Knoxville or Chattanooga (Johnson City, Cleveland: home, job outlook, construction)

[Chatttn]

If you are middle class than Knoxville is the place to be, as long as you don't like to do anything other than shop and go to the mountains, or football games. If you like the "downtown city life" and are upper class and can afford it, then Chattanooga is the way to go, as long as you don't mind paying high taxes to support money hungry inner-city schools and high crime rates. The locals know the Chattanooga PD as the "Revenue Enhancement Team" and both Chattanooga and Knoxville are the dual "Road construction capitals of the South" and there are typically orange construction barrels on every corner, haha. Not sure about Knoxville PD and their antics, but I see way less blue lights there. Chattanooga has designed itself as a tourist attraction and has revamped it's downtown into a pretty nice area. Chattanooga jobs are not going to pay well because there are few manufacturing jobs. It's mostly minimum wage jobs, because that's what tourist places usually pay unless you own the business and then you can make a killing.....thus the reason for the very small middle class in Chattanooga and big lower class and pretty big upper class with a very large gap, again thus you have crappy public schools (for the mostpart) and then high dollar private schools that only the richest people can afford.. Knoxville has pretty much nothing downtown other than UT Campus and the Melting Pot, but Calhoun's BBQ can make up for that and then of course there is Football and Basketball! Knoxville has UT Football, UT Boys and Girls Basketball, but Chattanooga has the lowly UTC Mocs that..well...you are better off going to watch high school football games at Ooltewah High or Cleveland High because UTC usually gets their mocs beat off. To sum it up...again, if you are middle class then Knoxville is the place for you, if you are upper class then you would fit in well in Chattanooga. If you are retired and are wealthy and have good income from retirement etc, then Chattanooga would be fine as long as you have no children that you can't afford to send to private school and you don't mind the crime rates and taxes. If you are working class and are still working, then Knoxville is most definately the way to go. If you are already retired, then "head to the country" almost anywhere in the SE US away from any big cities and get your big city fix by going to Atlanta occasionally. Pretty much anywhere in East TN is good, and so is NW South Carolina, or Western North Carolina. I know that TN has no income tax, so that is good, but sales tax is way up there, but not sure on NC or SC. Northeast GA is good too, but again there is a state income tax. Hope this helps....Chatttn

PS I could go into the politics of the Chattanooga area, but you would be repulsed by the corruption at nearly every level

[TXboomerang]

Biased answer here, but I chose Knoxville. Was looking at Huntsville, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville before me and my wife moved. Ruled out Huntsville because the opportunities there for my job were not as good, same thing for Chattanooga. Nashville was just too big and reminded me too much of Dallas with the traffic and huge sprawl.

Me and my wife have visited Chattanooga on the weekends a couple of times, and it is a great place to go hang out. Other than that and some good shopping on the NE end leaving town, I didn't find it as appealing. Me and my wife both were able to find good employment well on the outskirts of Knoxville. We have all the conveniences of the big city while being very close to many city/state parks, and of course the GSMNP only being 45 minutes away.

Sure there are some things that aren't that great about Knoxville, and I find mostly useless and very UT oriented. But there seems to be some improvements coming, so maybe it will have a nicer feel to it soon where its more enjoyable to go spend a whole afternoon downtown.

Chattanooga's not bad, but I felt Knoxville offered far better employment opportunities and with the exception of a nice downtown, all the ammenities of the Knoxville area equal or exceed that of Chattanooga IMO.

[hiknapster]

I had to laugh about the local politicians being corrupt. In Knoxville, they are so corrupt that they made The New York Times!

I tend to believe your assessment of Chattanooga. There doesn't seem to be a large middle class. I deal with the people there on almost a daily basis, and it seems to be low-income, high-income and disgruntled transplants. That's a huge generalization, I know, but at a basic level, it's kind of true.

We picked Knoxville, too, due to the lack of employment opportunities in Chattanooga, too. I get a general feeling that people in Knoxville are happier, but that is not a scientific study, by any means.

Chattanooga's downtown is gorgeous. Hopefully, Knoxville will do the same thing. They have the same river and have some plans in the works.

I find it interesting that even though Chattanooga has that beautiful waterfront, free electronic trolley, art museum, DUCKS tour, etc., it hasn't really improved the quality of life for the residents. They still don't have many jobs, school system still stinks, and they have a very high foreclosure rate. Housing prices have fallen more there, than in any of the other large metropolitan Tennessee areas.

I guess all it really did was bring more tourists in, and that is not always a good thing.

[McMar]

Originally Posted by weisgarber1

All of this is highly opinionated, no problem with opinions, but some of it ridiculous. Knoxville hasn't had a foot of snow in years, think 1993 when the blizzard hit the entire eastern U.S. Knox is better by far. Just compare the growth rates over the last 20-30 years, Knox County vs. Hamilton County. That indicates which is the more desirable of the two counties.

