Is TN right for me? (Cleveland, Cookeville: income, income tax, living in)

[drinkthekoolaid]

Originally Posted by JRR

Sometimes It seems like if a thread subject is something like: Do you prefer bacon and eggs or pancakes for breakfast?; it would quickly become about politics.

Sadly everything is so partisan now that it's a driving factor in many decisions to uproot and try a new state far away.
Any people are very dissatisfied with their current location and want something different, but a move of that magnitude is a risk. People are trying to do their due diligence to make sure they have a honest lay of the land.


I was looking at some areas in Virginia but sadly crossed it off my list due to state level concerns. So for me I've settled on TN or the Carolinas with KY and WV as outside dark horse possibilities.

I can't wait to leave NY state and I will be certain the location I choose is not on the same path.


But TN Keep doing what you're doing. (PS Please don't hate out of staters for real estate prices, it's a national issue everywhere. Mostly a symptom of inflation and currency being devalued)

[Sparrow_temp]

Well, this thread was somewhat political because I'm trying to escape the tyranny of a one-party state so it's part of the decision making process of where to move. TN appears to be a free state. It wasn't as free as I hoped during the Covid lockdowns but it appears that Putnam county didn't mandate masks and that's probably the area I'll be looking to move to.

My only concern at this point revolves around the climate. I've never lived in the south with the hot/humid summers and all of the various biting insects -- I grew up in northern MI where we got all of the biting insects but the cold in the winter killed them all off and most days in the summer were not humid but we always got a few days and with the norm being no air-conditioning, they felt sweltering. I originally chose to move to the desert southwest because of the low humidity but I'm not really sure how much it matters with AC. Does it really make a lot of difference if the temp is 100+ with low humidity or mid 80's with high humidity? Both will be hot.

[drinkthekoolaid]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

Well, this thread was somewhat political because I'm trying to escape the tyranny of a one-party state so it's part of the decision making process of where to move. TN appears to be a free state. It wasn't as free as I hoped during the Covid lockdowns but it appears that Putnam county didn't mandate masks and that's probably the area I'll be looking to move to.

My only concern at this point revolves around the climate. I've never lived in the south with the hot/humid summers and all of the various biting insects -- I grew up in northern MI where we got all of the biting insects but the cold in the winter killed them all off and most days in the summer were not humid but we always got a few days and with the norm being no air-conditioning, they felt sweltering. I originally chose to move to the desert southwest because of the low humidity but I'm not really sure how much it matters with AC. Does it really make a lot of difference if the temp is 100+ with low humidity or mid 80's with high humidity? Both will be hot.

I currently live in western NY near lake Erie, probably similar summers to northern Michigan.

In the past 2 summers I've spent time in Charleston SC, Florence SC, Sevierville TN and western NC. No doubt about it, it's hot. But it never once prevented me from doing what I wanted. You just try to not be as active outside from like noon-4. It's doable but I would be a dripping puddle of sweat. But that's just me. I'm totally looking forward to shorts and flip flops for 6 months out of the year so I'm willing to take the occasional really oppressively hot day. There are plenty of hotter and more uncomfortable places than Putnam county is. It's going to have 4 real seasons with a tilt towards the hotter weather where for you and I our 4 seasons at home are much more towards the colder weather. IMO the mid south is Totally enjoyable and livable climate (I'm very much liking the Carolinas to TN and KY) It might be one of the best overall climate in the country. The deep south and gulf coast is just too much for me to live there.

[jlud]

For what it’s worth, just got Tri Tip in Murfreesboro Costco for less than half the cost in western WA. I added a pack of Filets and was still cheaper than just tri tip.

That’s enough right there to move

Politics…there is a reason people are paying a premium to live here.

[qizilbash]

Tennessee is a one-party state. Things aren’t good here if you aren’t wealthy. I’d move if I could afford to!

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

This is dead on. Conservatives think that liberals have bad ideas that have to be defeated at the ballot box but liberals think conservatives are evil and have to be personally destroyed. Here are two examples that have happened to me in California. I had a new coworker who was a very radical liberal who thought it was his mission to get me fired from my employer because he hated conservatives that much. It probably would have worked if I didn't have a friendship with the CEO. He eventually left for WA since this part of CA wasn't liberal enough for him. I also had an incident at a grocery store where one of the liberal mask Nazi's couldn't accept that I wasn't wearing a mask and followed me around the store yelling at me and then waited outside in their vehicle and tried to run me over as I walked to my car.

