05/27/2026
I read this article this morning from Axios with both concern and hope. Concern about how our ultra polarized country can return to coming together towards simple, common goals, but also hope that the steps that I engaged in with my Donelson Hills neighbors almost 25 years ago that are still tried and true ways of creating community through the basic premise that we all love our neighborhoods and all care about our children’s future and want to make our neighborhoods better for them. We have many wonderful voluntary Neighborhood Associations across Nashville with great people giving much of their time building community where they live and they deserve to be celebrated and recognized. Here’s a good list of them: https://www.nashville.gov/departments/planning/long-range-planning/neighborhoods/neighborhood-links
I would love to see this study take a deeper dive. There is a big difference between an HOA and a Neighborhood Association. NA’s are voluntary organizations that are created by neighborhood leaders wanting to create initiatives like bringing people together towards common goals, beautifying their neighborhoods, documenting history and honoring long time neighbors (we called them “heritage neighbors”), and through those efforts protect and improve property values that attracts good neighbors to want to live there as both owners and renters as opportunities become available.
HOA’s are mandatory organizations by law that are managed by professional companies and handle the day to day functions, removing a lot of the basic organizational elements that bring people together. Especially for urbanized neighborhoods with more rental properties like apartments and condos, it’s a forgone conclusion that creating volunteer-led initiatives likely happens far less in these areas, especially when someone knows they’ll only be there for a couple/few years as a renter, but that shouldn’t negate the need for creating opportunities to offer service opportunities in various capacities as a board member or other capacity. I think it’s incumbent on organizations like CAI Tennessee (a Tennessee-wide chapter located locally here on Donelson Pike), an organization helping to support HOA management companies, to find creative ways at building up neighborhood leaders / board members to help empower them to lead community-based initiatives that don’t require big budgets like the article mentions.
As I learned from my experiences as a neighborhood leader that evolved into supporting and leading non-profits, I was one of the founders of Hip Donelson that continues to do great work at building community through initiatives like the Hip Donelson Community Farmers Market, recognizing neighbors who go above and beyond to serve their community, supporting small businesses, and more. Although there are “Hip” pages all across Middle Tennessee and beyond now, Hip Donelson was the first and it was a proactive focus of ours as we became a 501c3 non-profit that ensures social media is just one tool towards bringing people physically together for true community building and support.
In a time where we are so divided, polarized, and communicate more from a distance via social media that buffers real connections and only serves to make it easier for us to judge and attack each other, it’s more important than ever for organizations like Neighbor 2 Neighbor (years ago was called the Neighborhood Resource Center) where I served on the board, and the Mayor’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement, to continue finding creative ways to implement community-building that bridges divides and empowers people working towards simple, common goals again right where they live.
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