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My observation is a lot of bad relocation decisions are made because people are consumed with running away from some rightfully undesirable condition in the old place and either overcompensate for it in the new place and become fishes out of water (and miserable), or in the desire to get away from something they don't like, forget to spend more time evaluating the new place on basic things they do like/are important to them before they make a decision to move. Then when the bad decision becomes obvious, they blame the new town and the people in it instead of their bad research/bad decision/ineffective visit.
Unsolicited advice to all is the same as always:
Spend months reading the local newspaper (subscribe if you have to) local/community news before you move to find out what kind of crime is in the town, where it is, what people in the town do in their free time, what the town has planned for its future, what's important to people who live there (community events, town meetings, letters to the editor, editorial page), what's happening in the schools, hot town issues, etc.
Go to the yellow pages online and see what's actually available in the town (like restaurants, supermarkets, churches, physicians and other stores, for example)
And there's no reason to make a bad school decision based on quality of education when there is standardized test information avavilable online for individual schools and districts. Overcrowding? Ask but define what you call overcrowding. (For example, is 15 kids per teacher okay or not good enough for you? If kids go to school in trailers/temporary structures is that okay or not good enough, etc.) Plan to visit the school when school is in session so you can eyeball it for yourself. Are the school stories in the local newspaper about kid accomplishment or kid trouble?
If you or anyone in you family have a pre-existing medical condition do some research before you move. Don't move the asthma kid to the town with god-awful air pollution ratings just because the housing is cheap. If you've had a heart attack, how far away is the hospital and how was it rated by any one of a number of websites/professional organizations specifically on heart-related conditions? What awards has it won? What's the emergency service (ambulance) like when it comes to response time?
When you ask questions in a forum, don't ask questions like "Is there too much snow?" Or, "Are the schools any good?" Decide ahead of time what's too much snow for you or what makes a school good or bad and ask questions like, "Do you get more than a foot of snow, annually?" Or, "Are the ABC schools on the needs improvement list under No Child Left Behind?" or "What's the ratio of sudents to teachers in the XYZ High School?" Ask the question to elicit a data-type response so that you, not the responder, evaluates good or bad, too much or too little. Too much snow for you may be 3 inches. Too much snow to the responder may be 3 feet. But if you say "Do you get more than 3 inches?" you'll know if it's too much for you when you see the response..
Visit for more than a weekend and go to the non-tourist stores, events (like a high school play or football game) and places like the local supermarket, church, the post office, the movie theater, the gas station mart, the park, the library, etc.. Observe. Talk to people. What are they like?
Lastly, the world doesn't revolve around you. Just because you have arrived, don't expect the whole town to change to accommodate your beliefs, values and desires or whine about how backwards/stupid the people are when they don't accommodate you. After all, they're happy. You're the one that made the uninformed decision to spend time and money to move to the wrong place. Stupid is in the eye of the beholder.
I don't mean to sound preachy but relocation is a big expensive and stressful decision, if not for you, then for the people around you (family, new coworkers, new friends, town people) who have a change in their lives because you made a change in your life. The more informed decision you make, the better it is for everyone. You won't uncover all of the flaws but you can minimize the number.
Meth- The meth problem is really bad here in Anderson County, especially around Lake City. I know of four houses on my street alone where people were busted for making meth. This isn't an especially bad part of Anderson County, either; it's just a typical rural area. In one particular doublewide, they were busted three times. I actively avoid such people, but I probably know a dozen or so people who have come in direct contact with these dangerous, Moderator cut: cut . A few years ago, somebody stole the ammonia out of Lake City Middle School's antiquated air conditioning system. The meth problem here is everything it's cracked up to be, and then some. It won't get better any time soon, either. Our local Andy Taylors and Barney Fifes make so much money confiscating property from the doped up yokels, they have no incentive to actually try to stop the activity.
Baptists- If you find jesus-freaks annoying, you'd be better off somewhere else. It seems like 75% of the people here are Baptist, which is a particularly obnoxious form of jesus-freakery. Once saved, always saved! A lot of them literally believe that only Baptists will end up in heaven, cause their preacher said so. Moderator cut: cut . I have learned to deal with them well enough, since I'm a local and I understand them. There are [mod cut[/mod] everywhere... bible-thumpers just happen to be the variety we have in abundance here.
Rain- This place is **** near a temperate rain forest. If you like mud, bugs, rotting houses, poison-ivy, and constand lawn-mowing, TN is the place for you.
