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Lifelong Memphian here. This is my first post as well.
As someone else said, I'd think long and hard before making to move to Memphis. Obviously, I have an affinity for the city, as I've lived here my whole life. However, if I were making the move from elsewhere, especially somewhere like Western Europe, I would probably not pick Memphis as a first-choice destination. There are many other cities where, quite frankly, the quality of life is better (I lived in Nashville for four years) - and this is coming from someone who knows the ins-and-outs of Memphis.
Places like East Memphis, Germantown, and Collierville are nice, but even in those areas, the types of cool eateries and upscale shops that other cities get always come later (for example, we are just now getting a Chipotle/Five Guys/etc., when other cities like Atlanta and Dallas have had them for quite some time. And those eateries aren't even what I'd call upscale to begin with). Outside of those areas, a lot of Memphis is pretty run-down, aside from a few spotty areas here and there. That's what's unique about Memphis though. You can be in a block of $500,000+ homes and take a wrong turn and immediately be in a pretty rough area.
Also, don't let the Memphis music thing fool you into thinking there is a great scene here. As a musician (and someone who has worked at Ardent Music), I'll argue with anyone who tries to tout the active scene here over any other comparable sized city's in the South. With that said, Memphis has a great musical heritage and history, and I think people confuse having a rich heritage with having a rich, thriving scene. Visiting the Stax Museum, Sun Studios, the Gibson factory, and Beale Street (etc.) is something that can be accomplished on a weekend trip.
I noticed that you said you frequented clubs like Jaxx and Ram's Head. Judging by the type of acts that typically play at those venues, you're going to be disappointed by the music scene in Memphis even more so. I'm a huge fan of hard/progressive rock, and it's just not prevalent here in Memphis. I'm constantly finding myself traveling to Nashville and Atlanta to catch those types of bands. It's gotten slightly better here recently after Minglewood Hall opened, but it still has a long way to go. I played at a cool blues jam the other night at Neil's in Midtown, but it's the only one that I'm aware of. There's a lot of "tourist" blues (not the real deal, IMO - check out Eric Gales for some raw modern Memphis bluesmanship) down on Beale every night, as well as a quasi-indie scene in Midtown. That's about it though. Beale Street Music Fest is cool, but once again, it's not anything that can't be accomplished by a weekend trip.
Also, I wouldn't say the weather here is great by any standards...Expect exceptionally hot and humid summers and cold, wet winters. There's not much fall or spring around here. The humidity is really the killer. Come July and August, don't expect to be able to sit out on a porch at night without sweating considerably. It's a kind of stagnant, sticky, sweltering heat - not the dry, arid heat of Phoenix or Las Vegas. I'm acclimated to it, but whenever I get out of town during those months, I realize how uncomfortable the weather here can be. Having AC is not even up for debate. "Brisk, cool nights" aren't exactly taken for granted here either. The recent floods were slightly over exaggerated by the media. Judging by reports, you'd expect the whole city to have been under water. It was mainly just Riverside Drive and the areas surrounding the mouths of the Wolf River and Loosahatchie that were affected. Keep in mind that this flood was a "100 year" flood. Certainly a rarity. Tornadoes are a threat for sure, but as evidenced by the recent outbreak, pretty much anywhere in the South/MidWest is affected by them. You just learn to deal with them, and whenever a nasty storm looks as if it's headed your way, turn on the TV/radio and take heed of any warnings. Regarding critters, there are lots of mosquitoes here in the summer, and you'll find them to be your biggest insect nuisance. Typical temperate bugs hang out around here (wasps, ants, beetles, moths, bees, butterflies, etc.). Bugs can be a problem, but no more really than they'd be elsewhere. In the city, there aren't many wild animals, but the farther out you venture, you'll see the occasional deer at night or in the evening, as well as raccoons, armadillos, possums, and sometimes coyotes. Nothing really to be worried about
The tap water here is absolutely great. I'd venture to say that it's the best of any city I've ever been to. It's largely a result of the huge aquifer underground that Memphis gets its water supply from.
