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Some may remember me posting here last May/June about moving here from NJ. Well, with the extremely limited time (4 days) we had last year to visit and find a house, we decided on a home in Bartlett. The neighborhood is off of Yale and Bartlett Blvd. To say the least, we hate it. We learned many lessons from this move. (Haha) Anyways, we are moving in the summer and think Germantown may be better suited for us. I am going to go into what we don't like about where we are now so you can get an idea of what we are trying to avoid when we move. Hopefully, you can recommend neighborhoods that may be better suited for us within Germantown. (Or if you can think of anywhere else my ears are open.)
Where we are now feels very religious, ultra conservative and a bit backwash. This is making it hard to become friends with anyone in our neighborhood and it is unpleasant going to the local shopping areas because, well, the poor education is so blatant and in your face it is hard to not feel really out of place. I have been here less than a year and the stories are already too many to count. I feel like I am really isolated. I miss neighborhoods where there is a healthy mix of Democrats and Republicans, with some of these being moderates. A place where if my neighbor has a religion I don't know about it because they don't bring up their religious organization or talk about Allah/Muhammad/God or blessing someone's heart. Where slang is not heavily used (y'all, tater, fixin', huntin, etc.) and an effort is made to speak proper, though I know everyone is not perfect with every syllable of every word. I guess I need a transplant neighborhood - haha. But seriously, I am not trying to be offensive, but I feel really out of place. My neighbor even told my friend from back home she was going to "try and work on me". That is just plain weird and creepy. Bottom line, I am a secular humanist who is open minded and an extreme liberal that doesn't want to feel surround by people who are praying for my soul or damning me to Hell or feel that I am damaged in some way. I need a diverse community that doesn't make someone feel like the odd person out. Election time around my neighborhood was scary. My whole street was lined with Romney signs to the point where if I put an Obama sign out I thought for sure I would have people praying on my lawn. I am not saying I didn't want to see Romney signs, they believe what they want, I just don't want to be so out of place where I feel like the lone crusader.
Ok, enough of that. Any ideas of what neighborhoods would be good for me. And please don't tell me to move back to the North East. My husband works in Arlington and he thinks we could find a decent neighborhood there. I am skeptical and leaning more towards Germantown because I heard there are a lot of transplants, which could mean diversity for me.
To be honest, you will probably experience much of the same things in Gtown and any of the other suburbs of Memphis. You may want to check out some of the nicer areas of midtown Memphis like central gardens or evergreen. Those areas are much more diverse in opinions and religious beliefs.
Funny, I've lived around here for 60+ years.....South Memphis, Parkway Village, Berclair, East Memphis, Bartlett, Cordova - pretty much all over the place at one time or another....and I've rarely - if ever - known anything about my neighbor's religious beliefs. Same is true of their political views (unless they happen to post a yard sign). I avoid those kinds of discussions anyway, but I don't ever recall being asked about my religion or whom I was voting for.
I've been in my present home in Cordova for over 9 years and, having served on the HOA in various capacities, know most everyone in our small subdivision....and neither of those issues has ever come up.
Maybe everyone just considers me a lost cause.....
Some may remember me posting here last May/June about moving here from NJ. Well, with the extremely limited time (4 days) we had last year to visit and find a house, we decided on a home in Bartlett. The neighborhood is off of Yale and Bartlett Blvd. To say the least, we hate it. We learned many lessons from this move. (Haha) Anyways, we are moving in the summer and think Germantown may be better suited for us. I am going to go into what we don't like about where we are now so you can get an idea of what we are trying to avoid when we move. Hopefully, you can recommend neighborhoods that may be better suited for us within Germantown. (Or if you can think of anywhere else my ears are open.)
Where we are now feels very religious, ultra conservative and a bit backwash. This is making it hard to become friends with anyone in our neighborhood and it is unpleasant going to the local shopping areas because, well, the poor education is so blatant and in your face it is hard to not feel really out of place. I have been here less than a year and the stories are already too many to count. I feel like I am really isolated. I miss neighborhoods where there is a healthy mix of Democrats and Republicans, with some of these being moderates. A place where if my neighbor has a religion I don't know about it because they don't bring up their religious organization or talk about Allah/Muhammad/God or blessing someone's heart. Where slang is not heavily used (y'all, tater, fixin', huntin, etc.) and an effort is made to speak proper, though I know everyone is not perfect with every syllable of every word. I guess I need a transplant neighborhood - haha. But seriously, I am not trying to be offensive, but I feel really out of place. My neighbor even told my friend from back home she was going to "try and work on me". That is just plain weird and creepy. Bottom line, I am a secular humanist who is open minded and an extreme liberal that doesn't want to feel surround by people who are praying for my soul or damning me to Hell or feel that I am damaged in some way. I need a diverse community that doesn't make someone feel like the odd person out. Election time around my neighborhood was scary. My whole street was lined with Romney signs to the point where if I put an Obama sign out I thought for sure I would have people praying on my lawn. I am not saying I didn't want to see Romney signs, they believe what they want, I just don't want to be so out of place where I feel like the lone crusader.
