Relocating to Memphis Questions (Bartlett, Germantown: best cities, crime, house)

[thoward30_3]

Hi Memphis residents-
I’m weighing out my Pros and Cons if my husband should accept or decline a job offer in Memphis, TN. I’ve informed my husband a few extra thousands doesn’t make life better, piece of mind does. I’ve read reviews, looked at statistics (not updated since 2006), and received feedbacks from Memphis residence however, comparing it to where we currently reside in Midland, TX the relocation process doesn’t look good. I mean don’t get me wrong we moved from Montgomery, AL. to Midland, TX which was a no brainer all the schools here are outstanding from public, charters, magnet, middle, & high basically any school you choose you can’t go wrong academically or sports. You want a family orientated town this is it. These family has their children in soccer A+, football, gymnastics, volleyball, band, baseball you name they do it and will travel 5-8 hrs away for competition. I’m an office manager for the soccer association so I assist with the tournaments and when I found out people working M-F 8-5 then on weekends traveling to Arlington, Dallas, San Angelo, San Antonio, & New Mexico that many hours for their kids I was like “WOW”.


As for my home town Montgomery, AL. it has its bad neighborhoods and low standards schools but I mean it’s categorized in North, South, East, and West, no in between or 3 blocks down hoods. West being the worst but we don’t have to worry about any gangs, rapes, continuous robbing and/or shooting not to mention we don’t have to watch out for any neighborhoods or going to Wal-Mart or gas station at 1am. Matter of fact a lot of Gump town residence go grocery shopping at that time to beat the day crowds and this is my personal experience raised in Montgomery, AL. working 2nd shift getting off at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing at 5am. Now bad as I want to get back on the east side to get closer to home which is 5hrs away verses 15hrs my personal wants doesn’t come before the safeness and education of my children. I know this is a bit much but I wanted to address my side and leave no doubt I’ve been there. Everyone has there preference and mine is my family first , my race is African American/Hawaiian and I've been to a not so good city (can’t compare it Memphis though) but when you move to a city or town where you don’t have to watch over your back as much, allow your teenager to go places and not worry, teachers go out the way for your child, people accepting your child like there own, and really care and enjoy what they do without in doubt help the next less fortunate ones, experiencing this I was like “WOW”. IMO everyone needs a Madea or Mader in the family, I know I have one LOL. Thanks in advance to anyone who reads and responds back.



Can anyone give me the top 5 (best to least) in each list to raise a family, sports activities, and good education? Any other opinion is greatly appreciated. I know this is alot but I'm just weighing out my options.


5- Suburb neighborhoods

5- Public Schools in the Suburbs neighborhoods
·Child Care (good teaching curriculum)
·Elementary school
·Jr. High (Middle)
·High Schools

5- Optional (Magnet) Program
·Elementary school
·Jr. High (Middle)
·High Schools

5- Charter Schools (Do Memphis offer any and are they good?)
·Elementary
·Jr. High (Middle)
·High Schools

5-Private Schools
·Elementary
· Jr. High (Middle)
·High Schools

5- Memphis City neighborhoods
·Child Care (good teaching curriculum)
·Elementary
·Jr. High (Middle)
·High Schools

5- College or University (I’m currently in college and planning on continuing however, my family and I live in one of the family housing units. Do they offer family housing units on any of the colleges or University?) What’s your opinion on it???

[philbert_wormly]

5- Suburb neighborhoods

Bartlett
Germantown
Lakeland
Arlington
Millington
*I am purposely leaving out Cordova, because everyone and their granny says it is slowly going downhill*


5- College or University (I’m currently in college and planning on continuing however, my family and I live in one of the family housing units. Do they offer family housing units on any of the colleges or University?) What’s your opinion on it???

If you are currently in college, then see if you can transfer things over to the online degree option at the college you are currently attending. If you do not do that, you would have to pay out of state tuition to attend college here. The public University here is called: "The University of Memphis." They would have to have family style housing for married couples and whatnot, but the other colleges here are private and they do not exactly cater to that. You, and you alone, would have to weigh the pros and cons of transferring schools. Please also remember that the transfer articulation agreements of public colleges are regional and they also vary a great deal, but at a private college things are different on that end.

I just plainly cannot help you with your questions about the youngsters and schooling. That is something that you are really going to have to research methodically and give a lot of thought and prayer towards. Hopefully someone will help you out with that.

[thoward30_3]

Thanks for your quick response philbert_wormly but I do have one question I've read so much on Collierville, TN is this a not one of the good suburb neighborhood?

[philbert_wormly]

LOL I left out Collierville LOL. Sorry about that, honey.

[DubbleT]

MCS Optional schools
Depends on what you are looking for but I'm going to assume enriched academics/college bound path.

