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Allow me to preface, thanks in advance for any information that can be offered to clear up conflicting information I have gathered. We look forward to our possible move to Oakridge and are very excited.
I have reviewing this forum for some time for relocation consideration in Oakridge TN and Colorado (which is way too expensive and is not exactly the political climate I prefer. I have been to different areas of Tennessee in the past and outside the Knoxville city proper, is our preferred space.
While the keywords bring up much of what's being sought after, much of the information is somewhat outdated by over a year or more. I have been trying to research Oakridge crime by neighborhood on here (along w/ crime maps, municipal, crime reports, etc). I do the google street views, etc. The streets and surrounding look fine, but it's difficult to decipher conflicting information. I am very well aware of crime being "everywhere" but the reality is that crime is also often more prevalent/violent to those areas that correlate w/ such crime demographics.
We found a super affordable home in Oakridge off Johnson Road around Jersey/Jane Jasper/Jay Lanes, with some minor cosmetics needed. With that, my Philadelphia understanding of cheap homes comes w/ the understanding that it is NOT the area, one such as myself would want to reside. But at times, it may be something else entirely. Admittedly, my crime radar being from Philadelphia is super hyper vigilant.
I am aware of the unemployment rate, political climate as majority, etc. What is that stretch of area like crime wise? What are the demographics at large: Renters, married, divorced, young, old, etc..some demographics more important than others. I have found some of this information, but again, not recent.
Any information would be appreciated. Thank so much
Modcut: Linking to city-data competitors is not allowed.
You can go to the TBIRS database online to see very precise breakdown of types of crime, types of victims, etc. https://crimeinsight.tbi.tn.gov/
There are difficulties when comparing crime report data from different states, because different states bureaus of investigation report crimes in different ways. So these comparisons should be taken with a bit of a grain of salt. Looking at reports of the same location over time, or different cities in the same state would be more accurate. According to TBI, TN reports multiple victims in the the same incident as separate crimes. So if a man and his wife were held up at gunpoint on a street corner one night, that would include 2 victims, so it would be recorded as 2 armed robberies, even though it's one incident. If one of the victims was also pistol-whipped, that would be 3 crimes from 1 incident. Some states might record that differently. Some states (not sure about TN on this one) will record included offences separately, so that a home invasion robbery resulting in a husband's murder in which the wife survived, might be counted as a 2 burglaries (2 victims=2 crimes), 2 aggravated assaults, 2 assaults with a deadly weapon, and a murder, among whatever else might be also have happened. So that's 7 crimes (at least) from 1 incident. So these kind of stats are submitted by the states to the FBI, and other agencies that track these things, without necessarily converting the stats to a common reporting standard, resulting in very inaccurate comparisons.
Modcut: Linking to city-data competitors is not allowed.
You can go to the TBIRS database online to see very precise breakdown of types of crime, types of victims, etc. https://crimeinsight.tbi.tn.gov/
Indeed, the way in which crimes are reported can vary, but still worthy of having the availability of it at all, is helpful.
I am still curious as to Oakridge off Johnson Road around Jersey/Jane, Jasper/Jay Lanes being the type of area that would lend itself to a decent quality of life for one who isn't criminally inclined.
By and large, I just don't want to be in position in my own home/area, that requires my implementation of safety mitigation, for me and my family. Crimes like burglaries/home invasions really concern me.
The streets in Oak Ridge are mostly grouped by the letters of the alphabet. Streets starting with A - F are in a good neighborhood. Look at a map. That is the neighborhood that lies between Lafayette and Melton Hill Lake Drive. Emory Valley Rd connects them. The community college is in that neighborhood. It's fairly flat, too (think ice). It's not the only neighborhood that is decent.
Subscribe to the Oak Ridger newspaper online to find out about the town.
