Any place for a Yankee?? (Memphis: living, low cost, moving)

[Salmonista]

Are you a native New Yorker? If so, moving to the South is likely going to give you some culture shock. I have relatives on Long Island (Nassau County) and have visited there many times over the years. Memphis is really different. Population density is much lower, which means you'll wind up driving farther for daily errands/life. People are nicer here. They don't have that edge that Long Islanders are known for. Depending your individual personality, you may or may not like that aspect of life here. I haven't found a good bagel in Memphis yet (it might exist though).

You really can't beat the cost of living in Memphis. If that is one of your major deciding factors, you'll find a dollar definitely goes farther here.

[maliretriever]

You'll have to get used to comments such as "What's the difference between a yankee and a damn yankee?"
A yankee is someone form the North. A damn yankee is someone from the North that came South.
Ok, I promise to be nice.

[maliretriever]

you think barbecue is a verb meaning "to cook outside."
you think Heinz Ketchup is SPICY!
you don't have any problems pronouncing "Worcestershire sauce"
correctly.
for breakfast, you would prefer potatoes au gratin to grits.
you don't know what a moon pie is.
you've never had grain alcohol.
you've never, ever, eaten Okra.
you eat fried chicken with a knife and fork.
you've never seen a live chicken, and the only cows you've seen are on road trips.
you have no idea what a polecat is.
whenever someone tells an off-color joke about farm animals, it goes over your head.
you don't see anything wrong with putting a sweater on a poodle.
you don't have bangs.
you would rather vacation at Martha's Vineyard than Six Flags.
more than two generations of your family have been kicked out of the same prep school in Connecticut.
you would rather have your son become a lawyer than grow up to get his own TV fishing show.
instead of referring to two or more people as "y'all," you call them "you guys," even if both of them are women.
you don't think Howard Stern has an accent.
you have never planned your summer vacation around a gun-and-knife show.
you think more money should go to important scientific research at your university than to pay the salary of the head football coach.
you don't have at least one can of WD*40 somewhere around the house.
The last time you smiled was when you prevented someone from getting on an on-ramp on the highway.
you don't have any hats in your closet that advertise feed stores.
the farthest south you've ever been is the perfume counter at Neiman Marcus.
you call binoculars opera glasses.
you can't spit out the car window without pulling over to the side of the road and stopping.
you would never wear pink or an appliqued sweatshirt.
you don't know what appliqued is.
most of your formative high school sexual experiences took place within the context of a football game.
you don't know anyone with two first names (i.e. Joe Bob, Billy Bob, Bubba Kay Bob, Bob Bob)
you don't have doilies, and you certainly don't know how to make one.
you've never been to a craft show.
you get freaked out when people on the subway talk to you.
you can't do your laundry without quarters.
none of your fur coats are homemade.

[longislandnomore]

Well [SIZE=5]maliretriever[/SIZE] , I think we'll be OK. I can only answer yes to about 5 of those, I have bangs and would never dress a poodle, and I own a pink sweatshirt. LOL. So a damn Yankee I may become.

[longislandnomore]

We have to drive about 2 hours to get to NYC. I drive by corn, pumpkin and potato fields on my way to work. Kid will be done with school, we'll be looking for a local college to start. The area sounds like exactly what we need. I do worry a little about racial diversity with my son being half Hispanic.

[longislandnomore]

Originally Posted by Darkseid

If you have that much time, I would suggest visiting on more than one occasion if possible.

I would also recommend visiting both during tourist times (e.g. Memphis in May) where there is a lot of fun and then again on a random non-tourist-heavy occasion (preferably not on a weekend with the purpose of experiencing a "regular work day" in Memphis). This should give you a pretty good feel for what Memphis is really like. During each stop, you should personally visit several neighborhoods that by that time you should have already been researching (e.g. Harbortown, Midtown, Olive Branch, MS, Collierville, etc) - depending on what fits your family's particular needs and desires. Visit the potential schools. Talk to people in the local communities (you would be surprised at the friendliness and willingness to talk). See what Downtown Memphis is like both when there are and when there are not a lot of tourists. Catch a Grizzlies game. Sample some of the local cuisine in Overton Square

Of course there are pros and cons to any place you go. You will no doubt be pleased for example that your dollar will go much further in Memphis than in the New York area, the relative lack of traffic problems and love the friendliness, but may not like the relative lack of diversity (especially when compared to NYC area) or the lack of transit oriented development. I'm just throwing out common examples here, and not discussion points, but the point here is to see and experience a city for yourself - and on more than one occasion, if possible, given that you have about 2 years.

Depending on what is possible for you, I would say that 3-4 visits over the next couple of years would more than suffice.

Will definitely visit more than a few times. I have my fill of tourists here on the East End of Long Island. I have been investigating Olive Branch, seems nice.

[Darkseid]

Originally Posted by longislandnomore

Kid will be done with school, we'll be looking for a local college to start.

Again, not sure what you are looking for, but there is a Community College in Southaven (NorthWest Community College) that is affiliated with the University of Mississippi. I think that is the only local college of any type there. Inside Memphis of course there is the University of Memphis, Rhodes and Christian Brothers. Then there is SouthWest Community College on the 2 year track.

[Fiddlefeet]

All I can say is I wouldn't do it again, knowing what I know now.

[butterfinger2004]

Definitely visit a few times at various times of the year to get a decent feel for the place. My husband and I are from Ohio and visited once and fell in love with Cordova and made the move here about 4 years ago. We already heard from a few friends which areas to stay away from. We also knew we wanted a family one day, so we didn't choose to live downtown and wanted a suburban type area where there's lots of places to shop and eat and stuff.

I'm warning you now, you will get sick and tired of a million people asking you "What made you move here?" or "Why Memphis, it's so dangerous and horrible here?" We hear those questions all the time and have just stopped answering these people because we feel that if you hate a place so much, you have a few options. A)Do something about it and try to change it. B)Move. and C)Deal with it and stop complaining.

We love it here though. We love the people, love the area, and definitely love the food.

[butterfinger2004]

My perceptions have not changed a bit since moving here. I tell my husband all the time that I wish we could have moved here sooner. Cordova is a good place in my opinion, especially where we live. The neighborhood is really diverse and the people are really friendly and always speak or at least wave at us if we are walking by. We did have one incident when we first moved here. My car was broken into in the apartment building we used to stay in. There were nicer cars in the lot than my old focus, but I blame it on having my out of state license plates at the time. But since 2010, we haven't had any other incidents.

Since this area is diverse, I doubt being black, white, latino, etc really matters. Wherever I go there's not just one race there. Diversity is one of the reasons we chose this area in particular. We've both grew up in either all white or all black neighborhoods and we didn't want to bring our future children up like that.

The only surprise I have is the fact that I've met so many transplants since moving here! I will never forget the day I was in a small group at church and out of like 10 of us, only 1 or 2 were from Memphis. One main disappointment I have is that fact that a lot of people don't support this city. A lot of people like to bash this place all the time and like I said before, either fix it; leave; or deal with it. It's a bit annoying at times when people always ask us WHY did we choose Memphis out of all places...we've been asked that so many times that we've lost count