Impression of Murfreesboro after visiting from NYC two weeks ago (Franklin: low income, apartments)

[Steve_TN]

I lived in Northern New Jersey, 13 miles from NYC, from birth until I moved to TN in 1994. I moved from Nashville to Murfreesboro in 2000. I'm quite perplexed by what Bernice has said. I live in the Cason Lane area and what she said leaves me puzzled. I do agree that Blackman Farms is horrible, but there is far more to the Blackman area than that one subdivision. Also, Murfreesboro is not a flood zone. Sure, parts have flooded, but floods happen everwhere. VERY misleading. Um........I don't even know where to start. Maybe she went to Murfreesboro, Arkansas by accident.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by Steve_TN

Maybe she went to Murfreesboro, Arkansas by accident.

Well...there is a Nashville close by there, too.

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by Steve_TN

I lived in Northern New Jersey, 13 miles from NYC, from birth until I moved to TN in 1994. I moved from Nashville to Murfreesboro in 2000. I'm quite perplexed by what Bernice has said. I live in the Cason Lane area and what she said leaves me puzzled. I do agree that Blackman Farms is horrible, but there is far more to the Blackman area than that one subdivision. Also, Murfreesboro is not a flood zone. Sure, parts have flooded, but floods happen everwhere. VERY misleading. Um........I don't even know where to start. Maybe she went to Murfreesboro, Arkansas by accident.

Ya, I agree. Very odd and full of sweeping generalizations. I agree with aaron's suggestions. Quality of life is about more than housing.

[DaveM123]

I believe I have said this before... if you are looking for NYC in Middle Tennessee you are coming to the wrong place. It doesn't exist thankfully. I've lived in the greater NYC area and greater Chicago area for many years... I love it here in Murfreesboro. I'm not Baptist and seem to fit in just fine.

As for cost of living here is what is cheaper... gasoline - not even close, restaurants - food is fine in my opinion, electricity, real estate taxes. By comparison to NYC it's not even close.

[altereco]

Originally Posted by DaveM123

I believe I have said this before... if you are looking for NYC in Middle Tennessee you are coming to the wrong place. It doesn't exist thankfully. I've lived in the great NYC area and greater Chicago area for many years... I love it here in Murfreesboro. I'm not Baptist and seem to fit in just fine.

As for cost of living here is what is cheaper... gasoline - not even close, restaurants - food is fine in my opinion, electricity, real estate taxes. By comparison to NYC it's not even close.

I agree. Middle Tennessee is not NYC. It is a charming city but it has a MUCH MUCH different culture and vibe. However, I do agree with the first poster that the food prices in the supermarkets are about the same as NYC --in fact--NYC actually has a greater variety of cheaper food options because it is larger and restaurants and supermarkets have to compete a lot more for business. There is mostly only Publix, Kroger and Harris Teeter in Nashville while NYC has hundreds and thousands of grocery and restaurant shopping options-- offering food choices at all price points. Ditto for clothing--in NYC there is everything from sidewalk sales to showroom sample sales to huge discounters. NYC has a MUCH wider range of food and clothing options. But utility bills in NYC are higher and so is the cost of gasoline. I'd say it's a wash.

Choose Nashville only because you like the town.. It's smaller than NYC and has more limited cultural, social and business options but life can be nice here if it's a good fit for you. If not, there are plenty of other places that can be a better fit. I'd advise you to do some more research.

Having said that--you should only move here if you actually like what Nashville has to offer and are not seeking a NYC clone. The taxes are lower (except for the high sales tax) and the homes and rents are slightly lower (though they are increasing daily, it seems) in the major areas of Nashville. If you live on the fringes of Nashville, you will find much lower housing costs but you will have a long daily commute.

[NY Annie]

OP, I'm on SI and I can tell you from having lived in eastern TN for 1.5 years (40 years ago though), that you cannot make any comparison between NYC and any part of TN. The people are different. Really, they are. While people are the same, they really are not. Priorities in life is the prime difference.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time in Nashville when we bought our home in western TN, but I had done research for nearly two years before our visit and I had looked in the Nashville area. I don't know how you can even begin to compare Long Island City to anything in TN. Maybe if you compared some places out on eastern LI (for those who don't know, LI is NOT part of NYC), like maybe in Suffolk County, you'd find some similarity - in fact, I know you could draw a parallel with some of the horse farms in Suffolk to some of those in TN, but that's about it.

