Planning an adventure to scout the area for possible relocation! (Memphis: rental car, rental)

[Leannimal2]

My husband and I are very interested in moving to the Chattanooga are next August/September. We are planning a trip for the end of January to check it out. We are planning on staying in the city for 2 or 3 nights but my husband is being drawn to Cleveland for some reason. Whats going on there? Anything to do?

We currently live in a suburb of Philadelphia and love the small town feel but also love that we are a 30 min train ride to the city. Would Cleveland be a comparable situation?

We are in our mid/late 30s, we will be relocating our small business with us when we move. So that gives us some flexibility as far as picking a location.

We love disc golf, hiking, music, good food, good beer, nice people and fun times!

The goal of this trip it get a good feel of the City and the surrounding areas. We want to check out potential neighborhoods to live in as well as find some good restaurants are bars to chill in.

We'll take any and all recommendations you have!

Thanks so much in advance and Happy New Year!

Thanks,
Leann

[An Einnseanair]

• The population of the entirety of the Chattanooga metro area (550k) includes Cleveland. It a completely different scale from the 6-million Philadelphia metro area. Chattanooga itself is about 180k, with Cleveland a small town at about 44k.
• There are no commuter trains, and public transportation is minimal. Welcome to the conservative southeast, where everyone has a car (or multiple) and public transportation is viewed as a thing for poor people to use. Downtown Cleveland is about a 40 min car drive from downtown Chattanooga during non-rush hour times.
• The closet thing in the area to what you have now would be a close-in suburb of Atlanta, GA (metro population about 5.9-mil). They have a small commuter train system.
• That said, Chattanooga is within 2-hours of Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Huntsville. If Chattanooga doesn't have what you want to do, one of the surrounding cities will and is an easy day-trip.
• You will find plenty of "disc golf, hiking, music, good food, good beer, nice people and fun times" around Chattanooga. Countless miles of public hiking trails in the area, numerous disk golf courses, and a robust array of good restaurants and breweries.

Based on this, I think you would be more interested in Chattanooga proper than Cleveland, specifically the North Shore area. But feel free to visit both.

[Chas863]

Originally Posted by An Einnseanair

• The population of the entirety of the Chattanooga metro area (550k) includes Cleveland. It a completely different scale from the 6-million Philadelphia metro area. Chattanooga itself is about 180k, with Cleveland a small town at about 44k.
• There are no commuter trains, and public transportation is minimal. Welcome to the conservative southeast, where everyone has a car (or multiple) and public transportation is viewed as a thing for poor people to use. Downtown Cleveland is about a 40 min car drive from downtown Chattanooga during non-rush hour times.
• The closet thing in the area to what you have now would be a close-in suburb of Atlanta, GA (metro population about 5.9-mil). They have a small commuter train system.
• That said, Chattanooga is within 2-hours of Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Huntsville. If Chattanooga doesn't have what you want to do, one of the surrounding cities will and is an easy day-trip.
• You will find plenty of "disc golf, hiking, music, good food, good beer, nice people and fun times" around Chattanooga. Countless miles of public hiking trails in the area, numerous disk golf courses, and a robust array of good restaurants and breweries.

Based on this, I think you would be more interested in Chattanooga proper than Cleveland, specifically the North Shore area. But feel free to visit both.

Good post.

[NY Annie]

I grew up in the NJ/NYC area, spent 20 years in RI, then another nearly 20 in NYC (Staten Island) before moving to southwest TN. What the above poster, An Einnseanair, said is correct about the difference between a northeast city and any of the cities in the south/mid-south. What are called cities here are often nothing more than a village by comparison; cities here can be as small as a small town in the northeast. I'm glad you are planning a trip here before relocating. We moved with no advance trip but our intention was to retire and we had done all the city-life living and travel - we wanted a place with no neighbors - and we found it. Oh boy did we find it. I'm not complaining because we have adjusted from city to real country and you can adjust as well. Luckily eastern TN (where I went to college over 40 years ago) is a lot more developed and less agrarian than the southwestern part of the state. Even the big cities of TN cannot compare to Philly, Trenton, or any of the northern NJ "towns". I do include Chatt as one of TN's bigger cities, along with Johnson City, Knoxville, Jackson and the 2 biggest cities of Memphis and Nashville. Keep all this in mind as you explore Chatt and the area.

[Leannimal2]

Thank you all for the feedback! We really appreciate it!



An EinnseanairWe are aware that the size of the Chattanooga is not even close to comparable to Philadelphia but your intel about Cleveland was helpful and we think we will look closer to the City. That is also good to know about public transportation. We do both have cars but we prefer not to drive when we go out if we plan on having a drink or two. I assume Uber and Lyft are an option though?


NY Annie Thank you! My husband grew up in Barrington RI and lived in Providence for a few years before moving to the Philly area. We have been under the impression that Chattanooga is similar size wise to Providence would you agree?


We are so looking forward to our trip and are glad we will have time to wonder and see all that we can before we decide to move. Thanks again for all the help!

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by Leannimal2

Thank you all for the feedback! We really appreciate it!

An EinnseanairWe are aware that the size of the Chattanooga is not even close to comparable to Philadelphia but your intel about Cleveland was helpful and we think we will look closer to the City. That is also good to know about public transportation. We do both have cars but we prefer not to drive when we go out if we plan on having a drink or two. I assume Uber and Lyft are an option though?

NY Annie Thank you! My husband grew up in Barrington RI and lived in Providence for a few years before moving to the Philly area. We have been under the impression that Chattanooga is similar size wise to Providence would you agree?

We are so looking forward to our trip and are glad we will have time to wonder and see all that we can before we decide to move. Thanks again for all the help!

There is a local bus system (CARTA). I've used it on occasion, but it's usually easier for me to drive because I work long hours and live in the suburbs. Uber is here, probably Lyft. I've had vendors fly in and use one of them to get to our offices. There's the free electric shuttle downtown which is useful, as well as a bike "borrowing" service where you pay a membership fee (daily, 3-day, or annual) then borrow the free bikes for free as long as you don't keep each bike more than an hour. And finally there's Pints and Peddles, but I don't think they venture far from downtown. The city rejected the little rental scooter things last year.

Also, there are various services to get to other cities. I've used Groome to get to the Atlanta Airport; MUCH easier than driving and finding parking.

But nothing like the transportation systems I've used when traveling for work. I've flown to to Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and St. Louis. If I'm sticking to office visits downtown I always try to work the trip around never getting a rental car.

Regarding Providence, RI, that's a yes and a no. Yes, the population of the actual cities of Providence and Chattanooga are both right at 180k, which is the "yes". But the Providence Metro Area is 1.6 million vs. Chattanooga's 0.5 million, which is the "no". The northeast is simply more built up and population dense than the southeast, and the large cities are closer together.