Maybe those overachievers who put those “attitude is everything” signs on their desks are right.
Or perhaps, they have simply been handed out for desks all over Nashville. At a time when we talk here about competing with other cities, we could do a lot worse than looking up I-40 to see what lessons we can learn from a city with an attitude.
For us, if there is anything that distinguishes our state capital, it is in fact an attitude that constantly asks, why not the best? It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a park, a new main library, or minority business, the default position in Nashville is to ask how it can be the best at what it’s doing. It’s an ambition that drives them to strive, to stretch, and to achieve more than we have in the past decade.
Too often, here, many conversations feel like cop-outs. We’re too poor. We’re too black. We’ve got one government too many. We are on two state lines. Nobody has the problems we do. We are just so different that we can’t do what Portland did, or Charlotte, or for that matter, Nashville.
Crutches
We treat our differences – which aren’t nearly as distinct as we think – as crutches to keep from having to do something. We treat ourselves as incapable of controlling our own destinies and as prisoners of our own pessimism.
There was a time a few decades ago when Nashville could easily have felt the same way. Its population growth was flat. Its economy was unexciting. Its character and urban design were nonexistent. Its “Athens of the South” motto said it all: tired and dated.
Those were the days when we were the dominant city, county, and region; we were the economic giant in Tennessee; and although “Big Shelby” was supposed to be derogatory when spoken in Nashville, it was also a sign of respect.
Then, the world turned upside down, and today, Nashville is all the things that we had every right to expect for Memphis. But while we were reeling from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and our confidence in ourselves was spiraling downward, Nashville was modernizing its government and appointing it as the vehicle to drive the city to a better future. More to the point, the leaders of Nashville joined together with a singular focus to create a pro-business environment, to engage in new thinking, and to aspire to be the best.
Tale of Two Cities
The results could not be more dramatic:
Today, the 2009 population of Nashville MSA is 50% larger than Memphis – 1,582,264 to 1,018,512.
Nashville has 746,700 jobs, compared to 521,000 in Memphis.
The 2009 gross product of Memphis is $51 billion. Nashville’s is $69.5 billion.
The number of civilians employed in science and engineering in Nashville are 26,453, compared to Memphis’ 14,316.
The value of exports in Memphis is $4 billion and in Nashville, the exports are valued at $6.5 billion.
The Big Number
Finally, in a world where the economic success of cities is driven by the presence of college-educated workers, Memphis has 18.1% of the state’s population between the ages of 25-34 with a post-secondary degree. Nashville has 31.5%, which underscores the primary reason that Nashville is battling with Charlotte to determine which one is the South’s second great city (behind Atlanta).
While Memphis was losing 1.9% of its gross domestic product during the recession, Nashville’s gross domestic product increased 1.5%.
There’s no need to belabor the point, but what are the lessons that we could learn from Nashville, knowing that consolidation of city-county governments is unlikely to happen in the next 20 years.
Lesson #1: Don’t sell your city at a discount.
Nashville decided early on to use tax freezes strategically and sparingly, reserving them largely for company headquarters. While our community granted 415 tax freezes over 10 years to convince businesses to come here, Nashville handed out five. In other words, its winning strategy was to tell companies that they were fortunate to expand or relocate to a city committed to a vibrant business environment and to offering a workforce prepared to compete in the global economy.
Lesson #2: There’s no substitute for sustained leadership pursuing a sustained vision.
Some credit Nashville’s burst of success to the power of consolidated government, but the truth is that it’s more about leadership than structure. Nashville put together a string of leaders with one foot in the business community and one foot in politics. Most of all, Nashville business leaders drove a stake in the ground, saying what they demanded from their hometown leaders and then putting their money where their mouths were. As a result, in Nashville, there is the feeling that they can do anything and that they have to because they are a big league city.
Lesson #3: Shake off the past but build on heritage.
In some respects, Nashville has replicated the story of Atlanta, where strong corporate leadership and an engrained sense of civic commitment catapulted it from a sleepy Georgia city steeped in Confederate tradition to an economic dynamo that sucks up much of the young talent in the Southeast – especially African-American – and now gauges its success on international terms. Nashville is not Nirvana. There are racial issues, there is poverty, and there are failing schools, but rather than rehash the past and assess blame, Nashville’s instincts are to figure out what’s broken and put together impressive coalitions to fix it, all the while keeping one eye on what makes it authentic. Most of all, while we often see our history as something negative, Nashville seems capable of finding the positive on which people can join hands.
Lessons #4: Nashville is honest with itself.