As far as the educated vs. uneducated thing, Memphis certainly isn't Cambridge, MA. Keep in mind that the demographics of Memphis affects what types of venues, restaurants, entertainment acts, etc, come here. A large portion of the city comprises African Americans with little education. I'm not trying to play a race card or anything, but you'd be a fool not to realize that this fact affects how the city develops. My family had a shop on Jackson Ave for close to 50 years, so I interacted with many of the people who lived in that area (an area that might colloquially be referred to as "the 'hood"). It's an entirely different culture and way of life. Something to think about it.
Crime is bad here. That's also a fact. But crime rates also vary largely with the area you're in. Use a little common sense, and you'll probably be fine. But since you're coming from Europe, I'm not sure how my idea of "common sense" compares to yours. Always lock your doors, don't walk on the streets in bad areas, try not to talk to vagrants, always walk with somebody, etc...
Speaking of walking...Memphis is not a pedestrian city. Everyone drives everywhere for the most part. Of course, when you venture downtown, or into the more impoverished areas, you'll naturally see more people walking around/riding bikes.
Rent obviously varies on where you want to live and how big of a house/apartment you want. You're going to have to take care of your own lawn or pay someone to do it if you have a yard.
Anyways, Memphis is a city that I love and hate at the same time. And I think the reason I "love" it largely rests on the fact that I've lived here my whole life. These are just honest words from an honest Memphian. There are a lot of pro-Memphis supporters out there, and that's absolutely great for the city - it needs as much positive support now as possible. But in my humble opinion, I feel as if they often view the city through rose-colored glasses. There's a reason that blues music had its roots in the area, and those reasons still manifest themselves today in the city's cultural and socioeconomic landscape.
Memphis can be livable, but it will take more effort than living in another city (why make it unnecessarily difficult?). If I didn't have old family/friends/connections around here, I would have probably left a while ago. That's why, if I were you, as someone not from the area, I'd opt to move to a city like Nashville. You'd still be able to make the easy road-trip to Memphis for the great BBQ every once in a while. Just my two cents. Hope this helps.
remember, this comes from a "life long memphian", who has lived his whole life in memphis. i guess this person forgot the next sentence, where he states that he lived in nashville for four years...but he just wants to steer you the right way w/ the truth about memphis. btw, can you name a place in nashville-davidson county-franklin-murfreesboro, tn, in which laborers mow the lawn and care for the property, etc., w/out compensation, or is this service provided in the nashville-davidson-frk-murf area as a service for living in oz?
remember, this comes from a "life long memphian", who has lived his whole life in memphis. i guess this person forgot the next sentence, where he states that he lived in nashville for four years...but he just wants to steer you the right way w/ the truth about memphis. btw, can you name a place in nashville-davidson county-franklin-murfreesboro, tn, in which laborers mow the lawn and care for the property, etc., w/out compensation, or is this service provided in the nashville-davidson-frk-murf area as a service for living in oz?
Where did I imply that Memphis is the only place you would have to pay for lawn services?
Regardless that I've lived in Nashville for four years, I'm still a lifelong Memphian. I was born at Baptist East, my parents were born in the city, and my grandparents were from here. I think I know a thing or two about the city, and I'll stand by everything I said in my post.
As far as the educated vs. uneducated thing, Memphis certainly isn't Cambridge, MA. Keep in mind that the demographics of Memphis affects what types of venues, restaurants, entertainment acts, etc, come here. A large portion of the city comprises African Americans with little education. I'm not trying to play a race card or anything, but you'd be a fool not to realize that this fact affects how the city develops. My family had a shop on Jackson Ave for close to 50 years, so I interacted with many of the people who lived in that area (an area that might colloquially be referred to as "the 'hood"). It's an entirely different culture and way of life. Something to think about it.