Small-Time Greed- This one is a bit hard to explain. It's sort of a prevalent mindset among a lot of idiotic locals, probably closely correlated with being a Baptist. Basically, a lot of the redneck masses here are enamored with the idea of easy-money. It's why they make meth and grow pot, it's why half of them get disability checks, and it leads to a lot of other typical redneck behavior. It's not uncommon to see yards here filled with seperate cages for individual fighting chickens- they see illegal gambling as easy money. It's why people here put used cars up for sale for twice what they're worth, then sit on them until they rust away- they're looking for easy money. This mindset has led to some local entrepreneurs creating whole industries around taking advantage of poor people. I'm talking about title-loan places, pawn shops, trailer parks, laundromats, buy-here-pay-here carlots, work-at-home scams, etc... Sure, those things exist all over this country, but they're a huge part of the economy here. The fabled hillbilly work ethic is a thing of the past, and a lot of people here, maybe most, think it's a joke.
So what I'm getting at here is this: If you've never been to rural TN, you likely have no idea what kind of inbred idiocy is in store for you if you move here. If you have the money to live in a nice neighborhood, or if you carefully choose who you associate with, you can mostly avoid it. Growing up here, I didn't know how screwed up this place really is. It was all I knew. Now that I've returned, I honestly can't quite decide if this place has gotten a lot worse, or if I was just too naive and isolated to see the $hit going on around me.
RickRoss and mr Bighead- Thanks for the genuine honest posts. I did read them through-- interesting take...candid enough that I can see it as if I was there. I live in small rural upstate NY, people come to town and say "what? Only mom and pop restarunts?" because thats all we have...we are a small economically disadvantaged town-farms (that have now hired cheaper immigrants)and a wal-mart on either side of us (10 miles either way)--all of our factories have left...I do not know about METH in our area- I'm sure it is there...POT is big here...I guess its everywhere--anyways Thanks for your descriptions! Thanks for the honesty you put in to them.
WOW! RickRoss, sorry you had such a bad experience while visiting East TN. Not that I disagree with you about Bristol, it is a strange laid out town and is lacking. I wish you would have done more exploring in Johnson City, Kingsport, and other ares closer to there. Johnson City has 5 or 6 sports bars that not only serve beer but have sever big screens with lots of different games going on. There are also many "mom and pop" places to get a good home cooked meal. It sounds like you went down the 4 roads in downtown JC that are the really old, run down part, just about every city has one of those sections. We have LOTS of other industries besides Wal-Mart and retail.
I do agree with you about restaurant chains, I would also like to see a few more independently owned restaurants, but we do have a few. If you ever feel like making a trip back, email me, or another local first, we'll give you many places to check out that might fit your needs and wants better.
Yes, We also are moving to Tennessee for just that reason. A nice safe quiet life. We presently live in Albuquerque, NM. The crime rate is VERY high. Murders, rapes, domestic violence and drive-bys everyday. The English language is almost unheard of here. When a person phones as business such as the utility company you will get a recording English or Spanish. If you go to an ATM it will ask English or Spainsh. The spanish language is spoken very fluently here. This is sad as when my husband came to this country from Germany he learned to speak English. Everyone I know who came from Europe has learned to speak English. Yes, this is a problem but get use to it. It is not going away. Fifty years from now the US will be know as a Latin American Country.
..........................................I am really looking forward to the prospect of retiring to Tennessee....HOWEVER; the only real concern that I have is re: # 6 ( HEALTHCARE )......I have subscribed to the Greeneville Sun & just read an article recently indicating that a 2005 study ranked Tennessee 48th out of 50 States with respect to Healthcare......In as much as I have a severely handicapped step-son living with me + I also have a series of Health Issues ( relating to an on-the-job injury that I sustained a number of years ago )......Obtaining Good Healthcare is of Paramount Importance to Me &, as such, hope that I can obtain it when needed in a timely fashion in Tennessee.......