Go to the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce website. Under Learn More is a drop down menu. Click on Living Here under Learn More. You will see links to this information about the town:
Quality of Life
Recreation
Leisure
Schools
Healthcare
Housing
Helpful Contact Info
Do a Google search on "city compare." Choose the first site you come to in the search results. You don't want to compare 2 new cities to each other. You want to compare where you live now to cities you are considering. For example air quality and water quality numbers will mean nothing to you but you know what it feels like where you live now so you'll be able to tell if the place you are considering is better or worse than where you live now, by a lot or a little.
The streets in Oak Ridge are mostly grouped by the letters of the alphabet. Streets starting with A - F are in a good neighborhood. Look at a map. That is the neighborhood that lies between Lafayette and Melton Hill Lake Drive. Emory Valley Rd connects them. The community college is in that neighborhood. It's fairly flat, too (think ice). It's not the only neighborhood that is decent.
THIS is great info and the specificity I was searching for! Boundaries and street/blocks, specificity is very important to me.
All your information is very helpful. I have begun reviewing all the additional info that has been offered thus far aside from what I have been reviewing prior. The more information the better.
I meant to mention seeing as you are coming from a large city, there is no public transportation in Oak Ridge. Oh, there is a taxi company but it is small. There is a bus that only travels within Oak Ridge and you call them up if you need to be picked up and it doesn't run at night. In other words, it's more like a cab than a bus, just bigger and I believe it accommodates the physically handicapped.
Oak Ridge straddles 2 counties: Anderson and Roane. You may think that's insignificant but last year and maybe this year, there were 2 different Covid mask rules depending on which county you live in.
There is no central walkable downtown which is fine by me. You drive everywhere. People who walk for exercise typically go to the lake and parks with paved paths. This is just my personal opinion, but no central downtown means no visible homeless or visible drug dealers on the streets. I'm thinking downtown Knoxville would be more preferable to them. There are no "people" trains, airports or bus stops in Oak Ridge and no Interstates go through it. The latter means 2 things: 1) you go to Clinton (I-75 goes North/South) or Knoxville (I-40 goes East/West) to get on an Interstate and 2) you don't see tractor trailers in Oak Ridge itself.
There are 4 seasons but Fall is very short and summer is long (heat-wise) and winter is nothing like Pennsylvania winter as far as snow goes. Moved here 14 and a half years ago and brought a brand new snow shovel with me from Maryland (I'm originally from NY). Have yet to use it. In 14 and a half years, I have never seen a snow plow. Then again, I'm retired. Peak fall foliage is typically Halloween week and is short. In the winter, if we get snow, if it falls during the night you usually can see the grass through the snow by the next afternoon.
No snow/salt plus no tractor trailers equals fairly decent roads in town.
East Tennessee is predominantly Republican but Oak Ridge, a little less so probably because of all of the federal government workers and federal government contractors in town. If, in your research you come across political statistics just know you are most likely looking at County statistics. You'll know this if you look up other towns in the county and see they all have the same party voting statistics. You can register to vote when you take care of your car but you do not register with a political party so you can vote in either primary of your choosing. So far, there is early in person voting with ID. They have old "spin the wheel" voting machines.
Do not know if you are religious but if you are Catholic, it's not the predominant religion in OR like it probably is in Philly although there is a catholic church and school in town.
No DMV/MVA. The County seat is in Clinton for Anderson County but there is a satellite County Clerk's office in Oak Ridge. You renew your plates and get your license at the County Clerk's office on Emory Valley Road. Now here's the good part and I'm not kidding. You go inside to get your license BUT there is a drive thru, that's right, a DRIVE-THRU, where you can renew your plates annually and by the way, we only have 1 plate in TN and no inspection in Oak Ridge. You can also renew your plate by mail if no change.
Speaking of drive-thrus, there are plenty for everything from food to banking to prescription pick ups to car registration.
The town (it's actually a city with it's own police, utilities, trash, fire dept., sewers, schools) has an annual night time Christmas parade and fireworks on July 4. It has it's own community band and orchestra and typically a Secret City festival in the summer (when no Covid). The biggest sport in OR is competitive college rowing.
