Talk to me about Nashville...

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Maxinquaye

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Raleigh, NC
Some events have happened on my life lately that got me to thinking about my long term goals after goofing the last few months off since graduating college. Living in San Diego any longer does not facilitate any of the potential roads I want to travel. I'm ready to cast my vote to kick Davis out, then pretty much leave the state. I have been researching places to live and Nashville keeps popping in my head. Any Nashville TFL members who would be willing to help me with some questions will get a free beer when I make my move :D

I'm wondering about the economy there. I have read good things, but they were printed by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce :rolleyes: ;) How are technology jobs? I would prefer to stay in IT / Systems Administration (management level), but am open to pretty much anything including sales, whatever. I have a B.S. in Business with an emphasis in High Tech Management. How are saleries out there? I make over 60K right now, and piss away $1200 a month on rent. I'm eligable for a VA home loan; can I get a nice house around there for $125-175K?? One of my prime motivations for moving is that I *really* want to buy a house. Would love to have an $800 mortgage :)

I know TN has CCW. Can I get an FL out of state until I meet TN residency requirements? Is there a waiting period to buy an AR (First thing i'm gonna do :))

How is traffic? Is there good sushi in town? How about the symphony?

Any help appreciated, I'm sure I'll have more questions as I think of them.

MANY Thanks,

Eric
 
Let's address this questions one by one:

1) Jobs. Nashville is a fairly easy place to get a job in virtually any field. The economy around here continues to grow, which was a prime motivator for me deciding to reside here after I retired from the Army last fall.

2) Homes / Mortgages. You can easily find a decent place to live around here fairly inexpensively. A 2 - 3 br, 2.5 ba, 2 car garage house here can go anywhere from 100K on up, depending on which part of the area you live in. A VA home loan is good for up to 240K, so you shouldn't have a problem, and with interest rates as low as they are, you can't ask for a better time to buy.

3) CCW. A Florida CCW permit will be ok for 90 days from the time you move to TN. That will give you sufficient time to switch your residency to TN, take an approved course, apply for your permit, and recieve it in the mail. All you need to do to show residency is swap your driver's license, which only requires a current bill (such as a BellSouth bill) showing a TN address. The courses in the area are fairly inexpensive, as is the permit fee.

4) Waiting period. The day you get your driver's lincense switched you can walk into a gun store with cash/check/credit and walk out with an AR. No silly waiting periods here in the Volunteer State. Just the way I like it!

I look forward to seeing you at our TN THR Range Days. If you need any additional help, drop me a PM.

Frank
 
Maxinquaye,

I'm a converted Nashvillian myself. I've been here almost 10 years. I finished my college career and decided to stay rather than go back home.

I'll try to do my best in answering your qusetions.

Job market. Well just like everywhere else, it's tight here in Music City. You do have a good thing going for you that you are in a technology field. That and health care seem to be the most available jobs out here. Next would problly come sales then hospitatlity . I'm currently sending out resumes and doing the job search thing myself. The saleries seem to be pretty comparable. Average Computer Network Admin (Most generic title I could find to do a search that sounded close to what you do) salary is about 65k. The low and high being about 50K and 80K respectivly. Throw in an additional 25-30K for top benefits and bonuses.

Housing - Figure about what your are paying in rent for a nice 3-4 bed room 2 1/2 bath with garage. Approximatly 1,150 to 1,400 sq ft. Your actual mortgage for this can quite popssibly be around the $800 mark . Once you figure taxes, utiilities etc. etc. It will mostlikly be about what you pay for rent now or a little less. But hey it's equity then , not wasted. You won't have any problems finding a nice house for the $125k - $175K. Houses are selling realy good in middle TN.

Gun stuff. - First look at packing .org if you haven't already. Great information source.

Yes you can get a FL non resident and TN will accept it. There are no wating periods on the firearms. You just need a valid TN DL, have a certificate that says you passed the state carry class, the cash for the license and that's it (Go to www.tennessee.gov and navigate to the Laws section and you can see all the requiements needed for the handgun carry permit)

Traffic sucks at times. TDOT is trying to work on all the major interstaes at the same time. Rush hour can be brutal if your in certain spots. Butt generally you can get to a destination in a bout 20 mins or so from any direction. Unless the destination is a few counties away or something like that.

Sushi- Don't know about. Try citysearch.com and query resturants. There is a lot of good chineese and mexican spots.

I've never had the opportunity to go and hear the symphony but from what I've been told they are very excellent. We also get are share of good broadway and theatre productions.

Hope this info helps out.


