while looking for places at the bar.

"We just had the perfect time Nashville became a thriving city," Goldsmith cries about George Jones' live music. Part of its success, he badumes, is that about 87% of the country is a short drive from Nashville.

As Goldsmith strolls down the main street, he points out that none of the downtown bars, from purple-painted purple-painted staple, to two-storey live music offering George Jones to the vast Jason Aldean Rooftop bar , does not charge for coverage. They do not need to do it: he estimates the average single and each of his friends or family members spends about a thousand dollars in Nashville. And since Goldsmith estimates that about 150,000 visitors dance, drink and make selfie in Nashville each year, that's about $ 12 million in revenue. Goldsmith's services became so popular that Country Music Television offered him a reality show for one season while his company was escorting party-goers to the city.

But the capital of Tennessee attracts more than noisy visitors on the weekends. Nashville, once known as the country's music capital, is also one of America's fastest growing cities, and its economy is often cited as a successful model.

According to a report published in 2018 by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, about 94 people stayed there daily in 2017, and the city has added nearly 400,000 new residents over the past decade.

They are attracted by 40,000 growing businesses in the metropolitan area. Amazon, which will soon open a new downtown operations center, promises to create 5,000 new high-paying jobs.

Such growth inevitably creates problems, "said Anne Barnett, Co-Chair of Stand Up Nashville, a community-based labor organization representing workers' rights in the city. By battling the effects of gentrification, transportation pressures and the construction boom, Nashville is trying to maintain its unique sense of identity and accessibility.

"One of the things that makes Nashville Nashville It's his rich culture of art and gastronomy, most of which do not come from the wealthiest, "Barnett said. "It comes from the middle clbad and below the middle clbad.

"While people are being kicked out of the city, these much-loved institutions, even restaurants and concert halls, are being demolished to allow the development of these mixed uses. Whole neighborhoods are essentially destroyed and rebuilt.

"The longer we let it go, Nashville will lose its culture, which is why people want to move to Nashville in the first place."

Barnett recently visited the hometown of Amazon, Seattle, where she said she witnessed an extreme crisis of housing and homelessness. With these problems already plaguing Nashville, she worries about the situation that could worsen when the technological giant Jeff Bezos arrives in the city.

Nashville City Council this month approved a $ 17.5 million incentive package for Amazon, despite concerns over the level of compensation for these jobs and the widespread anxiety surrounding Big's arrival Tech who upset the plans of the city of New York. Barnett wonders how many of these jobs will be attributed to city-dwellers compared to transplant recipients, and whether the majority of hires belong to the latter category, which it will do to aggravate Nashville's economic inequality.

The mayor's office, according to the Tennessean newspaper, insists that the approved package is a "wise investment". The city's unemployment rate is only 2.7% and the job growth sector in the United States was in Orlando, Florida, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

City Mayor David Briley said, "I would describe our city as a place that still retains much of our Southern hospitality, in a good sense of what it meant. We have become very economically diversified [and] racially. "

On Amazon, before endorsing the incentive, Mr. Briley said, "First, it's a good place to build them, and two jobs, that's something we could integrate into our growth and our development without being overwhelmed.

The mayor estimates that Amazon's investment will reach $ 750 million a year on the basis of 5,000 jobs and a median salary of $ 150,000. He says the city will also invest $ 2.5 million a year.

But Barnett says, "There were a lot of cranes in the sky [in Seattle] and it really reminded me of some of the things we see here in Nashville: lots of new luxury apartments, lots of office buildings and hotels. I fear that we will become a city for the rich people and not a city that raises everyone. "

Bibles and countries

Nashville has been growing since the 1980s. Its large health sector employs over 250,000 people, a significant figure in a city of 700,000.

It is also the center of biblical printing of the United States. LifeWay Christian Resources, for example, the publisher of the Southern Baptist Convention, employs more than 1,100 people in Nashville and has been part of the city since 1891. HarperCollins' Christian publishing division is also in the city and sells more 60 million Bibles worldwide. last five years.

At the same time, the city's music industry generates an annual economic impact of $ 10 billion on the city – through job creation, tourism and the appeal of the film industry, according to a report of 2013.

