The 7th Borough

As signs of spring are beginning to appear, I know that it is time to start taking full advantage of outdoor activities in Nashville. Before you know it, it will be too hot to do anything but go to the Y’s pool or hide from the mosquitoes indoors.

Consider this a PSA: Summer in Nashville is unbearably hot if you’re a northerner. My first summer in Nashville, the temperature reached 97 degrees Memorial Day weekend and stayed in the high 90s throughout the entire summer. Read More

The New York Times has discovered Nashville in the last five years and has contributed to the city’s hype.  I am old enough to care about print journalism, and I am enough of an East Coast snob that I consider the New York Times to be the paper of record.

In my head, the Times’ positive attention to Nashville validates my decision to move here.   I care what it says about my new hometown because I envision my friends and former colleagues back in NYC reading these pieces, thinking of me, and hopefully understanding that I’m not living in a backwater town.  However, I worry that the Times’ depiction of Nashville over-inflates just how cool this town is.

For no reason other than I thought it would be a fun exercise, I’ve summarized and analyzed the New York Times’ articles on Nashville that have been published since I moved to Nashville in 2011.  The articles in the Travel, Food, and Style sections are particularly amusing to me.  One even calls Nashville the “6^th Borough” and another calls it the “Williamsburg of the South.” Those that appear in the U.S. section are generally much more straight forward.

So here is what the Grey Lady has to say about the 7^th Borough: Read More

Nashville is New York City’s 7^th Borough? Huh?
Let me explain.   I call Nashville the 7^th borough as a joke. It all harkens back to the New York Times and its sometimes ridiculous over-hyping of trends and cities. In the 2010s, coincidentally around the same time I moved to Nashville, the New York Times (and other mainstream, national publications) discovered Nashville. I christened Nashville “the 7^th Borough” because the national media was over-hyping the city’s hipness factor and food scene. Read More