Healthcare was never an issue with me when I lived in the SE part of the state. It was afordable and I had all the care I needed. Now, obviously you are a more "extreme" case, but you should do just fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Bighead
Small-Time Greed- This one is a bit hard to explain. It's sort of a prevalent mindset among a lot of idiotic locals, probably closely correlated with being a Baptist. Basically, a lot of the redneck masses here are enamored with the idea of easy-money. It's why they make meth and grow pot, it's why half of them get disability checks, and it leads to a lot of other typical redneck behavior. It's not uncommon to see yards here filled with seperate cages for individual fighting chickens- they see illegal gambling as easy money. It's why people here put used cars up for sale for twice what they're worth, then sit on them until they rust away- they're looking for easy money. This mindset has led to some local entrepreneurs creating whole industries around taking advantage of poor people. I'm talking about title-loan places, pawn shops, trailer parks, laundromats, buy-here-pay-here carlots, work-at-home scams, etc... Sure, those things exist all over this country, but they're a huge part of the economy here. The fabled hillbilly work ethic is a thing of the past, and a lot of people here, maybe most, think it's a joke.
Actually, I think that you underplayed the severity of this issue. A Mr. Jones used to literally run the town. Its typical of many towns out there. Many of the cops are crooked too. Yet these issues aren't too horribly bad, but are definetaly worth noting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LauraC
My observation is a lot of bad relocation decisions are made because people are consumed with running away from some rightfully undesirable condition in the old place and either overcompensate for it in the new place and become fishes out of water (and miserable), or in the desire to get away from something they don't like, forget to spend more time evaluating the new place on basic things they do like/are important to them before they make a decision to move. Then when the bad decision becomes obvious, they blame the new town and the people in it instead of their bad research/bad decision/ineffective visit.
You are so very correct. I have done this twice in my life. First when I moved from New Orleans to Cleveland, TN. Then when I moved from Cleveland to Baton Rouge (for college, LSU). I got so caught up in leaving all of my problems behind me that I never thought how I would like where I was going. So, now that I'm living here in BR, I can't wait to graduate because I don't like the town here. Cleveland wasn't any better, but I didn't like it for different reasons. The key thing to take away here is that everyone on this board has a bias opinion, and the only way you will know *for sure* if you like a place is to spend a little time there and ask yourself the hard questions. Best of luck
When a person phones as business such as the utility company you will get a recording English or Spanish. If you go to an ATM it will ask English or Spainsh.
It's the same thing here, in St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Sorry to intrude on the discussion, but I noticed a few comments that I wanted to respond to...
Quote:
Originally Posted by klosk
We presently live in Albuquerque, NM. The crime rate is VERY high. Murders, rapes, domestic violence and drive-bys everyday.
I also live in Albuquerque, and without getting into a debate over the validity of crime rate statistics, I just wanted to point out that the above statement is a gross exaggeration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by klosk
The English language is almost unheard of here. When a person phones as business such as the utility company you will get a recording English or Spanish. If you go to an ATM it will ask English or Spainsh. The spanish language is spoken very fluently here.
The first part of this quote is, again, greatly exaggerated. The VAST majority of Albuquerque is English speaking. And the English/Spanish options referenced are not uncommon throughout the nation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by klosk
Yes, We also are moving to Tennessee for just that reason. A nice safe quiet life.
To this I would recommend a serious look at LauraC's post above. But beyond that, I truly wish klosk the best of luck with the move to Tennessee.
OK...Back to your originally scheduled programming.
p.s. From what little I've seen of Tennessee, it seems to be a nice enough place to live. But I can do without the humidity.
WOW! RickRoss, sorry you had such a bad experience while visiting East TN. Not that I disagree with you about Bristol, it is a strange laid out town and is lacking. I wish you would have done more exploring in Johnson City, Kingsport, and other ares closer to there. Johnson City has 5 or 6 sports bars that not only serve beer but have sever big screens with lots of different games going on. There are also many "mom and pop" places to get a good home cooked meal. It sounds like you went down the 4 roads in downtown JC that are the really old, run down part, just about every city has one of those sections. We have LOTS of other industries besides Wal-Mart and retail.
I do agree with you about restaurant chains, I would also like to see a few more independently owned restaurants, but we do have a few. If you ever feel like making a trip back, email me, or another local first, we'll give you many places to check out that might fit your needs and wants better.
TalmundRabbi....it is quite obvious that the person is a realtor. Just reading between the lines will tell you the person is "all about Tennessee" to a fault.
I believe it wasn't necessary to disclose all the information.
I know this is a public forum but it's still like the wild west-take caution.
TalmundRabbi....it is quite obvious that the person is a realtor. Just reading between the lines will tell you the person is "all about Tennessee" to a fault.
I believe it wasn't necessary to disclose all the information.
I know this is a public forum but it's still like the wild west-take caution.
Actually she is not a realtor. Rather a very polite; informative; and friendly person.
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Crime
