Where's the artsy community of Knox V? (Memphis, Knoxville: environment, apartment complex)

[kikiart_4U]

We are artists. Love Tennessee.Thinking of KnoxV, good home base in Tennessee. Currently from Columbus,Ohio area. In Columbus, have several communities that seem to draw the artistic. Have speciality shops, wonderful studios, unique restaurants, community theaters, art galleries,coffee spots, etc: We live in such an area, called Grandview Heights. Is a bedroom community to the big C. However, the College of Art and Design is near. Our "main" street is full of clever places, and alleyways with the same. Every large type city I have visited from Ventura, Ca. to Baltimore has these haunts. So, can anyone help us out? In 50's age bracket, but we like to go and do Like to walk the area in evening. Looking for the place to settle, maybe renovate older cottage style and open a home-based studio. No new homes, want a little charm and imagination. Also neighborhood that is all age groups, maybe college near by. Price range mid 100 K. Important too, security neighborhood.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by kikiart_4U

We are artists. Love Tennessee.Thinking of KnoxV, good home base in Tennessee. Currently from Columbus,Ohio area. In Columbus, have several communities that seem to draw the artistic. Have speciality shops, wonderful studios, unique restaurants, community theaters, art galleries,coffee spots, etc: We live in such an area, called Grandview Heights. Is a bedroom community to the big C. However, the College of Art and Design is near. Our "main" street is full of clever places, and alleyways with the same. Every large type city I have visited from Ventura, Ca. to Baltimore has these haunts. So, can anyone help us out? In 50's age bracket, but we like to go and do Like to walk the area in evening. Looking for the place to settle, maybe renovate older cottage style and open a home-based studio. No new homes, want a little charm and imagination. Also neighborhood that is all age groups, maybe college near by. Price range mid 100 K. Important too, security neighborhood.

That's one of my biggest complaints about Knoxville, there's really not a neighborhood like that in the city. There are elements of that in different neighborhoods, but no one neighborhood that encompasses everything.

North of downtown is the Fourth and Gill neighborhood, it's kind of artsy, big old Victorian houses or small bungalows, but it's strictly residential. It's not far from a small commercial area on Broadway that has an organic grocery store, a bicycle shop, a florist, and I'm not sure what else.

The Fort (Fort Sanders) neighborhood is just north of campus, and it's got a few smaller grocery stores, coffee houses, even a falafel restaurant. But it's full of drunken college students, I would not recommend living there. The few old houses left in the Fort have been subdivided into student apartments, otherwise they've been demolished to make way for ugly apartment complexes. Much of that was done leading up to the 1982 World's Fair when the big old houses were torn down to make way for motels which were then made into apartments after the fair was over.

If you want the kind of neighborhood you described earlier but still want to be in this area, I'd head to Chattanooga. Even Nashville has some walkable, old neighborhoods. Atlanta's got a bunch of them. But Knoxville, sadly, has historically separated its commercial districts from its residential zones so that now you pretty much have to hop in your car and drive to run errands.

[hiknapster]

Yeah. And it would be tough to find that price in Fourth and Gill. Also, security is a real issue there. I am a member of their group on the web and they have tremendous security issues, i.e., prostitution, break-ins, thefts...

[JMT]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Yeah. And it would be tough to find that price in Fourth and Gill. Also, security is a real issue there. I am a member of their group on the web and they have tremendous security issues, i.e., prostitution, break-ins, thefts...

That's true! My neighborhood (Old North) is just north of Fourth and Gill and is a little cheaper, but not much, and it still doesn't have stores and things in walking distance from the houses.

It's one of the things I miss dearly about Memphis; I lived in a couple of different in-town historic neighborhoods with all kinds of restaurants and other businesses within walking distance. I sure wish Knoxville had neighborhoods like that.

[kikiart_4U]

Thanks for the sad news about KV. Guess we are running cold. Looking in the wrong area of Tenn. Not ready to move or definitely locked into any location.
Any site has to have what we want. Will check out Chattanooga and certainly
Memphis ( like what JMT wrote ) Thanks. Eyes wide open.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by kikiart_4U

Thanks for the sad news about KV. Guess we are running cold. Looking in the wrong area of Tenn. Not ready to move or definitely locked into any location.
Any site has to have what we want. Will check out Chattanooga and certainly
Memphis ( like what JMT wrote ) Thanks. Eyes wide open.

