I have to admit that you hit on most of the points that are good about Leon County and the surrounding environs. Still, for an outside person, even tho there is great diversity in the recreational experience, it is too dang hot and hospitable to biting critters. The window for sweatless and bugless outdoor events is pretty small...
Non-Tally residents
- Thread starter goldmom
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Not taking shots at Tallahassee or the people that live there but I’m curious what good companies are located in Tallahassee worth going to work for? Outside of city and state jobs I just don’t see anything that sticks out.
I’m hoping the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship helps Tallahassee grow in this area.
To my knowledge there aren’t any. It’s all state and education jobs with local commerce making up for everything else.
I just googled, Walmart and Publix are the two biggest employers that aren’t state, healthcare or education....wow
We live in Ellijay GA (approx 2800 people). About an hour north of Atlanta and 1 1/2 from Chattanooga. One or two decent winter storms each year but that is it. Humid days happen but are rare. Medical could be better. Our hospital closed but reopened as an emergency room only. Hospitals in Blue Ridge and Jasper about 20 miles way. For major health care, most go to Canton or Atlanta. We love it here though. Beautiful mountain sunrises and if we get the urge for a city, they are close. At this point in our lives, we don't want the crowds, noise, traffic.
I call BS on that. Considering the max flights leaving each morning (3) each hold about 40 people, that isn't even possible.
1) I thought you were itching to leave Tallahassee as soon as your wife passed her actuary exam?
2) Your list of travel destinations is rubbish.
Atlanta not different (enough?) than Tallahassee? Ha.
For someone who "loves" to travel, Tallahassee is in a horrible spot. From Atlanta, we have cheap direct flights just about anywhere. Just this year for vacation we are on direct flights to Portland ME, Puerta Vallarta (en route to Sayulita), and Liberia, Costa Rica. As for driving, 5 hours from the Gulf, 2 hours from mountains, 4 hours from Savannah, 2 hours from Augusta, 3 hours from Asheville, 4 hours from Charleston, 1.45 from Chattanooga and 3.5 from Nashville. Most of those have been visited in the past year multiple times. The only city worth mentioning on your list is NO.
edit: Oh, and to answer the OP, there's no way I move back to Tallahassee. I liken it to wearing sweatpants, “You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You're telling the world, 'I give up. I can't compete in normal society. I'm miserable, so I might as well be comfortable'"
For someone who "loves" to travel, Tallahassee is in a horrible spot. From Atlanta, we have cheap direct flights just about anywhere. Just this year for vacation we are on direct flights to Portland ME, Puerta Vallarta (en route to Sayulita), and Liberia, Costa Rica. As for driving, 5 hours from the Gulf, 2 hours from mountains, 4 hours from Savannah, 2 hours from Augusta, 3 hours from Asheville, 4 hours from Charleston, 1.45 from Chattanooga and 3.5 from Nashville. Most of those have been visited in the past year multiple times. The only city worth mentioning on your list is NO.
edit: Oh, and to answer the OP, there's no way I move back to Tallahassee. I liken it to wearing sweatpants, “You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You're telling the world, 'I give up. I can't compete in normal society. I'm miserable, so I might as well be comfortable'"
First of all nice handle. Second, thank you. I’m cheating (sorry goldmom) as I live in Tallahassee but reading all the negativity on my town made me respond
. Tally is a great city IMO, albeit small and a “college” town, and I lived in Norcross, Ga. for most of my grade school years. I was born here though and Dad took a job (in Tally) just before my senior year. So after college (Georgia Southern) I moved back home. Met my wife and we’ve raised one boy (19) who’s currently in Army Reserve. Also have another boy at Deerlake Middle school. Oldest attended Deerlake also and graduated from Chiles. Great schools. I work for the Florida Park Service and my wife is a case manager with Morgan & Morgan (yes for the people). We love Tallahassee, father is retired and just bought a place on Lake Talquin. It’s beautiful out there. Yes highway 20 has some interesting folk. Y’all stop hating on Tally, we are WELL AWARE the airport sucks. I talk about it all the time. We love going to jump in Wakulla Springs when it is hot as hell during the summer. We enjoy the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and the short trip to St. George also. And if you want to talk about bad traffic, that’s Atlanta. Not sure I could live there again.As a resident who was born and raised here, I would say this is a good assessment. I have seen Tally change quite a bit over the years, mostly for the better. I can certainly understand those who feel differently, especially young professionals. A lot depends on what kind of lifestyle you prefer. As you and others have pointed out, the summers here suck, but the rest of the year is nice. When I retire soon, I am hoping to spend most of the summer in a cooler place. We rarely fly anywhere so the airport is not an issue with me.
