

Ditch Your $2500 Rent And Come Climb The Best Rocks In The World - jhought3
http://getfireplug.com/blog2013/05/20/Ditch-Your-2500-Rent-And-Come-Climb-The-Best-Rocks-In-The-World/

======
ebiester
I have to bring up the same thing on many of these...

But what if you're not white, straight, and Christian? How far can you venture
outside of Chattanooga and still feel safe? Can I hold hands with my boyfriend
in public and not feel uncomfortable?

I may not have marriage today where I live, but it's coming soon. How long is
it until I get the same in the South?
[http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/mar/05/poll-62-perce...](http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/mar/05/poll-62-percent-
tennessee-against-gay-marriage/) \-- For that matter, am I going to have
hassle seeing my boyfriend if he's in the hospital because someone doesn't
respect my health care power of attorney?

How far do I have to travel to feel like a second class citizen?

I know you like your city, but outside a certain radius, it's not very
friendly for a lot of people.

------
fijal
I like how "in The World" means "in the United States of America, in my
opinion". As a rock climber, I can point out few problems:

\- weather, Tennesse weather is not really that good compared to places like
Boulder or California

\- deep south, means you can't really be a foodie or god forbid vegetarian

and a lot of other problems, like US visa immigration. How many of those
startups are willing to sponsor H1B, even if it's possible to get one?

PS. my choice of rock-climbing destination is Cape Town, South Africa, which
is far off-the-way, but is definitely superior to Chattanooga for climbing.

EDIT: people point out that there is decent food in south - so maybe I was
just incredibly unlucky or something.

~~~
haney
I'm sitting in downtown Chattanooga and I'm walking distance to 3 vegetarian
restaurants, a whole foods, and a local grocery story with food from local
farms, not to mention the numerous farmers markets and open air markets that
are around on the weekends.

I'm so tired of the negative view of the south. Believe it or not we wear
shoes, and you can have good food and entertainment here.

~~~
fixxer
I agree. I recently drove through Chattanooga and was pleasantly surprised
(wasn't it one of the dirtiest cities in the country a few decades back??).
I've added it to the list of places I'd rather be than the tundra that is the
upper Midwest. If only it had Kentucky's taxes... at least it doesn't have
California's.

Also: Chattanooga has a Trader Joe's, the true metric of civilization.

~~~
subsection1h

        Chattanooga has a Trader Joe's, the true metric of civilization.
    

Ha! I work from home, and every time I look for a new city to move to, I visit
<http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/>.

~~~
fixxer
You are not alone.

------
ghc
I've stayed in Chattanooga. I'll stick with my $3600 rent, thanks. Tennessee
is a very different place from the north, and if you're from New England like
me, you might find the culture shock very unpleasant. Even when I lived in
Atlanta the culture shock was real, despite there being so many transplants in
the city.

I will make no claim as to how someone from the West, Mid-West or South would
feel about Chattanooga, however. It is certainly a pretty little city, much
like Boulder.

~~~
_fs
Care to provide an example or two of the culture shock? From California and
I've never lived in the south, let alone visited.

~~~
ghc
I think that there is an element of California (inland) that you would
recognize as similar to elements of the South (mega churches, militant anti-
abortion sentiment, amazing amounts of poverty).

You might just be shocked at the level of homophobia, however. When I lived in
Atlanta I worked with a couple who once confided that they had enough scary
experiences that they quickly told everyone they were sisters when traveling
outside of Atlanta.

------
keiferski
It still boggles my mind that people pay $2k-3k per month for a tiny apartment
in NYC or SF. You buy a decent house in Pittsburgh for what 2-3 years of rent
in SF will get you. I'm sure Chattanooga is similar to Pittsburgh in terms of
what 100k buys.

I love NYC, and SF is startup mecca, but on paper it just makes me question
whether it's worth it.

~~~
BCM43
From my experience the NYC jobs pay more than the ones in other places, so if
you're not working remote it can make sense. Also, I like NYC as a city way
more than Pittsburgh.

~~~
keiferski
Yeah, I figure that the salaries are more to offset. And NYC is definitely a
much better place than Pittsburgh.

The question is really: if I can own a house in Pittsburgh and visit NYC for
3-4 months a year, and _still_ spend less than renting in NYC, does it make
sense at all to live in NYC?

But never mind me, I'll probably end up in New York regardless :)

------
hkarthik
It's unfortunate that so many of us find inexpensive places like Chattanooga
inaccessible due to cultural differences.

Why is that being comfortable with living outside the straight, white, and
Christian demographic basically means accepting anywhere from 2-4x the cost of
living?

------
jasonkester
A list of places in the world with better rock climbing than Tenessee would
take a page or so, as long as you were only listing general areas and not
specific crags. Limiting that list to places with sub $2000 rent wouldn't
remove any of those items at all.