If you move to OR you will mourn the loss of pizza, actually any decent Italian food...and bagels. Don't let anyone tell you differently. They don't know because they've never had it.
I don't live in a house (I rent), don't have kids (so I don't know anything about the schools or kid activities) , and hate shopping (so I've never been to any nearby shopping center/mall) and do everything except pharmaceutical drugs and supermarket online. I'm old. Can't tell you anything at all related houses/schools/shopping which is why I didn't answer your post, originally. Most people want to know that.
I meant to mention seeing as you are coming from a large city, there is no public transportation in Oak Ridge. Oh, there is a taxi company but it is small. There is a bus that only travels within Oak Ridge and you call them up if you need to be picked up and it doesn't run at night. In other words, it's more like a cab than a bus, just bigger and I believe it accommodates the physically handicapped.
Oak Ridge straddles 2 counties: Anderson and Roane. You may think that's insignificant but last year and maybe this year, there were 2 different Covid mask rules depending on which county you live in.
There is no central walkable downtown which is fine by me. You drive everywhere. People who walk for exercise typically go to the lake and parks with paved paths. This is just my personal opinion, but no central downtown means no visible homeless or visible drug dealers on the streets. I'm thinking downtown Knoxville would be more preferable to them. There are no "people" trains, airports or bus stops in Oak Ridge and no Interstates go through it. The latter means 2 things: 1) you go to Clinton (I-75 goes North/South) or Knoxville (I-40 goes East/West) to get on an Interstate and 2) you don't see tractor trailers in Oak Ridge itself.
There are 4 seasons but Fall is very short and summer is long (heat-wise) and winter is nothing like Pennsylvania winter as far as snow goes. Moved here 14 and a half years ago and brought a brand new snow shovel with me from Maryland (I'm originally from NY). Have yet to use it. In 14 and a half years, I have never seen a snow plow. Then again, I'm retired. Peak fall foliage is typically Halloween week and is short. In the winter, if we get snow, if it falls during the night you usually can see the grass through the snow by the next afternoon.
No snow/salt plus no tractor trailers equals fairly decent roads in town.
East Tennessee is predominantly Republican but Oak Ridge, a little less so probably because of all of the federal government workers and federal government contractors in town. If, in your research you come across political statistics just know you are most likely looking at County statistics. You'll know this if you look up other towns in the county and see they all have the same party voting statistics. You can register to vote when you take care of your car but you do not register with a political party so you can vote in either primary of your choosing. So far, there is early in person voting with ID. They have old "spin the wheel" voting machines.
Do not know if you are religious but if you are Catholic, it's not the predominant religion in OR like it probably is in Philly although there is a catholic church and school in town.
No DMV/MVA. The County seat is in Clinton for Anderson County but there is a satellite County Clerk's office in Oak Ridge. You renew your plates and get your license at the County Clerk's office on Emory Valley Road. Now here's the good part and I'm not kidding. You go inside to get your license BUT there is a drive thru, that's right, a DRIVE-THRU, where you can renew your plates annually and by the way, we only have 1 plate in TN and no inspection in Oak Ridge. You can also renew your plate by mail if no change.
Speaking of drive-thrus, there are plenty for everything from food to banking to prescription pick ups to car registration.
The town (it's actually a city with it's own police, utilities, trash, fire dept., sewers, schools) has an annual night time Christmas parade and fireworks on July 4. It has it's own community band and orchestra and typically a Secret City festival in the summer (when no Covid). The biggest sport in OR is competitive college rowing.
If you move to OR you will mourn the loss of pizza, actually any decent Italian food...and bagels. Don't let anyone tell you differently. They don't know because they've never had it.
I don't live in a house (I rent), don't have kids (so I don't know anything about the schools or kid activities) , and hate shopping (so I've never been to any nearby shopping center/mall) and do everything except pharmaceutical drugs and supermarket online. I'm old. Can't tell you anything at all related houses/schools/shopping which is why I didn't answer your post, originally. Most people want to know that.