Downtown Chattanooga has some nice neighborhoods. I believe the other side of the river is an area called Coolidge Park, it's connected to downtown via a pedestrian-only bridge that crosses the Tennessee River. Downtown Chattanooga is VERY pedestrian-friendly, lots of art galleries, some nice museums, the gigantic aquarium, an IMAX theater, minor league baseball, coffee shops, restaurants, cafes.

Memphis has several in-town neighborhoods where people live, work, eat out, shop. Downtown Memphis is the biggest and also is served by a really cool trolley (REAL trolley cars, not buses made to look like trolleys). There are something like 20,000 people now who live in downtown Memphis. It's a wonderful area. Beale Street is the entertainment mecca of the Mid-South and, according to Rolling Stone magazine is also America's 2nd best "party street" (Bourbon Street in New Orleans is the first). South Main is full of art galleries, stained glass window shops, loft apartments, antique stores, etc.

Memphis became a big city back when people used public transportation, so it became a city divided into urban neighborhoods clustered around public transportation arteries.

Some neighborhoods worth checking out:
*Cooper-Young (several restaurants, art galleries, inexpensive Victorian cottages and Craftsman style bungalows)
*Central Gardens (beautiful old mansions, smaller bungalows, tree-shaded boulevards with such Old South names as Belvedere and Peabody, a very active commercial area on Union Avenue that goes straight to downtown)
*Evergreen (adjacent to Overton Park--the Memphis version of Central Park--and the Memphis Zoo and a beautiful art museum, homes similar to Central Gardens, a very active commercial area on Poplar Avenue that also goes straight to downtown)
*Overton Square (near Evergreen, a thriving entertainment district with several playhouses, several French restaurants, a 5-screen arthouse movie theater with a wine bar, lots of Craftsman style bungalows nearby)
*Chickasaw Gardens (stunningly manicured lawns with beautiful 1950s-era homes surrounding a small lake in the middle of the city, adjacent to large shopping areas on Poplar Avenue)
*Vollintine (more Craftsman style homes, adjacent to Rhodes College, a few restaurants in the area)

Unfortunately, Memphis has a high crime rate, and no matter where in the city you are, you're never far from a crack neighborhood. But if it weren't for the crime, I never would've left the city. I'm going back in a couple of weeks for a visit, and I'm so excited to go back I almost start crying.

[hiknapster]

I get to talk to the people of Memphis everyday, and it is truly a joy.

I swear, seven out of ten voice messages end with the sentence, "Have a Bless-ed day!"

[JMT]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I get to talk to the people of Memphis everyday, and it is truly a joy.

I swear, seven out of ten voice messages end with the sentence, "Have a Bless-ed day!"

I hope you get to go to Memphis sometime, hiknapster. It's not an easy drive from Knoxville, but you'll get to see pretty much all of Tennessee along the way! And once in Memphis, you will be amazed that you're still in Tennessee, it's so unlike the rest of the state.

And you're right, the people in Memphis are soooo nice. And there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be on a steaming hot summer afternoon than in the ice cold lobby of the Peabody Hotel watching the ducks play in the fountain.

The best BBQ, the best French restaurants, the best Italian restaurant in Tennessee are in Memphis. It's got an urban environment that makes Knoxville seem like Mayberry (not that there's anything wrong with that). I guess I'm just overly nostalgic today for some reason, but I really really miss Memphis!!

[Milo Bloom]

Originally Posted by JMT

The best BBQ, the best French restaurants, the best Italian restaurant in Tennessee are in Memphis. It's got an urban environment that makes Knoxville seem like Mayberry (not that there's anything wrong with that).

This is true, and this is one of the reasons I love Knoxville. "The Largest Small Town in Tennessee", as I've heard it called.

I am from Memphis. Native Memphian, as in I've Never Been To Graceland, and although I miss Memphis in May, the Peabody, Bozo's BBQ in Mason, Libertyland, Overton Park, etc. I cannot get past the horrid schools, the fact that people from my childhood were carjacked and murdered there, my paranoid family that couldn't leave their house after dark for the REAL fear of being robbed on their street, KNOWING that you just took a wrong turn and KNOWING that you'd better get the Heck out of there.

There are zero areas of Knoxville where I've had that feeling. I'll put up with the lack of a bohemian neighborhood to get that security; maybe that means I'm getting old.

[JR AND CHARLA]

well at least in knoxville,sounds like you have a better chance to get older than in memphis