Knoxville, Maryville, or Johnson City (air pollution, exercise, outdoor)

[shellter]

Originally Posted by LYoda

We just visited the Sevierville area - including Seymour and Maryville. My husband really liked all that Maryville had to offer - jobs, shopping, views, colleges, good schools, and nice clean town. It appeared more on the middle to upper class, especially with the property taxes being higher.
Sevierville, on Saturday was quite busy, but throughout the week was less so. We discovered the back roads, and they appeared to be quite nice. The trolley drivers were a world of knowledge on the area. It has all the shopping and eating areas possible, although we didn't get a good feel for the type of jobs available (other than service - which was abundant).
Seymour appears to be a new up and coming town. New office buildings and growth going on. We weren't able to see much shopping or job availability there. We were told most people commute to Maryville, Knoxville, or Sevierville to work. We did like the wonderful mountain views there and what appeared to be a quiet peaceful town. We drove on to Knoxville with no problem. We had planned to visit the Tri-Cities area and Morristown, however, we ran out of time.
All in all, we still haven't decided on which area we plan to move to. Our plans is by next spring to be there so we have lots of searching to do. Schools, jobs, new housing, and mountain views are on our list. From what I can tell, I don't think we can go wrong in any of these choices. As we continue our research - please send us any information you can.

LYoda...please read my thread to Pugluvr...you might be interested in what we have to say...

[Tennesseestorm]

Sounds like you would also like the exit 7 I-81 area of north Bristol VA. Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants and more restaurants! Also, Super-Walmart, Target, super-size movie theater, TJ Maxx, Ross, book stores, coffee shops, Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply Co., Food City, Bowling, panaramic views from the Cracker Barrel parking lot of the exit 7 area, etc.

[dcommander]

[quote=pugluvr;44810]We have 2 dogs and we take them to the dog park (off leash) so if there are any of those...we would like to be considerably close.

Hi Pugluvr,

Johnson City now has a dog park. The website is Johnson City Dog Park Website - Home.

[LYoda]

Originally Posted by shellter

LYoda...please read my thread to Pugluvr...you might be interested in what we have to say...

Yes, very interested. My sister is moving next year...this area sounds wonderful for her and her husband who loves to fish and watch the deer!

[pamperedrachel]

Hi Spowers... I live in Manatee County, work in Sarasota County and am also hoping to relocate to TN

[utvol123]

Johnson City is your best bet. If you have kids, SHHS is a great school. They have the best concert band in the state, and one of the most successful concert bands in the country recently playing in Carnegie Hall. SHHS also has excellent athletic programs including conference/state winners in Cross Country, swimming and diving, football, basketball, baseball, tennis, etc. Also the school has some of the best teachers in the state. For instance Guy Mauldin, the Advanced Trig, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus AB-BC teacher, is on the AP Calculus board, has won many national awards in teaching, and is also the greatest teacher I have ever had. The city though has even greater qualities. Minuets away is Boone Lake and not much longer is Watauga. You also have one of the hot spots to test a restaurants success, so JC always has a new place to eat. Another great thing about JC is the fact that it has the best mall in the region and the best shopping around. Another great thing about JC is it is in the middle of many big cities (the main reason JC is a big truck stop), meaning if JC gets boring one day, you can travel and come back to the best city in the region. JC was a great place for me to grow up, and I would recommend it to anyone trying to find a place in the region.

[ljay42]

For those with children considering different areas just a short follow-up post to the one above about the JC (city) school system. We moved here from Huntersville (just north of charlotte) and our daughter took many AP classes while in high school in that system. The Charlotte schools offered a few more AP classes then Johnson City.

Now my son (who never liked school...go figure) is a senior at Science Hill this year. He is taking 6 AP classes after taking 2 last year (scored a 4 and a 5 on the AP tests last year). He has all male teachers and during the last break from school said - " I don't really need a break this week..wish we had school". He is challenged, knocking down A's across the board, and loves to get up and go to school. He thinks he wants to be an accountant (and get an MBA) and scored 2050 on his SAT's..wasn't happy with that and just retook them to try to get between 2100-2200.

(Meanwhile the daughter used all her AP credits towards college and will graduate with a double major next spring (three years) - then pursue a masters before getting out in the real world).

I'm not familiar with other school systems here, and my wife and I have always kept on top of our kids education like flies on a rib roast, but it's nice to see a school system that functions without teachers having to deal with constant discipline problems that we experienced in charlotte. It's also great to see our son in an environment where he is not only learning but thriving and getting well prepared for college. Teachers can't teach when they are relegated to baby sitting..and any parent that thinks it's the schools responsibility alone to educate their child is probably going to be disappointed.

There are many who believe you can't get a good education from the public system anymore and that's probably true in many areas of this country.. but I believe at SHHS, the opportunity exists to get an excellent education if that's your goal.

[SearchingTexan]

Shellter, encouraged by your description of tri-city area. Heard of it through my genealogy hobby and have a soft spot in my heart for it. We're thinking about moving from TX and are looking for: beautiful scenery, trees, mts., lakes but enjoy the suburb style, and conservative living with ammenities. We are in our early 40's with a little one. Need to work in ER setting and school teaching. Sound like a place for us? Thanks!

[dcommander]

Searching Texan, sounds like Tri-Cities would be a great match for you!!

[callcenterdave]

Moved 1.5 yrs ago from Tampa Bay. I work in Sevierville. Decided on Seymour area/Boyd's Creek, due to central location to Knox, Maryville, and Pigeon Forge, etc. Almost bought a house in West Knox but traffic patterns are bad. YOu can still find a decent home for $250K in any area of TN. If you want to go out a few miles, you'll get some acreage. I may be moving to Johnson City area due to promo and paid relo. Salaries in Knox for most, are lower than Nashville and almost all other Florida markets. Where you live really is a personal thing - work, social life, church, career, etc.. I love TN and would not move back to Florida, even though I grew up there. TN is backwards some in kids educational areas but the slower pace and quality of life are much better.