Info Please on Johnson City (Kingsport, Bristol: insurance, crime rate, affordable houses)

[amyfw]

I am planning to be in east Tenn for a week in December to look at homes and for teaching jobs. I once read on this forum to stay away from Johnson City because the crime rate is high there. Is this true? Please be truthful because I am taking a big leap to move to this area all the way from Indiana. What about the police in that area? Can you see the mountain if you lived in this city? What about teaching jobs? I also read that this area was building a new elementary school. Is this true? Tell me about the culture there. Are there reasons to stay clear of this area? And just wanted to say, that those who put that housing is affordable in east Tenn. was not telling the whole truth.

[hiknapster]

The big cheerleader for Johnson City has sold her house and doesn't need to chanpion anymore.

[insanesmooch]

I don't think I ever saw the post against Johnson City. I haven't lived up here very long and I don't live right in Johnson City (I do work there). Most of the crime I have heard about around here is domestic or drug related. You can check out the local news at:
www.johnsoncitypress.com
and http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/home.html

As far as crime stats, the 2004 report is on:
http://www.johnsoncitytn.com/Police%20Department/ (broken link)

At least from certain areas you can see the mountains in JC. I can see them from the place I work. I've never really paid attention to whether or not I could see them in other parts of town.

Here are the sites about jobs in the city schools:
http://www.jcschools.org/
http://www.jcschools.org/departments/hr/employment.asp (broken link)

Here is the Washington County site, but I didn't see anything specific about jobs.
http://www.wcde.org/
http://www.washingtoncountytn.com/

As far as housing prices, Indiana is probably more comparable to TN prices. Many of the people taking about how affordable houses are tend to be those coming from CA or FL where prices are out of this world. Some may also be factoring in taxes/insurance. Indiana may be fairly equal on those things too.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

The big cheerleader for Johnson City has sold her house and doesn't need to chanpion anymore.

I am assuming you are referring to me? I will just let that comment go seeing as I never advertised that house here on the forum, just in classifieds and it wasn't even in the Tri-Cities and I sold it because I got married. I moved to Tri-Cities 2 years ago, still here. And thank you for the complement, yes I am a cheerleader for all of East TN. WE LOVE IT HERE! My children are getting a GREAT education, have lots of friends with like minded thinking/interest.
As far as crime, yes it is here, sure it is everywhere! We do have convenience stores that get robbed and hear about theft on the news, however, I have found it is stays concentrated to a few "bad" areas. One thing I notice different between FL/CT and here is that you hear about everything and the police catch these crooks. Yes, we do have a overcrowding problem in our local jails. To me that just proves they catch em and keep em! If you hear about someone on the run on the news, you usually here a day or two later they have been caught. That tells me the police are doing there jobs.
Yes we have had a few instances here and there in the schools, but they too are dealt with right away.
As for housing in Johnson City area, "affordable" is relevant. Are you going to find a 2,000 sq ft home for 50k? No, at least not in an area one would want to live in if they want to feel safe enough to leave there doors unlocked when they run to the grocery store. But in my opinion, 125k for that same house in a comfortable area and within 15 minutes drive to a main city is affordable. You might not feel that way, it is all relevant and a matter of perspective. The fact that overall cost of living, (utilities, property taxes, etc) is lower makes a big difference. Sure my husband and I could make a lot more money in another state, but it would cost more to live, so there would sill be the same percentages coming in and going out.
Yes, you can see the mountains from all over the Tri-Cities area, not as much in Bristol though I have found. I live in between Kingsport and Johnson City and no matter where I go, I can see those beautiful mountains every day. I can get to them in about 30 minutes too!
The new elementary school is being built in Gray by the Washington County school system. I believe they are planning to have it open in 2008. This I think is great seeing as the county is planning a head. My children are in this school system and there classes are not crowed. The student teacher ratio is about 17 to 1. I like those figures.
If there is anything else about the Tri-Cities are you would like to know, please feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer or direct you to those who can answer your questions. I don't claim to know everything about the area, but I do claim to LOVE the area, and yes, am cheerleader for it!

[Downhome]

YOU GO GIRL wave those pom poms....Is there any gang activity in NE TN..I live abt 10 min from Trenton NJ and the gangs are outta control. People being shot and killed a lot around here. Bloods,Crypts,Sex MONEY Somethings ,Latin Kings, you name it and we prob. have it.

