Cleveland! (Chattanooga: sales, lofts, lawyers)

[kp on the move]

My husband and I are living in Southeastern Virginia. A family member of ours is getting ready to sell their beautiful custom home in Cleveland and we're thinking of buying it. I don't know much about the area at all. If anyone could give us some insight and include some of the following goodies, it would be so helpful and very appreciated!!!

- job market (specifically graphic design and printing)
- elementary school system
- do lots of people work IN Cleveland or travel to bigger cities to work?
- age range of population? are there a lot of younger couples (20s)
- weather
- shopping

Any details about the city would be great. We are so excited about the prospect of moving.

Thank you very, very much!!!

[SPLIT]

HELLO KP: There are many posts here about Cleveland, and this whole region is restored and growing. Being along I-75 one has access all four directions. East is more rural / scenic with the motns of Ocoee white water rafters / kayaks., and access to N.C. and tip of Ga mtn range.
The city has daily nespaper that you can read on-Line. Restored town square medium size city, mostly with the Lee religious college. Many churchs here in region. Other town bldgs being converted to LOFTS, and urban boomers units.
Retail activity/ customer service sector for employment. South on I-75 mega malls of Hamilton PLACE. Schools always being built / improved. Get re-zoning from a realtor. Believe the drop-out rate in this region can be about 26% ,so if serious for children try afford private schools, or tuition assist from the church you choose.
Weather more mild than your winter. Had one day of 2" snow. Usually warms up to 40 degrees by every afternoon. Some low at 25 overnight. We are now in zone 8 for plants / landscape growing. Lots of car cruizin shows and street parties there, car race track sat or tues night.?

[celibate]

At this juncture we have a huge influx of immigrants that is growing daily. This month, (July 2007), the County Commission has decided to address the issue of illegals. The company Whirlpool who just bought Maytag just completed laying off over 400 people this summer. The jobs are going to Oklahoma and Mexico. We do have a multitude of Temporary Labor jobs. We just rebuilt an elementary school for 400 students at a cost of over 20 million dollars for the city. The county just finished, (three or four years ago), building an elementary school for 600 children for six million dollars. We have SRO's at all schools elementary through high. We have over a 50% free and reduced lunch rate county and city wide. Cleveland is very close to the NC line taking scenic highway 64 up by the Ocoee river. Which is always heavily congested now with white water rafters. I would never venture to Chattanooga's Hamilton Place Mall in the months of November and December. You simply have to circle for a very long time to get into the lot; much less get a parking place.

Dalton GA is just down the road. It's Hispanic population is almost at 50%. I'm sure we have room for more lawyers and politicians though. The state of Tennessee which has a 9% sales tax rate took in over a Billion dollars in surplus revenue this year. Instead of distributing the wealth of over taxation back to the municipalities TN opted to raise taxes. I don't know why?

Any more questions and I'll be happy to answer HONESTLY instead of with rose colored glasses on.

[Southlander]

Cleveland is headquarters of the Church of God. Lots of religious influences there. It is NOT part of Chattanooga, although many commute to jobs there.