Tennessee still stay mostly country

[shinestx]

Eastern and Northern Hamilton County is seeing houses go up at a blistering rate. It's somewhat alarming. Everyone wants a view of the eastern mountains and VW just announced another 1000 jobs, and we've seen lots of COVID refugees. Collegedale is the fastest growing city under 20,000 in the South with five new multi-building apartment complexes underway. And now the boom is moving easterly to Apison. Hamilton planning commission just approved another 900 homes on Bill Jones road.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

I grew up on a farm in a deeply rural part of East Tennessee and most of my families have been in East TN or western North Carolina since the early 1800s. So, I think I have a pretty decent handle on this question.

Tennessee's truly rural areas like northwest TN will largely stay that way. The problem is no one wants to live there, and folks who need actual functioning economies in order to earn a living really can't live there.

Much more of the casual countryside in places like Sullivan County (for example) will become suburbanized and/or the human-wildland interface will grow much more complex over the coming decades.

In order for Tennessee to maintain the "wide open country look" that you're asking about (and I assume you mean in relative proximity to desirable amenities such as economically successful towns and cities), a huge political shift would have to take place in the general populace as well as the elected government. Wide open country doesn't just happen, it has to be planned using tools like county-wide zoning standards or greenbelt laws (see: Portland, OR metro).

Planned land use is anathema to a modern conservative. And most of the folks living in Tennessee are casually conservative. Beyond that, nearly all of the folks MOVING to Tennessee, outside of Nashville, are wildly conservative. So, additional land use controls, especially in country and rural areas, doesn't look to be on the legislative agenda for the next several decades at the very least.

Tl;dr - personal property rights trump conservation in Trump country. And that isn't a judgment on whether that is good, or bad, or neither - it's just a statement of the current politics.

One thing to consider too is that, outside of Washington County, every other county north and east of Knoxville had a natural population decline (births<deaths) for quite some time now. The people who are coming to the area are generally retirees. We can see evidence of this in local school consolations.

I don't see TN north and east of Knoxville growing that much. There simply isn't a skilled enough labor force overall to attract big employers that would then pull other people in. The area remains remote and not connected to any other metro areas.

[forestsoul]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

I don't see TN north and east of Knoxville growing that much. There simply isn't a skilled enough labor force overall to attract big employers that would then pull other people in. The area remains remote and not connected to any other metro areas.

It's the area my family are looking to move to from TX. I hope it stays real and traditional. TX has been absolutely ruined over the last 15 years by small towns being taken over by crappy apartments, strip malls, too many people (legal and illegal), woke nasty schools, insane property taxes, and rising crime. There is a neighborhood about a mile from us that is literally filled with feral tweakers, prostitutes, and illegals. The cops I've spoken with say it's impossible to keep it cleaned up. They are in there every day and night. We want out of this area in the worst way. TX has lost its way in many ways.

My hundreds of hours of research has leaned NE TN, specifically the small towns bordering KY. We're also considering other states my wife's company will let her transfer to. I can get a job anywhere, so for me it's not a worry. We want to be someplace that's staunchly conservative, freedoms friendly, low/no state tax, and a government that stays out of the way of citizens. TX is becoming other than this. We are also looking at WY, SD, and a couple of others. TX used to be like NE TN, but those days are largely gone.

[jabogitlu]

Not sure if your wife will find the conservative government to be staying out of her way. Conservatives these days are unfortunately making choices that infringe on the rights of women and other folks who aren't straight men.

If you want true freedom, you may want to consider a blue state.

[KewlGuy]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Not sure if your wife will find the conservative government to be staying out of her way. Conservatives these days are unfortunately making choices that infringe on the rights of women and other folks who aren't straight men.

If you want true freedom, you may want to consider a blue state.

That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all night.

[DubbleT]

Originally Posted by KewlGuy

That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all night.

Not really. As a woman, I happen to agree with him. YMMV.

Just because the media likes to portray TN as some ultra right wing conservative bastion doesn't mean everyone feels that way. Some of us still like the the live and let live way of things, including us wimmenfolk.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by forestsoul

It's the area my family are looking to move to from TX. I hope it stays real and traditional. TX has been absolutely ruined over the last 15 years by small towns being taken over by crappy apartments, strip malls, too many people (legal and illegal), woke nasty schools, insane property taxes, and rising crime. There is a neighborhood about a mile from us that is literally filled with feral tweakers, prostitutes, and illegals. The cops I've spoken with say it's impossible to keep it cleaned up. They are in there every day and night. We want out of this area in the worst way. TX has lost its way in many ways.

My hundreds of hours of research has leaned NE TN, specifically the small towns bordering KY. We're also considering other states my wife's company will let her transfer to. I can get a job anywhere, so for me it's not a worry. We want to be someplace that's staunchly conservative, freedoms friendly, low/no state tax, and a government that stays out of the way of citizens. TX is becoming other than this. We are also looking at WY, SD, and a couple of others. TX used to be like NE TN, but those days are largely gone.

I'm an upper middle class white guy with a local 5%er income and no kids. I have a very reasonable house payment and my taxes are affordable. The city services are reasonable, always working (parents live in the unincorporated county and have frequent power/internet outages, etc.), but TN really doesn't offer much in the way of social protections or benefits if you need them.

If I needed or wanted more social services, TN wouldn't be a good fit.

The small towns bordering KY are remote with almost nothing going on. It's a pretty far trek from there back to Knoxville or the Tri-Cities for any meaningful services. You'd definitely need to check on things like internet access, cellular service, and even municipal water access.

Rural east TN has a lot of drug issues and some issues with property crime, but random violent crime is mostly nonexistent, and what crime there is is largely contained among people already known to each other, and drug/domestic in nature.

It depends on what you are looking for. TX has notably higher property taxes. The weather alone in TX would get me. The weather is just far more moderate - very low risk of severe weather, drought, hurricane, etc.