"Family Town" Tennessee? (Knoxville, Chattanooga: movies, school district, camping)

[mia_magination]

Greetings all!

I have been all over this board for the past few years trying to find where to relocate and have yet to find the best place for our family. I am hoping to rectify this problem before our visit this March. We are needing to start looking into property/house when we come this time and I have no idea where we are going

I fell in love with Tennessee about 6 years ago when we took our first vacation, it has everything we are looking for in a new "home". My husband and kids are very much into fishing, camping, horses, any type of outdoor activity imaginable as well as martial arts, basketball...anything boy related basically. My daughter is into ballet, music, art, being outdoors, horses and such girly things. We have been to Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tri-Cities, Jasper/Whitwell areas and have looked briefly into Cooksville, Nashville, Hendersonville areas...and as beautiful as the areas were I have concerns about living.

The East of Tennessee is breathtakingly beautiful and we loved it so much, however, we have medical concerns with our children and would rather be close to an excellent hospital and hopefully in an area that the air/water quality are above par. As far as Nashville area, we have yet to visit and may spend a few days there if any suggestions come up on areas to visit that may fit our criteria. Basically we are WIDE open to ANY area of Tennessee at this point because being close minded about any particular areas could cause us more delay and we could miss out on the perfect spot because of our ignorance.

Schools are very important to us but as long as they are not failing or close to it I believe the kids can thrive. Extracuricular activities are key to keeping kids out of trouble and would love to find an area that offers things like bowling, roller skating, movies, church groups for teens etc...

We are forutnate enough that jobs will not be an issue for us but this does not mean we want a depressed or majority retired area. We had a suggestion on Paris, Tennessee and may look into it if anyone has an opinion they can share about the area.

I know I have posted similar posts in the past but because I was helped so much I had to try again...we want to make the best move once, not just jump into an area unprepared and dissatisfied then looking again.

So a list of important factors in our new area would be:
1) Good schools
2) Outdoor activities
3) Good air/water quality
4) safe
5) family friendly activities
6) good medical
7) mild climate (not too much snow)

I don't think I left anything out and I appologize for the lengthy post but I am hoping someone can give opinions on areas we can check out as our time is running out and I have to find a place soon. Thanks for your patience and help

[Lovessnow69]

Originally Posted by mia_magination

Greetings all!

I have been all over this board for the past few years trying to find where to relocate and have yet to find the best place for our family. I am hoping to rectify this problem before our visit this March. We are needing to start looking into property/house when we come this time and I have no idea where we are going

I fell in love with Tennessee about 6 years ago when we took our first vacation, it has everything we are looking for in a new "home". My husband and kids are very much into fishing, camping, horses, any type of outdoor activity imaginable as well as martial arts, basketball...anything boy related basically. My daughter is into ballet, music, art, being outdoors, horses and such girly things. We have been to Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tri-Cities, Jasper/Whitwell areas and have looked briefly into Cooksville, Nashville, Hendersonville areas...and as beautiful as the areas were I have concerns about living.

The East of Tennessee is breathtakingly beautiful and we loved it so much, however, we have medical concerns with our children and would rather be close to an excellent hospital and hopefully in an area that the air/water quality are above par. As far as Nashville area, we have yet to visit and may spend a few days there if any suggestions come up on areas to visit that may fit our criteria. Basically we are WIDE open to ANY area of Tennessee at this point because being close minded about any particular areas could cause us more delay and we could miss out on the perfect spot because of our ignorance.

Schools are very important to us but as long as they are not failing or close to it I believe the kids can thrive. Extracuricular activities are key to keeping kids out of trouble and would love to find an area that offers things like bowling, roller skating, movies, church groups for teens etc...

We are forutnate enough that jobs will not be an issue for us but this does not mean we want a depressed or majority retired area. We had a suggestion on Paris, Tennessee and may look into it if anyone has an opinion they can share about the area.

I know I have posted similar posts in the past but because I was helped so much I had to try again...we want to make the best move once, not just jump into an area unprepared and dissatisfied then looking again.

So a list of important factors in our new area would be:
1) Good schools
2) Outdoor activities
3) Good air/water quality
4) safe
5) family friendly activities
6) good medical
7) mild climate (not too much snow)

I don't think I left anything out and I appologize for the lengthy post but I am hoping someone can give opinions on areas we can check out as our time is running out and I have to find a place soon. Thanks for your patience and help

What is wrong with the air quality in E Tn?