...Dave
 
Thanks Davidtdm and OEF_VET. It's so refreshing to hear that my technical skills are still appreciated somewhere. Out here I've had the good fortune to be a one man show in a successful small company. My job is secure unless I screw up. Friends in the industry working for larger companies have not fared so well...

What is a good neighborhood for a young single guy to live in? I do like to go out shooting pool and dancing, but I don't like to drink and drive! So, anything within short taxi drive from an area with decent nightlife is what I am looking for. Would like to probably rent a small house to get started and then buy in the same neighborhood once I'm settled. A garage is a must since I'm also a woodworker. For those reasons, downtown living does not appeal to me. The neighborhood I live in now is walking distance from a "village" area with bars, coffee shops, etc. I don't know if such places exist in Nashville, but that's the kind of thing I would be looking for. I have scoured the web unsuccessfully; does anyone know of a good "neighborhood guide" to Nashville accessable online?

I'm considering taking a fact finding trip out there in a few weeks. The more I think about this, the more I'd rather do it sooner then later. Maybe I'll time my move with the special recall election, so the last thing I do on my way out of town is hit the polls and throw the bum out...*evil grin*
 
I lived in Memphis for many years. MEM is about 4 hours west. MEM is a war zone. Nashville, OTOH is very nice. Pretty country too. Some good resturants - the names of which all escape me just now.

Memphis is worth the trip for gun realted activity. I'd recommmend Tom Givens at RangeMaster for your required 8 hour CCW class.

www.rangemaster.com

Yes, people teach it in Nashville, but Tom (an ex Gunsite man) goes way beyond the minimum requirements set down by the state. It's well worth your time and expense. While there, be sure to go to Guns and Ammo on Summer Ave. (Bert has a couple of other stores by the same name, but they are small). G&A has a great inventory and extremely good prices.

You'd be about a 10 or 12 hour drive to Tulsa. The Tulsa gun show has about 4,000 (yes, 4K) tables and is worth the trip. I went to the fall show from MEM for years.

If I were to move back to TN, Nashville would be where I would go. You'd enjoy it.
 
How about Huntsville?

Huntsville is just a piece down the road. Lot's of space and defense contractors. Someone is always looking for a computer geek. CCW is about $10/yr.

4hrs from Memphis
2hrs from Nashville
4hrs from Atlanta
2hrs from B'ham
7hrs from Redneck Rivierra (Gulf Shores)
2hrs from Chattanooga


Johnny in Huntsville
 
I think most of your questions have been answered...except traffic. T DOT
tries to keep 7 projects going at ALL times. Seems like there is road work going no matter where you go. I've lived here 50 ...well OK 53 years ...hasn't run me off yet. Nashville is a great place to live! HOT and sticky in the summer, cold enough in the winter! Beautiful spring and fall...you'll love it , come on down. We've got a few shooting ranges, too.
Mark
 
If you're looking for a decent neighborhood with a good nightlife that's close to downtown, I'd suggest the Hillsboro Village area. It's the area around Vanderbilt University. It's a very short taxi ride to the 'District'. Hillsboro also has quite a few good bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and stores. There are also several good sushi places, Ken's and Taste of Tokyo being the two that most come to mind. For billiards, Hillsboro has a place called Pool H-Cue, and there is Buffalo Billiard's downtown on 2nd Ave. North. For coffee shops, you have a Starbucks, Fido, Sip of Seattle, and Bongo Java, all fairly close together. Hillsboro is a very nice little village, smack down in the center of a major city, with an international reknowned university providing a very diverse population. From the description you give of your desires, I'd definitly suggest looking into it.

My fiancee lives in Hillsboro Village right now, so I'm fairly familiar with it.

Frank

P.S. Try going to www.rent.com and do a search for apartments that fit your criteria. When you find some you like, send me a PM and I'll try to give you some more info on the area.
 
Well jobs....they are so so. If you are a shineing new employee with tons of expereience or degreess....its wide open. Starting out, can be tough just like any place. But its actualy not horrible around here. remember cost of living here is alot less than out there, so a 60k a year job here, is like a millionare I swear. I work non profit and dont get anywhere near that and Im confortable, abet without many new toys but i make do.