While I'm at it I will mention that Memphis does a weird "school within a school" for some of the optional programs, so if you go to a rating site or look at the school report card you are looking at stats for the entire school, not just stats for the optional program. It makes it hard to get an accurate idea of how well the optional programs are doing unless you actually talk to someone at the optional schools division at the school board, or contact the school principals. Looking at SAT or ACT scores at the high school level will give a little bit of an indication for those schools.

Elementary-
*Grahamwood Optional
*Snowden Optional
*John P Freeman
Maybe Brownsville Rd
I've heard mixed reviews from parents on Keystone and Cordova.

Middle School -
* White Station Middle
*Snowden Middle
Maybe Colonial Middle

High School -
*White Station High
*Ridgeway High

Memphis City N'hood schools- IMO the only n'hood schools I would go with would be an area of east Memphis that feeds into Richland elementary, White Station Middle, and White Station High.

[Motown_fan]

My advice is not to move here.
Memphis sucks.

There are two Memphises, really. One old and poor (everything west of the suburbs) and one newer and affluent (most of Shelby County which is East).
The Memphis City Schools are bad and the county schools aren't much better. Memphis was voted one of the dumbest cities in America basically because of the people...Mainly idiots who boast about not attending college, but they have the top and best paying positions.

Mass transportation is inadequate for a city this size. Buses don't cover all areas and quit running at al; during certain hours. Yet the city is really spread out. It's not a city for walking. There are barely any sidewalks here. You'll need a car, the more the better.

And crime is rampant. You have people moving to the suburbs, but crime is following them there due to annexing and over development. You can't get away from crime here because you don't know if your neighbors have a meth lab in their home or are selling other drugs. You don't know if the kid down the street is taking his meds and won't get out a rifle and start shooting up the neighborhood.

And police protection is a joke.

Why would anyone want to move to Memphis because of a job?

City politics are corrupt.

[thoward30_3]

Wow! It's seems as though a lot of out-of-state people wants to move to Memphis yet, the reputation Memphis holds make people think 2 or 3 times about relocating. I know each state has there own reputation but come on the city is in shambles. I don't want my family to move there especially dragging my kids and then two years later have to move to another neighborhood because it's becoming infested with crime of all sort and what we call turning "GHETTO". I mean I'm part African American but not all "BLACKS" wants to live below standards and raise their family in such way. In this world just enough is not good enough I raise my kids to have high expectations and being part African American you’re already labeled. Memphis can have some really nice, stable family orientated out-of-state people with strong up bringing relocate there but no one wants to put their family in harms way. Not everyone can afford to purchase flight tickets to visit the city before a decision that's why we rely on other resources such as resident’s opinions & reviews, data reports, city reports, & schools report from websites. IMO in house resident’s opinion and suggestions are more important ordinary people are not going to put a city down if they don't have any reason too. If anything they would speak greatly and recommend the city. I express thanks to all who gave their honest opinions.

[Motown_fan]

I will not lie.
Memphis has a lot of problems. My perspective is offered after having lived here in the late 1980s, moving to Illinois in 1994 and returing to Memphis in 2001.
In the 1980s, the city was thriving, growing and people from other cities and states were moving here and affecting change on the local culture and politics.
But something happened.
The city had changed quickly and it was not for the better.
Some of it, I blame on the mayor W.W. Herenton that Memphians elected in the early 1990s. He was the city's first elected black mayor and he started out with some good ideas. He was part of the revitalization of downtown and a few other things. But he stayed in office way too long and bcame polarizing, corrupt and ineffective. His negativity spread outward through the city, in my opinion. Memphians stopped caring.
I'm African American too, but I saw attitudes change here.
Memphis used to be a city that welcomed new ideas and people from different places. Now it's a city with two dominant cultures, one black and the other hispanic. Neither trusts the other, so nothing gets done.
There are times I wished I never moved back.

[Tigertate]

No offense Motown, but for someone who claims to have lived here for as long as you have, it seems you have a limited knowledge of this city. There are very affluent and stable parts of the city. Everything "west of the suburbs" is not old and poor. Maybe you should drive through parts of East Memphis, Midtown, or Cordova one day and take a look. I will admit, this city does have its problems, but it is not nearly as bad as you describe. Please do not spread that inaccurate representation of this area to people looking to relocate here. There are very nice areas to live and raise a family in parts of Memphis and the surrounding suburbs. This area s not the wasteland you describe. As I said before, the city has some problems and you definitely want to do your research on where to live and where to avoid before coming, but it is not that bad by any means.

Oh Yea, and when did the hispanic population here become a dominant culture? What part of town do you live in?

[kdurkee]

We will be moving to Collierville very soon. I would like to know which neighborhoods are most kid friendly and also do lot of neighbohood things together. We are looking at $450,000 or less. We are also looking at Catholic schools and need to know information on High Schools and an elementary schools (We have a 5th and 8th grade girls). Any information would really be apreciated since we will be making our first trip down to check out schools soon.