Is Dayton a good area.........? (Chattanooga, Dunlap: low income, real estate, apartment complex)

[leavingFlorida]

Is Dayton a good area if you are looking for:

**small town
**inexpensive living
**close enough (within 20-30 minutes) to Walmarts (I know, we all have a love/hate relationship with Walmart!), other necessary places like restaurants and stores
**Beautiful mountains (I think I know the answer to that one)
**Not as fast-growing as northeast TN?

[SPLIT]

L.F. L.F. Here , we left two years ago, on the south side of the City. Brand new LOWE's , Brand New HOSPItal. wOULD NOT CALL TOWN ANY MORE, JUST SMALL CITY.
Walmart 5 minutes on the SOuth side of Dayton Rt #27, Just had the big annual Strawberry festival.
All YES to your questions. Picture album not working today. We had other posts here before. Also double click upper Left of this p[age on White CITY-DATA logo , enter Dayton , should get a few of my pics, and stats.

[leavingFlorida]

Thanks, Split. I only saw the one picture of the mountains, but it is gorgeous. I was where you sent me but missed the other pics somehow. My BIL works in Dayton and lives in Dunlap. New job so we haven't been able to find out a lot about Dayton from him yet.

[SPLIT]

LF: If you plan to live on the Main Channel, bring some $. Would not call this much of a Small Town anymore. No real industry for jobs. Almost have to be self-employed, contractors, etc. Just to the NOrth is Spring City TVA , Nuclear Reactor build #2.
. You will love the lower cost of expense here. Just got my 3rd homeowner Insurance policy. 1st renewal went up $5 to $345 / YEAR. Now a $15 Jump to #360 / year. New construction 3/2 dead end street, underground utilities.
.
We were on the river today for picnic & Nap with the other Cabin boat,! Where you live now?
..

[City Clicker]

Hi. I am originally from Dayton, TN. The town is a small little town but does not possess the small town values one would expect. There are many churches and many nice people. However, crime is very rampant especially petty crime such as theft. Dayton has been ran by the same people for the past 20 years and the population has remained virtually unchanged. Economic growth is stiffled by area leaders who seem to feel that they can "make theirs" more easier without having to compete. Dayton City school however has a great school in comparison to the county schools where the Rhea County placed 3rd in the state for the per capita school spending, in addition to overall student graduations per year. Dayton has a new county owned hospital that many locals refer to as a windfall for local officials and their business owner friends. Police protection in minimal. Dayton being an overall safe place concerning major crimes leave police to "find" things to do which many say contribute to the vast problem of jail over crowding. Dayton is home to the Scopes "Monkey Trial" which locals continue to celebrate the fiasco yearly. The trial did exactly what it was intended to do which was to place Dayton on the map but the long term stigma of doing so was not properly thought out as Dayton is still referred to as "Monkey Town". Dayton has beautiful landscapes and sceneries but poverty, lack of education, inbreeding and a lack of jobs have inhibited the city's ability to grow. As for foor, shopping, etc., you can best forget about those things and commute 40 miles north to Chattanooga for that. Dayton has several popular fast food restaurants and other than shopping at the new Super Wal-Mart there is basically no place to shop. However, if you are in to crafts then downtown Dayton has many little shops. The only significant business in downtown is locally owned Morgan's Furniture which owns several of the buildings. Area merchants and civic organizations attempted to set a theme of "Historic Downtown dayton" but the historic concept was quickly lost buy the transformation of the old Johnson Harware building into a 3 story rental apartment complex with a dominating green tin roof. Public protest of the low income housing was met with strong resistence as the building is owned by the chief of police, who is the nephew of the city manager, who is the brother-in-law to the former sheriff who is...well, as i said, inbreeding seems to be the norm because other than being from the outside moving in, your chances of finding romance in Dayton may be more akin to courting your 2nd or 3rd cousin and never knowing it. I apoligize if this post sounds extreme but other than completely lie (which i will not do to promote a city or anything else) this is just the way things are. Apparently, local folks seem to like to keep things the way they are as the town is essentially the same as I remember it many years ago. The truly ironic thing tho seems to be a look of mental anguish behind the forced smiles of those who reside there. For a farm you can contact the former sheriff. For any real estate or houses or apartments you can contact the former sheriff or his chief of police son. For a city job you can contact the former sheriff's brother in law the city manager. However, there is no need to apply for any city job if you are not related to these people. Glad I could be of assistance.