Maryville Vs Oak Ridge (Knoxville, Norris: crimes, co-op, felony)

[Beretta]

We live in far west Maryville and my husband drives daily to Oak Ridge (hospital). This is a pretty draining drive on a daily basis. This is a temporary situation for us (although it has been a long temporary I have to admit) and I would not "sign on" for this drive. If you are going to work in Oak Ridge I would point you toward settling in that area. Best of luck to you.

[bbkaren]

Loved Clinton, we would've bought there in a heartbeat, what a sweet town!

[hiknapster]

If I didn't have to work in East Knoxville, I'd REALLY consider Clinton. I really like that town.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Chrisgirl

Thanks EastTNBelle and LauraC! That is such a good point about family time. We are pretty lucky right now that I can walk to the preschool where I teach and where my youngest goes and my oldest's school is across the street from that. My husband only has a 25 minute commute. A long commute would be an adjustment.

LauraC, my second grader loves to read, draw, and take piano lessons. My preschooler loves to play, play, play. They both like to swim in the summer and spend lots of time outside. We like to go to the library and children's plays at the community playhouse down the street.

You may want to read this 2007 accomplishment list for the schools. One of the items is: The Tennessee Art Education Association selected ORS as the 2007 Outstanding School System of the Year based on the school system’s dedication to art education.

Awards and honors

We have a Childrens Museum in Oak Ridge that has a lot of activities/classes for kids. You can read about it here:

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge has a Junior Playhouse. You can read about it here:

O A K R I D G E P L A Y H O U S E / Junior Playhouse

Oak Ridge has an outdoor and an indoor community pool. You can read about the Indoor pool here:

City of Oak Ridge Recreation & Parks Department-Indoor Pool (broken link)

and the outdoor pool here:

City of Oak Ridge Recreation & Parks Department-Outdoor Pool (broken link)

Info on the Children's Room at the library is here:

Oak Ridge Public Library

There is a music arts school here and a story here:
Welcome to Music Arts

You might also want to read this story:
The Oak Ridger Online -- Feature: Living Here -- Art community strong part of Oak Ridge 06/17/03 (broken link)

[Chrisgirl]

Wow! Thank you Laura C for the great information. I appreciate the time you took in listing all of it and enjoyed reading about all that Oak Ridge has to offer. Can't wait to check it all out in person.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Chrisgirl

Wow! Thank you Laura C for the great information. I appreciate the time you took in listing all of it and enjoyed reading about all that Oak Ridge has to offer. Can't wait to check it all out in person.

I don't have any kids but I have noticed that most of the kids events, especially at the children's museum, are tied to when kids aren't in school. I seem to recall a full schedule of different kinds of art classes and events that ran through the summer last year at the museum and there was some kind of day camp at the civic center, I think. There are plenty of kids fun activities at the Secret City Festival, too, and some kids even perform at that event, as well. There is a big emphasis on science and math, overall in the town, but there is also an emphasis on music and art.

My observation is people here pay attention to educational things for kids which is normally unusual in a town with a large older population. There is a lot of town pride in kid accomplishments and it's not just sports. If you read our local newspapers (we have a weekly and a daily) they are always chocked with stories about student/teacher accomplishments. I'm also especially impressed at how ORNL works in concert with the schools and community.

I don't think anyone who lives here would say their kids aren't stimulated.

But, as I mentioned, I don't have kids so what it's like inside the schools or what happens in the schools or how the school administration functions is not something I know about or pay attention to.

Unrelated to the schools, there is crime in Oak Ridge, mostly some form of theft related to drug users.

[Chrisgirl]

Unrelated to the schools, there is crime in Oak Ridge, mostly some form of theft related to drug users.[/quote]

I have to say I was surprised when I read about the amount of burgleries and robberies in Oak Ridge. There are more in OR than where we live. I thought we had a lot until I read about OR. Our neighborhood is a relatively safe one, but our car has been rummaged through several times (when we forgot to lock it, luckily there's nothing valuable in it) and many homes have been robbed, but no one has been hurt. Robberies here are spread throughout the city and murders resulting from gang activity are concentrated in two places that we stay away from. Would you say that the robberies and burgleries are concentrated in one section, or are they spread throughout OR?

[bbkaren]

I get the Roane County and Loudon County papers delivered to my home. The vast majority of crime (and every little incident is reported, it seems--right down to someone shoplifting at the store), does seem to be petty larceny and break-ins, and dirtbag smalltime drug dealers. I rarely see anything of incidence in the area (granted, it's not Oak Ridge but part of OR is in Roane County). There's almost a whole page of listings of court cases, 99% of which are piddly little crimes.

I reckon a home could be kept plenty secure by a couple of big ole dawgs and an alarm system with a camera.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Chrisgirl

Unrelated to the schools, there is crime in Oak Ridge, mostly some form of theft related to drug users.

I have to say I was surprised when I read about the amount of burgleries and robberies in Oak Ridge. There are more in OR than where we live. I thought we had a lot until I read about OR. Our neighborhood is a relatively safe one, but our car has been rummaged through several times (when we forgot to lock it, luckily there's nothing valuable in it) and many homes have been robbed, but no one has been hurt. Robberies here are spread throughout the city and murders resulting from gang activity are concentrated in two places that we stay away from. Would you say that the robberies and burgleries are concentrated in one section, or are they spread throughout OR?[/quote]

Well, the problem in my observation is theft as a whole. The newspaper reports all of the arrests (for the county) and you see crime reports for shoplifting, burglaries, houses, purses, copper wiring (don't ask, I have no idea what they do with it) but you also see a lot of people leaving their cars unlocked at Wal-Mart and someone helping themselves to a wallet left on the front seat or someone walking off with something left in the front yard or John Doe walked out of a restraurant and didn't pay for his second beer. There was even a group of lowlifes (men not kids) arrested for coming in (don't think they were from Oak Ridge) and stealing books in the bookstore. Have you ever in all your life heard about an organized bunch of lowlife thieves who steal books? I'd love to know why. The thing is, where I used to live, newspapers wouldn't even bother to report this kind of crime unless a murder, rape, weapon or serious injury was also involved so I have no idea what the theft rate or type was like in either of the 2 states I used to live in. Heck, the police wouldn't even come out if someone broke into your car where I used to live unless the car was damaged so I don't know if the issue is that my current local newspaper just reports on EVERYTHING or what. I'm telling you, when people get pulled over for a DUI here (no accident), their name, age and address goes in the newspaper. If the fire department comes out because an alarm went off (no fire) it's in the newspaper (no names, just they responded).

There is one neighborhood where there are more criminals arrested (my town is pretty big area wise) but the police told my class that most crimes committed related to theft are crimes of opportunity like women leaving their pocketbooks in their shopping carts and walking a bit away or people leaving a cell phone/wallet on the front seat of their unlocked vehicle while they run into the gas station to buy lottery tickets.

Get rid of the drug USERS everywhere and theft-related crime will disappear (in my opinion).

[bbkaren]

I agree about the drug use probably being the cause for a lot of the crime. And also here, in NJ, they don't list every minor arrest in the paper, only the juicy ones. In my two TN papers they list the court cases, the plea, and the verdict as well as who pays court costs (the person or the court). Fairly interesting reading, actually. And since they're small communities, you actually do tend to recognize names in the court reports on a recurring basis. (No, the Derryberry's aren't in there lol)