This is a bit hypersensitive.First of all nice handle. Second, thank you. I’m cheating (sorry goldmom) as I live in Tallahassee but reading all the negativity on my town made me respond
No one is hating on Tally. I'd bet each of us has a huge soft spot for the city. I also don't question anyone who lives there, I grew up there and wouldn't change a thing. It just isn't right for me and who I am / what I do now - maybe in my 70s that'll change, who knows.
That doesn't change the facts however. It's small, wildly hot in the summer, and the airport is so limiting that it makes it an untenable place to live for those who place high importance on travel options.
This thread isn't asking "Do you like Tallahassee?" it's "Would you live in Tallahassee again?" You can answer "yes" to the former while saying "no" to the latter.
I lived in Atlanta for about six months surrounding the Olympics and go back at least once a year usually twice to visit a cousin who lives there. For as huge of a city as Atlanta is, its relatively devoid of a unique culture or much in the way of arts. It’s no different than Jax, Charlotte, Orlando or D.C. in that regards. If I blindfolded you and dropped you in Atlanta you wouldn’t know you’re in Atlanta, unlike New Orleans, Philly, and even Miami (which I’m not a big fan of, but Miami IS unique).
Some cities have a unique food, music, culture and vibe and others don’t. It doesn’t even seem to matter the size or not. Savannah, Key West, Asheville and Charleston are small cities but they have distinctive personality. Memphis, Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham, Lafayette and Richmond are mid sized cities but you can instantly recognize a distinctive culture and vibe. Dallas, Phoenix, Miami and Chicago are large cities but still distinctive (two of those I even dislike (Dallas and Miami naturally) but they ARE unique).
Atlanta and Charlotte simply grew too fast from too many different locations that there’s no distinctive culture other generic American. And yes Atlanta has more blacks than most big cities in the US and they place a large distinctive vibe to the city that more white bread Charlotte lacks but that’s not a distinctively ATLANTAN black culture except maybe to some degree the music, it’s just generic Southern black culture. What do I mean by that? The Gullah blacks on the sea islands have a distinctive black culture different than “generic Southern black” while in Atlanta you’re going to get the same “soul food” in Atlanta that you are in Birmingham or Jacksonville or any southern city with black chefs (so all of them).
Maybe in the future Atlanta will have something unique as there’s a lot of Brazilians immigrating there as well as Colombians and other South and Central American so that wave of immigration MAY become transformative like the Ethiopians in D.C. are becoming, but as of right now it hasn’t been fused into the culture just isolated pockets of ethnic cuisine that have stayed true to the original and not fused in and unique.
