Memphis TN

[michiken]

I am considering a job offer in Memphis Tennessee. I would have to move from Michigan. The offer is nothing spectacular.

I would appreciate any comments good or bad about those of you who know about or live near the city.

Thanks in advance.

Ken

[GaryG]

It is really humid, just about on a par with Houston.
The BBQ is as good as it gets.
It is an outpost, a long way from everywhere (except the Mississippi casinos)
It seems more like MS than TN.
It beats the hell out of Detroit though.
Slow pace, good people.
In East TN where I live I am closer to Cleveland than I am to Memphis.

[NJ Stinks]

I wouldn't move to a Red State period. But then I'm not worried about employment either.

And while I enjoy a guy like Tom's frustration living in a Blue State, I wouldn't recommend that quagmire to anyone. :p

Also, I would not recommend living in a state without pari-mutuel racing. Life is too short.

But I also understand these are probably not your main priorities at the moment, Michiken. Good luck whatever you decide.:ThmbUp:

[jballscalls]

I've stayed in Memphis a couple of times and had lots of fun each time. I stayed downtown, Beal street is a blast and whoever said the BBQ was good was right on, its awesome. lots of great music in the town. Your only 2 hours from Oaklawn Park!!

I can't speak about the neighborhoods and surrounding areas, but i found the city to be fun. Also the baseball field downtown for their minor league team looked great!!

[BlueShoe]

Stock up on ammo and have yourself fitted with the best body armor you can afford.Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities in America with a crime rate TRIPLE the US average.There are several sites that will give info on such things as demographics,cost of living,crime,and so on.Just enter Memphis city profile in Google or your favorite search engine and do the research.Www.city-data.com (http://www.city-data.com/) is perhaps the best and has forums for each city or town.

[Secretariat]

Lived in Memphis in the early 80's. Gridle's BBQ, Beale Street, Graceland, mud Island, WC Handy, Elvis and the blues. FedEX is there as well.

I liked Memphis, but the drivers are some of the worst in the country, and the ice storms can be a bear in the winter. Not a bad place to live, but it's far from everything. Some areas were still pretty prejudiced when I was there though.

[JustRalph]

I wouldn't move to a Red State period.

Amazing......... I suppose you would pick up and move if the state flipped in one election?

One note............. Tennessee has NO STATE TAX

[NJ Stinks]

Amazing......... I suppose you would pick up and move if the state flipped in one election?

I was wondering how long it would be before I got hammered for that comment. :p

I've heard Memphis is tough place to live too. But Tennessee is a beautiful state. :ThmbUp:

[dav4463]

It's easier to get tickets to see the Grizzlies than it is to see the Pistons!

[boxcar]

Amazing......... I suppose you would pick up and move if the state flipped in one election?

One note............. Tennessee has NO STATE TAX

No state tax!? Then how patriotic can those people be? (On second thought, probably as much as the good folks in Florreeeda.) :D

Boxcar

[MONEY]

Here is a part of a note that I wrote about an incident that happened in Tennesee. I was in Tennessee about 30 years before this incident and had a similar encounter with the Tennessee highway patrol way back then. Nothing has changed, if you have an hispanic surname they think that you must be running drugs.

Here are the details of what happened to me in Tennessee on my recent road trip.
On 12/15/2008 I was driving south on Interstate 75. I don't know what my exact location was but it was south of exit 49 and north of exit 33. The speed limit is 70 miles an hour, I had my cruise control set at 65 and I was in the right lane. I was not speeding or driving erratically or breaking any laws. Sometime between 6 and 7PM I looked into my rear view mirror and noticed a car catching up to me at a high rate of speed. When the car caught up to me it did not pass, instead it drove close behind me tail gating me for about 5 miles. I maintained my speed and didn't change lanes hoping that the vehicle would eventually go around me. I found out that it was a Tennessee state police car when it turn on the police lights and made me pull over.

After I pulled over the officer had me open the window on my front passenger side. I asked the officer if I had done anything wrong and he said that the registration sticker on my rear license plate was expired. I found this strange because my car is registered in Texas and Texas does not use license plate stickers, so my car did not have a sticker on the rear license plate. Any officer working on traffic enforcement would know about the stickers after seeing 1000s of cars a day with Texas plates go by.

The officer asked me for my paperwork and I gave him my license and the papers for the car. He went back to his car to run my information on his computer. He came back to me and returned my paperwork, then the officer asked me if he could search my car. I said go ahead and it would be easier if you called for the dog. I said this because I knew if I had said no, that he would tell me that I would have to wait for the drug detection dog to arrive. I knew that the dog was already on the way and that I wasn't going to be let go until my car was searched by the dog.

It was very cold and drizzling heavily. While one officer searched my car the other officer had me stand with him on the side of the road and he told me that they had problems with people running drugs up and down route 75. I told the officer that I had open heart surgery in January and that the cold was causing me to feel weak. I also told him that I never ran drugs up or down the 75 corridor or anywhere else, and that I had not done anything wrong and shouldn't be held by the police. A little while later I felt like I was about to lose consciousness and almost fell down. The officer had me sit on the front bumper of his vehicle supposedly so his headlight would keep me warm. I sat on the bumper until I was almost too weak to move and finally after about an hour a sergeant and an officer with a medium sized collie type dog arrived and they let me sit on the front seat of the police car.

While I was in the police car the officer with the dog put what looked to be two electronic devices that were wired together, one on each side of the back of my car near each fender. Then he walked his dog to the outside of my car near the spots where he put the electronic devices. Each time the dog barked and pawed at my car.

