Cookeville, TN housing market???? (Memphis, Knoxville: appointed, crime, to live in)

[JMT]

Originally Posted by galena

JMT, you're a great help to us future transplants. I personally don't want to praise any town/city that I really like because I'm afraid too many people will move there.

Now, some more questions for all you nice Tennesseeans (sp.?).
1) Is there any area of Cookeville that I don't want to live? I'm a 64-year-old widow, and I want to feel safe.

2) I also would like to live where I can maybe walk to restaurants. (After my husband died, I cooked less and less; therefore, I usually eat in restaurants.) Are there any good, inexpensive restaurants in Cookeville? I know the chains, but I'm talking about locally owned diners, cafes, restaurants, etc. I've read where some of you talk about "meat & 3" or something like that. Those are fine for most of my meals. I'll drive if I can't find a neighborhood that is convenient to those places and is safe and affordable.

3) I have yet to figure out exactly where downtown is. Are the crossroads Broad & Dixie? Or is it around the Depot? Are there good, affordable houses near downtown?
Where's the county courthouse? That's usually the center of town in the south. Is the downtown area safe?

4) I don't particularly want to live near a school. I have 2 dogs that would bark at every child that passed the house. I also have cats, and I don't want then getting run over by parents picking up their kids or by buses.

5) My FL house is located on a deepwater canal that leads to the Indian River which leads to the ocean. I can no longer afford the taxes, and State Farm is going to cancel my homeowner's in 2009 even though I've never made a claim. I would like to live on water again if it's affordable. Are there any lakes, rivers, or big streams in Cookeville? Being on water is more important than being near restaurants. Watching great blue herons and egrets and pelicans fishing in the canal or walking on my lot almost makes me forget how awful FL has become.

This is just a "be aware" note. In Sunday's Death Notices in The Daytona Beach News- Journal, the deceased were born in SD, NY (6), Canada, MA, TN, GA, England, Germany, IN, NJ, KY, PA, Yugoslavia, and FL (4). That's actually a larger percentage of Floridians than normal. I was born in AL, but my parents moved to Miami when I was 4. 2 of my siblings were actually born in FL. Your newspapers will have more and more people who weren't born in TN. However, if these people are nice, it doesn't matter where they were born and/or raised. There are too many people in FL who wanted FL to be like the states from which they came; it now is.

I hope I can help answer your questions. You asked some good ones!

1) There are no "bad" neighborhoods in Cookeville. There are a couple of housing projects in town, but as far as I know they're not high-crime areas. You probably don't want to live in the neighborhoods just north of the university as they tend to be full of apartments and students. The university isn't a party school, thank goodness, but you've still got a few thousand teenagers-to-twentysomethings living a few blocks from each other so it's bound to be a little noisy.

2) There are some amazingly good, independent restaurants in downtown. Depending what you consider "affordable" there is some affordable housing within walking distance of downtown. Within walking distance of the pictures I posted below are also a post office, the city drama center, an outdoor performing arts center, the main library, the city's historical museum, several banks, a grocery store, city hall, several coffee shops, gift shops, a couple of bakeries, churches, medical offices, and on and on.

3) There used to be two downtowns in Cookeville: the courthouse square (Washington Ave & Broad St) and the area by the Depot (Broad St & Cedar Ave). The two areas have pretty much grown together, of course, so that downtown Cookeville is rather linear and pretty much follows Broad St and Spring St (US Hwy 70N) from the point where they divide west of downtown to about Maple Ave east of downtown.

4) There is an excellent elementary school just SE of downtown where Maple Ave meets Hudgens St, so if you don't want to live near a school, avoid that neighborhood.

5) There is a small lake just SE of town called City Lake. It used to be Cookeville's source of municipal water. Now it has a nature park, some hiking trails, a small waterfall, and a couple of neighborhoods surrounding it: Lake Valley and Poplar Estates.

I'm going to attach some pictures here that illustrate a bit what I'm talking about.

First up: the farmers' market downtown. On the right you can see some nice townhouses. On the other side of the townhouses are some other smaller homes and a few apartments. To the left of the farmers' market are some other homes ranging from small framed homes to large plantation-style mansions, all of them old. Just beyond the farmers' market (towards downtown off in the background) are a few small restaurants and a couple of coffee shops.



This next picture shows the Cream City Historic District which is adjacent to the historic Depot. There are several restaurants in this area. The last time I was in town, one of the loft apartments above one of the restaurants in the picture (I think the black building) was for rent at $500/month.



This is a view of the Westside Historic District which has some more independent restaurants.



