Why I am Leaving Memphis (Knoxville, Clinton: chapel, hotel, layoffs)

[tigergal]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

Arlington was sort of Mayberry-ish. It grew more than 50 percent between 1990 and 2000, and the 2007 estimate has it growing an additional 89 percent between 2000 and 2007. Altogether, Arlington has grown from 1,703 in 1990 to 4,859 in 2007 -- a whopping 185 percent increase. In other words, it's becoming much less Mayberry-ish.

During that same time, Memphis has lost nearly 100,000 people. However, due to annexation, Memphis continues to experience artificial growth -- although by the 2010 census, we'll see that the losses are outpacing the artificial growth.

On the news the other night, they noted that 2007 was the first year in which Shelby County experienced a decline in population. Even with the very high birth rate we have, even more people moved out.

[anchorage2004]

I have only visited Memphis. However I have friends who live there who love Memphis & want to help make it a great place to live. I planned to move there this year, as soon as I sell my house in FL wowo>> Everything I have read on this site has been negative. When people ask about neighborhoods there seems to be no good recommendations. The people who live there hate it or so hey write. I don't think I could stay in a place that is so full of crime, corruption, and misery..I feel very bad for the people who are unable to leave when they are so unhappy...

[Tunky]

Originally Posted by psi2007

I am seriously considering moving from Memphis in the next year. I find the racial climate very disturbing and not getting any better anytime soon. I don't have close friends here. I belong to groups where I get to mingle and talk briefly to people who write and read etc. but no friends. That's not good. Memphis has been a strange experience. I live my life as if I were neither white, black or other. Here in Memphis I guess I'm supposed to hang with a certain group exclusively or hang alone. Mostly I hang alone. When I get enough of that I guess I'll leave. People in Memphis don't want to admit it and are offended by the thought but stupidity rules here. This is the stupidest, most narrowminded city I've ever been in. The worst part of it is the pride they take in it all. What a sorry place.

I forgot to mention the friend thing. I've NEVER had a hard time making friends. After 9 months here I know 2 or 3 people and they aren't really friends. Nice people, but not friends. I talk to people every chance I get and I've tried to get involved in church and a couple community things but to no avail. None of my friends/family can believe it because I've so easily found a group in my other homes. My husband lived here for a year before I joined him and other than chatting with coworkers he's had the same experience. My work involves travel, which always makes it hard...but this place has been the polar opposite of every other place I've lived.

LOL...I really didn't come to this site to bash the city, I came for insight. But it does make me feel better that so many share our opinion.

Originally Posted by kcnative

We thought we'd enjoy the music scene but even that is not what you'd expect from a sizeable city.

It's sad that you can hardly even find blues on Beale Street anymore...it's mostly cover bands.

Exactly! We had that very discussion just last weekend. Mercury Boulevard is pretty good though...especially when they play at The Tap Room.

LOL...my oldest son visited a couple times and he calls Beale St. the "Epcot Center of Blues".

Originally Posted by JeniKer

Wow, this is a very interesting topic and kinda scares me, in a way. I'm from Ohio and all we've heard about it how great Memphis is, and blah, blah, blah. Now, my fiance got a job down there & is moving down next week. We're going to be living in the Arlington area, which I know is about 20 minutes out of Memphis, correct? How do you all feel about that area? Or do you think, in general, it's not a good idea to move down there. Everyone up here keeps yapping about how everything & everyone is moving to TN. Personally, I thought the people in Nashville were so much nicer & more polite than the people in the Arlington area, but maybe that's just me. Any ideas guys?

Jen...my husband is originally from Ohio and has lived in a lot of other places too. Many of his coworkers live in Arlington because they don't want to deal with Memphis and they seem to like it fine.

Other areas of TN are nothing like Memphis. It's kind of like comparing Detroit and Traverse City, MI if you know anything about MI.

Originally Posted by tigergal

The areas of Tennessee which are experiencing a lot of growth from voluntary relocation are Middle and East Tennessee. The areas in the Cumberland Plateau (Crossville and Cookeville in particular) and the areas around Maryville, Johnson City are experiencing a great deal of growth and those areas are absolutely wonderful. People tend to move to Memphis because of a job.

Our short term goal is to get out of Memphis and we'd like to head for the Johnson City area. It's very nice.

My husband works for a privately held company in Memphis and they have lost several employees this year because people don't want to live here. Recently there was an opening for a chemical engineer and two very qualified candidates turned it down after visiting the city.

Originally Posted by tigergal

The Rocky Mountain West - a couple of job discussions are in the works in the Boulder, CO area as well as a couple in Montana.

Boulder is wonderful!!!

