North Nashville’s safety varies significantly by sub-neighborhood and specific block. The honest answer is that some parts are fine and some parts are not, and grouping all of North Nashville into a single safety assessment, the way it often gets treated, does a disservice to the people who live there and to anyone trying to make an informed decision.
The sub-neighborhood breakdown
Germantown, the southernmost part of what is broadly called North Nashville, is one of the safest neighborhoods in all of Nashville. Crime rates in Germantown run approximately 77% below the Nashville average, according to PropertyClub data. It is walkable, well-lit, has significant pedestrian traffic, and benefits from the police presence that comes with a dense, commercially active area close to downtown.
Salemtown, directly adjacent to Germantown, has improved considerably over the past decade. It is more residential and quieter than Germantown, but crime levels have dropped as redevelopment has proceeded.
The Buchanan Arts District corridor and the neighborhoods west of it (toward Jefferson Street and the areas surrounding TSU and Meharry) carry higher crime rates than the Germantown end of North Nashville. These are not the safest blocks in the city, and someone walking alone at night without local knowledge should exercise the same caution they would in any unfamiliar urban area.
Bordeaux, the furthest north section of what gets classified as North Nashville, has historically been one of the higher-crime areas in the broader region.
What is changing
North Nashville’s safety profile has been improving alongside its economic development, which is the pattern in gentrifying urban neighborhoods nationwide. New residents with higher incomes, increased investment, and greater police visibility in commercial corridors have all contributed to crime reduction in some areas. The same process displaces lower-income residents, that is not an incidental trade-off, it is the mechanism.
The practical guidance
For visitors: Germantown is completely safe at any time of day or night and is worth exploring. Jefferson Street and Buchanan Street in the evening are active enough to be reasonably safe in the commercial corridor itself, though situational awareness applies. Do not wander into unfamiliar residential streets in the northern and western portions of North Nashville after dark without a specific reason to be there.
For residents: Block-level research matters more than neighborhood-level reputation. The investment patterns of the past five years have changed specific blocks dramatically while leaving others largely unchanged.
The data in context
Nashville’s overall violent crime rate runs higher than the national average. Within that context, North Nashville’s numbers range from very low (Germantown) to significantly above city average (parts of Bordeaux and the corridor north of Jefferson Street). The CrimeGrade.org mapping tool is useful here: it allows block-by-block comparison rather than the neighborhood-level averages that can obscure wide variation within a single zip code.
The question “is North Nashville safe” does not have one answer. It has about seven answers depending on which block you are asking about.
Sources
- PropertyClub, 12 Safest Neighborhoods in Nashville, 2024
- CrimeGrade.org, Nashville crime maps and statistics
- Felix Homes, Safest neighborhoods in Nashville
- FOX 17 Nashville, Buchanan Street corridor development, 2025-2026