Isn't that what we were asked for - our opinions? I like things about both cities. I lived in North Knoxville for a year, and really loved the neighborhood. My other posts about the area reflect that. This is an old thread that someone revived. A job opportunity brought me back to Chattanooga, where I grew up. The winter I was in Knoxville, it snowed 3 or 4 times - maybe a total of 9 inches. However, statistics that I read before moving there gave 12" as the annual snowfall. Obviously that info is out of date. It almost never snows in Chattanooga anymore either, even though we used to get some good snowfalls. And growth (in size and sprawl) may not be what everyone is looking for. What one person finds "desirable" in a city may be the very thing that repels another person. It is all subjective, and as another wise member pointed out, both cities should be widely researched and visited before making a decision. As far as home values in Chattanooga being on the decline, that is only in two specific areas: Soddy Daisy, where hundreds of new mcmansions sit empty and in North Chattanooga, a hip neighborhood that was overpriced at its peak in 2006. The market has experienced a slowdown in sales, but some areas are still appreciating.

Oh - one more thing. Knoxville's City-Data forum is way more active and fun than Chattanooga's. (ok, I'm going to get in trouble for that one, but it's true!)

[Eat]

Everyone left out the fact that Chattanooga is so popular that Georgia is demanding a big hunk of it.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by knoxmomma

Knoxville and Chattanooga are actually much more alike than different. Never really heard of extreme weather (i.e. tornado) in either city due to the mountains. Chattanooga's downtown is a bit more developed, but Knoxville is closing fast. Knoxville does have much more suburbia. I think the MAJOR plus for Knoxville over Chattanooga is the public school system. Knoxville has many great public schools at all levels, but I found the public schools in Chattanooga are somewhat dubious. Both cities have beautiful areas and dirty areas, just like any other city. Never really noticed a "homeless problem" in Knoxville, and I spend a lot of time downtown both working during the day and "playing" at night. We love the downtown movie theatre, music scene, restaurants in Knoxville, but also love the aquarium in Chattanooga.

I've seen a few TV news stories on Knoxville's homeless population but since I've never been to downtown Knoxville, when they mention streets, I have no idea where they are. Here's a story:

Metro Pulse (broken link)

[Eat]

They must be confined to a tiny stretch of Gay Street. We have walked all over the downtown area, both in the daytime and at night. We have never been panhandled or hastled by anyone in any way, which is something I can't say about most major cities I have visited.

[weisgarber1]

Originally Posted by KimZhang

Both cites are good selections. I believe Chattanooga has begun to outpace Knoxville in growth..

Based on population growth of recent years, that is incorrect. Knox County has outpaced Hamilton County every recent census I believe. In fact Hamilton County lost population in one of the last two or three census'.

[McMar]

The homeless in downtown Knoxville tend to congregate near the Old City (where the bus station is located) and just north of it. They hang out on Broadway under the bridge, north of the old city and south of the 4th and Gill neighborhood. That's where the missions are, in the Broadway & Central Ave. area. While we were looking to purchase a home in 4th and Gill, we saw several homeless people walking around. We didn't end up buying in the neighborhood, though that wasn't the reason. It's a very nice neighborhood, but we could get a lot more house for less money by heading north a couple more miles.

I think Weisgarber is correct about the Knoxville population's growth being larger than Chattanooga's. Chattanooga's growth lately has been focused on the construction of about 1,000 high end condos downtown and on the river's North Shore. Way too many for far too few buyers (99% of these condos are well above the median home price). The downtown development has been mostly positive, but it's becoming a bit over-the-top. I love Chattanooga, but must say that while it is a fun city with much natural beauty and a great downtown, Knoxville has tons more job opportunity.

[RangerDuke08]

I know this is a reply to an old post but that is what I'm looking for. I know I want to be in E. TN and was leaning to Knox but didn't want to miss out on Chatt as well and coming from the Rockies, probably 10 feet of now piled up by the end of winter, 1 feet or 2-4 inches is nothing!

I did notice a lot of cops along UTK, I mean A LOT, I myself am a peace officer but NOT looking to challenge the P.O.S.T. in TN maybe volunteer with the TN ST Guard in upholding the traditions of the volunteer state but all in all looking to settle down, raise a family. However according to porportion Chatt being slightly smaller than Knox has more peace officers and once you cross Georgia lines, you basically can't fight tickets, I tend to speed as a peace officer thus as a civilian I do take this into concern. Also # of officers is not a sign of crime but a sign of politics, I'll elaborate more on this if anyone asks.

I did find people incredibly friendly in Knoxville and Chattanooga, the suburban sprawl maybe bad in certain areas but not in others, basically if you compare it to many other cities around the region Knoxville is still a lot more spread out, with good areas and bad areas anywhere you go but not anywhere that I would be afraid to walk around in. Knoxville is growing but from some statistic I read it should flatten out at 200,000 population. Those are good signs. There is what I call a healthy growth, where people want to move there but it grows at a rate where people can adjust to the local "culture". From this forum it seems as if people move there because they want to live there as rather move there for opportunities. I would rather have those neighbors and my kids go to school with. The truth is you can be a good parent, but your neighbors, kids teachers, kids friends also help raise your kids. It's especially hard when you want to teach your kids respect and to earn what they want and yet all their friends have fancy cars and clothes from mom and pop.

I can't explain it either, it could be the Smokeys nearby but being a mountainman I felt right at home.