Another view of the Westside Historic District as seen from the Depot:



The city's historical museum:



The downtown post office (to the right of the picture is the Westside Historic District):



The city's drama center, which is across the street from the post office and next to the historical museum:



Dogwood Park, next door to the historical museum:



The performing arts pavilion, located in Dogwood Park:



This is the elementary school downtown which has one of the state's largest programs for gifted students. I can understand not wanting to live near a school, but if you had to live by a school, this one wouldn't be so bad. (Plus, just to the left of where this picture was taken is an oustanding, and I mean outstanding bakery located in an old general store building across the street from the school...)

[MyCitySearchName]

Glad to see JMT is still around, he's a great help to the people in this forum.

On that note...I have some questions too. I've been looking at moving to Cookeville for awhile myself. Do you have any idea how many dentists are in town there?....and if they need a "lab guy"?

Also, JMT, would you choose Cookeville over Crossville, Gainesboro, the NW side of Chatanooga, or Floyd, VA?......just wondering, and thats assuming you've been to any of those places.

I'm still up in arms about where to look. I liked all of the stuff you've said about Cookeville...I just wonder how the others compare.

I'm looking for a country farmhouse, nice people, access to organic food and a small to medium size town with some character....and, obviously a few dentists.

A "crafty" community with artisans, blacksmiths and the like would also be a bonus. One can hope.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by MyCitySearchName

Glad to see JMT is still around, he's a great help to the people in this forum.

On that note...I have some questions too. I've been looking at moving to Cookeville for awhile myself. Do you have any idea how many dentists are in town there?....and if they need a "lab guy"?

Also, JMT, would you choose Cookeville over Crossville, Gainesboro, the NW side of Chatanooga, or Floyd, VA?......just wondering, and thats assuming you've been to any of those places.

I'm still up in arms about where to look. I liked all of the stuff you've said about Cookeville...I just wonder how the others compare.

I'm looking for a country farmhouse, nice people, access to organic food and a small to medium size town with some character....and, obviously a few dentists.

A "crafty" community with artisans, blacksmiths and the like would also be a bonus. One can hope.

By looking at the Cookeville phone directory I think I count 15 dentists, or at least 15 different dental offices. Some undoubtedly have more than one dentist. Cookeville is the medical hub for the 14-county Upper Cumberland Region (which includes Gainesboro and Crossville) so there's no shortage of medical offices and labs. I assume that would include dentists.

There's a wonderful farmers' market in downtown Cookeville (see my previous post). There's also an organic grocery store down Burgess Falls Road south of town, and there's a Mennonite grocery store near Monterey at the Mennonite community of Muddy Pond. Muddy Pond has real blacksmiths, by the way.

Near Cookeville is the Appalachian Center for Craft where you'll find a bunch of craftsman and artisans plying their trade. Cookeville itself has a dozen or so studios and galleries.

Chattanooga is of course a much larger city and would probably have more of that.

Gainesboro is an adorable little town swallowed up in the mountains. There's not much else there, and I think the whole town has fewer than 1,000 people. Pretty much everyone there commutes to Cookeville for work.

Crossville's an ok place. It's a wildly popular retirement area. There's not much to downtown Crossville, though.

I don't know if that helped or not. I hope it did. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[MyCitySearchName]

You are ALWAYS helpful sir...and I'm glad for it.

Were there any dental LABS, that you noticed?.....just curious. I wonder how much competition I'd have.

Is there a community of local musicians?....I also love live music.

No thoughts on Floyd, VA?....or maybe Abingdon?....They were actually my 1st choices before you helped me discover Cookeville some time ago.

[JMT]

There are three dental labs that I can tell. I'll PM those names and addresses to you.

There are a lot of local musicians in Cookeville thanks in large part to having a large music school at the local university. The smaller communities in the area have a lot of local bluegrass type stuff.

I don't know much about Floyd or Abingdon VA. Sorry about that.

[CookevilleWeatherGuy]

If you need any info for weather in Cookeville, my blog site has everything related to Cookeville weather....

Moderator cut: link

Come to Cook-vegas...you'll love it!

[2mares]

Can I get special dispensation to be annoyed? My family has lived in Tennessee since, well, before there was a Tennessee. Or for that matter a USA.

NO! If I cant, you cant. Apparently, we are going to have dictated to us what emotions we are entitled to.

[galena]

JMT, the loft sounds good, but most apartments don't allow pets. I'm not willing to get rid of my pets.

[roseknight]

Just curious,Jmt if you live in Knoxville,why do you refer all new commers to Cookeville?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by roseknight

Just curious,Jmt if you live in Knoxville,why do you refer all new commers to Cookeville?

If you've been reading my 2,500+ posts for long, you'll know that I don't refer all newcomers to Cookeville. I've recommended many other places in Tennessee. It depends what people are looking for. Cookeville's not for everyone. Neither is Knoxville. Of Tennessee's small cities, I happen to think Cookeville is a jewel. But I have not told all newcomers that they should live there.