There’s a current of ambition and aspiration in Nashville that shapes every opportunity. Given the chance to build a new main library, they selected one of America’s great architects and built it dead center in downtown Nashville. It’s the sort of behavior that is common there. The conversation is honest but it’s rarely self-destructive, because everyone there assumes when it begins that Nashville can show other cities like ours how it looks when it’s done right. And the higher ambition drives higher actions.
Lesson #5: Political influence pays off.
It’s not a given that a capital city is necessarily successful. There are capital cities that are lethargic and flat-lining. But Nashville set political clout in state government as a priority and decided to support its mayors to such a degree that they would be statewide political figures. It’s not a given that a capital city gets what it wants from the state government headquartered there, but over the years, Nashville has a highly successful record in creating the powerful coalitions that demand attention on Capitol Hill and produce results. About 25 years ago, attorney Mike Cody spoke about the need for Memphis to get its act together and become a factor in state affairs. It’s still a goal we should pursue.
Jobs, Talent, Place
Again, this is not to say that Nashville is perfect. Far from it.
It continues to lack the character that would be expected for a city that claims to be Music City USA. Its urban design regularly fails to match its soaring rhetoric about quality of place. Its sprawl continues to weaken the urban core (although there are some interesting developments under way in some inner city neighborhoods) and shows no signs of easing up.
But, mayors, wherever they are elected, care about jobs, talent, and quality of place, and success in those categories covers over a lot of sins in the lives of cities. That’s certainly the case in Nashville, but most of all, it stands as a reminder for what leadership, vision, self-confidence, and ambition can do.
Nashville put together a string of leaders with one foot in the business community and one foot in politics.
as opposed to memphis, where the political ‘leaders’ (sic) put one or both feet firmly in their mouths, or into prison flip flops with humourous regularity over the last decade or so.
but now of course all is saved since there will be a 25 member school board educating all the chirren’.
The 20th century’s economic base was entirely different for Memphis and Nashville. Memphis was an agricultural capital. Nashville was a government and insurance capital. This is the base from which each city tried to advance.
Nashville had a population fueled by a non-agricultural heritage and Memphis was mostly agricultural. The growth of Memphis was a migration from farms. Nashville’s population was a migration to white collar jobs created by government, colleges and the Grand Ole Opry. Luck was at work.
Nashville’s leadership produced enlightened government and the research for Baker v. Carr. Memphis’ leadership was hampered by the vacuum created by E. H. Crump and the cotton brokers.
Uhm, Bill Boner, anyone?
Memphis seems full of false ego. It actually thinks its a southern leader for the national scene. It is no such thing. Nashville did not, and really has not squandered one of the most important resources – time. Memphis chose consciously to lag, wait, pretend, lag some more, wait some more, the pretemd some more during the years and years where other cities decided to go forward. Even some smaller cities blasted past Memphis, TN. Nashville probably has a good attitude, but that’s not the whole story either. They decided to ACT.
I have found that Memphis can’t take criticism (constructive or otherwise). I have not found such a great of that in Nashville, or several other fine southern cities..certainly not in Charlotte, Tampa, Atlanta, Raleigh and a few others. Birmingham is like Memphis, they can’t take criticism either, which makes Birmingham somewhat a ‘step-child’.
On blogs across the south, Memphians are really really defensive and sometimes beligerent if anyone makes a negative observation about Memphis or has a negative personal experience. It’s like the natives of Memphis don’t want to hear anything but glowing praise, even when praise is not warranted. Memphis’ tolerance for criticism is quite low-even lower than Nashville. I always found that strange but telling about the bleak future it might have compared to other cities in the south or region.
How’s it hangin’ Shekel?
I don’t have all of the answers but a few thoughts. First of all, we can’t ignore those differences between us and Nashville, not using them as excuses but either things to overcome OR things that we want to keep to distinguish us from them.
In one way, we have an advantage over Nashville, Charlotte. and even Atlanta. They have grown wildly but honestly tend to have the big city problems. Jobs are there but so is massive sprawl (worse than ours), soaring costs of living, worse infrastructure problems, and a host of other “big city problems.” We can now look at them and envision a city with a unique character and plan with fewer of the same old problems of other southern cities.
True business leaders need to be more engaged in the City, not just a bunch of real estate investors who seem to be more out for their own short term wealth.
I am cautiously optimistic about our leadership and our city. We have been an overly cautious population, afraid of bold and exciting change and we have elected leaders who reflect that attitude. I sense a change of attitude and maturity in recent years, electing better overall leadership and a willingness to change. This was reflected in yesterday’s vote where 67% voted to move in a different direction educationally.
