West Coast People in Knoxville- What are Your Thoughts? (Oak Ridge: buying a house, safe area)

[CaliforniaGrl]

Looking to move to Knoxville, I am from San Diego, I like what I see online, it looks clean and easy to get around. Modern looking.
I see good things posted about the Maryville area.
I used to live In Waynesvile NC, hated it, too small- and Asheville I found looks super small old and run down.
My question is who has moved to Knoxville area from California or Arizona etc and what do you like or not like about it? Did you have major culture shock?

My main worry is humidity, and the bad air quality I keep reading about? How can it be worse than LA or San Diego? lived in Texas and Virginia once and that was too much humidity for me.

Can I get the best advice on what areas are nice for my retired parents to move to, they would be buying a house, and I need to make sure it's safe and easy to get to stores. But has enough room for a lot of dogs.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Barking Spider]

Born in So CA, lived there over 40 years. Moved to Knoxville in 94.

I think the people that feel they have major culture shock, probably have too high of opinion of themselves. I have found that the people in East TN / Knoxville area are really not that different. Sure, you can find uneducated people here, but I ran into lots of them in So CA too. Same goes for bad drivers, hostile and rude people, or people that have different opinions on religion, politics, climate, business, movies......... They are everywhere!

Some post about Southern Hospitality, and the super nice people here. While that is true, I knew tons of great, caring people in Long Beach. Some post about the South being the Bible belt, and being asked about churches. While that may go on some here, I had plenty of people coming to my front door in CA with the same message.

The biggest difference I found was not having to spend countless hours on the freeway trying to go somewhere. There is certainly less congestion here (duh! less people :-) ), which is a real plus.

While they talk about bad air quality here, at least the sky is blue instead of brown. You're from San Diego, so you have less brown air that the LA basin.
My allergies were bad in CA, but got worse here (lots of trees and grasses).

The humidity is pretty bad here (from the perspective of someone from CA). July and August are pretty bad (for me anyway). You will need to visit in summer to see if its too humid for you.

The one trade off you will find is the mega shopping malls, with tons of different stores. It took forever to get Trader Joes and Whole Foods here. Ikea is a couple hours away. In & Out Burger will likely never make it here.
If you need the big shopping fix, or a congested traffic fix, then its only a 3 hour drive to Atlanta.

The Knoxville area is a very safe area for the most part. Like any city, there are a few sketchy areas.

The other thing that might take some getting used to, is in the County, Zoning restrictions are pretty relaxed. You can drive down a road and see trailers, the a sub division with a bunch of large homes. In some areas, you will have livestock farms near sub divisions.

The big plus is its very green, no water shortage, and a fairly nice climate.

[CaliforniaGrl]

I don't eat In and Out, so safe there, and I don't like malls, so I think it sounds good, I really like hiking trails and I have dogs that I like to walk, so outdoor activities are more for me. Don't have any allergies.

I wonder what neighborhood or areas have houses that are a little more spread out? so you are close to the city but don't have a neighbor in your face right next door. Need large yard for dogs.

Is Strawberry Plains too out in the countr? or is close enough to get to downtown easily? Its hard to get an idea of things on a map when you don't know how the traffic is in an area.

Thanks for your opinion on the area!

[jabogitlu]

There is no traffic in Knoxville. Unless you have a specific job commute/job location, you could basically live wherever you want in the Knoxville metro area and be able to drive with ease (~45 minutes to an hour) clear across the entire greater Knoxville area (like, Oak Ridge to Sevierville, or Maryville to Strawberry Plains).

The only exception is Sevierville/Pigeon Forge on tourist weeks and weekends. Highway 66 from I-40 to its junction with 441, and then 441 through Pigeon Forge can sometimes get really snarly. It's taken me well over an hour to get from I-40 into Pigeon Forge on bad days.

[onetoughkitty]

Traffic can be a little narly in the morning going eastbound on the 40 towards downtown from West Knox but I couldn't tell you how long it would take since I go the opposite direction. I think that is the worst i've seen. Second from my experience can be Maryville to Oak Ridge on Pellissippi Parkway and even that isn't bad as you can always find an alternate route. Nothing like the 8 to the 805 or the 52 to the 5... :/ or the 15N to downtown in the morning :P

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaGrl

Looking to move to Knoxville, I am from San Diego, I like what I see online, it looks clean and easy to get around. Modern looking.
I see good things posted about the Maryville area.
I used to live In Waynesvile NC, hated it, too small- and Asheville I found looks super small old and run down.
My question is who has moved to Knoxville area from California or Arizona etc and what do you like or not like about it? Did you have major culture shock?

My main worry is humidity, and the bad air quality I keep reading about? How can it be worse than LA or San Diego? lived in Texas and Virginia once and that was too much humidity for me.

