Which East TN city would you rather reside in?

[Schiff for Senate]

I decided to divide it by partisanship to see if there's a correlation.
As for me, Lean Knoxville.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Chattanooga for me.  Knoxville is full of obnoxious UT fans.

[Хahar 🤔]

During the years that I lived in Georgia, I would joke that it seemed like there was an ongoing conspiracy to convince me that Chattanooga was cool. People in Atlanta don't shut up about Chattanooga; they're always telling you that it's cool and affordable and close to great hiking. Traffic in Chattanooga is bad and I don't think it's nearly as cool as people want to believe it is (just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican), but it is a nice town and I've enjoyed the time I've spent there. When I would take road trips north, I would often stop in Chattanooga for breakfast on the way up or for dinner on the way back home. One regret I have is that I never made it out to Cloudland Canyon, which is in the vicinity.

By contrast, I've only so much as been through Knoxville once, and that was on a long-distance bus five years ago. At the time it struck me as the ugliest city I had ever seen, although I'd be willing to revisit that characterization. A friend of mine was a high school teacher in Knoxville for a few years and she liked it a lot, but on the whole I haven't heard people talk about Knoxville in anything like the tone they use when they talk about Chattanooga. I also don't really care for their shade of orange.

I'm willing to acknowledge that I don't know Knoxville well and set that equal, but even still, Chattanooga has the great municipal wi-fi. I don't know if that's something people elsewhere know about, but in Atlanta the wi-fi in Chattanooga is a constant subject of discussion. Probably more importantly, it's a lot closer to the big city. I'd take Chattanooga.

[GeorgiaModerate]

During the years that I lived in Georgia, I would joke that it seemed like there was an ongoing conspiracy to convince me that Chattanooga was cool. People in Atlanta don't shut up about Chattanooga; they're always telling you that it's cool and affordable and close to great hiking. Traffic in Chattanooga is bad and I don't think it's nearly as cool as people want to believe it is (just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican), but it is a nice town and I've enjoyed the time I've spent there. When I would take road trips north, I would often stop in Chattanooga for breakfast on the way up or for dinner on the way back home. One regret I have is that I never made it out to Cloudland Canyon, which is in the vicinity.

By contrast, I've only so much as been through Knoxville once, and that was on a long-distance bus five years ago. At the time it struck me as the ugliest city I had ever seen, although I'd be willing to revisit that characterization. A friend of mine was a high school teacher in Knoxville for a few years and she liked it a lot, but on the whole I haven't heard people talk about Knoxville in anything like the tone they use when they talk about Chattanooga. I also don't really care for their shade of orange.

I'm willing to acknowledge that I don't know Knoxville well and set that equal, but even still, Chattanooga has the great municipal wi-fi. I don't know if that's something people elsewhere know about, but in Atlanta the wi-fi in Chattanooga is a constant subject of discussion. Probably more importantly, it's a lot closer to the big city. I'd take Chattanooga.

Chattanooga does have some nice places to visit (it's only about an hour and a half drive for me).  I've always liked the aquarium there more than the one in Atlanta.

[Santander]

Both are terrible. I would hate to live anywhere south of the Bluegrass.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Chattanooga, probably, just for how hard it would be to live in Knoxville when you aren't a UT fan.

[Schiff for Senate]

Silent majority for Knoxville.

[Mr. Smith]

Chattanooga for sure.

I used to stop in Knoxville all the time on Spring Break on my way to Asheville in my undergrad years...to put it dryly, even the boarded-up, winded areas like Johnson City or Bristol had more life.

Stopped in Chattanooga once with my then GF, it wasn't for very long, but it did look more appealing, and I heard great things about the area from the locals when I was visiting my then-GF's parents.

[Mr. Smith]

Both are terrible. I would hate to live anywhere south of the Bluegrass.

Didn't you live in The Miss?

[Santander]

Both are terrible. I would hate to live anywhere south of the Bluegrass.

Didn't you live in The Miss?

