And we wonder why everyone is moving to Tennessee? (real estate market, home)

[daniellefort]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

I know of few instances where one can point to and suggest that people would move from one place to another with the intent of, "how can I totally ruin this place".

I would say the vast majority of people who move to rural Tennessee or in small towns come for the reason that they want to escape from the urbanized sprawl that resulted from unrestricted growth. No matter their intent or reasons, their very moving to such places in number leads to the same thing. Larger population requires more services, more roads, more taxes, etc... eventually ending up looking just like the place they previous left to escape from.

I would not place blame on anyone wanting a better lifestyle, who doesn't. Nor would I place blame on locals who bought property for next to nothing 25 years ago when people only drove through their state on the way to someplace else and can now sell it to someone from the outside for 10 times that amount. Who would fault someone for wanting to make money, this is America after all.

As I have said previously, progress can't be stopped and the only constant in the universe is change, it is merely something we all have to accept. The way it was is just that, the past. Today it is something different, but we all can do something about it.

If people are serious about keeping Tennessee more to its natural state then it is up to the people to petition their local and state government to demand such things. One will have to expect that it will need to be shown that it is economically sound to manage growth through various means such as impact fees etc... and that our states natural wonders are a boom for tourism, not unrestricted growth. Once a place has been developed it will never go back to the way it was.

Whatever the solutions (if any) are, there will be some who will be shorted but there can be a balance between people, business, and natural wonder that is workable. Again it is up to the people to determine what this balance is because otherwise if left up to government without the voice of the people, then you can bet your bottom that Tennessee will be the next hill covered Florida or Texas.

If the same amount of people who post in this area of the forum were to all write their congressman, they would have an impact as too few people take the time to do so. I have found that my local and state representatives at least take the time to respond to my concerns whether they act upon them or not. I have even attended a few county meetings and rub a few shoulders and shook a few hands and in doing so, I at least learned where to take my voice so that it is heard the clearest, again, even if not acted upon.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is today. I only hope people don't wait until you can no longer tell where one town ends and the next begins before they speak.

Your thoughts are exactly like mine. I guesss sometimes it's just easier for people to blame the people moving in and i bet those who are complaining are not going to their local and state representatives to do anything about it. Yes,,, impact fees would greatly reduce the amount of building. Here in my county, the impact fees last year went up to $15,000 up from $8,000 the year before to slow our growth and it really put a damper on land being sold here even at bottom prices. We had a target store that wanted to come into town but once the impact fee went up significantly, they ended up backing out. We also had a couple of big chain restaurants that were trying to come into the county and they too backed out because of the impact fee they faced. So yes, impact fees make a big difference for both homes and businesses not taking over.

I might also mention the property i bought was also subdivided into large parcels of 2 acres up to 20 acres each and it was used for farmland. A native TN owned it for years, he passed away and his son just sold it off at auction prices. So it's not always right to blame the newbies again when sometimes it's the natives just wanting to cash in and like you said above, who wouldn't want a little extra cash in their pocket for a more cushiony retirement.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by daniellefort

I guesss sometimes it's just easier for people to blame the people moving in and i bet those who are complaining are not going to their local and state representatives to do anything about it.

Ha! The Knox County commissioners are so corrupt that there was an article in The New York Times about them. Right now, the latest scandal is budget money that was spent by politicians, sometimes on local developers for lobster dinners. Thousands of dollars is unaccounted for. The mayor says he is sorry!

[Eat]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Ha! The Knox County commissioners are so corrupt that there was an article in The New York Times about them. Right now, the latest scandal is budget money that was spent by politicians, sometimes on local developers for lobster dinners. Thousands of dollars is unaccounted for. The mayor says he is sorry!

All part of the reason that Loudon, Blount, Anderson, Roane, Monroe, and other surrounding counties are so popular.

[daniellefort]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Ha! The Knox County commissioners are so corrupt that there was an article in The New York Times about them. Right now, the latest scandal is budget money that was spent by politicians, sometimes on local developers for lobster dinners. Thousands of dollars is unaccounted for. The mayor says he is sorry!

I'm not suprised in today's government world... but that's a good point....don't blame us for buying, building or growing, blame them for allowing it to happen....

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by daniellefort

I'm not suprised in today's government world... but that's a good point....don't blame us for buying, building or growing, blame them for allowing it to happen....

Oh, I do, I do! I blame the same money-grubbing Florida politicians for ruining that state, too.

Florida native Carl Hiassen writes some wonderful books about how the shady bureaucrats sold out the environment and the state. He's a Miami Herald reporter and columnist and he couldn't do a thing to stop them. The government has zero interest in helping you or me, just themselves and big business.

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Ha! The Knox County commissioners are so corrupt that there was an article in The New York Times about them. Right now, the latest scandal is budget money that was spent by politicians, sometimes on local developers for lobster dinners. Thousands of dollars is unaccounted for. The mayor says he is sorry!

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Oh, I do, I do! I blame the same money-grubbing Florida politicians for ruining that state, too.

Florida native Carl Hiassen writes some wonderful books about how the shady bureaucrats sold out the environment and the state. He's a Miami Herald reporter and columnist and he couldn't do a thing to stop them. The government has zero interest in helping you or me, just themselves and big business.

Greed and corruption are some of the few things that know no race, gender or creed and you will just as likely find them in a Knoxville city commission as you will in Palookaville, Iowa. From the back of the pool hall dealings of the southern good ole boy network to the political machines like those in Chicago or Detroit, it is almost inescapable.

