In Class Session 3; Culture

1. Chapter 3 Culture

12. Smyrna, Tennessee From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Smyrna is a town in Rutherford County , Tennessee , United States . Smyrna's population was 26,614 people at the 2000 census . Smyrna is the location of a very large manufacturing facility owned by Nissan , and has been since 1982. Many of the businesses in the town are related to manufacturing . Nissan has attracted other companies which support their plant, such as Square D and PREMIER System Integrators .Other types of businesses are the standard smaller town types: car dealerships, drug stores, banks, discount stores, and plenty of restaurants. With the change of the liquor laws in the late 1990s, larger chain restaurants started moving in, such as O'Charley's , Ruby Tuesday , Logan's Roadhouse , and Chili's . There are more residents in Smyrna than jobs, so many of the residents commute to nearby Nashville and Beautiful Murfreesboro .

13. [ edit ] Demographics As of the census [1] of 2000, there were 25,569 people, 9,608 households, and 7,061 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,119.8 people per square mile (432.4/km²). There were 10,016 housing units at an average density of 438.6/sq mi (169.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 87.23% White , 7.82% African American , 0.29% Native American , 1.21% Asian , 0.08% Pacific Islander , 1.81% from other races , and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.31% of the population. There were 9,608 households out of which 39.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.0% were married couples living together, 14.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.5% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.04.

14. In the town the population was spread out with 27.6% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 35.1% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, and 6.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.9 males. The median income for a household in the town was $44,405, and the median income for a family was $51,550. Males had a median income of $37,130 versus $27,325 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,704. About 6.7% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line , including 11.4% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.

15. Nissan's Smyrna Plant Reaches Major Milestone in Tennessee REUTERS Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:00pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [ - ] Text [ + ] Nissan celebrates 25 years of making quality vehicles in Smyrna SMYRNA, Tenn., June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nissan North America's (NNA) vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn., celebrated 25 years of building high quality vehicles at the award-winning facility today. Since the plant produced its first compact pickup truck in June 1983, more than 8.2 million vehicles have been built in Smyrna. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080506/NISSANWOODMARKLOGO ) "Over the past 25 years, Nissan's Smyrna plant has placed its mark on this community, the southern United States, and the automotive industry," said Greg Daniels, senior vice president, U.S. Manufacturing, Nissan North America. "We are extremely proud of what we've accomplished over the past quarter of a century and are looking forward to the next 25 years." Nissan was the first foreign automaker to bring vehicle assembly operations to the southern part of the United States. The Smyrna plant represents a total capital investment of $2.5 billion over the past 25 years. Vehicles produced in Smyrna have won numerous awards including the 2002 Altima voted by U.S. and Canadian journalists as the "North American Car of the Year." Today, the plant's 5,650 employees build eight vehicles: -- Nissan Altima mid-size sedan -- Nissan Altima Coupe -- Nissan Altima Hybrid mid-size sedan -- Nissan Frontier King Cab pickup -- Nissan Frontier Crew Cab pickup truck -- Nissan Maxima sport sedan -- Nissan Xterra sport-utility vehicle -- Nissan Pathfinder sport-utility vehicle "Nissan's decision to begin manufacturing in Tennessee 25 years ago was a watershed event for our state and our nation," said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. "With Nissan's continued success and the passage of time, it's easy to forget what a bold, innovative move that decision was and how it transformed our state's economy. The launch of the Smyrna facility was literally the first step in an explosion of automotive manufacturing in the southeast U.S. and the impact of the Nissan team is still being felt today." "After 25 years, Nissan's investment in Tennessee continues to reap benefits for our state each day," said Matt Kisber, commissioner, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. "From the thousands of good paying jobs to the additional employment provided by Nissan suppliers to the quality of the vehicles rolling off the assembly line, all of us in Tennessee are proud of Nissan's contributions to our state's economy." History -- 1980 - Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., established a U.S. manufacturing venture and announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Smyrna, Tennessee. -- 1981 - Construction began on the $760 million plant and the first of 1,300 employees was hired. -- 1983 - Job 1 of Nissan's compact pickup rolled off the assembly line. -- 1984 - Nissan announced plans to assemble the Sentra sedan; the first Nissan car to be built in the United States, creating 1,700 jobs. -- 1985 - Sentra 1 rolled off the assembly line. -- 1989 - Nissan announced plans to assemble the Altima sedan, requiring a $490 million expansion and creating more than 2,000 jobs. -- 1992 - Altima Job 1 rolled off the assembly line. -- 1994 - The Smyrna plant was named most productive car plant and most productive truck plant in North America in The Harbour Report benchmarking survey. -- 1997 - The all-new Nissan Frontier pickup was launched. -- 1999 - The Smyrna plant launched the Nissan Xterra sport utility vehicle. -- 2000 - The Xterra was named "North American Truck of the Year". -- 2002 - The Altima was named "North American Car of the Year" . -- 2005 - It was announced Smyrna would begin building the Altima Hybrid in the summer of 2006 for the 2007 model year. -- 2006 - Smyrna earned the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR award which recognizes energy-efficient operations that have cut pollution, lowered energy consumption and reduced costs In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and http://www.nissandriven.com/www.infiniti.com . SOURCE Nissan North America Steve Parrett, Corporate Communications, Nissan North America, Inc., 0 +1-615-725-1448, C +1-817-819-0601

25. Languages Spoken at Home Other than English Language Total Estimated Number of Speakers English only 80.6% Spanish 62% Chinese 4.4% French 2.7% German 2.2% Tagalog 2.7%

26. Languages Spoken at Home Other than English Language Total Estimated Number of Speakers Vietnamese 2.2% Italian 1.5% Korean 1.9% Portugese 1.3% Russian 1.6% Polish 1.2% Arabic 1.3%

33. Computers and Internet Access in the Home: 1984 to 2003