Indeed. The climate was intolerable, the rich whites were unsophisticated even by American standards (probably even worse than Scottsdale/Paradise Valley), and most of Jackson was scary. Having to drive to Clinton to get a bad Starbucks coffee and/or Chick-fil-a was not fun. Chris McDaniel was a friend and drinking buddy for a while, but honestly he's kinda gone off the rails and I don't even know what to say to him anymore.

But there were positives - some of the people I worked with (many Mississippi St alums, sadly) were very decent people, the Ole Miss sorority girls were beautiful but racist, I watched a Rebels-Bulldogs game at Dudy Noble Field, and I met my best friend (also just passing through) there. Overall, fond memories, but I don't feel any desire to move back to the Deep South.

[TDAS04]

Idk, but either one would probably be better than Nashville or Memphis.

[Santander]

Idk, but either one would probably be better than Nashville or Memphis.

Nashville is an overrated, but good city. Chattanooga is overrated and mediocre. Knoxville is just whatever. Give me almost any Big Ten or SEC college town over Knoxville any day.

[Joseph Cao]

My East TN friends swear by Chattanooga, though I imagine they are somewhat biased.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Idk, but either one would probably be better than Nashville or Memphis.

I have family in Memphis and spent a lot of time there as a kid, and it always seemed kind of backwards to me.  A relative from there used to say that Memphis really wants to be Atlanta when it grows up.   TBF, I haven't been there much since the late 70s (and not at all in the last ~30 years), so it's very possible that it's changed.

[Del Tachi]

just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican

TBF, Biden won Chattanooga city 58-39.  Nashville proper wasn't really that much different, 65-31 for Biden

[Del Tachi]

In the economic development/placemaking literature, Chattanooga is almost universally exalted as an exact case study in successful urban renewal.  The city had lost 20% of its population between 1960 and 1990 before the previously mentioned Tennessee Aquarium (the largest aquarium in the world when it opened in 1993) opened and became a major linchpin of the downtown/riverfront redevelopment process.   

Chattanooga is definitely the cooler of the two.  This is still East TN, however, and I'd still take Atlanta or Birmingham over it any day.   

[100% pro-life no matter what]

just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican

TBF, Biden won Chattanooga city 58-39.  Nashville proper wasn't really that much different, 65-31 for Biden

In fairness, Nashville's city limits include more places that would be viewed as suburban than Chattanooga's do.

[TDAS04]

just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican

TBF, Biden won Chattanooga city 58-39.  Nashville proper wasn't really that much different, 65-31 for Biden

What about Knoxville proper?

[bagelman]

just from a sociological perspective, actually cool places don't tend to vote Republican

TBF, Biden won Chattanooga city 58-39.  Nashville proper wasn't really that much different, 65-31 for Biden

What about Knoxville proper?

57-41 Biden.

Chat is 55/9/31 White/Hispanic/Black and Knoxville is 68/8/19. With Knoxville so similar it seems it would have more white liberals to make up for have fewer African-Americans. This reflects its larger college population.

[Make America Grumpy Again]

Chattanooga, although both cities seem nice

[GregTheGreat657]

Chattanooga (not a Tennessee fan)

[Podgy the Bear]

I favor Knoxville because of my UT connections. 

Chattanooga has really come up over the past few years.  My one gripe with Chattanooga is the traffic I have to endure when I drive from Atlanta to Nashville or back.  I-24 can be a real disaster and there's really no alternative.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I favor Knoxville because of my UT connections. 

Chattanooga has really come up over the past few years.  My one gripe with Chattanooga is the traffic I have to endure when I drive from Atlanta to Nashville or back.  I-24 can be a real disaster and there's really no alternative.

Agreed on the last point.  The I-24/75 interchange has been a horrible bottleneck for years.  Also, it seems like there is ALWAYS a wreck backing up traffic coming into Chattanooga on 24.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I favor Knoxville because of my UT connections. 

Chattanooga has really come up over the past few years.  My one gripe with Chattanooga is the traffic I have to endure when I drive from Atlanta to Nashville or back.  I-24 can be a real disaster and there's really no alternative.

Once I got off on some state road north of Atlanta which took me into Alabama near Mentone, where I met up with I-59 to get back to I-24.  Maps said it would be 15ish minutes longer, but I wasn't feeling the stress of driving in heavy traffic that day.