Signal, North Chatt, st. Elmo, Southside?!? Help! (Chattanooga, Red Bank: crime, how much)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So here are the basics. We obviously like various things about all of these areas. We have young kids and want them to be able to play in the yard/around the neighborhood without too much worry.
We really want a nice, laid back, mixed community that has lower crime and good schools. St. Elmo would be okay if the schools were even close to okay there. North Chatt is nice but I feel the lots there are by and large terrible for kids and a lot of the streets are super busy (plus i htink its overpriced). Signal would be perfect if I could rest assured that all my neighbors would not be super conservative, super white, etc. Not that I want no neighbors like that but I don't really know anyone that lives up there so I am in the dark as to what people are like. Southside is really nice and is the type of area we have grown to love... however, I feel if the economy sputters again, which is no doubt will in the next 5 years, that area could really take a beating.
Hard to decide. Commute not a huge deal because we can telecommute most days. Give me the good, bad and ugly of each place. Price range is 350Kish.
So here are the basics. We obviously like various things about all of these areas. We have young kids and want them to be able to play in the yard/around the neighborhood without too much worry.
We really want a nice, laid back, mixed community that has lower crime and good schools. St. Elmo would be okay if the schools were even close to okay there. North Chatt is nice but I feel the lots there are by and large terrible for kids and a lot of the streets are super busy (plus i htink its overpriced). Signal would be perfect if I could rest assured that all my neighbors would not be super conservative, super white, etc. Not that I want no neighbors like that but I don't really know anyone that lives up there so I am in the dark as to what people are like. Southside is really nice and is the type of area we have grown to love... however, I feel if the economy sputters again, which is no doubt will in the next 5 years, that area could really take a beating.
Hard to decide. Commute not a huge deal because we can telecommute most days. Give me the good, bad and ugly of each place. Price range is 350Kish.
You've kinda answered you own questions. LOL! I have lived on SM and Riverview. You will not find "Diversity" on SM but you will find larger homesites and a larges selection of homes. $350K will get you an older home (15 - 25 Yrs old).
Riverview, St Elmo and the Southside are all about compromise. You compromise yard size and home size for convenience. Folks utilize the community parks instead of their yards for play. I think that is why those communities are so tight. The residents actually interact instead of isolating themselves to their own backyards.
N Chatt / Riverview is the most expensive of the 3 because of it's desirable school, and access to so much to do. You can literally walk to Downtown from most homes in N Chattanooga. $350 will get you a new construction home or a nice remodel on the Normal Park side of Hixson Pike and Barton Ave. There is an awesome opportunity on the Riverview side of Barton Ave right now. It's a rancher on street with tons of young families and and a level homesite. Of course it needs to be remodeled but could be something special with a budget of $350.
Sorry if my sentences aren't flowing together this morning. Still working on the coffee
You are not too clear about the trade off.... Say if I live in st Elmo how competitive are the magnet schools? Where does a normal park kid go to high school? Thanks.
You are not too clear about the trade off.... Say if I live in st Elmo how competitive are the magnet schools? Where does a normal park kid go to high school? Thanks.
The magnet schools are very competitive. Folks used to camp out for days on the sidewalk of the schools to get in. They finally cut that out. In N Chatt after Normal Park some choose one of the many privates in the area. Some will go to Red Bank. Some may go to Middle College at Chattanooga State. And I'm sure others will try for one of the Magnet High Schools in the area.
There is a new STEM School in the works for Chattanooga. I read that admission will be a lottery. Listening to talk radio on Friday the promised funds for that school are not coming in as promised.
All of the Hamilton County Magnet Schools but two have a combination lottery/zoned admission process. The zones for the schools are smaller than normal and the "extra" seats go to kids in other zones based on a lottery system. Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (Brainerd area) and Chattanooga School for Arts and Science (downtown) are now pure lottery. These last two are the ones mentioned by RiverView where parents would camp out to get in (I did this, and my son is there now), but they changed the admissions process last year. CSLA was named top Magnet school in the country a few years ago, but I don't see this happening again now that they've gone to lottery admissions. I thought that the Performing Arts Magnets had a "try out" requirement for application, but I can't find a reference to that so maybe not.