If you put a conservative bumper sticker on a car here, you're inviting vandalism. If you put up a political sign in your yard, it'll be stolen and your house will be vandalized in some way if you replace it. If you attend a conservative political rally, you can expect violence directed against you. These things don't happen in both directions. This is life in a one-party state once the liberals take over.

That happens in conservative areas as well.

My house is in Montgomery County, TX (one of the more conservative large counties in Texas, and the only county in the U.S. where Trump beat Hillary by more than 100,000 votes).

In my community (The Woodlands), a guy who lived near The Woodlands Country Club Tournament Course had a Trump/Pence (2016) yard sign in the middle of his fairly large lawn. It kept getting flattened by large tired vehicles driving over it on his lawn. There are no traditional sidewalks. One has to drive over/through a drainage ditch to get to the lawn. This house is a probably a little over a mile, as the crow flies, from where Gingrich and Herman Cain debated in 2012. He finally paid to have it suspended from what was probably a 40+ year old tree.

I like Maryville.

Haven't been to Cookeville.

In the Nashville metro, I like Williamson County.

Love the Chattanooga Metro.

FWIW, Downtown Chattanooga is 1 3/4 hours from Hartsfield-Jackson (the Intl. airport) in Atlanta.

If I left Texas it would be for TN, FL, or () NV.

(and I'm a person whose great-great-great grandparents and great-great grandfather were 3 of the first 1,000 residents of San Francisco, and I lived in the Bay Area for well over 40 years)

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by drinkthekoolaid

I currently live in western NY near lake Erie, probably similar summers to northern Michigan.

In the past 2 summers I've spent time in Charleston SC, Florence SC, Sevierville TN and western NC. No doubt about it, it's hot. But it never once prevented me from doing what I wanted. You just try to not be as active outside from like noon-4. It's doable but I would be a dripping puddle of sweat. But that's just me. I'm totally looking forward to shorts and flip flops for 6 months out of the year so I'm willing to take the occasional really oppressively hot day. There are plenty of hotter and more uncomfortable places than Putnam county is. It's going to have 4 real seasons with a tilt towards the hotter weather where for you and I our 4 seasons at home are much more towards the colder weather. IMO the mid south is Totally enjoyable and livable climate (I'm very much liking the Carolinas to TN and KY) It might be one of the best overall climate in the country. The deep south and gulf coast is just too much for me to live there.

And if the OP 'moves to rural' he will likely mostly escape the 'heat island effect' he might experience in a large, hot, humid Sunbelt/Southern metro.

[shinestx]

Originally Posted by Kristinas_Cap

i have never witnessed people being hateful to liberals in eastern tn

Same here. A centrist here. Conservatives are pretty much "live and let live", especially in Tennessee. That's the nub of conservativism... keep to the Constitution and just don't impose your big "gubmint" on me.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by drinkthekoolaid

Sadly everything is so partisan now that it's a driving factor in many decisions to uproot and try a new state far away.
Any people are very dissatisfied with their current location and want something different, but a move of that magnitude is a risk. People are trying to do their due diligence to make sure they have a honest lay of the land.
...

As the U.S. has begun to Balkanise, politics has become one of the top reasons for moving. (And, conversely, the main thing liberals troll conservative state forums about.)

In my case, however, water was the number one reason. Where I lived (Texas), I was 30 miles from, and 400 feet higher than the nearest reliable water source. The water supply was fully dependent on a reliable electric grid, which, at the time, was getting less reliable.

Everyone knows what happened Feb of 2021, in Texas. Sadly, they didn't find out until afterwards, "Leftists from Other Places" were making decisions about their grid. I somewhat suspect that is happening other places in the country, so the whole U.S. grid will be less and less reliable in the future.

But here, I am only about 1/4 mile from water.

Originally Posted by RMESMH

And if the OP 'moves to rural' he will likely mostly escape the 'heat island effect' he might experience in a large, hot, humid Sunbelt/Southern metro.

You don't have to be in the Sunbelt or Southern metro to experience that heat island effect. It happens in every city of any size.

[creeksitter]

Oh my, that guy who wrote the essay about Maryville linked in post #6 sure has a bug up his behind. I could tell he's not local, people around here are not raised to be that hateful.

First off, he has a gripe about homelessness. I suppose he didn't connect the dots that TN is called the bible belt for a reason and that a lot of people follow the teachings of a homeless preacher, including helping the needy.

Second gripe was that the library has a section of children's books against racism. I don't see where this is a problem and I can't imagine anyone forcing his kids to check out these books.

OP, if you are looking for a socially conservative town consider Cleveland TN. It is the HQ for the Church of God.