Fantastic information! I do research everything I can, but local perspective is really crucial. Shopping and amenities are pretty easy to review these days, and not be biggest concern, as I will drive, as I do now, to get what's needed.
I had previously reviewed household demographics, political leanings (though I was not aware of the no assigned party affiliation when registering in that area-good to know. I am pretty set on my party affiliation, since age 18), CRIME, winter weather, road conditions, unemployment/poverty rate, , state firearms laws, municipality services (trash, water, fire, police, etc) It appears they are paid by the local taxes, unless I didn't get that right, which I am good w/ taxes, as I don't mind paying for what I may utilize.
As for as the Covid , I have to show a vax card and ID in Philly to go into a restaurant, bar, entertainment facility, which limits where I go lately, but we have to mask everywhere. They are making it mandatory after the new year. It's been by business choice until now, but most have been operating like this since the late summer, as the city is very "progressive" in demographic.
Raised Catholic, but not actively practicing since my 20's, but hold some traditions of it, naturally as it's almost criminal not to..lol.
That's wonderful regarding the DMV service. As far as "downtown", I am from and lived in Philly early in life and the last 10 years (living in Florida 20 years in between) and having access to NYC. I'm good with not being in that, as I can visit as frequently as I like. Public transportation, not an issue for me, as I haven't taken it in the city in over 20 years, due to safety issues, especially in Philly. Many things are considered victimless crime, and not prosecuted due to our "progressive" DA and city council. It's a gamble. We either drive or take uber if we don't feel like dealing w/ parking.
I know the food will be different. I missed so many things from Philly when I lived in Florida, but would frequently visit, so I would bring stuff back in bulk...lol. I know for sure I'll miss the pizza, bagels and the small mom and pop Italian deli's, a good hoagie, the Italian market (open air market), ethnic/Italian butchers, etc. Thankfully, I cook
Your information is so extremely helpful. I thank you kindly
Fantastic information! I do research everything I can, but local perspective is really crucial. Shopping and amenities are pretty easy to review these days, and not be biggest concern, as I will drive, as I do now, to get what's needed.
I had previously reviewed household demographics, political leanings (though I was not aware of the no assigned party affiliation when registering in that area-good to know. I am pretty set on my party affiliation, since age 18), CRIME, winter weather, road conditions, unemployment/poverty rate, , state firearms laws, municipality services (trash, water, fire, police, etc) It appears they are paid by the local taxes, unless I didn't get that right, which I am good w/ taxes, as I don't mind paying for what I may utilize.
As for as the Covid , I have to show a vax card and ID in Philly to go into a restaurant, bar, entertainment facility, which limits where I go lately, but we have to mask everywhere. They are making it mandatory after the new year. It's been by business choice until now, but most have been operating like this since the late summer, as the city is very "progressive" in demographic.
Raised Catholic, but not actively practicing since my 20's, but hold some traditions of it, naturally as it's almost criminal not to..lol.
That's wonderful regarding the DMV service. As far as "downtown", I am from and lived in Philly early in life and the last 10 years (living in Florida 20 years in between) and having access to NYC. I'm good with not being in that, as I can visit as frequently as I like. Public transportation, not an issue for me, as I haven't taken it in the city in over 20 years, due to safety issues, especially in Philly. Many things are considered victimless crime, and not prosecuted due to our "progressive" DA and city council. It's a gamble. We either drive or take uber if we don't feel like dealing w/ parking.
I know the food will be different. I missed so many things from Philly when I lived in Florida, but would frequently visit, so I would bring stuff back in bulk...lol. I know for sure I'll miss the pizza, bagels and the small mom and pop Italian deli's, a good hoagie, the Italian market (open air market), ethnic/Italian butchers, etc. Thankfully, I cook
Your information is so extremely helpful. I thank you kindly
You are welcome.
