Reasons - Crieve Hall

Part of the reason we believed this blog could work is that we have three writers from completely different areas of the city (Green Hills, East Nashville, and Crieve Hall).  fAd_writer hails from the region known as Crieve Hall. It is located south of the city. We will be giving reason why these areas are great in a recurring series called "Reasons".

-faD_writer


10 reasons to live in Crieve Hall

I love Crieve Hall, and here’s why:

• Location! Location! Location
• Downtown 11 minutes, Airport 16 minutes, Brentwood 8 minutes

(*All times exact, courtesy Google Maps of course)

• Housing Cost:  Certainly not the cheapest real estate in Nashville, but houses average between $50K and $100K less than houses on the other side (west) of I-65. These houses are in the same location to the destinations in Reason #1.

• Large Yards/Mature Trees: I loathe this feature in the fall when it comes time to rake leaves, but overall I do enjoy living in an established area planted over 50 years ago.  Shade, nature, beauty, squirrels….

• Target: In less than 10 minutes you can be up off your couch, have taken a quick drive and have your hands on a toilet brush designed by Michael Graves…swish!

Convenience not named "Wal-Mart"

• Radnor Lake: If you’ve not been, shame on you.



Radnor Lake



• Ellington Agricultural Center: Great nearby open park space with many hiking trails where the deer and antelope roam…well, maybe not antelope but I have seen deer.

• Ball in the Hall: Crieve Hall rocks the youth baseball league. Baseball and hot dogs on a fall night after raking the leaves…take that Bellevue!




Live through your children by making them play organized sports


• No Trinity Lane Exit: I’ve lived in Nashville just shy of 7 years, and every day except one I’ve heard the words on the radio “there is a wreck on I-65 southbound at Trinity Lane.” It’s remarkable. I truly believe that all Nashville traffic announcers have some sort of inside joke to see how long they can keep this gag going; I just can’t figure out why they’re doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a north-Nashville hater, but I wouldn’t live up there for this reason alone. Also, this reason doesn’t necessarily mean you should live in Crieve Hall. However, I assure you I won’t be writing about why NOT to live in north Nashville, and I had to question this publicly.

According to percentages: there's a 90% chance that BMW will be in an accident within the next 5 seconds

• Cool Neighbors: Crieve Hall is in an interesting transition right now. A lot of young families (late 20’s, early 30’s) are moving into the neighborhood, which means there are a lot of dogs and babies being walked around our streets.  I know of 5 architects, a graphic designer, 2 interior designers, a doctor, a nurse, two songwriters, a landscape architect and a woodworker that live within 5 blocks.

• Renovations/Additions: With the unstable housing market, people are less likely to move, but are instead putting their money into their homes. Dumpsters are popping up all over Crieve Hall where people are adding on or renovating their homes. The ranch style homes are perfect for additions and renovations both. I’m confident that as people continue to renovate and add on, the overall value of the neighborhood will increase.

-fAd_writer

High Speed Rail and Its Aversion to Tennessee

If you’ve ever driven on a road in Tennessee you know we have it pretty good. There is ample pavement and lanes to connect our entire state. We are spending $1,763,782,000 this year on transportation (http://tennessee.gov/finance/bud/bud1011/11Publications.html), that’s roughly one-third of the gross domestic product of Zimbabwe.
As a lover of most things relating to transportation and especially the exploration of new modes of US transportation I couldn’t help but be a tad bit giddy at the $8,000,000,000 thrown toward high speed rail in the stimulus (even more came through recently).

What was equally disheartening was the giant hole the state of TN represented in the proposed rail network.

High Speed Rail: Avoiding Tennesse Like the Plague

I don’t want to discount what I’m sure are very diligent efforts by both private and public interests to bring high speed rail to TN but it is certainly alarming that we are the only state in the south eastern US to be excluded from this plan.
Maybe we as Tennessean and more immediately Nashvillians aren’t ready for mass transportation. Or maybe this needs to be a bottom-up approach. Currently, even if we were connected into a high speed rail network there would be little place to go beyond the arrival station. Our local network is heavily reliant upon buses (which are a great mode of transportation – clean and friendly) and America’s current favorite choice for moving the automobile. What if Nashville said we are going to make it impossible for a high speed rail line to avoid us because we have the best local rail (above ground, below ground, etc) around? Perhaps a bit dreamy here but to begin dialogue about such an endeavor may be all the catalyst we need to get involved. Even better, if something became of it we really could talk about things like hosting the World Cup (at least the SEC championship?).
So the concern for me is not that we were excluded but how soon we can be included. Perhaps it is our own fault; perhaps we have become just a bit too good at paving. Maybe it is time for us to convince our larger nation that Nashville and TN are ready to participate in the (dare I say) future of transportation…
Or we could just pave a strip where the train should go…

West End Avenue

-Fad_writer