Oak Ridge (Knoxville, Clinton, Oliver Springs: sale, crime rate, mortgage)

[jmarkey]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Kim:

I think Oak Ridge is fine. I think the only people that may not like the area are those that want to hunt and fish in their own back yard.

Not only can you fish there, but you have to fight the crowd to do so. There are quite a few weekly tournaments on Melton Hill Lake. My husband did the Monday night one last summer, had a ball and made some money. He's always been a Catch and Release guy, so we never did eat anything out of the river.

On any given day, at any of the many boat launches, there are lots of trucks and trailers. In fact, he escaped this morning and he's out there now!

[LauraC]

Thanks guys. My map of Oak Ridge just labeled the road Raccoon Valley Road probably because it's supposed to be a street map of the city of Oak Ridge, and the map ends before the road does going east from Oak Ridge. I didn't know it was also Rte 170 so I took hiknapster's map link and followed the road to see where it ends and it ends in the vicinity of Big Ridge State Park (good to know). I wouldn't have guessed any of that (that it swung more north than east) or that it was Rte 170.

Pics of Heiskell are nice. I'd like to take my camera and do some scenic driving around when I get there and getting there fast will not be an issue so I want to get to other places not using Rte 40 (so I can see more of East Tennessee).

[hiknapster]

We followed Raccoon Valley Road one time, looking for a house. I was really surprised how far it went, and we didn't go all the way to Big Ridge. Boy, I thought where we are is rural, but follow that road north and it REALLY gets rural.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Suzanne1945

Like so many others, we, too, are hoping to retire in TN. First thoughts were to Maryville, now maybe Oak Ridge. Please describe shopping--malls, grocery, restuarants, etc. Thanks for your insight.

The Oak Ridge Mall is sad. Once again, they have a new company to tackle the problem of what to do about the mall in 2007. I think the plans are due this month or next month. Interestingly enough, it's not the department stores that are missing but the smaller shops.

I'm going to rattle off these places from memory. Oak Ridge has a Sears, JC Penney, Belk's (like a Macy's), Books-A-Million, Staples, CVS, Wal-Mart Super Center, K-Mart, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Blockbuster Video, Kroger, Food Lion, Food City, Bi-Lo, Rocky Top, Starbucks, Red Lobster, Outback, Panera Bread, Ruby Tuesday, Baskin Robin, Waffle House, TCBY, Hot Bagel Co, Buddy's Barbecue and several one of a kind restaraunts and all the regular fast food places. I think I saw an Odd Lot, too. I know there is a dollar store. There is a multiplex movie theater, a civic center, a playhouse, a library, a science museum, an art center and a Y.

When you leave Oak Ridge on Illinois, it turns into Pellissipi Pkwy. As you get close to I-40, the road splits and there's a big Maryville overhead sign so it must be fairly easy to go to Maryville from Oak Ridge.

[jmarkey]

Actually, if you just stay on the Pellissippi Parkway it turns into Rt. 140, which takes you to Alcoa, the airport, and eventually Maryville.

You can get to the Parkway on Illinois Ave., but the drive on Melton Lake Rd., and Edgemoor is so pretty and it's always a ride I look forward to.

There's also a multiplex movie theater with a good selection of first run movies. It's hard to list everything in Oak Ridge, as it's just plaza after plaza going down the Oak Ridge Turnpike.

[Tamanddon]

Hello all,

I have lived in Oak Ridge for three years and am getting ready to relocate to Texas. There are two sides to Oak Ridge. The upper class and the "valley." The scenery is beautiful, but the drugs are absolutely horrible. Although the schools used to be considered excellent, they have gone down hill in the past few years. The property crime is pretty high considering it is a town of about 27,000. It has the same property crime as Austin Texas, which has a population around 630,000. If you work at one of the plants, you may be happy. Besides that there is not much to do in Oak Ridge. Good Luck!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Tamanddon

Hello all,

I have lived in Oak Ridge for three years and am getting ready to relocate to Texas. There are two sides to Oak Ridge. The upper class and the "valley." The scenery is beautiful, but the drugs are absolutely horrible. Although the schools used to be considered excellent, they have gone down hill in the past few years. The property crime is pretty high considering it is a town of about 27,000. It has the same property crime as Austin Texas, which has a population around 630,000. If you work at one of the plants, you may be happy. Besides that there is not much to do in Oak Ridge. Good Luck!

I just talked to friends of mine this weekend who have lived in Oak Ridge for about 10 years, and they say the same thing. There's a huge drug problem now in Oak Ridge. Some of the chamber of commerce type of Oak Ridgers say the drugs are actually coming from Oliver Springs or Clinton, since how on earth could a city with so many enlightened people as Oak Ridge possibly have a drug problem. But it's there. And just about every house in my friends' neighborhood in Oak Ridge has been burglarized in the last couple of years. All of that was news to me, and I'm sad that Oak Ridge is no longer the "city on a hill" that it used to be.

(On a side note, I always thought the welcome sign in Oak Ridge was odd. It says something like "Welcome to Oak Ridge, where the vision lives on." But wasn't the original "vision" of Oak Ridge how to kill as many people as quickly as possible?)

I don't know that Oak Ridge schools have gotten any worse, but surrounding schools have gotten better so that the gap isn't as wide anymore between Oak Ridge schools and other schools. At least that's my perception.

[hiknapster]

I looked at an apartment in Oak Ridge when I first came to the area. It was October of '05. The woman told me that there were a lot of drugs in Oak Ridge. That was surprisingly candid. I've never mentioned it, because was just one person's opinion. I never asked anyone else about the area, but I didn't move there.

This discussion brought up the memory of that conversation.

[jmarkey]

Hiknapster,

I'm not trying to be combative (though my husband would disagree. He says I'd argue with a stone if no one else was around )

Assuming your choice not to move to OR was based on drugs=crime=bad place to live, why did you choose to live in a town with a higher crime index?

[Tamanddon]

Originally Posted by jmarkey

Hiknapster,

I'm not trying to be combative (though my husband would disagree. He says I'd argue with a stone if no one else was around )

Assuming your choice not to move to OR was based on drugs=crime=bad place to live, why did you choose to live in a town with a higher crime index?

I have family that is in law enforcement in Oak Ridge. Trust me Oak Ridge as well as Anderson County are horrible drug areas. Usually the people that don't realize this fact are the ones that aren't exposed to it. Unfortunately, police are.