ALBANY (TNS) — According to family lore, which is admittedly prone to exaggeration, my grandfather enrolled at the University of Tennessee because it was one of the few schools willing to take him. His grades and disciplinary record in high school were not stellar, apparently.

Alas, his arrival on the Knoxville campus didn’t go perfectly. On the first day of classes, he was smacked in the head by a fellow student who called him a “damn Yankee” and impolitely suggested he return to Maine. Welcome to Tennessee, kid.

Times have changed, and today’s Tennessee is a bit more welcoming of northerners. Consider that the state’s governor, Bill Lee, is pitching his state to New Yorkers, particularly business owners, alarmed by the election of Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in the city’s mayoral race.

“In light of recent election results, I thought I might remind you that Tennessee is the best state in the country for doing business,” Lee said in a video released on social media. “If you are a New York City business owner and you don’t like the direction your city is headed, I have a message for you that Tennessee is open for business.”

Lee, who, disappointingly, is not the Bill “Spaceman” Lee who pitched for the Red Sox, went on to note that Tennessee is a popular destination for relocating families and that the state’s music, culture, food and more “might just be right for you.”

What do you think? Shall we go?

I’ll admit that Tennessee has charms.

Hilly Chattanooga, with its revitalized downtown featuring an aquarium, children’s museum and minor league baseball stadium, is one of those cities that forces you to look at Albany’s willful stagnation and wonder why we can’t have nice things. Nashville is a hub of creative energy, and not just for music.

The Tennessee mountains are lovely. The chicken sandwiches are appropriately hot.

I searched unsuccessfully for a ranking that put Tennessee first, but Lee isn’t wrong about the business climate being pretty good — or at least better than New York’s. Tennessee’s taxes and cost of living are generally lower, although home prices are certainly cheaper in, say, Buffalo than in Nashville. But Nashville has milder winters, if you’re one of the wimps who appreciate that sort of thing.

Don’t go to Tennessee if safety is a priority. The homicide rate there is about three times higher than that of New York state, and Memphis, in particular, has the nation’s highest rate of violent crime. Nashville isn’t far behind.

Lee didn’t mention that, of course. Nor did he say that household income in Tennessee is among the nation’s lowest, or that a CNBC study ranked his state as having the nation’s worst quality of life. Hmm.

Considering all that, a Mamdani-freaked New Yorker might want to instead consider… hey, how about New Hampshire? After Mamdani’s win, that state’s Republican governor, Kelly Ayotte, tapped campaign funds to pay for billboard trucks that have been circling Manhattan, urging New Yorkers to consider the Granite State.

One says: ” New Hampshire: Safe, prosperous, free. What New York used to be.” Ouch.

Before anyone starts packing, let’s acknowledge that uprooting one’s life based on an election result (or two or three) would qualify as an overreaction. Politics are important, I suppose, but not as important as family, friends, church, community, good bagels and other things that should keep a person rooted, no matter the latest election swing.

That said, we all know about the great outmigration of New York residents in recent decades, an inconvenient truth that a) probably has something to do with the weather, b) probably has something to do with the heavy tax burden/cost of living and c) definitely doesn’t paint the state’s government in a flattering glow. When so many people are voting with their feet, we should give their message some meaningful attention.

The biggest destinations for departing New Yorkers, though, have been Florida and New Jersey, while Tennessee has been way down the list. Sorry, Gov. Lee. We might like you better if you had an ocean.

I should tell you that my grandfather settled in Knoxville and enjoyed his time there. As far as I’m aware, nobody else tried to punch him for his Yankeeness. He even married a girl from Cleveland, a small city in the eastern Tennessee mountains, and brought her back to New England.

My grandmother never much warmed to the place, though. The people, she would tell me, are as cold as the weather.

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