Of course the hardest thing to realize is that we all voters share some responsibility in placing these thieves in office in the first place. We also have to realize that corruption ebbs and flows in politics as today's town politics may not be the same as yesterday's, all depending upon who is sitting in those chairs making the decisions.

One of the things that this state is known for or was at least at one time is the sense of community. The "Volunteer" state here on this forum has some of the highest post counts and most of the town meetings I have attended have been fairly well filled. Perhaps it is false optimism on my part as being involved in such things is sure to color my lenses, but if I didn't believe, it would certainly be harder to get out of bed in the morning.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by gemkeeper

But, if you think that people choose to live in TN for this reason alone, I think you have on the blue glasses! We are more active as seniors, we are more educated and we grew up in a time when social, environmental and political activism was our lifebloodl. Do not think that many of us are not still hippies in disguise!!

Yeah, I know. I had a woman in one of my retiree classes two months ago touting communism. That was a first for me and I come from the liberal states of NY and MD. One of the reasons I moved to Tennessee was to get away from overaged-hippies. It's one of the reasons why Asheville was so unappealing. They never met a government program they didn't like. That's why taxes go up, when they demand things/services and regulations on businesses. Those things cost money. That's why COL will go up here. They move here for the cheap but then try to impose their "demands" on everyone else because "it's for our own good." Yeah, right.

[gemkeeper]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

Greed and corruption are some of the few things that know no race, gender or creed and you will just as likely find them in a Knoxville city commission as you will in Palookaville, Iowa. From the back of the pool hall dealings of the southern good ole boy network to the political machines like those in Chicago or Detroit, it is almost inescapable.

Of course the hardest thing to realize is that we all voters share some responsibility in placing these thieves in office in the first place. We also have to realize that corruption ebbs and flows in politics as today's town politics may not be the same as yesterday's, all depending upon who is sitting in those chairs making the decisions.

One of the things that this state is known for or was at least at one time is the sense of community. The "Volunteer" state here on this forum has some of the highest post counts and most of the town meetings I have attended have been fairly well filled. Perhaps it is false optimism on my part as being involved in such things is sure to color my lenses, but if I didn't believe, it would certainly be harder to get out of bed in the morning.

TnHilltopper, I am addressing the portion of your post highlighted in red. I hated to take it out of context entirely because the post is so good.

We may argue that we are the ones who put the corrupt politicians in place, however, who would have voted for them if their platform was to promote trickery, higher taxes and wide-open development with a sprinkle of greed and corruption?

We vote for them for all the right reasons. They promise to be good stewards and caretakers of the citizens' best interests in all areas. They talk about tax control, development control, protecting the environment, cutting all of the waste of tax payers' money through staff cuts, elimination of unnecessary programs, better schools, rhetoric, rhetoric, and a little more rhetoric.

And, many of them have the best of intentions going into office. They are in nobody's back pocket, or so they think. But, as has been said before, "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Give someone a little power and the rest of the sad tale follows.

So, vote for the best candidate, show up at the meetings and say your piece, but if someone is determined to look out for vested interests for personal gain, they will lie, cheat and steal from their constituents to accomplish it. Sad tale universally told.

[TnHilltopper]

Gem, We have a system that awards office to the most ruthless, cunning, and selfish of people, then act surprised when those willing to do anything to win power are equally willing to do anything with it.

While I have no doubts that there are many, especially in local and state level politics who enter into this work with the best of intentions and the will of the voters before their own, but in time many will succumb to the relentless grind of corruption at some level. We also have those who enter into office solely for the intent of achieving power and personal gain. Both types of individuals have to present their case to the people in order to get elected and this is where we come in.

We the people of democratic types of government have great freedoms and we also have a great responsibility. To live and work in a healthy democratic form of government, the people need to be reasonably educated or at the least, aware. We need to be active, involved, and engaged in this process in order to ensure that we increase our chances of getting the most qualified individual for the job.

When we regress into apathy and indifference, then the people remaining are likely to progress their views. Usually those remaining are the extremes of the right or left, or simply those who are willing to vote for the candidate who can best promise them what they want to hear.

It is far from a perfect system and there are those who are good at deception and the people will be deceived, but if the people are vigilant, the results are generally in their favor.

I realize it is human nature to externalize blame, especially in this country. We seek reasons for why things happen, why politicians are corrupt, why someone didn't put a wet floor sign up, etc... Rarely to we look to ourselves and our own choices as being solely or in part the reasons why things are the way they are. People often think of themselves as being in their own world when in fact they are merely a cog in a machine that shares the burden of responsibility with everyone else. Think of how hard it is for people to raise their hand and say, "I screwed up, its my fault"... this almost never happens because people often would rather be seen as right than to do the right thing.

I know I don't hold a popular view but it is the view I have.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by marmac

in the TN forum--------------------"why everyone is moving to TN"

frequently in the Arkansas forum---"why is everyone from CA moving to NW Arkansas"

today in the Georgia forum-------"Georgia is the fastest growing state in the SE'


If this trend of-----"everyone"---moving to TN, AR,GA, continues-----there certainly will be "ghost states" in Florida and California.

That is presuming the word --"everyone"--- isn't being a little bit exaggerated.

The bigger question is will the TN, AR and GA be able to deal with the rise in population? That is a lot of people to absorb, will they have the jobs, housing, infrastructure rise in crime etc? Will they be overwhelmed and if so what will be the results.