Initial Thoughts on Knoxville, Tennessee, the American South

Knoxville is a pleasant, warm, widely spread large town or small city (depending on where your imagination draws its border).

People here are friendly, welcoming, and courteous, and they are quick to point out that many people here only seem friendly, welcoming, and courteous. They offer me these warnings while being even more nice and helpful than before.

There are good cafes in downtown Knoxville, particularly the one called Remedy, airy and studious, with good coffee and comfortable chairs. Therefore, I can live here.

Knoxville has a comprehensive bus system, the KAT, although its buses are not always that frequent. The bus schedules please me with their vagueness–few stops are timetabled. The typical route schedule reads:

7:15pm — Here.

7:45pm — There.

8:15pm — Back.

The University is huge, and directly above it, of about equal size, is the area known as the Fort, full of old pretty houses inhabited by undergraduates. I am looking at apartments in quiet corners of this area, so to avoid a commute to class. I am also looking at North Knoxville, which buses serve, and where some of my new friends live, and also spots on the edge of Downtown (looking for something I can afford).

Some time ago, a city planner clearly believed that Knoxville would be improved by a having a number of huge roads running through it. Perhaps, economically, this had the desired effect. People say that downtown has been rising over the last decade, and that the derelict warehouses and factories one now sees are merely the remnants of what the whole city centre was once.

Today is Sunday. I am taking a break from househunting.

Best wishes to you all.

Daniel