The Triumph of Southern Cities

USA Today reports:

The news here in the longtime home of country music, meanwhile, has been all good. Nashville has landed eight corporate headquarters in the past 2½ years, says Janet Miller, who recruits businesses for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The city is reaping the kind of national accolades from magazines such as Kiplinger's and Travel & Leisure that can make die-hard Atlanta boosters tear out their hair: Hottest city for business. Smartest place to live. Even — horror of horrors to competitors in the genteel South — America's friendliest city.

Nashville is in the midst of a building boom that will bring a gleaming symphony hall, a new stadium for the minor league baseball team, a black history museum and a new courthouse. Downtown, which Mayor Bill Purcell says had just 10 condominium units in 1999, is undergoing a residential construction explosion that's reshaping the city.

It all has folks here feeling pretty cocky. “We don't just compete,” Purcell says. “In most recent national surveys, we're at the top. … Atlanta's airport and retail offerings were a model for the region for a long time. We also see Atlanta as a place we can learn from, a place that grew so fast in so many directions, they became increasingly held captive by their own success.”

Not many union problems in Nashville.