Coming back to East Tenn. (Knoxville, Oak Ridge: employment, good schools, live in)

[raffydogg]

I lived in Knoxville briefly while my wife and I were dating.
She was born and raised in Oak Ridge.

We moved to California 5 years ago. We decided that it's not for us, So she wants to move back to Oak Ridge.

When I lived in Knoxville, I was a single man.
When my wife lived in Oak Ridge, She was a single woman.

Now we're coming back as a Married couple with 2 young boys (4, 3)

So our outlook on life has changed.
She swears that Oak Ridge is a wonderful place to raise a family. Safe, Quiet, Good Schools.

I believe her but I'd like some other opinions.

Oh, We're an inter-racial couple. I'm black and She's white and our kids are mixed.
Are there good areas, Bad areas. How's the employment situation?
I'm a Restaurant Manager and she's an accountant type person (I don't know what she does, but it involves money and numbers), but Neither of our companies have offices in Tn, So we'll hve to start from scratch.

Any info/ opinions would be appreciated.

[mbmouse]

Hi!
I have heard a lot of good things about Oak Ridge from people on this board who have checked a lot of information on the area. I live in Tri-Cities area but I have been to Oak Ridge a few times and It seemed to me to be very nice place, laid out very well to, that is what impressed me. I had a friend that was from there, he and his family were from Russia and were working hard at learning English, they said they were accepted and didn't have any issues mingling and meeting new people.
I hear a lot about good employment in Oak Ridge, but I am not sure what fields, check out the local papers and talk to some employment agencies in Oak Ridge. Here is the link for the news papers, hope that helps!
http://www.oakridgeobserver.com/ http://www.oakridger.com/

[GrannyLois]

Your wife is right. I would highly recommend Oak Ridge to you.

Oak Ridge wouldn't be that far from West Knoxville, where there are a TON of restaurants. Your wife should have no trouble finding some kind of accounting job in either OR or Knoxville.

Keep us up-to-date on what you decide. Good luck to you.