That said, there's an important idea in there that we probably shouldn't
ignore in our rush to dismiss this. The author is absolutely right that
there's a lot of world out there with lots of great stuff, most of which is
cheaper to live in than the San Francisco Bay Area. If you want to find the
best "X" in the world, you're almost guaranteed to find it elsewhere.

As it happens, I'm also living in the place with the Best Rocks In The World
(Fontainebleau, France). But I've also lived on Tonsai beach, and in the
Basque country, either of which could snag that title if you changed your
priorities a little bit. All were great places to work remotely.

We're living in the Future now. If you have a passion for
climbing/surfing/outdoor whatever.., and they've got a spot where there's a
bunch of it, you absolutely can go set up shop there.

That's pretty nice.

------
btrautsc
As a resident of Chattanooga for 2.5 years now, I'll add for the non-rock
climbers (or as myself, avoiders of altitude) that access to outdoors/ water/
nature is unbelievable in Chattanooga.

Parks, the river front, multiple lakes, are all easy access - which is great
for dog lovers like myself.

------
jstuder
If any startups/freelancers are interested in Chattanooga, hit us up on
twitter @LampPostGroup. If you can climb and code, you're in. Hungry to build
an amazing business +10.

~~~
btrautsc
Also check out <http://www.thegigcity.com/gigtank/>

------
binarydud
As a resident of TN, I can say that rock climbing isn't the only outdoor
activity that we have awesome access to. Within an hour and half of
Chattanooga are some great whitewater kayaking spots, including the Ocoee,
Rock Island, spots on the Cumberland Plateau, and several rivers in the Smoky
Mountains.

------
runnr_az
I climb and code. Always wondered how many of us there are. It goes without
saying... perpetually tempted by stuff like this. I'm not in CA -- AZ instead
-- but I am a rock climber and whatnot and playing outside is a very important
part of my life. It's funny to think about, how programmers are stereotyped as
these fat, lazy nerds.... and while there's plenty of that around my office, a
ton of us do all kinds of athletic activities. Cool to hear that as part of
someone's pitch.

Of course, we could make some of the claims here in PHX: easy living, great
community of people running around in the mountains, cool cultural stuff,
etc...

~~~
jhought3
I've climbed once in Arizona. Glad to hear that you love to climb and code. If
you're ever interested in visiting Chat, you've got a climbing partner.

------
twog
I just recently moved my company to Chattanooga as well. It has an incredible
emerging startup scene. Check it out here <http://noogastartups.com>

------
beachstartup
hmm.

> I love California, but they don't know anything about food.

i really wonder how you can say this with a straight face.

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc)

one ramen restaurant, across the state line. "You mean ramen doesn't always
come in plastic bags?"

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=pho)

one pho restaurant, in another city. "ewww what is this stuff in my soup"

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sashimi&find_loc=ch...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sashimi&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1#find_desc=omakase)

one omakase sushi bar. better learn to love rainbow rolls and sweet sauce.

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=xiao%20long%20bao)
[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=szechuan&find_loc=c...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=szechuan&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1)

not a single decent chinese restaurant, not surprising. hope you like sweet
and sour chicken and chop suey (lol)

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=carne%20asada)

one carne asada joint, in another city. there's 3 mexican joints worth going
to in the whole area. 'tacqueria' brings no results. looks like there's a
local mini-chain 'mojo burrito' which is 'heads and shoulders above qdoba'...
well that's a start.

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=peruvian)

one peruvian restaurant, down the highway. seems like a decent place though.

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=indian&find_loc=cha...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=indian&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=f6deef80a3f9648d)

FOUR whole indian places. i think we're getting warmer (pun intended...)

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=thai)

lots of thai, we must be on to something here... spicy food, right?

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=caribbean&find_loc=...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=caribbean&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=2ae0043be2fccfd6)

NOPE no jerk chicken to be found anywhere. and you call yourself spice
lovers... sigh.

[http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chat...](http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=ramen&find_loc=chattanooga%2C+tn&ns=1&ls=9b344c609f9e4fdc#find_desc=bbq)

well, if you move there, i hope you like southern food. cause that's pretty
much what you're gonna be eating.

it's very difficult for me to not interpret "California doesn't know anything
about food" as "People with other points of view don't know anything about the
things we like the most here."

"hard to find quality bbq in SF or LA" or "we have great southern food" or
even "californians can't handle real spice" would have flown a lot better.

~~~
haney
> probably sums up the Chattanooga, TN viewpoint pretty well. "People with
> other points of view don't know anything about the things we like the most
> here."

I think your comment pretty much sums up the California viewpoint, "Someone in
Chattanooga said something, now I feel like I can classify everyone there".

