Moving to Tennessee

I spent some time in Knoxville and Memphis last year. Two completely different parts of the state, on opposite sides. Both cities had very nice people. Very diverse. I think both have real potential

Thoughts and prayers!

You know I have been watching Leslie Jordan's videos and he visits Chattanooga frequently. Dare I say, not bad! There are some nice restaurants and coffee places and some very cheap housing. He was staying in a very cute condo on one of his trips, when I googled prices for a place like that $100K!! I found myself thinking 'I'd move there'. Maybe it's because I'm past the clubs and bars phase of life but it looked very livable especially in the internet age when you can have contact with the outside world and still access your choice of media and entertainment and zoom with friends.

Where?

States are big, they vary depending on where you are. Nashville is a very different experience than bring out in the boonies.

It's hip to move to Nashville these days. LA hairdresser and reality 'star' Justin Anderson and his boytoy Austin Rhodes (of twins who came out on Youtube fame) moved there.

You have my sympathies.

Nashville is quite nice, and fairly liberal. Memphis is not so nice, but even more liberal. The other two big cities, Knoxville and Chattanooga, are not liberal at all, and there's really little to do in them; although Knoxville is near Pigeon Forge and Dollywood if that floats your boat, and Chattanooga has a nice aquarium.

Are you already retired, OP?

Memphis can be very nice depending on where you live.

Memphis is fairly close-ish to Little Rock and Dallas, FWIW.

Dallas is over 400 miles from Memphis, we are talking over a 6 hour drive r10.

If it takes that much of a stretch to find positive things to say about Memphis....

west TN is very different from east TN which part of TN are you moving to?

My dad moved near Chattanooga. Beautiful, lots of history and there is that bible-thumper element but it's offset by a college crowd and some decent restaurants and coffee places.

[quote] Hi everyone! I'm moving to TN this year to take care of an aging parent

Why not just put her in a nursing home? Seems like that would be easier.

Germantown, a suburb of Memphis, is very nice

Tennessee is the cradle of American music: Nashville and Graceland, Dollywood and Loretta Lynn, and the Tina Turner museum

Fat people and all of them smoke.

The nicest looking parts of TN are the worst places to live.

No to all of it. Plus KY and everything to TN's south.

Just no.

I spent a summer in Oak Ridge, near Knoxville, about 30 years ago. The summer heat and humidity were oppressive - walking out the door in the morning was like walking into a steam bath, and I was sweating before I reached my car. But I fucked some hot boys that summer, so it wasn't all bad.

i grew up in Memphis, ask me anything

While traveling through Tennessee just outside Nashville in the late 1980's, I was having breakfast in the motel restaurant, I notice a black well dressed business man eating alone. He stopped the white waitress to ask politely if he could get a refill of his coffee. She said sure, one moment and went and got the pot of coffee, she proceeded to go around and fill every coffee cup in the restaurant until the pot was almost empty. Then she went to him poured the remainder in his cup, I am guessing filling it about half full. Then she said to him in a rather nasty tone, you need anything else? He thanked her and said no.

I couldn't help to think to myself what a fucking nasty petty bitch and forever hated the state of Tennessee, I doubt it has changed much. OP I hope for your sake you are white.

It has no redeeming qualities.

I visited Nashville back in the mid-90s, and I was quite shocked to find that there were 9 gay bars there! I don't know if there are now, but back in the day, that was a very gay town.

You always need a car and it seems manual transmission really helps going up and down what they consider hills. Between transmission, brakes, and tires you have all conversation covered with your new neighbors for quite some time because you talk too fast.

They enjoy blasting through everything to make a road. In fact, if you love Chicago Road Construction season, you will love the seasonal Tennessee on-ramp construction. Orange cones pop up everywhere!

Where in TN? It depeneds. Nashville is okay , Memphis is nice.

[quote] i grew up in Memphis, ask me anything

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

More bullshit to get you to answer. No mention of just WHERE in Tennessee when it makes all the difference in the world.

Why do people write this kind of stuff? Is it just to manipulate you? Have you dancing to a tune he calls?

