Smyrna, Tennessee

Looking at the boxes I ticked when doing this review, I realized that I had, with 100% honesty, chosen "average" in most every single category. And that, I suppose, is the best way to summarize this boring Nashville suburb on I24. Smyrna was once known for being the home of the Saturn plant before it closed, along with a few other foreign and local owned companies who located there due to tax incentives. But to me it's like living in a giant strip mall with no personality to remind you of where you are, instead covered by chain restaurants, chain stores and chain motels. Being located in Rutherford county, it is not technically a part of Greater Nashville and therefore has its own local government which has recently been accused of various levels of petty corruption. The cost of living here is average as is everything else - including the populace. There are nicer homesteads around here, of course, as there is beautiful farmland all around. But the people in those homes actually schlep over to Franklin via 840 for their needs rather than coming here, themselves tacitly acknowledging that there really is nothing special. If you work here I suppose it's understanding that you would also live here. But if you work anywhere north, be aware of the traffic as I24 in the mornings is the parking lot to the anteroom of purgatory.