After a while, you begin to believe that it is your own mind that brings on all your misfortunes - especially, when over an unreasonable period of time, you are met with such indifference and negativity. I must tell you, Chattanooga, despite it's natural beauty and
disappearing southern charm, has been a great dissapointment to my wife and I and will definitely be to others who are accomplished, formally educated, middle class people seeking an appreciation of what they have to offer in the
non-existent Chattanooga employment market.
If you don't believe the lieral when I say, "non-existent", just go to ANY Chattanooga jobs board, including postings in the Free-Press.
While this is a very beautiful place, it also creates it's own limitations for those who come in from the outside. Make no mistake, I am FROM here, have been away all my life and returned with more experience and knowledge to offer and local business has treated me as if I am non-existent.
As long as you are willing to accept a service job for seven bucks an hour, are transferred here, or bring your own money to start a business you can have a happy mindless life. Otherwsie, you are a threat and an intruder.
You have to examine the mentality of people who have chosen to stay in a place all their lives and work unchallenging and mostly unrewarding jobs for low pay. Nothing changes and nobody wants it too.
Old money and new wealth (mostly made elsewhere) controls growth here - and that "new" growth is mosty a new facade for tourism but doesnt benefit the people who live here. Those who own the new chic restauarants and businesses are from somewhere else. Doctors and lawyers do very well here but there are very few specialists in any field.
People, like us, who are tired of the ratrace, but have money, bring it to this place to service the people who visit, have wealth, or retire here. The city of Chattanooga runs off every large business that could provide lots of new jobs, considering it as a location but continues to pour money - public and private -- into the facelift of the city... kind of a
Disney Main Street USA between the mountains for people to spend their money passing through...and, the city's biggest wish is that most of those people will stop and say, "how quaint, I think we should move here."
Tell me who else can afford the half-million dollar condos that are going up everywhere. Not most Chattanoogans.
As long as you BRING your money and the security of your life with you, it is a great place to live.
MY wife has outstanding credentials and a resume and references that should impress anyone at any level. She spent a year applying for every job in Chattanooga for which she was UNDER qualified, QUALIFIED or OVER-qualified. Actually, she was over-qualified for all of them because there have been no jobs described within their position titles that even came close to what she has done outside this town.
She has been passed over for every position for which she has been a finalist. Most of the losses were to people promoted from within. This tells us that this mentally-dwarfed business community only posts positions because they legally have to but their intent is to hire from within from the start.
More than half the jobs she applies for, she never even gets a call back on, dispelling another myth that somehow "southerners" are inherently more polite and courteous. She even applied with several TEMP services and was told she would be put on their lists. SHE HAS NEVER BEEN CALLED - ONCE.
Chattanooga is a small minded place where people protect their turf. Most of them don't even qualify to do what they do but if you know COUSINS, your daddy can get you a job, or you have ever aspired to more than medicority and have worked your way up from the bottom for thirty years, there is no limit to where you can go in this town.
After having lived all over the country, mostly in big cities, we made the uneducated decision to return to Tennessee. We were excited about the prospect that we were coming home for "the good life" but life in these United States has changed everywhere. Every seen the movie Pleasantville? Welcome to the black and white world of Chattanooga!
Here we are, at the age where we'd like to stop moving and stay in a place we grew up and geographically like. Alas, we are in no position to retire, so his is only one more stop in the process of survival.
An old folk song said it, "There is no hiding place down here." Don't think that you'll be able to come and rock on the front porch. You'll have to pay to play.
This place was bought and sold way before most folks realized there was another paradise besides Florida....... now on a par in ruin with California.
From the past year's experience, all I can offer anyone thinknig of making a move to Chattanooga is, DEEPLY RESEARCH before you leap.
Even the Chamber of Commerce lies about the health and prosperity of this town. Just call them and confront them about the things they write. You will see a lot of stammering and evasiveness.
Unfortunately, if you are not in a situation to just bring your checkbook and settle in the rural serenity of Tennessee, the only chance of finding near-decent weages are Nashville and Memphis.
I have lived in Nashville twice and now it is just an over-poplated version of a place I never liked. Memphis has a little more outside influence from big business but is still very provincial about employment.
We will likely abandon our dream of living out the rest of our lives "in the woods" and move toward the bright lights again.
Read the CAUTION signs from those who made the mistake of buying back into the "sweet south" farce. Good luck and Y'all come back now, ya hear?
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Think twice before moving to Chattanooga, TN
. The part about the homes be lesser quality because they are not on slabs just cracked me up. And yes, the part about needing a good supermarket is true. All of Chattanooga will be lined up for the grand opening of the 2 Publixes or is it Publixi..... either way.... I'll be there 
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