Considering moving to Chatanooga or Cleveland (Chattanooga, Charlotte: hotel, home, find a job)

[reds94015]

Hello, My wife and I are considering a move to this area, or possibly western NC. We'd sure appreciate any input. A few considerations for us: My wife would need to find a job as a bank teller--she has plenty of experience, I have my own business of office support so we'd need to be around SOME decent-sized businesses that I can market to, we love to be in or near the mountains for hiking/biking. Our preference is a smallish city with a friendly atmosphere where people know their neighbors etc. Chatanooga seems a bit large for us, 170k I think, We were looking at Hickory, NC or Concord as they're close to Charlotte. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Rick26]

Well, Cleveland would certainly qualify as "smaller than Chattanooga". At the 2010 census, Cleveland pop. was approx. 41,000. For us, Cleveland is big enough to provide all the necessities but small enough to have that 'small town' feel. Why not plan a trip to Cleveland for a few days and see how it fits your perception?

[SPLIT]

..R: If you are serious about your small business marketing target, you need to move soon to
this I-75 region around Cleveland. The north side would be less population for housing.
Enterprise South corp park is expanding more with VW , & the paper is all about more SUPPLIERS
getting established to support the auto build plants.

[reds94015]

thanks for the email. we're going to spend our first night in Chat at an affordable b&b. we were hoping to find something similar in Cleveland but can't any B&Bs operating in town. the few out of town are around 15 miles away and more expensive than we can afford. any suggestions? we just liked the B&B cuz we can talk with a local and get a better feel for the area compared to a hotel.

[Rick26]

Reds,
You're right. As far as I know, there are no 'real' B&B's in Cleveland. Not sure why...maybe just not the market for it...don't know. Anyway, I've found numerous ways to 'chat up' the locals when I've been interested in finding out about an area (actually did this a few years ago when I was considering buying a 2nd home in FL). Basically, anywhere people gather is more than adequate to have a conversation about "Why do you live here?", "What are the schools like?", etc. Grocery stores, restaurants and churches are all good places to find folks that wouldn't mind a few questions. Give it a try...you don't have to stay in a B&B just to talk with 'locals'.