Well, 99% of American cities cannot campare to Boston (Cambridge, MA) about education. The most valuable education assets are in Boston. Harvard, MIT, Brandies, Tufts, and so on are great and distinguish university in the world. Memphis is not. Memphis has a great Rhodes College, Boston has 10 similar colleges as Rhodes College. The U of M is also a public university, not elite university/college. But U of M, Olemiss, Arkansas State are "average university",not elite school. So It is not a great comparsion between Cambridge, MA to any other city in United States. I know an African-American lady graduates from a normal high school in Memphis (not Germantown HS or Houston HS), live in a regular area. but she went to Yale Law School and became a Law Professor. The race card is a joke.
Of Course, Memphis still needs a great, big university. St.Louis has Washington University in St.Louis, Nashville has Vanderbilt, New Orleans has Tulane University, Houston has Rice University. All national recognized university, Memphis should have one.
Of Course, Memphis still needs a great, big university. St.Louis has Washington University in St.Louis, Nashville has Vanderbilt, New Orleans has Tulane University, Houston has Rice University. All national recognized university, Memphis should have one.
That is a great point. Unfortunately, as the old folks say, 'that ship has sailed.' New, great universities don't just pop up out of the ground. A city either has a great university, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it's not going to get one suddenly.
Memphis has The U of M, which is improving its research programs. However, we don't have the great, private, flagship research universities that help make other Southern/regional cities great. We don't have Tulane, Vanderbilt, Washington U, Duke, or Emory.
So we work with what we do have, and we support our institutions--especially when they work together and try to do innovative things that set them apart. That's really all we can do.
That is a great point. Unfortunately, as the old folks say, 'that ship has sailed.' New, great universities don't just pop up out of the ground. A city either has a great university, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it's not going to get one suddenly.
Memphis has The U of M, which is improving its research programs. However, we don't have the great, private, flagship research universities that help make other Southern/regional cities great. We don't have Tulane, Vanderbilt, Washington U, Duke, or Emory.
So we work with what we do have, and we support our institutions--especially when they work together and try to do innovative things that set them apart. That's really all we can do.
It is take a long progress to establish reputation to a great school. Dr. Raines took office for 10 years, I saw her effort to U of M academic, but I did not see great progressive in the past decade. Well, I am still hope that U Of M could become better. But could we build a great school, like 50years ago, the construction of Hampshire College. Also, the George Mason University (Fairfax, VA) ,only 50years, It is becoming a great public univeristy, better than Memphis.
The U of M serves the needs of this community. Sure, the U of M could be more selective (i.e snobbish) and greatly increase the difficulty to get into the school by requiring much higher ACT and SAT scores, or greatly reducing the number of non traditional students accepted, but will this help the U of M's mission? The likely scenario would be decreased enrollment, but at least we could brag about our average incoming freshman test scores . In my opinion college rankings like the US News are greatly overrated because they focus on superficial data points to try and say 1 school is better than the next. There are very good programs at the U of M that really do not receive the respect and recognition they deserve due to the fact that the U of M is a commuter school.
The U of M serves the needs of this community. Sure, the U of M could be more selective (i.e snobbish) and greatly increase the difficulty to get into the school by requiring much higher ACT and SAT scores, or greatly reducing the number of non traditional students accepted, but will this help the U of M's mission? The likely scenario would be decreased enrollment, but at least we could brag about our average incoming freshman test scores . In my opinion college rankings like the US News are greatly overrated because they focus on superficial data points to try and say 1 school is better than the next. There are very good programs at the U of M that really do not receive the respect and recognition they deserve due to the fact that the U of M is a commuter school.
I agree with your comment about rankings and some of Memphis' programs not deserving recognition.
Keep in mind though that being selective isn't the same as being snobbish, at least not in today's college world (it was different 30+ years ago). Snobbery would imply choosing to accept members only of a privileged class, but most students at top universities receive some amount of financial aid nowadays. The system still isn't completely fair, but it's certainly much more meritocratic than it once was.
As you said, I think U Memphis fills a good niche in the community though (both of my parents are Memphis State grads), and I don't think making it more selective would do much good. Increasing selectivity often increases the regional diversity of a school's student body. I know that at Vanderbilt, which has greatly increased its selectivity over the years, there is a much more regionally diverse student body than in years previous, many of whom choose to return to their hometowns.
