Antioch is favored, in its nicer parts near the lake, by middle-class African Americans. It is the population center of Spanish-speaking Nashville, many of whom would live no place else. There's a stereotype that the neighborhood is a destination for lesbian women. One part of Antioch was labeled as "strangely normal" on a "Judgmental Map of Nashville" that was being passed around. All this is to say that Antioch is not unloved; it mostly depends on which part of the neighborhood and who you ask.

While I am sure some would say my standards are low, I would advise you not to get your knickers in a twist about "good" and "bad" neighborhoods. Watch out for yourself, look for the good in other people, and you will have good neighbors. Alternatively, no matter where you go, most people are good, and even in the "nicest" place, there is a nasty minority of people who would do you harm.

Wherever you go, there are people who are well-intentioned, and there are people who are poorly intentioned. In the so-called "worst" neighborhoods, there are people doing a fine job of raising their children, and the Sunday edition of the New York Times arrives on doorsteps. In the "best" neighborhoods, there are rapists, abusers, and swindlers. The smartest burglars choose the rich as targets.

You may be from a very rural place. But note that Nashville is not a huge city. We are not a Los Angeles or a New York or a Chicago. I once visited Watts in LA, and saw an injunction posted on a telephone pole against gang activity on a certain corner that used to be the center of the Piru Street Crips. Nashville is not like that. We don't have truly dangerous neighborhoods in the same way that even-- say-- Atlanta does. Our problems exist, but in less intense form.

I know I will get downvoted for this. But please, don't believe the hype that says East Nashville or Germantown or West Nashville or Bellevue are "nicer" than Antioch. They are merely trendier, and they, too, have their seedy blocks and sketchy areas. See for yourself and don't substitute someone else's prejudices of what the good and bad neighborhoods for what your own eyes see.