Walkable Cities, Towns, Villages in Tennessee (Knoxville, Jackson: 2009, apartments, rental market)

[parrishpair]

Hello,

We are thinking of retiring to Knoxville or Walkable Cities, Towns, Villages in Tennessee


We'd like to be able to walk to the coffee house in the mornings, walk to a restaurant and grocery. Can you do that in downtown Knoxville?

Also, we will want to be renting a townhome; is that possible in the downtown area? We have a little 20lb Westie dog.

Thanks so much!

Moderator cut: note: merged two of the same threads in TN main forum and Knoxville froum

[JMT]

Originally Posted by parrishpair

Hello,

We are thinking of retiring to Knoxville.

We are wondering if Knoxville is a "walkable city?"

We'd like to be able to walk to the coffee house in the mornings, walk to a restaurant and grocery. Can you do that in downtown Knoxville?

Also, we will want to be renting a townhome; is that possible in the downtown area? We have a little 20lb Westie dog.

Thanks so much!

I wish I could be more optimistic, but I don't think you can do all of that in downtown Knoxville. There are some awesome loft apartments and condos in downtown Knoxville and some beautifully renovated buildings, but I'm not aware of any townhomes downtown. There's not a grocery store in downtown, either.

There are plenty of coffee houses and restaurants in downtown, however. But you'd have to drive to go grocery shopping, although the farmers market on Market Square in the summers is nice.

[knoxgarden]

There are some changes ahead for downtown and one of the big ones is the addition of more middle income apartments. This tidbit is from last week's Metropulse.
Downtown Apartment Dwellers Multiply

"Though some downtown boosters boast of recession immunity, don’t expect as many new downtown condos to enter the market in 2009 as in each of the last few years—partly just because most of the available historical structures have already been built out, but partly because even before the recession consumers were complaining of a lack of modestly priced rental apartments. This year will see more emphasis on rental apartment buildings, and several significant projects of that nature will be emerging in months to come, like David Dewhirst’s big JFG conversion on Jackson Avenue between Gay Street and the Old City, due to open in June. Unlike most Dewhirst residential projects, these 54 new rental units will go for moderate prices, estimated at $500-$1200/month. They’ll be open in June."

There are townhouses downtown, usually condos that you'll find for rent. There's a wonderful little mews-type place with townhouses just off Union Street. See MLS644178.
Also look in Sequoyah Hills near the village. There are some very nice condo townhomes around there that would put you near the "village" center and on a greenway to downtown. Bus service from there to downtown is also very good.
And there are some condo/townhouses on the water downtown near Volunteer Landing.
Look at Metropulse, the alternative weekly. It's the champion of all things downtown.
That will give you a better idea of what's available, particularly the rental market.
While downtown itself is very walkable, areas immediately around market square are very hilly. Really, really hilly. That does cut into the walkability of it.

[LauraC]

A few previous threads on the "walkable" subject are below. I thought there were a lot more but it's interesting when you do a search on the term "walkable" that most of the threads come from the sub-forums and not the general Tennessee forum which suggests to me that the walkable areas are mostly in the bigger cities which you would expect, the people who post to the general forum are less interested in walkable downtowns or both.


http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...ies-areas.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/knoxv...hborhoods.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/knoxv...knoxville.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...hborhoods.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...ghborhood.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...ghborhood.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...keability.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...uld-we-go.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...-when-you.html

[JMT]

You can easily live in a townhome in downtown Cookeville. While it's certainly not nearly as large as Knoxville, its downtown has many conveniences that downtown Knoxville doesn't have.

Here's a pic I took of the farmers market in downtown Cookeville, and notice the townhouses across the street:




Within 3-4 blocks of these townhouses are several coffee houses, a dozen or so independently owned restaurants ranging from Cajun, Indian, Italian, French, ice cream, pizza, gourmet sandwiches, soups, and Southern, banks, a downtown post office, the main library, the drama center, a supermarket, an outdoor performance shell, the historical museum, children's museum, train museum, art galleries, craft shops, and the medical district with a huge hospital and umpteen clinics. In the other direction about 4 blocks away is the university and its performing arts center. A paved bike trail connects downtown to the university, and the trail is eventually going to be extended all the way up the mountain to the town of Monterey.

Here are some more pics of downtown Cookeville.

The Depot museum and the historic district adjacent to it:










The West Side shopping district, adjacent to the Depot:










Downtown's Dogwood Park which includes the outdoor performance shell, the drama center, the main library, and the historical museum (note: works are under way to double the size of the main library, and you might find this interesting, the city purchased an old shopping center that was adjacent to the park and which at one time had a Wal-Mart and tore it down in order to expand the park to include a water feature):














Also within downtown is an old Wilson's Sporting Goods factory. A couple of months ago the paper reported that it's being renovated to include an international grocery store, offices, and other shops and restaurants.

Other random scenes from downtown Cookeville:

[TNRyan23]

I wish Tennessee built more sidewalks, If they did then maybe we wouldn't be considered one of the fatest states in the country..

[Beretta]

JMT - wow, great photos of Cookeville. They have really done a nice job there. Thanks.