As far as airline travel, yeah Atlanta is easier and cheaper to go to anywhere as it’s a major hub airport. But an extra $150 a flight and two hours to get to Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, or the other hubs, hasn’t stopped me from traveling anywhere I want to go. This past year we haven’t traveled internationally because we chose to do Hawaii instead which is the same or more $$$ and time wise as international travel, but we’re going back to Scotland and France plus Iceland later this year. And I’ve still been to Honolulu, Maui, the Big Island, the Four Corners section of Utah, Phoenix, LA, Chicago, Monterey/Santa Barbara/Big Sur, DC, West Virginia/Shenandoah Valley, Louisville/Bourbon Country, Lafayette/Baton Rouge/“Cajun Country”, San Antonio, Austin, San Diego, Nashville and probably some areas I’m forgetting (I pulled up my iPhone pics map to remind myself where I’ve been the past 365 or so as some of the older stops like Toronto and NYC are a year and half or two years out even though it seems like not that long ago). And that’s not factoring in my countless drives to Otown/Tampa/St Pete to see relatives and the quick drives over to NOLA, Jax, Savannah, Pensacola, Biloxi, etc...
So if you’re stuck in Tally it’s because you’re either broke or sedentary not because there’s nothing to do.
I disagree about a distinctive Atlanta culture (black or otherwise). I left NYC for Atlanta (stayed in ATL for 18 months before moving back) and had concerns similar to what you outlined, however I was entirely wrong. Atlanta is an exceptionally vibrant city with a variety of unique neighborhoods, each with its own vibe. The food scene there is great and (compared to NYC) very affordable for high end, unique dining - including plenty of international options - my fav, the Ethiopian food at Desta. One downside is that the city, even in it's more progressive areas, is still very segregated.
Atlanta suburbia is exceptionally blah and your description absolutely applies to those areas.
Next time you're up there ping me and I'll give you a list of spots to check out. Perhaps your cousin isn't showing you the right stuff.
Just wanted to defend ATL a bit. It's not like the greatest city on earth but it's a lot less plain than I thought it would be. That said, clearly wasn't enough to keep me from moving back to NYC.
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First of all nice handle. Second, thank you. I’m cheating (sorry goldmom) as I live in Tallahassee but reading all the negativity on my town made me respond
I don’t even agree that the airport sucks. There’s nothing to do and zero tolerable food at the airport if your flight is delayed, but it’s very short lines (I don’t get the earlier complaint about long lines, I’ve never waited more than ten minutes to get through security in Tally which is about a third of the SHORTEST amount of time I’ve had to wait at major airports). And we have three of the four major airlines and those four account for 80+ percentage of the flights (it’s basically a monopoly now, yes there’s the pretense of competition as there’s dozens of small carriers but the four big boys account for 80+% of the flights and 90+% of the profits) so you can get to anywhere with just a stopover at one of the hubs.
But Tallahassee is NOT a nightmare airport. It’s a small, easy to get in and out of airport that does come with the negatives of slightly higher prices and no decent food if the flight is delayed but the positives of convenience of parking and security outweigh it imo.
Random question since I haven't been to Tally since Oct 2014 (FSU v Wake game)...
Does TLH have a TSA Precheck lane?
Does TLH have a TSA Precheck lane?
I’m not bashing on Atlanta, I’d live in Atlanta and Charlotte and be quite happy if I HAD to for the job opportunities. They’re just not interesting travel destinations (excluding the Georgia Aquarium which is an A+ tourist stop, but that’s it) due to the lack of distinctiveness imo. There are spots like Midtown and Decatur which have the yuppie and hippie spots for food that are equivalent to the best in DC etc...so I don’t disagree about your take on the food quality in general, it’s just not unique imo. You can find equivalent yuppie spots and “soul” spots in any mid sized city in the country.
Heck, I’ve even said repeatedly that One Flew South is the best airport restaurant in the country and Chicken + Beer isn’t that far off. So don’t mistake my saying Atlanta isn’t unique enough to draw me in for a move as saying I dislike the city. I enjoy Atlanta far more than the actually distinctive cities or Miami and Dallas, but if I were to move it would be to someplace unique not a giant equivalent of Tallahassee or Jax.
Yes but why bother? Half the time I walk right up to the front of security anyways and if there is a wait it’s a ten minute wait tops.
Love Desta. That’s my hood! I wish we could get some better options in the rest of that shopping center though. Real estate that’s primed for redevelopment.
