Waves of Migration
🗺️ Why people are moving here · Stormy Ides · Homeschooling bill dies · Jones in timeout · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone. Two spots to check out if you want to get out of the house tonight to partake in the festivities: The Lost Paddy over off Murfreesboro Pike or McNamara’s over in Donelson. Both have festivities all day.
Onward.
As I talk about with some frequency, Middle Tennessee is unique across the entire country for its relatively high fertility rate in a climate of sinking fertility rates worldwide. Looking at the migratory patterns over the past two decades, you can start to get a sense of the appeal from ten thousand feet. You might roughly divide the recent mass migrations into the Middle Tennessee area into three distinct phases.
The first was the income tax rush. Famously, Ronald Reagan’s economic advisor Art Laffer moved to Nashville for this reason in the mid-2000s and bought his home with his first year’s tax savings. Last summer, Peter Thiel told Joe Rogan on his podcast that he would consider moving to Nashville in large part due to the state’s lack of an income tax. Rogan agreed, “I could live in Nashville, no problem.”
Other states without an income tax include Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. So, the lack of an income tax is just one factor in motivating someone to move to the area.
The second wave started in 2013 after the famous New York Times article declared Nashville “It City.” Soon after word began to circulate, the LA-ification of Nashville proper commenced, large companies began to show interest in opening offices in the area. Motivations for moving to Nashville during this period were vaguely cultural and loosely economic, but more akin to the prospect of Nashville blooming into an Austin or a Southern Los Angeles—a quirky, creative hub with real cultural clout.
Unlike the durability of a lower tax burden, cities constantly fall in and out of favor on the leaderboard of coolness, making the superficial appeal of It City something of a mirage. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that many of those who moved to Nashville during its It City come up have begun leaving as it becomes more economically successful. This could be a side effect of the typical migratory pattern around here of people “aging out of the city” and moving away, or an indication that the city is no longer the hot, hipster item it was by the start of the 2010s.
The most recent wave of migrants arrived during COVID. And I find these the most interesting of the lot. The cultural migrants. Mostly driven out of blue states by draconian COVID policies, these recent arrivals would rank the coolness of Nashville and the lack of an income tax below the cultural affinity they seek. Best capturing the spirit of this migrant is the relocation of In-N-Out to Franklin. The California burger chain plans to open 35 restaurants across the state over the next couple of years. But why would such an iconic brand, inextricably linked to California, choose to move here?
“It was really just a God thing,” third-generation owner Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson told an audience at the February 4th Nashville Business Breakfast. “And then of course the more I’ve come here, I’ve fallen in love with really the whole state, but there’s something very quaint, especially the Franklin area.”
Political refugees would be one way to describe this most recent lot of migrants, but Snyder-Ellignson’s comments reveal a different dynamic at play—an unaccountable X-factor that Middle Tennessee has. There is a particular type of person who forsakes the largeness of Texas and the coastal amenities of Florida for the more bucolic, down-scaled charm of Middle Tennessee.
Rare is the place blessed by nature, not so full of itself that it devolves into self-parody (Texas and Florida) and rooted in faith and family the way we are here. And despite the protestations of those who decry the Californication of Tennessee, recent arrivals to the state reveal something about it that many old-timers probably take for granted. DAVIS HUNT
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
⛈️ Stormy Ides of March Tornadoes, flooding, thunderstorms, and 95 MPH winds swept through Middle Tennessee over the weekend. A confirmed EF-1 tornado touched down in Christiana and a mile-wide path of straight line winds caused damage in Palmer County. Shelbyville, Crossville, Cookville, and Fairview also reported gale force winds, and Nashville experienced gusts up to 46 MPH.
Music City’s 150-year rainfall record was broken on Saturday with up to 4.39 inches of rain recorded in Nashville. Flood advisories remain in effect along the Cumberland River until Wednesday morning and Tennesseans continue to navigate washed out streets throughout the state.
Lightning strikes caused multiple fires, including a Brentwood home in Mountainview Place and a Lebanon home on Barnes Drive. At least 40 deaths have been reported following more than 60 tornadoes that plowed across the country. The National Weather Service in Nashville is anticipating a cold snap that could lead to freezing temperatures in Middle Tennessee as the area recovers this week.
🎓 Homeschooling Bill Dies The Family Right to Educational Emancipation (FREE) Act failed to make it through the the House Education Administration Subcommittee last Tuesday. The bill would have created “a new category of independent home schools that are not subject to the data collection, reporting, or assessment requirements applicable to existing independent home school programs.”
The fight to codify homeschooling protection in Tennessee Code stems from school voucher discussions that took place during last year’s General Assembly. In January, we sat down with Senator Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun), who brought forward similar legislation to prevent government interference. “We are here because…those protections are ambiguous in our law,” he explained. “Right now, all…the DOE or somebody would have to do is change the rule. If we put it in law, they'd have to change the law before they could do it.”
Lowe pulled his bill and signed on as a cosponsor to the legislation that died in the House last week. According to Senate Sponsor Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), the Free Act would “not replace any of the current three legal home school options in Tennessee” and “would not be an option for families wishing to utilize Education Freedom Scholarship funds, or for families wishing to participate in any governmental affiliated program.” The legislation never made it back to the Senate Education Committee for a vote.
📜 Jones Marked It seems every piece of legislation Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) touches fails in the Tennessee General Assembly. Last session, we exposed Jones’ bad reputation and how its affecting his relationships with both Democratic and Republican colleagues. This year, the curse continues and a soil conservation bill with his name on it died in the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee three weeks ago.
His failure to secure a second in order to present the legislation during committee signals that his inability to play well with others may have effectively killed the bill. Similar to last year’s farm equipment legislation—meant to break up manufacturer monopolies that control farm equipment repair—both bills could have attracted bi-partisan support. Instead, the representative’s actions seem to be hampering his ability to whip votes and move even the tamest of legislation through the House on the behalf of his constituents.
DEVELOPMENT
- Honey and mead-focused retail business slated for Arcade (Post)
- East Nashville commercial building listed for sale (Post)
- Benji’s Bagels slated for East Nashville (Post)
- Ensworth buys Bellevue baseball park (Post)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown 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
🪕 Brownyn Keith-Hynes @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $10, Info
🎸 Basic @ The Basement, 7p, $23.62, Info
🎸 Timbo & Lonesome Country @ Jane's Hideaway, 8p, Info
+ modern take on classic country, bluegrass & hillbilly Jazz
🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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