On Nashville Living
🚶♂️ City of lebenskünstlers · Changes to data center bills · Hininger eyes Blackburn's Senate seat · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Today, we consider the type of people who move here... Updates to the data center bills... CoreCivic CEO eyes Blackburn's Senate spot... And much more!
New TN U.S. Congressional District lookup Use your address to find your new district here.
Like what we do? Forward us to a friend.
What kind of people are attracted to Nashville?
From Davis Hunt
The best way to approach a city is as a flâneur: enjoying long, languorous, directionless walks through the metropolis. Nassim Taleb, author of the Incerto series and well-respected flâneur, describes flaneuring like this:
Cities are living organisms. Like all organisms they are indivisible and mutate over time. Some cities are more alive than others. You can only "feel" a city by flaneuring, walking slowly (very slowly) without any predetermined goal.
He goes on to explain which qualities make a flaneuring city: large, dense, and full of mystery. This might work in places like New York City or San Francisco, but flaneuring doesn't really seem like a Nashville activity. It's not large or dense enough. Far too many parking lots.
In rural areas, you might adopt the attitude of an ambler. Someone in the mold of Henry David Thoreau, who would set aside four hours each day to wander aimlessly through the woods. Like the flâneur, the ambler values the acts of walking and wandering, but instead of admiring the fruits of civilization, he's more concerned with communing with nature and freeing himself from the humdrum of daily life. "Everything good is wild and free," Thoreau famously noted.
For Thoreau, walks in the woods were a way to escape the persistence of politics. Just as flaneuring doesn't really work as a Nashville approach to living, neither does ambling. The burdens of civilization are irrevocably present and to escape, one must drive. Neither an ambler nor a flâneur will find much to desire in Nashville.
So, you're asking, what kind of attitude should one cultivate in Nashville, a suburban city, without the density required for flaneuring or the space required for ambling? Fortunately, I have an answer for you: the lebenskünstler.
I learned about lebenskünstlers from a German while on a trip to Australia a few years back. He described them as "life artists". The word has something of a dilettantish, slacker undertone to it, emphasizing a person's lack of concern for his work and emphasis on mastering the art of living in its stead—life itself as their medium. You might know some people who fit this description.
Oscar Wilde once said: "I put my talent into my work, but my genius into my life." Here is the kernel of the life artist's preoccupation. Until recently, this would accurately describe why the average person found Nashville attractive. It wasn't for the job opportunities or the party, but the ability to live an unconcerned, reasonably paced life. You could find a quiet corner of the city, engage leisurely with your work, and build a fruitful, expansive life all the while.
We are well past the point of return to this version of Nashville, but one thing that will not change anytime soon is that Nashville is attractive precisely because it is a suburban—and not an urban—city. By and large, people come here to get a house, a car, and avoid the demands of more urban environments.
City leadership, the Metro Council in particular, seems determined to transform the city into an urban facsimile with bike lanes, high-density housing, and public transport. Despite their efforts, we are a city of lebenskünstlers and always have been.
✹ METRO COUNCIL WATCH
New Council Watch Features We've added additional features to Council Watch. In addition to who's funding your council member, you can now see how they vote and who they vote with most frequently. (Take a Look)
HEADLINES
- 🖥️ Planning staff tightens data center rules before Council hearing. Metro Planning is recommending the Commission approve substitute versions of both data center bills Thursday, and the rewrites add a new half-mile buffer between medium and large facilities and the mayor's Choose How You Move transit corridors. The substitute to BL2026-1391—now backed by 23 council members—also raises the renewable energy requirement to 15%, adds anti-piecemeal rules to stop developers from subdividing around the strictest tier, and keeps campus-scale "hyperscalers" banned countywide. The companion moratorium gets its definition aligned to match, though staff punted on how long the pause should last. Both reach a Council public hearing July 7. (Metro Planning Commission)
- 🏛️ The former CEO of CoreCivic wants Marsha Blackburn's Senate seat. Damon Hininger confirmed he's interested in being appointed to the U.S. Senate if Blackburn wins the governorship, per the Nashville Business Journal. He's already poured $1.75 million into Republican politics since 2024, launched a 501(c)(4) called Believe in Tennessee, and is one of Blackburn's top ten donors. (NBJ)
- 🚔 A man wanted on 21 warrants is off the streets. TITANS Unit detectives arrested Corian Bowling, 27, on Nolensville Pike Monday, recovering cocaine, oxycodone, and thousands in cash from his rental car. Bowling had been indicted for the Christmas Day 2023 shooting death of Anthony Gatewood Jr. on Pepperwood Drive and had racked up 15 additional charges last fall after leading MNPD on a multi-vehicle chase through parking garages. (MNPD)
DEVELOPMENT
- Nashville Shores attractions sold to out-of-town firm for $12M (NBJ)
- Global paper company to cease Lebanon operations (Post)
- Mixed-use building eyed for 12South-area property (Post)
- Pie Town slated for multiple restaurants (Post)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎻 Yacht Rock Symphony In Concert @ Ascend Amphitheater, 8p, $49, Info
🪕 Pickin' on the Plaza with The Fox and The Fiddle @ PNC Plaza, 5:30p, Free, Info
🪕 Watkins Family Hour @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $36, Info
🎸 Twang Tuesday @ Acme Feed and Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
The Pamphleteer
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.