AA-
Agreed per the comments concerning leadership. Recent events reflect a new understanding and perhaps viewpoint where matters of the city are concerned. The biggest challenge will be building upon this attitude and ensuring that such leadership is sustainable in this new decade. The bar will be wherever we set it as a community.
got another 35 years ?
We should have included one more lesson:
Turning around cities takes time. Nashville’s overnight success took about 30 years. Portland’s took the same. We often don’t begin here because the challenge looks too complicated and requires sustained attention and action.
The most important thing to do is begin. Thirty years comes quicker than you think.
Thirty years comes ‘quicker’ ?
that’s funny- Memphis said the same thing in about 1982 or so under another idiot name Hackett was it ?
Do you realize where cities like PORTLAND will be in 25 or 30 years ? LOL
What about Nashville in 25 years ? Do you think Memphis will rocket past them ? First Memphis has to play a catch up game dontcha think ??
Gee, I think smaller cities, some even coastal might rise at a quicker rate ! perhaps in places such as SC, or even what St Joe is doing in the Panhandle of Florida.
Surely you don’t believe that Memphis, TN has some magical edge or historical preference over that of other areas around the US that are changing much quicker than Memphis, TN. I don’t believe that while just looking around or at a current map of economic potential growth AND appeal.
There are many areas in the US and in the south that have massive appeal as well.
Anonymous:
Memphis did not say the same thing in 1982. Hackett was all about saving money and making government efficient, not about creating a new economy for the future. In fact, we can’t think of a mayor here who has talked, much less done anything substantive, about what we should do to compete in the future(unlike Nashville).
The future is not merely a projection of the present, as cities like Portland have proven in the past. But it’s equally true that you can’t simply project Portland or any other city from its present into a rosy, spectacular future. It has all the ingredients, but nothing is guaranteed. That’s why we say 30 years comes quickly and it’s why we need to start now. Our future does not have to merely be a projection of the present either.
We didn’t say Memphis has a magical edge or historical preference. And we’ve made the point for years that Memphis cannot be satisfied with incremental gain, because we merely remain in place.
No doubt we’ll have to pull up a chair and ‘sit a while’.
Memphis acrewed itself from the national progressive picture a long time ago in my opinion- somewhat like Birmingham, Jackson MS, and capital cities such as good old Montgomery “captial of the Confederacy” Alabama.
Birmingham and Memphis have a racial/racist stigma. So has Jackson and Montgomery. Nashville and cities like Charlotte had no such deep stigma it seems.
I’m a pragmatist, and practically speaking I don’t think many other cities are going to stop in their tracks of being appealing, destination areas, and competitive environments.
Many smaller cities haven’t seen their own heydays yet, and there’s a lot going on elsewhere as well.
Just look at the drive in the Panhandle, even though they are having some problems in actualizing some of their bigger plans on the commercial/defense side.
Look at Jacksonville FL..it used to be a real crappy environment and a socio-cultural extension of S. Georgia…not so much anymore, esp south to PV.
I’mm suggesting the obvious. There is, and will continue to be some formidable competition for investment and economic investment out there for years and years to come…..not to mention the quality of life factors that exist all over the south, and the southwest.
No business or family should wear blinders about choices. There will continue to exist numerous competitive towns and cities- some urban, some not-so-urban, others totally strange like perhaps Celebration, St Joe or beyond.
No area will monopolize, and people’s mobility will not limit them to living in one place either….especially ‘permanently’ like 60 years ago. People will exercise available options to learn and experience other regions enabled by technology. People may not want to live in one area for5 or 10 or 20 straight years anymore..Come to think of it, why would you if given a real choice ? (notwithstanding you a a child year after year after year…LOL)
It does take time…regardless of the city. That’s our point. We need to get started instead of giving ourselves excuses for doing nothing.
PS: The biggest challenge is for mid-sized cities. Like companies, arts organizations, and nonprofits, the big ones survive because of size and the small ones survive by having a niche. It’s the ones in the middle who get squeezed to death and put to the test.
Haven’t you noticed in the last 20 years ? Memphis enjoys the status quo, Memphis likes being lethargic. Memphis likes argument and descension. Memphis likes racism. Memphis likes being insular. Memphis likes being slow. Memphis likes Elvis. Memphis likes BBQ. Memphis doesn’t like education. Memphis doesn’t like progressivism. Memphis likes the politics of race. Memphis embraces racism. Memphis like fingerpointing. Memphis likes pretense. Memphis resents criticism. Memphis is bifurcated. Memphis likes the fear. Memphis likes running away. Memphis dislikes contrarian thought.
Hand me another pok sammiche and an RC cola