More moving to Memphis questions (Bartlett, Germantown: apartment, rentals, buying a home)

[williamj]

Hello Memphis folks,

I have a job interview next week in Memphis. Its a great job opportunity for me and would just like to get some opinions on the area. Now a little background. My girlfriend and I are white(only mention this from the things I have read about racial tension in the city) thirty somethings. We are coming from upstate NY. My girlfriend likes to run and bike outside so safety is a concern. We do like to go out on occasion but it is no longer our prime goal in life, so as long as there are a few bar/restaurants in the area we should be good.

With that being said, is the violence in the city really that bad if you are staying out of the shady areas? Also what places would you recommend living in? We are going to rent for a while and then most likely buy, so opinions on both would be good. I have read the obvious Germantown, collierville areas, but what about Barttlett, midtown, and mud island(would prob only rent here). My job will be downtown, but I don't mind commuting since I drive 60 miles a day now.

Any input would be great.

Thanks Jamison

[jabogitlu]

If your job is downtown, I think you should look in midtown, downtown, south downtown (South Bluffs), or midtown. There are good areas in East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville, Cordova, Bartlett, Arlington, North Mississippi, etc etc etc... but are all farther from downtown. You don't mind commuting, but why do that if you don't have to?

Downtown is actually one of the safest parts of Memphis. Mud Island is also safe, since there's basically one road in and out of the whole island. Midtown can be hit or miss, especially on its extremities, for instance far north VECA or far south Cooper-Young can have some crime. Parts of what would geographically be considered midtown (Glenview, for instance) sometimes aren't actually included.

I live in midtown (for what it's worth, so do all of my friends and colleagues, except one in Raleigh) along with thousands of other people just making their way in life. That's how most of Memphis is. There are a very few places that are hardcore dangerous and you would 95% never find yourself there for any reason, anyway.

Just one note, there is an area adjacent to (north of) downtown called Uptown. This is still an area in transition so tread carefully there. The areas north of I-40 and west of I-240 with the huge exception of Mud Island are pretty dangerous. New Chicago, Speedway Terrace are not places where you want to live.

[williamj]

Thanks for your input.

I have been leaning towards renting somewhere close to downtown since it will give us a feel for the city and I will be close to work to start. It will also give us an opportunity to explore the outlying burbs to see what areas we like and which ones we dont.

I guess the biggest factor will be what I can find on short notice. However it seems like there are plenty of safe options.

[eastmemphisguy]

There are lots of nice areas in downtown and midtown, but there are also some scary areas mixed in. Sometimes, you just have to know which blocks to avoid. Mud Island is an exception to this though. It's very nice all over. My biggest issues with downtown and midtown are lack of large clean supermarket or Target and that they are far from other parts of town. East Memphis is much more centrally located, has way more shopping, and is more uniformly nice. It's also pretty generic and boring. Nowhere's perfect :-)

[jabogitlu]

We do find ourselves driving to East Memphis sometimes to shop at the Target on Colonial (10-15 minutes out of Midtown). We also sometimes use the Kroger at Poplar Plaza (about 5-10 minute drive outside of Midtown).

I agree with you that the grocery options in Midtown are not that great. I do use the Kroger at Poplar/Cleveland, but sometimes it looks like they just don't move enough produce quickly enough, because it can be brown/shrivelly. The Kroger on Union Ave is much better quality wise, but has a very small selection due to its size. There are remedies coming, of course (Kroger's rebuild on Union is probably in a 5 year window at this point?)... but until then we still continue to drive to East Memphis and the University area.

I honestly don't mind the lack of retail options in Midtown. We end up buying more stuff from local merchants (like Maggie's Pharm) and do use Walgreens for some essentials. The price is higher but it's more convenient. Also, the lack of retail seems to correlate with lack of traffic. I am often irritated when driving on Poplar in East Mem, especially around the Whole Foods area. Utilizing Summer or Park avenues helps. As for centrality, it is geographically centered, yes. But it really depends on what your uses in Memphis are. For some people, Collierville is probably centrally located. For me, Midtown is central, because I work downtown and in Frayser and go to school at the U of M.

[Blutbad]

DISCLAIMER: I want to share my opinion on this matter with you, but I have to warn you that I am unmistakably biased toward more urban versus suburban areas. If you feel strongly at all about living in the Memphis suburbs, my input will mean little.

I am relatively new to to the Memphis area (I've lived downtown for all of 6 months), but will say this:

Downtown is a fun place to live. It's not the most "happening" downtown out there, but offers plenty of entertainment and dining options (says I, a transplant from a college town of less than 100,000) while still being far from overwhelming. The whole time I've been here, I've fantasized off and on about working downtown; I think it'd be great to walk to work (as many of my neighbors do) and have the trolley available for cold days. But alas, I work out in east Memphis. Oh well.

Affordable rentals can be found downtown. I live on a high floor of one of the tallest apartment buildings downtown, and pay nowhere near as much in rent as I would have to in order to live in a similar setting in most cities.

As far as buying a home, I have to suggest that you look into Mud Island. You'll certainly have to drive through the neighborhood yourself to determine if it's up your alley or not, but it would seem to be worth keeping in mind if you may be working downtown. Nice-looking homes with nice neighborhood amenities, all as close as you can get to downtown while both 1. NOT actually being in the core of downtown, but close and 2. NOT being in a neighborhood most would label as ghetto (and I truly mean no offense by this - just an honest, surface-level appraisal from one outsider to another).

[williamj]

These are all great things to know.

The shopping isn't a huge concern for me since I am about 20 mins from any of the larger stores. This may be a factor for my girlfriend however.

We also don't need the most "happening" downtown in the world. Its pretty dead around us but we do like to go out on occasion. I think it would be great to live downtown or mud island at this point, which I was a little concerned about at first.

Thanks for all your help, and if this all pans out I will most likely be checking in with more specific locations to get input on them.

[Shack D]

My wife and I moved here 6 months ago from Oregon. We live in the South Main area. It's great! We're close to museums, interesting dining options, Fed Ex Forum, bike lanes, Tom Lee Park, and Beale Street. You could take the trolley to work since you live downtown. As others have mentioned, the lack of a true grocery store in the only draw-back that for us. We just stock up when we do make a trip. I highly recommend it!

If we didn't live downtown, midtown would be my next choice. I appreciate the eclectic nature of midtown.