Potentially moving to Memphis? (Knoxville, Chattanooga: apartment, to rent, loft)

[szoedalry]

My boyfriend and I are considering moving to Memphis. We're in our twenties and would be looking to rent a house preferably, but apartment living is perfectly acceptable as well. I want to live somewhere artsy/creative with a good music scene and plenty to do. We both enjoy camping and hiking and just generally being in nature. I guess my question is how much of this does Memphis have and/or what other areas of TN fit, if not Memphis? Would Nashville be more up our alley?

[jabogitlu]

Okay - Memphis is by far my favorite place in Tennessee (and I'm a born and raised East Tennessean), so this question excites me a lot.

First, sounds like you'll want to check out Midtown or Downtown.

For Midtown, you can rent a house, or an apartment in a small unit or a large development. I rented a carriage house behind a big mansion for about $1000, and I also rented a shotgun for $750 - just to give you an idea about prices. Probably have risen a little in the couple years since I've been gone. Check out Midtown neighborhooods like Cooper-Young, Overton Square, Central Gardens, Evergreen, Crosstown, and Binghampton to get an idea of what this area is like.

You can also live downtown in an apartment. It's definitely got a nicer feel, especially the south Main / south end area which is almost all loft conversions or new builds. Not too much action going on in the north end of downtown, which is the primary business district for downtown. Mostly offices, government uses.

Also, lots of younger folks also live around the University of Memphis for its cheaper rents. This area is sort of between Midtown and East Memphis. Some people call it the University District. There are some nicer neighborhoods, like Chickasaw Gardens (big money), East Buntyn (modest bungalows), some medium-to-sketch neighborhoods like Joffre or Normal Station, and some mega sketch neighborhoods like Beltline, East Orange Mound, Sherwood Forest, etc.

Have you lived in a grungy-type city before? Memphis is pretty low-key sketch feeling but can be quite safe if you're street smart. (Think New Orleans.) Its high crime neighborhoods like Orange Mound, North Memphis, or Frayser are safe to drive through in the daytime hours, and even some of the tourist attractions are located in not-so-nice areas (like Stax Museum in Soulsville, or Sun Records in the Edge). Memphis catches a lot of folks off-guard because its nicer neighborhoods and its poorer/more disinvested neighborhoods are in close proximity and interwoven by transportation networks, school districts, etc.

For the past few years, Memphis has been undergoing a renaissance. It's not the kind you see in Seattle or Nashville, with big population growth, rising rents, and tons of new shopping areas or skyscrapers. It's more of a revisioning of the people and assets that Memphis already has. Currently, there are tons of creative thinking projects, arts groups, and music/musicians in Memphis. Several neighborhoods are seeing adaptive reuses of large, historic buildings. The City has been investing in assets like bike lanes, region-wide bike and walking trails, etc.

Here's a few things to get you started:

https://www.fiveinone.org/
Crosstown Arts
Big River Crossing
Livable Memphis | Community Development Council of Greater Memphis
https://www.gosouthmain.com/
http://www.wolfriver.org/paddling
UrbanArt Commission
High Ground Memphis - Homepage
L O F L I N Y A R D
I Love Memphis
http://lafayettes.com/memphis/
Overton Park
Shelby Farms Park Conservancy | Memphis, TN
Crosstown Concourse


Edited to add - camping, hmmm, not too sure about that one. There's several recreational opportunities in that list above, but camping is one thing I never did much of in Memphis. However, some of my friends did regularly head over into the Ozarks (a few hours west) and did a lot of that type of stuff there. Tennessee has a wide range of options, and if you're more of a mountain-type folk, then the Chattanooga, Knoxville, or Johnson City areas could be great to look at! All three of those cities are kind of exploding in the urban-rural interface recreation options (e.g., Tannery Knobs mountain bike park adjacent to downtown Johnson City, Tweetsie Trail connecting Johnson City to Elizabethton in a rails-to-trails conversion, etc.) so please do ask if you're interested.

[DubbleT]

My ex was very into camping and there is not much in the Memphis area itself. You would probably wind up driving to Missouri or Arkansas, maybe over to Pickwick, Land between the Lakes, or Sardis MS, and it's hotter than hades if you tent camp in the summertime.

[szoedalry]

Thank you so much! This was incredibly helpful and informative!

[eastmemphisguy]

Unlike most of TN, the Memphis area is pretty flat. Shelby Forest State Park, about a half hour away, is the best local spot for outdoors stuff, but it's not that developed and, again, there's not much elevation.