Does OP get off in knowing that you're full of kind and helpful things to say for the most part and yet, after nine hours, hasn't responded to any of you?

Nashville is fun, and is more liberal and gay friendly than you might expect a southern city to be. I do not feel unsafe or uncomfortable in Nashville.

I have a story to tell you, r28...

R26 about 24 miles per hour

i googled

This is the OP.... I am moving to Middle Tennessee to a town outside of Nashville. It is a county that voted 70% for Trump. I am white. Thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate it.

^ We really appreciate if you die in a MAGAT grease fire OP.

Knoxville's metro area seems very white if you're into that.

Also, I have read on the City Data Forums that Knoxville also has some strange cancer clusters that seem to be significant and may most likely be related to either air or water pollution. Might be worth investigating before a move.

You'll be fine living outside of Nashville, OP.

I love Gatlinburg, not the tourist trap, but I used to stay at a place called Chalet Village. It was a collection of luxury, posh 90s mountain homes up in a ridge known as Mount Harrison. It mostly burnt in 2016, but I hope one day I can return there one day. It was beautiful and so peaceful.

Help me unload these boxes of case files from my Toyota Corolla

[R32] Bless your heart, honey.

I don't know how much Memphis may have changed in the past 10 years, but my straight best friend who is afraid of nothing, and no one, has lived in/visited some sketchy areas in his time; gets along with pretty much anyone from all walks of life; blah, blah, blah... couldn't get the fuck out of there fast enough. He had been looking forward to the trip for years, and bugged out of there after 2 days. Nothing specific happened, but he couldn't shake the feeling that if he stuck around any longer he'd end up dead. Yeah, I know, Mary! but he still gets rattled when he talks about it.

I'll pray for you.

Hope you like Baptists, OP.

Is that one of those shithole countries?

There are some nice historic towns outside Nashville, no doubt more Trumpish than Nashville which suffers a bit from being hip and filled with wannabe hipsters who are drawn from all parts of the U.S. it seems. There are some infrastructure problems from its success and housing costs are a bargain in comparison only to a very few cities now: $1M buys a nice but quite modest house in a modest central neighborhood. There are some very good purpose built pre-WWII apartment buildings with great, sprawling apartments in nice settings, and some expensive historic building loft apartment cobversions downtown. For very few people is it a place to move looking for a great real estate deal. For its faults which turn in part on the boosterism of a happening city, it's a city with some beautiful areas and neighborhoods, some interesting architecture, and a fairly lively place with a population whose many imports contribute to the demand for more amenities and services. I could live there easily enough; I have some friends who demand that everything be the equal of NYC who would like it for a brief discovery period and then grow weary in a big way of its smaller charms. The city has a media age of 34, 3 years younger than the U.S. median; and an average household income of $89K ($20k higher than average) so it has some statistical plusses.

Knoxville, mentioned in other posts, is much smaller and has the feel of a large small town. It has a lot to recommend it, I think, if you are looking for a quiet life in a quiet city. It is not a place to set the world on fire or for opportunity to come knocking at your door, but it's an attractive city with good architecture and a variety of housing from rather nice loft apartments (anything in an older building with the least nod to an industrial look in some detail seems to be a "loft" in Knoxville), to small early 20thC cottages of some charm, to big sprawling houses. In shortcomings, it's some distance from a decently large and connected airport, and there's all that Gatlinburg, Dollywood, white trash tourism and there's a particular type of East Tennessee hick.

If you hear Downtown playing haul ass.

Maybe you can become friends with Elizabeth from Knoxville.

Which couriers at HQ at Memphis Airport?

I got very depressed there.

It’s a legitimate reason to abuse gingham, OP. I say go for it.

What do the men look like in TN?

I would love to know more about your friend, r38. He must have been visiting or staying in some shady parts of Memphis. I have lived here all my life, and yes, like any city, there are areas you must avoid. I have been running around all day today in different parts of the city and never felt unsafe.

But I do keep a baseball bat in my car, just in case.