The only sure way to get into any Magnet school is to live in the respective district. Normal Park won a national award several years ago and home prices in that zone skyrocketed.
All of the Hamilton County Magnet Schools but two have a combination lottery/zoned admission process. The zones for the schools are smaller than normal and the "extra" seats go to kids in other zones based on a lottery system. Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (Brainerd area) and Chattanooga School for Arts and Science (downtown) are now pure lottery. These last two are the ones mentioned by RiverView where parents would camp out to get in (I did this, and my son is there now), but they changed the admissions process last year. CSLA was named top Magnet school in the country a few years ago, but I don't see this happening again now that they've gone to lottery admissions. I thought that the Performing Arts Magnets had a "try out" requirement for application, but I can't find a reference to that so maybe not.
The only sure way to get into any Magnet school is to live in the respective district. Normal Park won a national award several years ago and home prices in that zone skyrocketed.
I just don't understand the logic of a pure lottery. I think the performance of the above mentioned schools is because of the parents commitment to their kids education. What really blows my mind is the new STEM school being a pure lottery. (realizing this will probably get me flaaaammmmmed) How do you get the best and brightest in a pure lottery? What if a kid that has interest in STEM studies but just can't grasp the concepts? Do they give that child special attention or do they hold the rest back?
[Warning - I kinda went overboard on typing, so ignore if you want. But it does outline what happened with the admissions process as CSAS/CSLA.]
Some people care more about their kids' education than others. Some people send their kids to school and think it's the government's job to educate. Others play an active role and will do anything they can to give their kids a better education. If you're rich you can pay to send your child to an elite private school. Others have to find a way to work the system.
Any time people like that can figure out a way to congregate children of like-minded parents in one school, separated from the parents who don't care, they will do it. I'm one of those parents, and I'm not ashamed of it. It's completely non-discriminatory and non-racist. I don't care what color you are or how smart your kid is or how much money you have. The only requirement I have is that you value your child's education and are willing to help the school provide it. Do this by making sure your child does his homework so he doesn't slow down the class. Also by volunteering to do things like work concessions at games, chaparone field trips, do minor maintenance at the school, help monitor the drop-off/pick-up lines, etc.
CSLA/CSAS and Normal Park are both good examples. Normal Park was perceived to be a good school, so houses inside the zone became desirable. People bid up home prices inside the zone trying to get in... so now only rich people could afford a guaranteed seat in Normal Park. People who both care about their children's' future AND have little money are left out, and speak loudly at school board meetings. So now you've got massive fights about the Normal Park zone boundaries.
With CSAS/CSLA the elimination process was a line. You had to prove you were willing to work for your kids' education to get in. For anyone willing to camp out for a week, making sure homework was done every night would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately it was virtually impossible for a single parent to get in (can't camp out and hold a job and watch a kid or two all at the same time), and the reality is that there are more minority and/or poor single parents. So again, people who had a backup system (family and friends to watch the kids) and could take off a week from work could get in. Mostly this was perceived to be rich white folks from the suburbs. Also, parents from a single pre-school could show up en-mass and take up most of the available seats at one of the schools. This did happen several times.
So the school board modified the "line" system to eliminate 24/7 campouts in favor of an official "list". The only thing you had to do was show up every day at a set time to say "here" when your name was called. One of the goals was that now single parents could get in. The problem is it became so easy that the line started earlier and earlier. The next-to-last year the line was almost 4 weeks. The last year they had the line it started so early the wait would have been over 2 months; unfortunately, the school board caved and moved the application date up, and then immediately changed the rules for the following year.
The school board wanted a lottery from the start. The school itself, the administration, the teachers, and the parents of existing students ALL hated the lottery idea. I was involved with the "concerned parent" group that met regularly and came up with ideas to present to the school board... which the board politely listened to and then completely ignored. So now we have a lottery, and the only thing you have to do is attend a few meetings, tour the school, and you have just as much of a chance as the hundreds of others who also want those few dozen seats.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