I grew up in Northern NJ but had a summer home at the beaches of Jersey. I then lived for 25 years in RI, and now here in NYC for the last 14 years. Of all the places I've visited for any length of time or lived, the best I could do with a comparison of TN would be to maybe the Poconos in PA or inland RI, maybe western MA - except that the climate is so much nicer in TN. I'd rather have an extreme winter in ne TN than anywhere in the northeast. But then I'm too old to deal with winter snow much. A little is nice, but 4 solid months of 4' snowbanks was nice when I was young or my kids were - or my grandkids were.

You're in for a huge shock if you buy a house in TN without having lived in it as a renter for at least 6 months, if not a year. The whole pace of life is so very different. Stores DO close when it snows (before closing time). If your car breaks down, there's no "take a car service or bus or subway" and stay as late as you want. There's no all-night deli/bodega. You WILL miss the conveniences you are used to and you can't even understand the what it is to not have them.

Please do yourself a favor and don't rush to buy a house. I sound like Hipnapster now - which is not a bad thing. She cautioned me about our housebuying and move to western TN. We bought our house without having seen it in person - and I'm not at all unhappy with it. Both my husband and I have lived in "wilderness areas" before and we are quite looking forward to getting back to it. When I first lived in RI, I lived in the 2nd largest city and there was no 24 hour bus, maybe 3 taxis in the whole city, traffic was never an issue. But there was a car tax yearly, use tax, nothing was open on Sunday. I didn't mind because I had lived in TN prior to that and knew about stores closing at 6 pm, sidewalks rolled up by 7 (in the summer!), etc. Yeah, it was the 2nd largest city and we couldn't wait to move out of it. Too crowded, too congested, too city. We moved south out of cities, where there was nowhere to walk to. The nearest anything was 2 miles away. Shopping was planned, groceries were planned. When it snowed, we waited days to get plowed out. it was nice.

I'm not trying to stop you from moving, I'm trying to help you understand all the differences you can't see in a 2 week visit. And you are not even looking for what we were - a house in nowhere. It was actually harder to find than I thought it would be.

For the next month, make a list of everytime you go anywhere. Where you go. What time, how long, when you returned home. Why you went. and Whether it was planned or spur of the moment. Just make a quick log in a notebook, nothing fancy. Also have a page for shopping/take-out. How often you shopped, what for, take-out/delivery.

I think you'll surprise yourself with how often you do "city-stuff". Those are some of the things you'll miss.

[NY Annie]

One more thing: You DO know that TN has bugs and snakes and spiders, oh my.

To my knowledge, no scorpions like in Florida and no gaters/crocs, either; but 4 poisonous snakes, brown recluse and black widow spiders, stink bugs like in western Jersey and PA, ticks and skeeters, and armadillos, wild boar and "stuff". Just in case you didn't know.

Oh, and fire ants.

[Lamplight]

For the record, we do have scorpions, though I don't know that they're very common. The only reason I know is because one time I was rock climbing with some friends, and as I pulled myself up onto a ledge, I noticed that my left hand was right next to a scorpion. A couple more ledges up was a rattlesnake!

[NY Annie]

So are you saying that rockclimbing is dangerous? hehe

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by Lamplight

For the record, we do have scorpions, though I don't know that they're very common. The only reason I know is because one time I was rock climbing with some friends, and as I pulled myself up onto a ledge, I noticed that my left hand was right next to a scorpion. A couple more ledges up was a rattlesnake!

Indeed we do have scorpions.
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/t...e/scorpion.htm

Two species of scorpions reside in Tennessee, the Plain Eastern Stripeless Scorpion (Vaejovis carolinianus) and the Striped Scorpion (Centruroides vittatus).
The Plain Eastern Stripeless Scorpion is the only known native to our state. The other species, the Striped Scorpion, was accidentally introduced to Tennessee.
Contrary to popular belief scorpions are not insects. Instead, they are closely related to spiders and belong to the same class, Arachnida. At some point in the past, a common ancestry is shared. They also have similar traits. Scorpions are distinguished by a compact head called a "cephalothorax," a broad segmented abdomen and a tail-like structure called a "telson." The tail tip is enlarged and contains a venomous stinger used for self-defense or to subdue overactive prey. Scorpions can control the amount of venom injected. Venom is injected by thrusting the tail forward over the head and into the prey. The venom of scorpions found in Tennessee is similar to that of a honey bee sting. The severity of the reaction is dependent upon the sensitivity of that individual’s body to the venom.

But they're not of any real concern.