Sacramento vs Knoxville

[UKWildcat1981]

TN ROCKS.. especially Nashville and Knoxville.

[GoldCountry80]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

I lived in the Nashville area for 5 years. I miss the fireflies. That's all.

Hated the humidity, and I never could figure out how to navigate the southern culture. People aren't straightforward with you. It was like living in a riddle to me - do they want to do business with me or not? Be my friend or not? Are they being sincere or pretending to be nice, and hope you eventually realize that they keep saying "we should do lunch" but they never really intend to...

I was a fish out of water. Not to say I didn't make good friends, but they were all from somewhere else LOL! Like Canada and New York (I worked for Vanderbilt University at the time).

The weather in TN was too humid to be outside comfortably all summer, and was very icy and cold (as in minus 7 degree kind of cold) in the winter. There's a little window of good weather for being outside in the spring and fall. But, you better hurry and enjoy it.

On the other hand, Sacramento can get hot in the summer, but it is a dry heat, and there is almost always a nice cool evening to follow a hot day.

There are decent hiking/biking trails along the river right in town. You should be able to find decent outdoor places to exercise close to town for doing things during the week, and on weekends you would have a ton of options.

And what are those guys talking about saying Lake Tahoe has algae and is all built up??? It's gorgeous and clear. And it's a tourist destination, so of course it's built up. But, it's far from being covered in concrete. Anyway, you don't have to go that far for good outdoor recreation.

The traffic is horrible - IF - you have very far to commute. The traffic was horrible when I lived there in 1995, and it's only gotten worse. But, if you live and work in the same area, it should be fine. Then, go beyond that area during off-peak hours.

During the seasons in the Lake Tahoe area (ski season and summer) traffic can be bad getting there, as the entire SF Bay Area heads up there, too. But, if you go off-season, it's not bad at all and you can get off-season rates. I went once in the fall and we took one of the cruises on Lake Tahoe, and it was really fun. It smells so clean up there. You get out of your car and the clear pine smell hits you - just heaven.

Anyway, I've lived in Sacto and Nashville/Franklin, and personally, I'd choose Sacramento over Knoxville. Especially for being able to do things outdoors and be comfortable weather-wise. And if you aren't familiar with the southern culture, you should also keep that in mind as a possible barrier to being happy there.

In the first column I highlighted, its funny because I feel the Sacramento area is this way. I feel things are like a riddle all over here at times and people are not straight forward like New England. Southerners, true ones always strike me as the type who will tell you off if you are being offensive or if you have an alternate political view. Some may try to act like they aren't bothered but you can see that they are or may not put on as well a poker face as a Sacramento person would if you catch my drift but that's an Eastern thing in general. In attempts to be polite, your true feelings still manage to show. Its like I said, people out here seem to keep a better poker face in Sacramento or you'd never know people were mad often times in face to face interactions. That annoys me in its own way also.

I like the being more east factor so for me Knoxville wins. Even if I do feel out of place there, it would only be a place I'd go if I had a significant other and was having kids. Not alone. I plan to spend my single yrs in Southwest FL or the remainder of them. Knoxville also isn't fully gentrified like Midtown and has much an old time feel and better bars I'd say. But yes southern culture, TRUE southern culture could definitely be a barrier for someone like me with a NE accent.

[GoldCountry80]

Originally Posted by UKWildcat1981

TN ROCKS.. especially Nashville and Knoxville.

Lexington also is somewhere that looks real nice when I saw pics of it. Either way, Knoxville/Lexington strike me as good places to settle down and have a family, cheap COL, down to earth folks etc. Knoxville talk radio 94.3 seems pretty good too and the Glenn Beck program I always found a riot and I see they got that on there too.

[webdev]

If you're looking at Sacramento you'll move from the land of flat and cheap to the land of flat and really expensive with better weather. Sacramento is one of the more affordable cities in California so that's a plus. Its also close to Tahoe etc.

With that said, if you like a nice house with a lot of land between you and your neighbor California isn't the best place to be. Plus Tennessee has no state income tax. California has income tax piled on top of more taxes.