I more mean that it deviates from the normal southern views. It votes blue more often than not, is quite "metropolitan" and getting more so. Sure Williamson and Rutherford are about as crazy right wing as it gets with that many people around but Davidson is much different. Most of the inane things coming out of the state gov't aren't introduced by Nashville/Davidson reps, heck silly most legislation seems to be because of Stacey Campfield.
Ditto. (Though I mostly grew up a lot farther out in the sticks.) I think what they mean is "the area around Vandy and the recently-gentrified portions of East Nashville are liberalish".
That having been said, the general feel of Nashville has really changed over the past decade.
I used to see it as a "dirty, smelly big city", but it certainly feels more alive now than it used to.
Then again, perhaps a lot of that is the fact that I live somewhere else, and now I go there to visit friends and family.
At any rate, glad to see a pyTN conference springing up!
I only go across the river to visit friends or go to the tomato fest and Vandy area for McDougals chicken.
I live and have lived in the areas people consider solidly red, you'd be surprised how people vote. They just don't wave a moderate or liberal flag like the conservatives do.
Additionally, a lot of the liberal/conservative divide is actually urban vs. rural. Davidson Co. is certainly mostly urban.
I think I just have a skewed perspective of things, as I interact almost entirely with people in the rural parts of TN (which obviously isn't Nashville itself).
As a native, I do not know Nashville as a liberal city, but I guess perspectives are all relative.