Originally Posted by JeniKer

Okay, can anyone tell me why in God's name it is so expensive to fly into Memphis and how do you find out why certain airlines won't fly into there? It appears Southwest does not, so we've been having to fly into Nashville & drive to Memphis. It's very irritating.

The Southwest issue is one main reason it's so expensive to fly to Memphis.

I don't come on here very much so today I'm in overload mode!

I want to wish you luck Jen!

[tigergal]

Originally Posted by Tunky

Our short term goal is to get out of Memphis and we'd like to head for the Johnson City area. It's very nice.

My husband works for a privately held company in Memphis and they have lost several employees this year because people don't want to live here. Recently there was an opening for a chemical engineer and two very qualified candidates turned it down after visiting the city.

I can understand that. It's happening quite a bit in various organizations.

The only part of moving I dread (other than leaving family) is trying to sell a house here right now.

Originally Posted by Tunky

Boulder is wonderful!!!

It really is, although a bit on the pricey side. "Bit" - ha! We'd live between Boulder and Estes Park. I'd be in heaven, pure and simple!

[strumpeace]

Originally Posted by Tunky

Our short term goal is to get out of Memphis and we'd like to head for the Johnson City area. It's very nice.

My husband works for a privately held company in Memphis and they have lost several employees this year because people don't want to live here. Recently there was an opening for a chemical engineer and two very qualified candidates turned it down after visiting the city.

When I recruited companies to come to Memphis, that was exactly what I heard over and again. They loved bringing their call centers and warehouses here; they could get cheap local labor. But they would never bring their top-tier jobs here because 1)the local market could not provide qualified labor, and 2)qualified people from other parts of the country would not move here. All of the professional top-tier jobs in Memphis are at companies that have been there for a long time. Memphis suffers from a severe brain-drain.

[tennreb]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

When I recruited companies to come to Memphis, that was exactly what I heard over and again. They loved bringing their call centers and warehouses here; they could get cheap local labor. But they would never bring their top-tier jobs here because 1)the local market could not provide qualified labor, and 2)qualified people from other parts of the country would not move here. All of the professional top-tier jobs in Memphis are at companies that have been there for a long time. Memphis suffers from a severe brain-drain.

That is not completely true. International Paper recently moved their world headquarters here, as did ServiceMaster. That's two Fortune 500 companies in the past five years. And companies headquartered elsewhere but having significant operations in Memphis have been expanding here, like Hilton Hotels and Medtronic. All of those are professional jobs.

[emp6t]

I have been en Memphis for 9 months now, came to town with my adventurous family, and it has been quite dissappointing. How can people treat each other so badly? I am not speaking about specific "colors" of people, it is the general way everyday life takes place amongst everybody. Fake, shallow, and plain mean.

Those who praise it state loving "what Memphis could be but is not". Instead of taking a defensive stand, why not try facing what the problems truly are?

[chuck1229]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

When I recruited companies to come to Memphis, that was exactly what I heard over and again. They loved bringing their call centers and warehouses here; they could get cheap local labor. But they would never bring their top-tier jobs here because 1)the local market could not provide qualified labor, and 2)qualified people from other parts of the country would not move here. All of the professional top-tier jobs in Memphis are at companies that have been there for a long time. Memphis suffers from a severe brain-drain.

I hope the "brain-drain" does not include the medical field which is quite extensive in Memphis.

In most cases, when corporations move, they move their salary people to the new location, but not the clerical staff. It is just not a cost effective policy to move the non-salary staff. And for very large corporations, the top execs usually stay near the financial centers.

[strumpeace]

Originally Posted by tennreb

That is not completely true. International Paper recently moved their world headquarters here, as did ServiceMaster. That's two Fortune 500 companies in the past five years. And companies headquartered elsewhere but having significant operations in Memphis have been expanding here, like Hilton Hotels and Medtronic. All of those are professional jobs.

1) Most of IP's executives were already here -- which is exactly what I wrote about in my previous post.

2) The ServiceMaster deal is a bomb. Very few new executive-level jobs for local people have emerged from their 'relocation'.

3) Most of Medtronic's new jobs have been clerical and blue-collar. The relatively few new management jobs have been in mid-level management.

Again, as I state repeatedly on this forum, citing (or in this case, trying to cite) one or two anecdotes as evidence of an upswing is misleading at best. Even the Memphis Regional Chamber has given up on bringing new white-collar jobs to Memphis; they are now exclusively into smokestack chasing -- a strategy that other large cities abandoned decades ago.

[joninclay]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

2) The ServiceMaster deal is a bomb. Very few new executive-level jobs for local people have emerged from their 'relocation'.

Exactly right. They're undergoing a re-org! They can't keep people in Memphis or lure new people to Memphis.