You know we don't have a state income tax, right? There is a tax on dividends and interest but since that doesn't apply to me, I don't know anything about it. The cost of gas at the Shell station in my neighborhood is $3.05 for regular right now. There are no mom & pop Italian anything in Oak Ridge. The one place that has fairly decent pizza is Big Eds but they don't sell anything else except pizza and soda and their hours are weird as in they are not even open on a Sunday and they don't deliver. Right now, they are not open at noon on M - TH. For Chinese recommend New China Palace for both eat in and take out. Supermarket food prices are high right now as they are everywhere else but believe it or not, the only thing I have had trouble getting these past few months is whipped Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I haven't worn a Covid mask in months except at the Doctor's offices. That may change and I don't know what they are doing at the schools. Panera Bread sells bagels but...we used to have a New York Bagel place that had all kinds of good bagels but I believe the people who ran it retired. If you want sit down non-chain, nice dining, I recommend Burchfields which is located in the Doubletree Hotel.
You know we don't have a state income tax, right? There is a tax on dividends and interest but since that doesn't apply to me, I don't know anything about it. The cost of gas at the Shell station in my neighborhood is $3.05 for regular right now. There are no mom & pop Italian anything in Oak Ridge. The one place that has fairly decent pizza is Big Eds but they don't sell anything else except pizza and soda and their hours are weird as in they are not even open on a Sunday and they don't deliver. Right now, they are not open at noon on M - TH. For Chinese recommend New China Palace for both eat in and take out. Supermarket food prices are high right now as they are everywhere else but believe it or not, the only thing I have had trouble getting these past few months is whipped Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I haven't worn a Covid mask in months except at the Doctor's offices. That may change and I don't know what they are doing at the schools. Panera Bread sells bagels but...we used to have a New York Bagel place that had all kinds of good bagels but I believe the people who ran it retired. If you want sit down non-chain, nice dining, I recommend Burchfields which is located in the Doubletree Hotel.
As always, LauraC, you're a wealth of information.
Just wanted to add that the Hall Tax (dividends and interest) was signed into oblivion starting Jan 1, 2021.
You know we don't have a state income tax, right? There is a tax on dividends and interest but since that doesn't apply to me, I don't know anything about it. The cost of gas at the Shell station in my neighborhood is $3.05 for regular right now. There are no mom & pop Italian anything in Oak Ridge. The one place that has fairly decent pizza is Big Eds but they don't sell anything else except pizza and soda and their hours are weird as in they are not even open on a Sunday and they don't deliver. Right now, they are not open at noon on M - TH. For Chinese recommend New China Palace for both eat in and take out. Supermarket food prices are high right now as they are everywhere else but believe it or not, the only thing I have had trouble getting these past few months is whipped Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I haven't worn a Covid mask in months except at the Doctor's offices. That may change and I don't know what they are doing at the schools. Panera Bread sells bagels but...we used to have a New York Bagel place that had all kinds of good bagels but I believe the people who ran it retired. If you want sit down non-chain, nice dining, I recommend Burchfields which is located in the Doubletree Hotel.
Once again, great information. I was aware there is no income tax. The dividend tax isn't our concern at this point, but noticed another poster indicated a pending change in that, in 2022, which is good news.
I'm guessing Knoxville may have some food items that may not be available in Oak Ridge. Decent pizza is a must and I judge it by how good a plain slice is. That will be a mission for us. I like Asian/ Vietnamese food, but not Chinese. My husband on the other hand does. One thing Philly is great for is history and food. We have a great Chinatown, which encompasses every Asian style/variety.
Food and gas are high everywhere for sure, but it appears gas in your area is much cheaper than what we're paying in the city proper. I paid 3.67 last week
But finding the place we are safe, relatively economical and comfortable is crucial and most important. We hope to be out of this awful city next year when we put the house up for sale.
Such a wealth of info you are for sure. Such information really helps understand an area. Thank you again.
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Boundaries and street/blocks, specificity is very important to me.
It's a gamble. We either drive or take uber if we don't feel like dealing w/ parking.