Ok, enough of that. Any ideas of what neighborhoods would be good for me. And please don't tell me to move back to the North East. My husband works in Arlington and he thinks we could find a decent neighborhood there. I am skeptical and leaning more towards Germantown because I heard there are a lot of transplants, which could mean diversity for me.
Thoughts!
I think Bartlett is way overhyped on this forum. There's nothing wrong with Bartlett, but reading the forum and knowing the area, I'm also not surprised when someone moves there and is disappointed.
But, having said that, you moved to the South and are upset that people say y'all. It's like moving to NJ and being mad the people say you guys. Or someone in Minnesota asks for a soda. Each region has it's own slang. If the slang from that region bothers you so much, you should probably not move there.
On the other words, yes I agree with you. If you move to an area with a higher percentage of college degrees, you will hear less of that. Less than 20% of the residents over 25 have college degrees: //www.city-data.com/city/Bartlett-Tennessee.html
For reference, in the US as a whole, about 30% have a Bachelor's degree.
So yes, you might be happier in Germantown. But to be totally honest, I'm not sure you will be really happy anywhere in Memphis and perhaps not anywhere in the South.
Last edited by brentwoodgirl; 02-15-2013 at 11:55 AM..
I don't think Germantown would be too in-your-face-religious. It's probably less so than the rest of the suburbs, but if you want the same kind of environment but even less openly religious/conservative, then I'd go with East Memphis. It's religiously diverse, the main groups being Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Methodists, and Episcopalians. This is different from the more Baptist-dominated suburbs. There isn't even a large Baptist church in East Memphis, except Kirby Woods, but that's on the Germantown border. The largest religious congregations in East Memphis are the groups I mentioned above. East Memphis is moderate-conservative but I think a lot of the conservatism is more fiscal than social. If you want even more liberal/less openly religious, then you'd have to go with Midtown, but that's completely different from Germantown
You belong in midtown but that might be a bit of a drive to Arlington. Honestly, I'd never heard anything like that about Bartlett. You must be pretty far out there, not sure where Yale and Bartlett Road is. (About the only thing I know about Bartlett is what's on the interstate exit... lol) Most of 'the city' (downtown, midtown, east mem, germantown) isn't going to give two flips about your religion or anyone else's.
Also, if you say you're open minded then you have to be open minded. I'm one of those people who says tater, ya'll, and huntin. I'm very well educated and speak the language of my culture and heritage. It's an accident of history that one group's form of English became known as the "standardized English." So, if you're going to get along in the south you'll have to drop that attitude very quickly.
Funny, I've lived around here for 60+ years.....South Memphis, Parkway Village, Berclair, East Memphis, Bartlett, Cordova - pretty much all over the place at one time or another....and I've rarely - if ever - known anything about my neighbor's religious beliefs. Same is true of their political views (unless they happen to post a yard sign). I avoid those kinds of discussions anyway, but I don't ever recall being asked about my religion or whom I was voting for.
I've been in my present home in Cordova for over 9 years and, having served on the HOA in various capacities, know most everyone in our small subdivision....and neither of those issues has ever come up.
Maybe everyone just considers me a lost cause.....
I'm like you (except for the lost cause bit ). I almost never get asked about religion. It's been more than five years since anyone has asked me what church I go to or similar questions.
You belong in midtown but that might be a bit of a drive to Arlington. Honestly, I'd never heard anything like that about Bartlett. You must be pretty far out there, not sure where Yale and Bartlett Road is. (About the only thing I know about Bartlett is what's on the interstate exit... lol) Most of 'the city' (downtown, midtown, east mem, germantown) isn't going to give two flips about your religion or anyone else's.
Also, if you say you're open minded then you have to be open minded. I'm one of those people who says tater, ya'll, and huntin. I'm very well educated and speak the language of my culture and heritage. It's an accident of history that one group's form of English became known as the "standardized English." So, if you're going to get along in the south you'll have to drop that attitude very quickly.
Yeah, Bartlett doesn't strike me as that kinda place either. The Shelby County suburb where I think you'll find the most conservative/openly religious people is Collierville. But it's not a backwoods/"fixin to" kinda place either. It's very affluent.
I grew up in Millington, which is backwoods/"fixin to" kinda place, but surprisingly a lot of people didn't go to church or talk about religion. A lot of working class Southerners don't really like church.
I agree with what Tigertate said, look toward East Memphis, Cooper-Young, Midtown. Lots more religious and political diversity there. We don't have enough here in the 'burbs.
A lot of working class Southerners don't really like church.
Preach it. No pun intended. My family is not a church family. That's why I was surprised really, because Bartlett *is* that more working class folks type population. Where I've always encountered church BS is false notions of social class like Farragut (Knoxville), or ... yes... Collierville. lol.
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). I almost never get asked about religion. It's been more than five years since anyone has asked me what church I go to or similar questions.
