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There are four main cities along the Blue Ridge Mountains; Asheville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Roanoke. All of which are relatively similar in size and popularity. In your opinion, which city is the best or your favorite in this region of the US and why? Or do you believe another city aside from these is the best overall in this region? Some of the typical factors to consider are: city amenities, ease of access and proximity to the mountains, mountain "feel", weather, job opportunities, scenery, crime, cost of living, things to do and see for tourists, airports/ hotels/ resorts, and anything else you may think is an important factor.
I think the results will be interesting, as these are all intriguing and beautiful smaller cities.
Asheville gets my vote, it's one of my favorite small cities anywhere. But I also have a soft spot for Roanoke which is, I think, a very underrated city. I probably wouldn't have ever visited, but my friend's wife is from the city and they got married there and lived there for a few years until moving to the Hampton Roads area. I visited a few times and thoroughly enjoyed it.
If we are counting Chattanooga, we might also add Greenville to this list?
As much as I want to love Asheville, we just got back from a short trip there....it's kind of grungy. Many of the mountain activities are 30 minutes away, the housing is relatively expensive, and there is a homeless/bohemian vibe that goes a bit too far for my tastes. We saw some of the beauty, but were overall underwhelmed given all the good things we had heard about it.
So I vote Chattanooga, which might be a stretch calling it a Blue Ridge city (at least no more than calling Atlanta one).
Hmm, I only now realized that I like all the Blue Ridge cities. Hadn't really clumped them together in my mind. Cool downtowns, great topography/scenery, and relaxed vibes.
I would've added Greenville, SC to this list as well.
And after thinking about it, if you expanded it, you might want to include Charleston, WV and Lexington, KY too? But that might be far reaching for this survey.
My rankings would go like this:
5. Roanoke, VA: Smaller feeling than all of these listed. Quiet city with not a ton of vibrancy, but recently gentrifying in areas around downtown.
4. Greenville, SC: Pretty downtown that has really developed into a super livable city in the past decade. Growing fast, and a good quality of life.
3. Knoxville, TN: Downtown is pretty dense, and old city is amazing. But the city sprawls way too far on the west side, although it is a beautiful area.
2. Asheville, NC: The setting is just gorgeous sitting right in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. Downtown is quirky, hippy, chic and hipster all at the same time. It has gotten way too expensive though in the past few years.
1. Chattanooga, TN: Combines a stunning river and mountain setting into a gentrified, thriving downtown that attracts business, residents, tourists and bars/restaurants/retail. It has a 1970s/80s meets the future vibe that is hard to explain unless you visit. A bit gritty in parts, but thriving in many others, there's something about Chattanooga that is lovable. LOL
Last edited by jjbradleynyc; 11-05-2020 at 08:29 AM..
If you can add Greenville to this list, then you can also add Charlottesville. It's only about 25 minutes from the starting point of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
If you can add Greenville to this list, then you can also add Charlottesville. It's only about 25 minutes from the starting point of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
Charlottesville is a bit smaller than the rest of these cities mentioned.
I would say it doesn't belong with this specific grouping.
Here's the populations of these in the poll:
1) Knoxville: 190,000 city, 900k metro
2) Chattanooga: 180,000 city, 575k metro
3) Roanoke, 100,000 city, 312k metro
4) Asheville: 93,000 city, 425k metro
5) Greenville, SC, 71,000 city, 920k metro
6) Charlottesville, VA, 47,000 city, 230k metro
If you include Charlottesville, you have to include Johnson City, TN or Kingsport, TN, I think.
Johnson City has a population of 67,000 city and metro of 220k, while Kingsport has a city population of 54,000 and a metro of 305k.
If we are counting Chattanooga, we might also add Greenville to this list
Yea, I was thinking about adding Greenville. But it is ever so slightly further from the mountains than Chattanooga is and I didn't want to keep expanding out and having a poll with 10 cities. That's why I added the other category, so everybody can decide from themselves. It definitely makes sense to have it in the discussion.
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All in beautiful areas though.