Can I get the best advice on what areas are nice for my retired parents to move to, they would be buying a house, and I need to make sure it's safe and easy to get to stores. But has enough room for a lot of dogs.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I suspect that my idea of rundown may not be the same as yours. However, based on these statements, I'm not really sure that Knoxville would be for you. It's bigger than Asheville, but not by a HUGE amount. The downtown area - and most of Knox County, for that matter, does not look modern. From Central Florida to points south might be your thing. (It's one of the reasons I disliked Florida. Too white-washed, cookie-cutter, let's-bulldoze-history looking for me!) But then again, the humidity and dew point will take your breath away. But if I were to guess, I bet Knoxville won't work for you.

[CaliforniaGrl]

I think it looks wonderful, the downtown area is nice looking, modern maybe isn't the right word, but just clean and nice. Compared to Asheville, I think Knoxville downtown area looks nicer.
I'm sure there are those that would disagree, but after living in a huge city like San Diego where people would rather stare at the ground when they pass you rather than be forced to say hello. I am all for moving back to the area, humidity or no humidity.
Thanks for your reply!

[Barking Spider]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaGrl

I don't eat In and Out, so safe there, and I don't like malls, so I think it sounds good, I really like hiking trails and I have dogs that I like to walk, so outdoor activities are more for me. Don't have any allergies.

I wonder what neighborhood or areas have houses that are a little more spread out? so you are close to the city but don't have a neighbor in your face right next door. Need large yard for dogs.

Is Strawberry Plains too out in the countr? or is close enough to get to downtown easily? Its hard to get an idea of things on a map when you don't know how the traffic is in an area.

Thanks for your opinion on the area!

I was referring to the large malls in CA because of the selection of stores in them, not the size. You can walk dogs anywhere, and there are several dog parks around.
While you may not have allergies now in CA, you might find new ones in TN. Just saying.

There are many areas where the lots are large. How large of a yard do you need for your dogs? I'm thinking compared to San Diego average lot size, almost anything here will be bigger.

Strawberry Plains is really just a few miles away from downtown Knoxville. It really depends on where you will be driving. Will you be working here? If so, do you know where the location is? That would be a critical point in picking a place to live.

Compared to CA, there really isn't any traffic here, except for game days near downtown.

You need to come for a visit and travel around Knoxville and get a feel for what might work for you. If you think the humidity is a deal breaker, wait until next summer to visit. We are going into the pretty much perfect weather for a couple months, so not a good gauge of what its really like here in the hot and humid summer, or the cold winter. John Snow told us winter is coming.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaGrl

Looking to move to Knoxville, I am from San Diego, I like what I see online, it looks clean and easy to get around. Modern looking.
I see good things posted about the Maryville area.
I used to live In Waynesvile NC, hated it, too small- and Asheville I found looks super small old and run down.
My question is who has moved to Knoxville area from California or Arizona etc and what do you like or not like about it? Did you have major culture shock?

My main worry is humidity, and the bad air quality I keep reading about? How can it be worse than LA or San Diego? lived in Texas and Virginia once and that was too much humidity for me.

Can I get the best advice on what areas are nice for my retired parents to move to, they would be buying a house, and I need to make sure it's safe and easy to get to stores. But has enough room for a lot of dogs.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Born and raised in SoCal (Lived in SD county twice/No County) and moved to the Knoxville area 7 years ago. Great area and friendly people and more laid back. Not as busy or as many things to see/do as in SoCal, but still very nice and a day's drive can take you to many different areas including quite a few beaches, Gulf or Atlantic. I would also look at Seymour where I live. 20 minutes to Knoxville, Maryville or Sevierville/ Pigeon Forge (Except when tourists jam the roads to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg). Low property taxes and everything you need is close by. For retirement with a slow pace it is great. Here we call it a traffic jam when two cars stop so the drivers can talk to each other. Oh, and when we stop for a deer to cross the road. Beyond that even rush hour (OK rush 30 minutes tops) is not a big deal.

[CaliforniaGrl]

I did look at Seymour, would be great for my parents. But for me I think in Knoxville is better for job prospects. We found a house online we are interested in. Great to know people are friendly. I am ready to get out of the rat race.

Maryville has good housing, but then again a job for myself, I don't know about the area, or that there is that much available there. A commute to anywhere is not something I want to ever do again after California.
Thanks for the input!

Glad you are happy there!

Originally Posted by expatCA

Born and raised in SoCal (Lived in SD county twice/No County) and moved to the Knoxville area 7 years ago. Great area and friendly people and more laid back. Not as busy or as many things to see/do as in SoCal, but still very nice and a day's drive can take you to many different areas including quite a few beaches, Gulf or Atlantic. I would also look at Seymour where I live. 20 minutes to Knoxville, Maryville or Sevierville/ Pigeon Forge (Except when tourists jam the roads to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg). Low property taxes and everything you need is close by. For retirement with a slow pace it is great. Here we call it a traffic jam when two cars stop so the drivers can talk to each other. Oh, and when we stop for a deer to cross the road. Beyond that even rush hour (OK rush 30 minutes tops) is not a big deal.