Moving--Chattanooga or Asheville? (Signal Mountain: loft, house, neighborhoods)

[smpliving]

Hi Beretta,

Your brain is functioning just fine ... so far

Yep, I'm primarily focused on Knoxville, or possibly the Tri-Cities or Cookeville, but keeping an open mind. I do enjoy learning about all areas in TN, especially when it comes to comparison to other cities/towns.

[thedrover]

My husband and I saw Asheville an wanted to see Chattanooga as well. Heard good things about it until I read this:

Rash of Chattanooga shootings breaks the calm | Times Free Press

I already live in NJ right next door to Newark. This crime sounds just craazy....Can anyone soothe my fears?

[mr_mystik]

The link below will quickly give you information on why you should choose to live in chattanooga.
Also the underlined links on the page will give you further information and connect you to videos about Chattanooga.

searchrealestateinchattanooga.com/cp/why-chattanooga/

[Blue502]

No fears here. Seriously, most of the shootings are contained in the same areas, with thugs shooting thugs and an innocent who lives in the same area getting in the crossfire. A good place to look for those areas is
www.right2know.com it has a map of the shootings, etc.

[BrianKnight]

Glad this thread is a good one despite no OP. These are my two favorite home cities and consider myself blessed to have grown up in Chattanooga and have lived the past 9 years in Asheville. Almost every poster has provided great information and mostly accurate observations as I see it.

Thedrover, I remember a member pulling violent crime stats off of city-data, but Iam not sure where to look. Stats of course are only as good as the recording culture of the dept. Agree that victims are usually in the wrong situations to begin with.

I love both cites very much and its not surprising they draw a lot of comparisons. I will probably move back to chattanooga some day as most friends and family are there. Heres a quick comparative of my main considerations:

Summer Climate
Asheville is better but I think Iam a northerner trapped in a southern climate. Hot summer days are not so hot in the valleys between the Blue Ridge and Appalachians. Because of the higher elevations, you can escape even the few hottest days in WNC. Finding a home atop one of the plateaus in Chattanooga can help in the summer but not commute time to the big city. Chattanooga gets too hot and thats my main reason for choosing Asheville at the moment.

Winter Climate
Elevation can make a huge difference in WNC. In the TN valley, you might see a few more dustings if you are on a plateau but real winter weather is hard to find for the most part. I like that Asheville gets more snow but its nothing like the north or higher surrounding elevations.

Jobs
Other posters did a good job of showing why there is more opportunity in Chatt. Asheville is consistently considered a tough place to find a good career job. Interestingly the market for my product, energy efficient homes, is much stronger in Asheville than Chattanooga. Maybe because its one of the few things the Asheville market is known for and I just read an article on our green building boom.

Nature & Scenery
Too close to call. WNC has some of the best waterfalls in the world and the grassy bald mountaintops are heaven. Asheville has more mtn hiking and trails. The granite bedrock creek beds and pluton type geology is last of the mohican's stunning. In winter, the mountaintops often done frosty white caps. While both downtowns feature big, lazy rivers, Asheville has a bit cleaner water and faster flows for better river floating in the summer.

Chattanooga has more accessible views of downtown and the expansive valleys. The surrounding Plateaus with their distinctive cliff bands are beautiful, creating very long range views with the city in the foreground and Appalachians in the far distance on clear days. The sandstone geology in the TN river gorge and surrounding plateaus create some very nice features with small waterfalls, caves, grottos and caribbean blue swimming holes at their limestone bases.

The TN river while not too great for tubing does offer more water dynamic to the downtown area. The walking bridge and parks downtown are a great asset. Chattanooga kills Asheville in the riverwalk department. Asheville has so much potential but what's here doesnt come close to Chattanooga's miles of beautiful riverfront. Chattanooga wins in the lake and associated recreation department. The Ocoee and Parksville lake offers almost mountain living and recreational amenities within 45 minutes. This is the area that the tip of WNC is pointing at.

History
This has to go to Chattanooga. The Civil war history is obvious. Chattanooga is a natural crossroads. The Native American history in the Chattanooga area is particularly interesting. The cherokee removal gets a lot of attention but the undocumented history here is hard to fathom. The Mississippian civilizations apparently had a huge presence on Moccasin Bend and Williams Island has hosted humans for perhaps 10,000 years including a french indian trading post.

Architecture
There are more old buildings in Chattanooga with great histories but nothing that matches the grandeur of the Asheville's Biltmore and Grove Park Inn. The city and county buildings in Asheville are particularly impressive and help to set its distinctive skyline. Both cities have great old neighborhoods with distinctive and historical homes.