The officer then came up to me and told me that since his dog signaled a positive for drugs that he was going to take my car to his command to do a more thorough search. He told me that I had the option to not go with him but that he was going to take my vehicle.

I was on an interstate highway 1000 miles from home, so there was really no option, I had to go with him to his command and I let him know that I had no alternative. If I had stayed on the highway I would have probably died in less than an hour.

While I was at the command, I was made to wait in a room for a long while and was not allowed to watch them search my car. I was afraid to complain because I was scared that police that would hold someone that did nothing wrong would also be capable of planting evidence if I were to make them angry.

Finally the sergeant came into the room and told me that I was free to go. The ordeal took more than three hours. I left quickly without asking questions or taking down badge numbers because I was scared of getting arrested.

I used the internet to look up the Tennessee Highway patrol internal affairs division and found out that it would be a waste of time complaining to them.

I can't understand how an officer could testify to the accuracy of his dog in a court of law. I have never used illegal drugs and somehow this dog signaled that there was a significant amount of drugs in my car. How many cars are these officers unjustifiably searching based upon a dogs unreliable signals?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Needless to say, I am never returning to Tennessee.

money

[Bubba X]

I am considering a job offer in Memphis Tennessee. I would have to move from Michigan. The offer is nothing spectacular.

I would appreciate any comments good or bad about those of you who know about or live near the city.

Thanks in advance.

KenI lived close to Northville for several years and have spent a fair amount of time in Memphis for work. I like Memphis a lot and your housing ##'s will certainly go much further there than in Northville or Novi.

You'd be about 3 hours from Oaklawn and for simulcast, Southland Dog Track is just over the border in West Memphis, Ark.

good luck.

[michiken]

Thanks for all the input! I have already read the reviews on city-data.com and was well aware of the crime negativity. I am making a list of pro's and con's and so far the con's are winning:

Pros:
- Move to a state where I can have a legal adw account. No state taxes means all signers give me an extra 4.5% as compare to what I pay in MI. I could play from home instead of going to the track.

- The warmer climate will help my arthritis. I would not miss the snow, traffic and broken roads.

- The potential job has both a fab and machine shop. It would provide me a leg up on some of the engineering designs that I have had in my head and would like to market.

Cons:

- Since my dad passed, I have no house expense other than routine utility bills and winter and summer taxes. I would have to sell in a horrible market.

- The job salary is $8.50 LESS per hour than I was making. In my profession, it is normally required to work up to 500 hours of overtime. I can't help but feel I am getting a low ball offer.

- I desire to move away from the cess pool that is Detroit. Do the crime statistics for Memphis indicate that I am moving from one to another?

- If I take the job, I have no guarantees about being laid off. Say I work for 6 months and have no job. Then I have absolutely no security.

- The offer does not offer paid relocation until I have been on the job for 12 months. This means I would bear the initial cost.

My gut says I can get a better offer by waiting.

[Miss Disco]

I currently live in TN and visit Memphis area frequently on business. I have also travel edaround MI on business within the past year.

The no state income tax iin TN is a plus.
I also found the cost of living in MI seemed quite a bit higher. Groceries, gasoline, food in restraunts.

You will pay for air conditioning in the summer, but you aren't shoveling snow in the winter. Cars last longer because there is little need for road salt.

Another poster mentioned ice storms--they don't seem to be that frequent, and if you do get winter precip it is all gone (usually melted) after 2-3 days

Politically, Memphis is a blue part of a red state.

Do your research and listen to your inner gut.
Good luck

[Valuist]

It's easier to get tickets to see the Grizzlies than it is to see the Pistons!

Not for much longer. The Pistons flat out suck now.

[rrbauer]

I moved to Tennessee from SoCal. Plus is no state income tax and some great natural resources, housing and property tax probably cost less than in Michigan (there are sites that you can do metro comparisons that will answer most of the demographic-related questions). Sales tax is very high (9.5% where I'm at) and it applies to everything except medicine. People are friendly, education systems at most local levels are well below par campared to the US overall. I would make a scouting trip before commiting to relocate there. I'm 495 miles from Memphis (and still in TN!) so I can't help where the local culture is concerned.

[michiken]

I have negotiated with the company to go down to Memphis and work/stay for a week. During this time I can observe and make a rational decision on relocating.

I have decided to drive down so I can possibly make a one day stop at Keeneland or Churchill Downs along the way.......... wish me luck!

[JustRalph]

I have decided to drive down so I can possibly make a one day stop at Keeneland or Churchill Downs along the way.......... wish me luck!

Now see, your quality of life has improved already.......... :ThmbUp:

[michiken]

Ralph I will wave HI to y'all as I drive thru OhiO...

:ThmbUp:

[michiken]

Memphis was a total disappointment!

- On the day that I arrived they had 12 inches of snow. It only snows
in Tennessee about once every five years.

- I stopped at a rest area and was approached by a panhandler wanting
money.

- The company office was in a neighborhood worse than anyplace that I have ever worked here in Detroit:

a. Their were hookers walking the street right in front of the office.

b. They routinely find bullet shells in their parking lot.

c. The whole office is surrounded by barb and razor wire fence.

d. When I got to the hotel (which was very nice) their company credit
card would not work. I called the secretary and she said she had to
cancel the credit card because she was MUGGGED the prior week...

e. The office was a pit. The furniture looked like from 1940's. Not a good engineering environment.

- The people were extremely nice but I get the impression that they were
taking bets on how long I would stay.

I lasted two days and couldn't wait to get the hell out! I am not taking
this position! Memphis Blew!