Marcus Cobb, 41, left Chicago to settle here four years ago to develop his music technology company, Jammber, with the help of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. At first he was reluctant to move, but when he did, it changed his life.

"It's one of the few cities where all businesses are within two or two miles," said Cobb, sitting in one of the center's conference rooms. "Everything from the publication of anthems to the production of records and labels, everything is in this playground. This has proven to be an accelerator for us. "

Cobb's startup is now used by 400 companies, with more than 15,000 users in five countries. "I think it's the only city where we could have done it with our budget," he said, "largely because of the community we belong to."

Part of Nashville's rising economic star can be attributed to the core investments that the city has made in its existing and new residents with incentives such as the Entrepreneur Nonprofit Center, which was launched in 2010 The center is currently working with 250 entrepreneurs. 500 old.

"Our vision is [for Nashville] being the best place to start a business by 2025 is our goal, "said Anne Elizabeth McIntosh, vice president of community investments at the center.

Gentrification: average cost of a house up to $ 75,000

The bright image of Nashville, however, showed one of the usual successes: inequality.

Ryan Culwell, a musician, moved here with his wife in 2010, for career reasons. He ended up getting a record deal and an advertisement in Rolling Stone. His music has been featured in shows such as Hart of Dixie and The Ranch by Netflix, but he still has to work twice, like driving car parts, to pay the rent.

Long-time resistant in a popular and diverse neighborhood south of Nashville, Culwell also does kindergarten for his children, believing that education provided by local public schools was not enough.

Even in this popular district, his family of six is ​​quickly put out of price of his home of 200 m². "Our rent has gone up 50% in the last five years," he said. "It could easily have doubled but our owner has kept it because he [sees] we as a little family. "

According to a Brookings report in 2017, "In Nashville, 40% of all jobs (and 26 of the top 50 occupations) do not pay enough for workers to pay fair rent for a one bedroom apartment.

City data show that the average cost of a home has increased by $ 75,000 over the last decade. The mayor admits that it is a problem and said, "We are certainly witnessing gentrification in our historically black neighborhoods in particular. Although we have it in traditionally white neighborhoods, too.

"The opportunity is why I'm always here"

The trend towards gentrification is evident in the neighborhood between Music Row and downtown, The Gulch, an area full of restaurants and boutique hotels. Just a few years ago, it was a railway corridor. Here, singles wearing matching shirts and tiaras form a line, ready to take Instagram-ready photos in front of a wall painted with wings.

Ruby Amanfu is an American-Ghanaian singer and songwriter who has lived in the city from time to time since the age of three, but has always made her way back.

"L & # 39; opportunity [in Nashville] That's why my family came and why I'm always here, "she explains at a breakfast at Marsh House, located in the Thompson Hotel, a basic product. of Gulch. As she was in Nashville, she attended schools with a focus on the arts, where they had a state-of-the-art studio and were able to film as a teenager, she says.

In recent years she has worked with R & B star, HER and Jack White, and has sung on Beyoncé's album Lemoine. It would not have been possible elsewhere, says Amanfu. "Wherever I go, people say, 'Oh, you're from Nashville. Country music.

"So we had to create this community … The peasant community will always be welcomed, but now diversity is investing in music. And it goes so much further than this city.

Mayor Briley agrees with Amanfu, but adds that the city aims for diversity not only in its music and industries, but also in the community as a whole. Briley considers Atlanta and Los Angeles as the most reasonable models for the city's ambition.

"We are more likely to look like LA than in Atlanta," he says, though it may be more wishful thinking than reality. It highlights the diverse population of Nashville with the influx of immigrants and the multitude of jobs. Nevertheless, he recognizes the myriad of problems that accompany success – such as the growing wealth and extreme poverty that plagues Los Angeles. He would also like to stay away from the stigma badociated with Atlanta's gentrification problems that seem to have driven long-term residents out of the expanding city.

Barnett, however, says the city should not try to be like any other city except itself. "Nashville will lose its culture. It's not just individuals coming out of the street, it's the heart of the city.

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, follow our best stories or subscribe to our weekly newsletter