Tell me about living in Chattanooga, TN.

Wife keeps emailing me links to Zillow for houses in Chattanooga. I think she's trying to send me a hint. We have no family up there but seeing it is only a two hour drive from Atlanta (at most) I don't see that as a problem. We like the downtown area and the riverfront seems great for the kids. Technically the cost of living is about the same as Atlanta from what I can find. I told my wife to only send me links to houses with serious detached garage space. I've got a 2.5 car garage now and I'm not going backward.

Work in Chatt a lot. Love the area. My only concern is that a couple years ago it was the second most violent city in the state behind Memphis.

Chattanooga is in Hamilton County, which has higher property taxes than most of the surrounding counties like Rhea and Bradley. There are bad areas of town, but I've never felt unsafe in Chatt. I worked in the Riverfront area, which is close enough to downtown. I live in the extreme north of the county in the middle of nowhere. Driving to work typically takes 45 minutes or so. If you're looking for property with a detached garage or enough land to build one, odds are you won't actually be in Chattanooga itself.

You can always live in north GA, but then you'd have to pay a state income tax, which TN doesn't have.

We have a good SCCA chapter that I autocross with. There are tons of racers and hot rodders in the area, so you can pretty much always find something car-related to do.

I know this is all very basic info, so if you have any specific questions, I'll answer them as best I can.

Edit to add:

Hamilton County is the only one in the area with smog test requirements. They're pretty basic--visual/sniffer for pre-OBDII, visual/scan for OBDII. Visual is just to make sure you have cats. It's not terribly burdensome, but I did have to create a smog test-only program for my highly modified Supercoupe in order to get it to pass.

my son just moved from there "High Crime" is putting it mildly....i also worked there for a year all over the area, i saw no place i would move to and i live in birmingham!!! rain and very cold winds

Seattle of the south: winter is overcast and rainy.

Downtown near the riverfront area it does have a real kinda college town, young professional vibe. It is what I imagine Seattle would be like. If your in the ATL I doubt the weather will be that much different. There are many areas that I would like to live. If I was balling I'd love to be up on signal mountain with a view of the entire city. I like the west side of the city, mostly older homes but most areas are very well kept up. The south side of the city is kinda the more sketchy part of town to me, seems more run down and druggie. East side has a generic feel, mostly newer subdivisions and recent development. North still has some of the character of the west side but it's got a mix of newer subdivisions as well.

There are some areas around that you don't want to be late at night, and I've been in them late at night. But I've never had the same feeling that I was likely to die that I got in Dayton, Ohio or Over the Rine in Cincinnati.

Chattanooga has taken great strides in the last 15 yrs. For most of my life it was not a place that you wanted to go to for entertainment or fun but that has changed greatly. Downtown is very upscale and you can find just about any food, beverage and music that you could desire. As with most big cities, there is a ugly side of town and just as your parents told you, nothing good happens after midnight. There are some great music festivals on the river. I am halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga and we make the 45 min run to Chattanooga frequently.

Off topic Nicksta I sent you a message. I sent you my contact info

I used to date a girl there and always liked visiting. There's a lot to do for a town that size, and it's within a days drive to everything from the beach, mountains, and plenty of race tracks for viewing or driving. They have a good local SCCA chapter as well.

The wrote: my son just moved from there "High Crime" is putting it mildly....i also worked there for a year all over the area, i saw no place i would move to and i live in birmingham!!! rain and very cold winds

Few little things I just read doesn't even put it in the top 100, still behind places like Tulsa and Knoxville.

In reply to z31maniac: agreed. it just allways seems cloudy, raining, cold, bunch of poor folks, heavy traffic......

I am from east Tennessee and happily GTFO. To move back to the area I would move to 3 places

Asheville, Chattanooga, or Nashville, in that order and that's it.

Tennessee Schools are crap. You would have better luck with North Georgia Schools. Although Chatty proper is improving greatly due to VW being there.

Chatty is nice. Knoxville is going the wrong way. Lost a bunch of industry in recent years. Haven't seen them doing anything to bring it back.

From TN economic index.

Knoxville Unemployment 8.8% Violent Crime rate 140 in 1,000 residents

Chattanooga Unemployment 4.6% Violent Crime rate 102 in 1,000 residents

Wow, glad I asked. I would have never thought "Seattle of the south" would be a description. I didn't think the weather would be much different from Atlanta or maybe Asheville (where all my family is from). The crime is a little off-putting, especially since I'd be moving up there with a fairly well stocked garage and multiple cars. The schools wouldn't be an issue since we are home schooling, but being able to visit downtown often for field trips would probably be important. The county emissions may or may not bother me, especially since I'm used to it here in Atlanta.

I've been trying to come up with the right words on how much I love this city but I can't.

This city is my heart. It has everything I wanna do all with in a reasonable distance. I'm never scared to be out at night or during the day. Yeah stupid stuff happens just like anywhere people live.

I love this place so much. I've moved away a lot of times when I was younger but I always came back. Its just so beautiful and amazing.

In reply to mrhappy:

You should be proud. When living on the far side of Knoxville, I drove many times to Chatty to hangout with the family.

I would say I made the 3 hour drive as many times to hang out as I did the 30 minute drive to Knoxville or the 35 minute drive to Gatlinburg.

You have a cool town.

I did time in Rome, GA at the end of the 90's and Chatta-vegas was where all the vendor salesmen took us out. I've bounced around there several times on trips since then, but only long enough for dinner or lunch. Even in those short visits, I liked what I saw.

The weather in Rome id by far the worst in the state of GA - the ridges that run across that corner tend to catch all the rain and nastiness. Those ridges do run right up to Chatty too.

And the lights on the ridges over the town at night was always a cool sight for a flatland boy.