living. Well its pretty cheap, if you know how to live and where to live. rent for a NICE apartment in a nice area, 1br is around 600 or so. Mine is very nice abet a bit small but is around 600. Last one was a little less but not as nice or in a good area. Home prices are about 150k for a nice house on a small plot in the city. you can grab a smaller older house on land for probaly under 100k just outside of nashville proper. Cost of living tho is cheap. Apartment wise...water and sewer is around 20 a month, gas around 30 a month, electricity around 50 a month, those fluxuate a bit with weather but not horribly. Cable and cable modem around 100. I live on about 50 a week in groceries here by myself. You arent going to find a place near the hot spots downtown or the bar/club scene so you can get a quick ride back, those places are in the 1200-2000 a month range it seems, unless you are near Vandy and live with college kids. but cabs can be called, they dont usualy run so you flag them down like bigger cities, and shouldnt be more than 10 bucks id guess to get to any major burb to bed back down at.

everyone else can fill you in on the ccw laws. we have a small active chapter of us here. Darrin, Dave, OEF, the slingers, oleg, runt, intune, glockten, I and a few others im sure that are getting together more often than not to shoot and hangout. We now have a little of everything here. Darrin the phone dude, me the computer geek, oleg the mad photographer, runt the designer, the slingers ability to play great hosts, dave to act a nut, OEF to remind us why we have an army, intune to have SOME story of something....we are wide and diverse just in nashville. there is usualy atleast one of us shooting every week it seems tho.

i moved here from upper east tennessee cause of jobs mostly. i do like it alot down here. yea i miss the mountains of east tn but this is a great place i do believe. people still wave at ya or nod when you go buy, maybe not down town tho.... we a bunch of good ol' boys and girls down here
 
I moved to Nashville in 1981. Lived here a couple years and left for 4 years. Travelled all over the country. Came back here and stayed. I really like it.

It is a very gun friendly place.

Come and check it out.



einnor
 
Now c’mon, an easy 50% of those stories are TRUE! I moved here in ’84 after living in a bunch of states and quite a few countries. I really do like it here. I live in a suburb of Nashville 24 miles from driveway to Music Row. Not a bad commute at all to have great schools for the kids, 2,900 sq ft house on 1.2 acres with a big ol’ lake right here and my mortgage is par with your current rent. There is some surprisingly good sushi here for being a landlocked state. Let us know when you’re coming to town & we’ll take a little tour of the area. There are some really talented musicians from all genres who live and perform in this area. Some Country music too! No state income tax but a pretty high sales tax, 9% or something. Don’t tell any one else about Middle TN though, it’s a secret.

:cool:
 
If you ever get there be sure to hit the Loveless Restaraunt out old Highway 100. It ain't sushi, just some of the best Country Ham and Red Eye Gravy fixin's you'll ever eat.
 
Well, let me add my 2¢... I've lived here since 1967, moved here as a kid with my folks. Family's always been in the music biz (Hey, Intune... you don't remember Tex Davis over at Monument, do you? Back when Monument WAS Monument, not a Sony spinoff...). Everybody's been pretty forthcoming with info. I would suggest that, from a property tax standpoint, you might want to look outside Davidson County; poor folks are going to be paying for the Titans for decades. Sumner county, where I am, is a nice county, just a stone's throw away from Nashburg; if traffic's not a mess ( I know, when's that?), it's 15-20 minutes out from downtown.

I used to work in a local gunshop, in Goodlettsville, and I will tell you what the owner (a former LEO) told customers; you have to be a resident for a year before you can get a CCW here. We are also not restricted to concealed carry; open carry is fine, if you choose. I will say this; Hendersonville police are a bit anal about civilians carrying. Other jurisdictions are fine with it, they figure you might be able to help them out sometime. But Hendersonville just feels the opposite; they also have the longest application for law enforcement, some 30 pages! Crazy. They do, however, have the Mason Jar restaurant. Just stop in and see the line any Tuesday through Friday; you'll know it's THE place to eat up here. Tell Ruby and Norris you're a friend of Tex and Betty and Mike, and they'll take real good care of you.

BTW... you do still have that Ruger, yes? :)

Mikey D...
 
Nashville is cool. I'm 25 miles east in Mt. Juliet (Wilson Co.). I'm looking to get a house in Cheatham Co or Robertson Co just north of Nashville (Davidson Co.). I do work in Nashville, so I see my fair share of it.

Most of the "Computer/Technical" jobs posted around here lately are still programmers. Admins are here and there. BellSouth is looking for network admins to care for the Frame Relay Centers every now and then. They also have one of the two Network Reliability Centers located near Nashville. Lots of admin work there, if you're really good. Lately, though, they've been letting folks take early retirement, so I'm not sure if they are hiring or not. FWIW, I do telecom management/maintenance for a private company.