My favorite part of this post is knowing how infuriated it's making, TripTych.
No! We moved to Jefferson County almost 14 years ago and it's the best thing we ever did. Hubby and I still have family in Tally so there's the occasional trip over to attend a family function, but you have to take me kicking and screaming! My husband works in Tallahassee, so he makes that commute every day but it's so worth it. Jefferson County is Mayberry. You know the people who live here. Heck, I even have personal cell phone numbers for my Sheriff, mail carrier, and UPS driver!answer only if you don't live in Leon County!
Could you ever live in Tallahassee again?
When I travel back over for games and drive around it just amazes me how much the place has grown. It's made me ask myself if I could live there again. I moved away 40 (yes that means I'm old
Thoughts?
Not really. I made a point about Atlanta being a better city from a traveler's perspective to other destinations, and he switched the argument to 'uniqueness' and 'travel destination' worthy. I agree we do not have the travel 'destinations' that most tourists would like to see, but we certainly have an abundance of culture and character that is not always obvious to an outsider.
I think a person who spends all their time going to Bioloxi and Orlando and 30a and Hawaii has limited perspective on what makes a city great and is a really poor evaluator on the character of a city. I would never visit those places just for fun, and he brags about it on a message board like it's a badge of honor. FFS, he's defending living in Tallahassee. I can't stand being in Tallahassee even for a weekend of an FSU game, it's just brutal. So, I really cannot get infuriated, or even mildly agitated, over someone's opinion of my city whom I do not respect.
Don't go getting defensive now, remember the question is "would you move back there" Not knocking anyone for living there, to each their own. But with the myriad of opinions out there, it wouldn't be in my top 10. And I'm not coming from a place of ignorance, I'm there quite often for business, sports and family. If I got the job of a lifetime and it happened to be in Tally, I'd take it. However, I don't see that happening. If I won the lottery and no longer had to consider working, Tally wouldn't be the place Id pick.
Tally seems a place you live if you have family ties there, or if work either drew you there or kept you there. I'd say the number of people who truly choose to live there with unlimited options is very low.
Interesting perspectives from everyone. I have a friend who moved back there about a year ago and so far likes it.
Another friend moved there from Jax five years ago and thinks the streets are rolled up by 7 pm, but stays because that's where grandchildren are.
Jax traffic and crime have become brutal. Something to think about on my end.
Another friend moved there from Jax five years ago and thinks the streets are rolled up by 7 pm, but stays because that's where grandchildren are.
Jax traffic and crime have become brutal. Something to think about on my end.
If possible, consider renting a place for 90-120 days. That will give you a nice long taste of what a full-time experience would be like. Wifey wanted to move to the beach some years ago. I said no, let's rent a place for a full summer and see how that goes. At the end, we both agreed that living there 24-7-365 is quite different than the episodic jaunt. Good luck.
Yes, they just added it in the past few months, I used it last week and it allowed me to cut in front of the 4 peasants that were in the regular line.
Last month when I used it they actually had an extra agent on that side which really sped things up. Cut my wait time in half from 2 minutes to 1.
Thread states- no one answer if you live in Leon.
Half of responses live in Leon.
Half of responses live in Leon.
I grew up in TLH. Left. Moved to Jax and was happy to leave Jax in 00 for Tallahassee. Graduated. Then left TLH again. Most likely for good. It might be a good place to retire, but I certainly wouldn't go back during the working part of my life. My dad is ready to leave now, but mom has her roots planted.
Bugs.
Summer heat and humidity. And the rain. Can't even take the garbage to the curb without breaking a sweat.
Don't enjoy the winters (day to day comparisons, it is colder in Tallahassee than Colorado Springs 75% of the time).
Plenty of other reasons mentioned above and in previous threads. Good old boy network among them.
There are definitely some upsides, but not enough.
I loved FSU but would probably not move back, barring a major set of circumstances.
I like college towns that can be a bit awkward to get to but TLH is not high on my list of those places I'd want to live as an adult.
