I need information on these towns (Knoxville, Johnson City: crime, home, established neighborhood)

[StraightWhiteMale]

I want the bad,good,ugly on these few towns please. I would love to talk to people who live or have lived in these towns before, need to know how the crime is,do they have things for young kids to do such as parks etc....just everything!

Surgoinsville
Mount Carmel
Church Hill
Bluff City
Erwin
Cumberland Gap
Gray

[Traveler256]

Most of those towns are off of 11W if I'm not mistaken. The only town I have ever stopped in is Mount Carmel and I found it to be a pleasant little town.

[StraightWhiteMale]

What can you tell me about it? Could you be more specific what made it a pleasant town?

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by StraightWhiteMale

I want the bad,good,ugly on these few towns please. I would love to talk to people who live or have lived in these towns before, need to know how the crime is,do they have things for young kids to do such as parks etc....just everything!

Surgoinsville
Mount Carmel
Church Hill
Bluff City
Erwin
Cumberland Gap
Gray

Howdy,
Well, here is my opinion of the towns on your list that I know about, you can take it or leave it.

Surgoinsville- No real town, just beautiful quiet farm land. Neighbors are nice and pretty much hunt on each others land, have picnics together or just keep to themselves.
Mount Carmel, know as the only town that is only on one side of the street hahahha. Kid you not, Good Morning America did a piece on it. The British Ammunitions plant owns everything on the other side of 11W (Used to be Holston Ammunition) I think there are maybe 2 stop lights in Mount Carmel, schools are ok, people are nice. Home to the Dairy Cup, best burgers and shakes for a hundred miles or so. Yum!
Church Hill- just up the road a piece from Mount Carmel, about the same, both have some nice established neighborhoods. Some of the most beautiful combo of river and mountain views. Both pretty convenient to Kingsport for shopping, medical and jobs. Not too much for kids, but again, close enough to Kingsport for things like gymnastics, karate, big library, parks, public pool etc.
Bluff City- a spot in the road between Johnson City and Bristol. Really, not a whole lot there, well, except Ridgewood BBQ!
Erwin- Well....they hung an elephant there once. Schools...not so good, but it is at the base of the Smokies, the last real town before you start the climb up and quick access to Asheville NC. You would need to travel to JC for medical and major shopping, besides the new Wal-Mart that just went in.
Gray- Well, personally my favorite, but then again I am biased because that is where I live. Good schools, lots of families, it is right in between JC and Kingsport so it is convenient to major shopping, medical and about anything else you want but it feels like living in the country. There are a few stores that offer the basics and does have a strip with everything in about 2 city blocks worth of area so you don't HAVE to go to JC or Kingsport for a quick trip for those few needed items. It is also home to the Appalachian fair grounds that seems to have something going on there at least once a month and more in the summer.
Sorry, I don;t know much about Cumberland Gap except that I have been there a few times and seems like a nice town and area.
Hope that helps!

[Beretta]

I am going to move your post to the Tri Cities forum in hopes you will get even more responses. Welcome to the forum!

[jabogitlu]

Erwin is the biggest town on your list. While Surgoinsville, Mt Carmel, Church Hill use Kingsport and Bluff City and Gray use Johnson City (or Bristol for Bluff City), it's possible to stay in Erwin and more or less survive, except for medical for which you'd want to travel at least to Johnson City.

There is practically no crime in any of the places mentioned (well, I'm not sure about Erwin, due to its larger size - but still probably very low. Stats, anyone?). Having it thus, there is also very little to do in any of the places mentioned. But that's okay, you'll find yourself driving to Kingsport or Johnson City more or less daily unless you're retired.

As for Cumberland Gap, that's a different beast altogether. A bit randomly thrown in; why are you considering it? I'm assuming you're talking about Cumberland Gap near Middlesboro KY? Or is there another one somewhere...

[StraightWhiteMale]

Wow, thanks for all the info, i wanted a smaller town but alot of those seem to small...Are there any towns such as these but a bit bigger near like 15-30 miles from a larger town that i can look into? Any suggestions are welcomed.

[jabogitlu]

Well there's Jonesborough which has more or less been enveloped into western Johnson City sprawl. The downtown retains its uniqueness, though. There's also Elizabethton which is small, but large enough for Walmart, Lowe's, some sit down and lots of fast food, with a neat downtown and 15 minutes or so to Johnson City. Don't rule out Erwin though you might find it to be too authentic (read: Appalachian) for your tastes. There's also Gate City-Weber City just north of Kingsport that are small towns with some amenities.

Otherwise you might have to look in two other general directions. Asheville (pop. 72k, metro ~400k) has many small towns ringing it, Mars Hill, Madison and lots closer in. Knoxville (pop. 183k, MSA 650k, CSA >1 mil.) is more or less the sprawl capital of the lower Appalachians, so finding a small town near it wouldn't be difficult. You could look east (Strawberry Plains, Seymour, Kodak), north (Halls, Powell), west (Karns, Hardin Valley/Pellissippi @ Lowell Rd. area, or further out with Rockwood, Kingston and Harriman). I wouldn't necessarily recommend South as that includes the busy and growing Alcoa and Maryville and is mainly accessed by the insanely busy Alcoa Hwy and Pellissippi Pkwy.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by StraightWhiteMale

Wow, thanks for all the info, i wanted a smaller town but alot of those seem to small...Are there any towns such as these but a bit bigger near like 15-30 miles from a larger town that i can look into? Any suggestions are welcomed.

Your welcome,
And maybe you misunderstood me or I didn't explain it well, sorry about that.
Mount Carmel, Church Hill and Gray are all less than 30 minutes, more like 10 to 15 minutes to larger cities. Mount Carmel and Church Hill are just outside of Kingsport and Gray is just outside of JC and a few more minutes the other direction to Kingsport.
Erwin, Cumberland Gap and Surgoinsville are the only ones that I would say are "to far out" if you are looking for lots of activities for the kids such as gymnastics, dance, karate and so forth.
You might want to also look at Colonial Heights, Boones Creek, Jonesborogh, Telford, Pinney Flats, all of those are also similar to what it sounds like you are looking for.
Hope that helps!

[StraightWhiteMale]

Yes that helps tons, gives me things to look up for a bit, the one thing i have to have is i want to be either in the mountains or very close to them. I just do not know how far west the mountains go in tn. Early next year we will be making another trip there. Thanks again for the information and the new towns to look at.