Moving to Nashville in early 2011

So, just a quick history:

Grew up in SW Michigan. Family moved out east to NJ in approximately 2005. I stayed in MI, was in a long term relationship. It didn't work out, stayed around for a couple years, and decided to move out east to be closer to pops and my younger brothers in early 2009.

Figures, I met the love of my life after I had plans to move and transfer with my job that I couldn't undue. So we have been doing the long distance thing for about a year and a half. We became engaged last November, and will be married next May. She still works and lives in Michigan, and I still in NJ.

We both work for the same company, and she was trying to transfer here, but we were talking about it, and she really likes the Nashville area. Earlier today, she got the go ahead to be able to transfer there early next year. Unfortunately, I can't leave here until I finish school right before we get married next May.

Long story short: I've never been to Nashville except maybe driving through on the way to Disney World as a kid. I'm super excited about it, seems like a great place. We will be going there for 5 or 6 days in October to scout it out.

Anybody have any recommendations on what side of town to live on and why?

We like to kayak, bike, motorcycle and walk/run; so ease of access to parks, etc. would be great. I like to hunt and fly fish too (although I don't know if there is much of that there).

 

Really? Nobody has any suggestions on where in Nashville to live? Is no one here from Nashville?

 

Nashville's a great area. There are many options on where to live. Demographics get split up by county here. Nashville is in Davidson county which is a metropolitan county/city (integrated city/county govt). There are plenty of good areas to live in Davidson county and the surrounding counties. It all just depends on your demographic. For instance, Williamson county to the south is a popular suburb of Nashville and probably on the higher end of property values. East Nashville, which is still in Davidson county, is much lower on the economic scale (hopefully not offending anyone here). I live in south nashville which is not in the wealthiest part of town, but reasonably safe and has good access to other places I go.

There are plenty of areas around Nashville for outdoor recreation. There are rivers, lakes, state parks, wildlife management areas are all within an hour give or take, in some cases less than. There is hunting and fly fishing around here too. The TN wildlife resources agency (TWRA) maintains many wildlife management areas and lakes. There are also several lakes on the Tennessee, Cumberland, Duck, and Obey rivers. Most of these have bass, catfish, and panfish among others. Not much trout fishing except in a few locations. The Caney Fork and Elk rivers are the popular trout fishing rivers about an hour or so east of nashville. They're stocked and can be subject to power generation schedules by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

If you get bored of things to do around Nashville, then the Appalachians are a few hours away to the east.

 

For kayaking, most of the rivers around here are slow and lazy, which is fine by me. The Harpeth and Buffalo rivers are popular canoe/kayak destinations in the summer. But if you're into white water, there is the Ocoee River to the south east. The olympics were held there back in the 90's I think. There's also the French Broad and Nantahala Rivers in east Tennessee and western NC.

 

Sweet, that's some information I was looking for. I appreciate it.