[NTLTN]

Originally Posted by amyfw

I am planning to be in east Tenn for a week in December to look at homes and for teaching jobs. I once read on this forum to stay away from Johnson City because the crime rate is high there. Is this true? Please be truthful because I am taking a big leap to move to this area all the way from Indiana. What about the police in that area? Can you see the mountain if you lived in this city? What about teaching jobs? I also read that this area was building a new elementary school. Is this true? Tell me about the culture there. Are there reasons to stay clear of this area? And just wanted to say, that those who put that housing is affordable in east Tenn. was not telling the whole truth.

I going to be blatantly honest...We moved to Eastern TN from Western KY about three years ago and have been trying to leave ever since. In fact, we are going back north-west next year. The people here are nice, but they are VERY different from what we are accustomed to. The dialect is awful. Also, employment is often based on whether you are related to or know someone already employed by the company. You can see mountains from J.C. However, you should bear in mind, these are not tall mountains like in CO or MT. I guess the police dept. does an okay job. Our main problem has been with juvenile crime. (The police won't take any action, when a minor is involved.) For your sake, please weigh your decision carefully. We truly regret ever coming to this area.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by Downhome

YOU GO GIRL wave those pom poms....Is there any gang activity in NE TN..I live abt 10 min from Trenton NJ and the gangs are outta control. People being shot and killed a lot around here. Bloods,Crypts,Sex MONEY Somethings ,Latin Kings, you name it and we prob. have it.

I have never heard of any gang name or activity relating to gangs referred to on any of our local news channels no local papers. Well there was one time a few months back where several who were arrested claimed to be of a violent gang, but come to find out they thought they would scare the police into letting them go and they really weren't with any gang. I have not heard anyone I come across in a work day or otherwise that has mentioned anything gang related here in East TN. I certainly have never seen any signs of it. Coming from South East Fl, I sure can recognize it! My hubby is a native here and he has never seen or heard of any either. That is my long answer, my short answer......Nope!


NTLTN, I will agree with you totally about some of the dialect here. Some folks you have to ask them to repeat what they are saying and sometimes I still don't get it. Took me a while to figure out what "jungrygeetjet?" was!
(ya hungry? did you eat yet?") and I still can't quite used to "yins". But I have found that it isn't that bad around more populated areas even if you are outside of that.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

I have never heard of any gang name or activity relating to gangs referred to on any of our local news channels no local papers. .

There is an association of state. federal and local law enforcement in Tennessee called the Tennessee Gang Investigators Association. Among other things on their website, they have accumulated stories from Tennessee newspapers on gang crime/arrests. Their website is here:

http://www.tn-gia.org/news.php (broken link)

The website, I believe, is meant to be a resource tool for Tennessee law enforcement but you can read the gang-related newspaper articles without registering/signing in. Those are right on their homepage.

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

My sister is relocating to the area from Vero Beach, Fla. She bought a new place in Telford, outside Jonesborough, and is moving there next week. She (and her two daughters) are quite optimistic, and she gets to experience more holiday-appropriate weather for the first time in years.

[dreamofmonterey]

Originally Posted by amyfw

I am planning to be in east Tenn for a week in December to look at homes and for teaching jobs. I once read on this forum to stay away from Johnson City because the crime rate is high there. Is this true? Please be truthful because I am taking a big leap to move to this area all the way from Indiana. What about the police in that area? Can you see the mountain if you lived in this city? What about teaching jobs? I also read that this area was building a new elementary school. Is this true? Tell me about the culture there. Are there reasons to stay clear of this area? And just wanted to say, that those who put that housing is affordable in east Tenn. was not telling the whole truth.

actually only the old downtown is still being renovated- but north JC is nice- we relocated here from So. Florida due to cost of living. You can see the mtns- There is alot of new housing being built- so no you cant step into a brand new house for 80k-

NE Tenn is changing- Johnson City and Jonesborough- there is alot of new money (and no career-there are "service jobs") unless you are semi-retired or blue collar. The hospital and ETSU make up over 80% of the good jobs here- it is sort of mixed- many retired people now move here;

I would have to be honest and say that- if I were single I would never want to live here- it is limited- It is a city if you consider a mall with chain restaurants to be a city. Anyway, hope that helps. I am just being honest- while we have a nice house the job market f0r someone w/a graduate degree is NOT good, and I am eventually considering moving again, to a real city.

Sunny.