I like college towns that can be a bit awkward to get to but TLH is not high on my list of those places I'd want to live as an adult.
In my defense, while I DO live in Leon:
1. I never acknowledged that in my lone post in this thread
2. I only posted to playfully antagonize (not in the banworthy sense though) another poster.
So am I good?
I just stated I was cheating. Had to defend my hometown. But I’m totally kidding, to each their own. Can totally understand why someone wouldn’t live here. As stated earlier by someone, pretty deep family ties are probably what has kept me here.
Reading through this thread makes me kind of sad.
Having grown up in Tally I'd love to see it grow into a vibrant city but if the responses in this thread are any indication the four most common reasons to move there are:
- close to family
- retirement
- near beaches
- FSU sports
Tough to imagine a city blossoming with new innovation and talent when your top 5 reasons to move there include none of the following: jobs, culture/arts/events, or K-12 education.
Having grown up in Tally I'd love to see it grow into a vibrant city but if the responses in this thread are any indication the four most common reasons to move there are:
- close to family
- retirement
- near beaches
- FSU sports
Tough to imagine a city blossoming with new innovation and talent when your top 5 reasons to move there include none of the following: jobs, culture/arts/events, or K-12 education.
This is what happens when sons don't call their Mamas.
Well, I guess that's progress. 2 seasons ago I seem to recall an agent giving me a taped piece of cardboard that said "TSA Precheck."
We moved out here to Pensacola and I hate it. The beach is nice, the weather a bit cooler in the summer, and it's proximity to New Orleans (Although we never go) is nice. But I just don't fit in here at all. Very white, very conservative, very fundamentalist Christian.
I miss the diversity of Tallahassee. Do I miss it enough to move back? I don't know, but do I miss it enough to find somewhere that I don't feel like so much of an outsider? Certainly.
I miss the diversity of Tallahassee. Do I miss it enough to move back? I don't know, but do I miss it enough to find somewhere that I don't feel like so much of an outsider? Certainly.
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Understood. I didn't mean to come across as defensive.
I would agree that if you really like the amenities of living in a really big city, like a better airport and unlimited food options, then Tallahassee is probably not for you. You really have to want to live in a smaller city over the benefits of living in a big city.
I think you'd be surprised how many people with options choose to live in Tallahassee. A lot of folks actually live somewhere else for a while (like South Florida, Tampa or Atlanta), and then choose to move back for various reasons. People call it the boomerang effect around here. People tend to move back to Tally because of shortened commutes, lower cost of living, the outdoors, and a little bit slower pace professionally. It's not nearly the rat race that you see in some big cities. It's a quality of life issue for many. It really just depends on what you value.
In any event, you see a lot more young professionals around town these days. Lots to do. The nightlife is better. Food choices are better. There's an artsy vibe going on these days too.
A lot has changed in the last 10 years or so.
Tally’s got its fair share of culture and arts for a small city. I mean quite literally last weekend we saw Shakespeare in the Park at the new Cascades amphitheatre with two young actors with movie creds and the lesbian gal pal (Gabrielle) of Xena Warrior Princess. Not exactly Broadway or West End level but as good or better than the Chicago/Atlanta/Miami/Orlando productions I’ve seen.
Plus the beer scene has become pretty good with at least 6 decent sized craft breweries (Proof, Ology, Deep, Lake Tribe, Tally Brewing, and Grasslands) in town. Deep and Proof are just shy of the really elite craft breweries (like Wicked Weed and Victory) with most brews being above average and better than those I’ve been to in the greater Atlanta area (Terrapin, Sweetwater, Orpheus, Red Brick and Eventide). Lake Tribe, Ology, and Tally Brewing are hit or miss depending on the brew like most breweries and Grasslands is just terrible to my palate.
I spent many a weekend on the Cartecay River learning to kayak my first year of paddling. There were some very nice expensive cabins, second homes, on that river.