I agree with your comment about rankings and some of Memphis' programs not deserving recognition.
Keep in mind though that being selective isn't the same as being snobbish, at least not in today's college world (it was different 30+ years ago). Snobbery would imply choosing to accept members only of a privileged class, but most students at top universities receive some amount of financial aid nowadays. The system still isn't completely fair, but it's certainly much more meritocratic than it once was.
As you said, I think U Memphis fills a good niche in the community though (both of my parents are Memphis State grads), and I don't think making it more selective would do much good. Increasing selectivity often increases the regional diversity of a school's student body. I know that at Vanderbilt, which has greatly increased its selectivity over the years, there is a much more regionally diverse student body than in years previous, many of whom choose to return to their hometowns.
The high selective is basing on the academica of Memphis. For now, I cannot see any high education in Memphis is a high selective college. (Well, Rhodes College is a just comparatively selective). Waylay00 states a great point that international student sometimes a evaluation norm for school reputation. You can see many international students go to Vanderbilt, Washington U, or Tulane. But could you see too much international student in Memphis? The most should be UTHSC, that should be one, so many student outside from U.S. see "UT" is a better school. But If they get a offer from Vanderbilt, they may go Vanderbilt.
The high selective is basing on the academica of Memphis. For now, I cannot see any high education in Memphis is a high selective college. (Well, Rhodes College is a just comparatively selective). Waylay00 states a great point that international student sometimes a evaluation norm for school reputation. You can see many international students go to Vanderbilt, Washington U, or Tulane. But could you see too much international student in Memphis? The most should be UTHSC, that should be one, so many student outside from U.S. see "UT" is a better school. But If they get a offer from Vanderbilt, they may go Vanderbilt.
This seems true, hardly anyone grad student in law for instance would choose Uinversity Of Memphis over Vanderbilt in Nashville if all things are equal.
Clearly, schools like Memphis or Univ of Mississippi don't compare to most schools in the northeast. My disclaimer is that I have an affinity to Brandeis and others. In fact it's laughable to mention Memphis in the same sentence of a lot of great schools....all of which aren't necessarily in the NE USA...some are found in the midwest for instance as mentioned by someone else....or out west, like Stanford.
Great schools i.e. undergraduate DON'T take 50 years to turn around...that's a myth.
A couple of schools come to mind that have made tremendous strides in quality...one is Florida Gulf Coast University, another one that has improved drastically is Univ of Central Florida (used to be a joke).
The south still has great schools mentioned before...but there are others like Univ of VA, UNC, Samford/Cumberland, Birmingham-Southern, Goergia Tech (engineering), Univ of the South (Sewanee), Rollins, and several others, including the elistist New College (FL)
The midwest has outstanding elite colleges such as Carlton, and Grinnell.
Sorry, Univ of Memphis is still not in this league..not yet...nor would I send my kids to it (or Univ of MS or schools like Univ of FL)
I just noticed something. In that whole long, long list of things the OP asked about, guess what was missing? Schools. Meaning, I think we're largely just talking to each other here, as I doubt he's looking for a college to attend.
Be that as it may, the fact is, if you go to ANY of those colleges mentioned and do real WELL in the academics, then you SHOULD have a good job to look forward to, barring of course an aggressively unfortunate personality (isn't that a nice way to put it??).
Anyway, there ARE other legit reasons for choosing a college...best department for your field of study, best parties, Greek life and social scene...best looking co-eds...best athletics..best opportunities for part time, intern and Summer jobs. And there's the question where your friends and relatives are going and where's close enough to drive home from for the weekends, if that's what you want to do.
Everything considered, it's no wonder Ole Miss has been such a popular choice among Memphians for a hundred plus years. I certainly liked everything I saw there.
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Just my two cents. Hope this helps.
. In my opinion college rankings like the US News are greatly overrated because they focus on superficial data points to try and say 1 school is better than the next. There are very good programs at the U of M that really do not receive the respect and recognition they deserve due to the fact that the U of M is a commuter school.