If you move to East Nashville, there's a soring market for crack dealers. Although crack is illegal here and I do not recommend it, I hear it's good money. (That was a hint. Avoid East Nashville unless you're just itching for a gunfight. ;))

Let us know when you come for the visit. I'm sure we can gather up a few folks for a range trip. :) (Did you say you were getting an AR-15? :evil: )
 
Ah the Athens of the South.
Jobs are there, slower now that a few years ago, but I suspect they are that way everywhere.

Most everyone else has answered your big questions so I will try to cover any they missed.
The Nashville Symphony is pretty good. Along with the rest of the group at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC to its friends) they always manage to come up with a delightful season. A bit of pops a bit of classical and a touch of the unexpected make it a wonderful night out. I usually take in at least one performance per season.

Nightlife, all depends on what you like. There are clubs aplenty, as to whether they meet your tastes or not depends on what you fancy. The best ones tend to be the honky tonks but there are some good dance clubs scattered around the area.

Sushi is hidden but what there is tends to be pretty good. Check out City search for a good overview of what the area has to offer.
 
Well intune i didnt say your stories were false.....just that you had them. And they are always a belly laugher i swear.

I live just south of nashville right on the line tho. In what some call the "expesnive" part of town, Brentwood. You know the places....they dont allow signs up in the air or power lines in the air....oh and your buisness's are all brick. but just touch more south is franklin and its pretty cheap to live in but super nice. my job, same place as darrin, requires me to travel so I see all of nashville and every county west and north of here. the surrounding counties are nice, and if you dont live on one that requires you to drive I65 north of town you dont have anything to worry about. traffic is rather mild in every spot but I65N i swear. yea you will get a wreck that brings everyoen to a crawl....but where doesnt that happen.


as everyone has said....this is a great place to live. you have an international air port on the east side of town....and you can live pretty selcuded if you want and never be more than 30 mins from it.

Gun shops....just stay away from gun city and you will be fine. Franklin guns has the larges selection Ive ever seen. I like Academy of Self Preservation in Joelton for a little sit down place, Rob is a great guy to sit and chat guns with. Reloaders Bench....name describes it the best. Specialty Arms pulls up any slack, abet at a higher price. Asp is one of the few places I know of any more that still has free cofee and doughnuts tho.....and an indoor range. Their deal is, if you buy a pistol there, you get a free range pass. So you can go try it right then if ya like :D
 
Well, everybody else answered everything already. I like sushi at Tenno. There's a couple good Vietnamese and Thai restaurants also. I live on the south side of Nashville and pay $695 for a three bedroom townhouse.

You can get a FL permit that will be valid in TN - that's what Oleg did when he moved here.
 
Gun City is generally a place to be avoided. However, if you ignore the employees, you can occasionally find a decent deal there. That's where I got my Desert Camo Mossberg 500. One of the 'smiths there had started out painting the gun itself, I had the furniture painted by someone else though. However, I still only paid $269 for the basic shotgun with the paint job already done to it. If I had brought my own gun in, he would've charged me $175 to paint it. That might seem a bit high, but the workmanship is top-notch.

Frank
 
Thanks for all the information everyone. I'm printing and saving this thread for sure!

Guess what I'm gonna do is decide if I want to try and rush it and move this Fall (possibly without a job), or wait until next Spring and save some $$ in the mean time. Tough call cause it's so expensive living here I'm tossing money down the drain (or rather into the hands of social welfare recipients) while staying. OTOH if I move my income is interrupted unless I can somehow line up a job before I do. Not sure how to go about doing that...

So, I may end up staying until I have enough money to get by 6-9 months in case of an emergency. Or I could just raid the retirement fund :eek:
 
Max,

Get together enough money to move to Nashville and move into a place.

Start sending out resumes from San Diego. You might be able to hit town with a job in hand. If that happens, you won't need the 6 to 9 month cushion.
 
I am a Nashville native...(it's a rare thing here)

Many of your questions have been pretty well covered, so, I will just encourage you to move here. Many folks have come here temporarily, and stayed permanently. That speaks volumes.

When you move, PM me, or you can call my wife at 615-243-8164. She is a real estate agent, and is "gun friendly." She can help you with anything you need to facilitate your move.

Goodlettsville (NW part of Nashville) is an awesome place.

I have met a few of these folks: the Slingers and David TDM. I look forward to meeting more of them. I now figure everybody that shoots at ASP in Joelton has a THR name.

We also have a USPSA club (www.ntps.org) and an IDPA club (not sure of that URL) both seem to have good folks, and are lots of fun. (just ask cslinger)

Todd
 
9%? Holy crap!

There's 1,352 guitar pickers in Nashville, and they can pick more notes than the number of ants on a Tennessee anthill.....
 
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