Food
Asheville wins by far. Chattanooga is improving but still has a lot of catching up to do. Beer,
Asheville. Lost track at 18 breweries and finally, I can find a few drinkable "craft" beers. Let me know when Chattanooga opens a Belgium beer bar and I might call it even.

Traffic
Asheville wins big time but things are clogging up more and more. I26 could kill Asheville if its not rerouted off one of our main bridge and throuroughfares. In Asheville, I avoid the west and south of town at rush hours. In Chattanooga, it can be fine staying local. Just dont drive out of the I75 ridge cut.. ever.

[surferbiker]

We, too, have wrestled with Chatt vs. Asheville. BrianKnight's observations are great and to the point. But let me share a different perspective. It starts with are you retiring or working.

Cost of living. Chatt housing is cheaper across the board by almost half, and far greater numbers since the city is bigger. Sales tax is higher, but income tax in NC is very high. If you're working for a living, you will pay a lot more to the state in NC.

Regional. Chatt is much closer to major city centers like Atlanta and Knoxville. Not always a plus, but many people will want this for travel, shopping, entertainment reasons. Asheville and the other towns in WNC are separated from each other. We have never minded driving from Asheville to Hendersonville, Waynesville, Dillard, Highlands, Cashiers, etc., still, each town is separated from all the others.

Nature. While Eastern TN has a lot going for it, especially close to the city center, and both are about equidistance to rafting and the Ocoee, WNC kills it. Especially in the fall. Hiking, biking, etc., are all better in WNC. MTB on Raccoon Mtn vs. Tsali? No contest. Pisgah Forest? Dupont? Fall is a bit more colorful, and winter is not as "wet" as Chatt.

City center. Personal choice. I like Chattanooga better. Asheville is great, love some of the non-tourist places to go. But I would go toe to toe with eateries between the two. Craft Beer? Asheville is a meca, for sure. BUT huge ass festival in Chattanooga this weekend. Great places going up all the time. And can't wait for Chattanooga Whiskey to get its act together and start brewing downtown.

Outdoor activities are a toss up across the whole spectrum. Chattanooga's adventures are more varied, but not necessarily any better than Asheville.

Biltmore factor? Honestly, I've never been. Growing up in New England we did all the Newport Mansion tour stuff and I am no longer really excited by it. Plus you have to drive through chain-retail hell to get there. We'll gone day, but there is so much other stuff to do there, it will be down the list. I've stayed at Grove Park Inn. Wonderful. Way overpriced. Not really situated where you would think it should be.

If you are working in an average industry, raising a family, looking for a retirement where your money goes farther, than Chattanooga may be better than Asheville. If you can afford Asheville, why wouldn't you. I would. We've chosen Chattanooga.

[thedrover]

So here we are in Chattanooga. Spending the week. Rented a house for the week in an area that I probably would not choose to live in permanently. Avondale. But it has been quiet and only 4 miles from downtown. We are loving the clean and well maintained roads. Have found that the highways in Chattanooga are much easier to navigate. Spent a while in Asheville and although we liked it a lot I cannot get past the fact that they make do fracking in WNC. Drove to Signal Mountain today and just loved the feel of it. If we spend all that we get for our house in NJ we can probably afford Signal Mountain. Loved the Normal Park section of Chattanooga (most homes were Craftsman Bungalow style which I love) but they are just toooooo close together. You really take your chance when you buy so close to your neighbors. Just can't take that chance.

We went to Fairfield Glade in Crossville yesterday but there is really nothing near there except for Knoxville which is 50 miles away. Visited friends in Murfreesboro and liked their downtown alot. But again.....too far from a city.

What I was disappointed about in Chattanooga is that there are no small downtowns like Asheville has. Black Mountain etc.

Does anyone know if there are any actual downtowns around Chattanooga or is everything a strip mall?

[Binkbaby]

Did you go to the Art District, shops on Frazier or walk the Market Street bridge?

[dasmarian]

Chattanooga is perfect for roughly a 3-day visit. Venture outside the touristy areas (which is maybe 5 square blocks) and it isn't that great. For living, yuck! Asheville seems to have a bit more to offer in each category... restaurants / local eats, outdoor activities (GSMP right next door, Blue Ridge Pkwy, Pisgah, etc), tourist attractions (Biltmore beats anything in Chatt), and Asheville is a bit more eclectic and liberal feeling. Chattanooga also has a bad gang and crime problem . . . that's reason enough not to live there. The crime rates are roughly 2x as high across the board in Chatt.

Here is citydata's own numbers:
https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime...Tennessee.html

Asheville:
https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime...-Carolina.html

[Creekcat]

Downtown, what are you looking for in a downtown?