[mia_magination]

Originally Posted by Lovessnow69

What is wrong with the air quality in E Tn?

I have heard several reports on the air quality being tough on people with asthma, not sure if it is the humidity, factory and vehicle pollutions or whatever else. I was shocked when I heard that, I thought that with the mountains most of that would be filtered out and actually be a healthier place to live. This is why we are open to ANY areas to look into

[Lovessnow69]

Originally Posted by mia_magination

I have heard several reports on the air quality being tough on people with asthma, not sure if it is the humidity, factory and vehicle pollutions or whatever else. I was shocked when I heard that, I thought that with the mountains most of that would be filtered out and actually be a healthier place to live. This is why we are open to ANY areas to look into

I wonder if this is true only in area's near big towns or if it is true in rural area's (over an hour away from big cities)?

[DubbleT]

Allergies are a problem for a lot of people, lots of pollen floating around. The area around Knoxville might pose problems because it is situated in a bowl shaped depression and pollutants can sort of pool there.
Cookeville has a lot to offer and is fairly close to Nashville for the hospitals. I'd suggest Johnson City also, they have a children's hospital that is supposed to be good, decent schools and the air quality seems to be fine.

Here are some links you might find helpful ~
The Official State of Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation, State Parks Website
AIRNow - Tri-Cities, TN Air Quality
This one is older but lets you target a very specific area to see which businesses are putting what sort of pollutants into the air ~ USA TODAY Special Report

PS That last one is interesting to do a comparison to the area you currently live in, I moved from a school district that ranked 2nd percentile (bad) to a district that ranked 17th. It surprised me that the area I moved from was so very bad.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by mia_magination

So a list of important factors in our new area would be:
1) Good schools
2) Outdoor activities
3) Good air/water quality
4) safe
5) family friendly activities
6) good medical
7) mild climate (not too much snow)

I don't think I left anything out and I appologize for the lengthy post but I am hoping someone can give opinions on areas we can check out as our time is running out and I have to find a place soon. Thanks for your patience and help

As DubbleT said, you can easily find all of that in Cookeville, including good medical. The hospital in Cookeville is excellent and is rather large, 247 beds and 1800 employees. It routinely is ranked among the best hospitals in the state. Its heart center is one of the 5 largest in the state, for example. In the rare case that the hospital there doesn't have what you need, you're only an hour'ish from Nashville.

[Lovessnow69]

Originally Posted by DubbleT

Allergies are a problem for a lot of people, lots of pollen floating around. The area around Knoxville might pose problems because it is situated in a bowl shaped depression and pollutants can sort of pool there.
Cookeville has a lot to offer and is fairly close to Nashville for the hospitals. I'd suggest Johnson City also, they have a children's hospital that is supposed to be good, decent schools and the air quality seems to be fine.

Here are some links you might find helpful ~
The Official State of Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation, State Parks Website
AIRNow - Tri-Cities, TN Air Quality
This one is older but lets you target a very specific area to see which businesses are putting what sort of pollutants into the air ~ USA TODAY Special Report

PS That last one is interesting to do a comparison to the area you currently live in, I moved from a school district that ranked 2nd percentile (bad) to a district that ranked 17th. It surprised me that the area I moved from was so very bad.

I just checked our current high school and it ranked 44% and the new high school for the area we are looking is 89%. So thats good right? higher number, better quality? Thanks for posting the links

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by mia_magination

I have heard several reports on the air quality being tough on people with asthma, not sure if it is the humidity, factory and vehicle pollutions or whatever else. I was shocked when I heard that, I thought that with the mountains most of that would be filtered out and actually be a healthier place to live. This is why we are open to ANY areas to look into

This link discusses the origins of pollution over the Smoky Mountains and how that has affected the national park:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Air Quality (U.S. National Park Service)

[mia_magination]

Thank you all for the information, it is as always helpful!

I am interested in more information on Paris Tennessee if anyone can elaborate please?

[DubbleT]

Paris is pretty small not very near any major highways with easy access to the bigger TN cities.
I don't think there are many people from the area frequenting these forums. You might ask in the Nashville subforum and get a few more responses.
In the meantime a few links to check~
The Paris Post-Intelligencer
http://www.city-data.com/forum/9131676-post14.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/9067381-post12.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Paris-Tennessee.html