Memphis Tennessee - Model Evaluation

Our planned second stop, Memphis, also does not pass our current decision model. Unlike Lexington, it passes the climate test, but it fails on availability of work opportunities (as does Lexington) and quality of life.

Lack of work opportunities is driven by the being relatively small and by a lack of technology companies. Quality of life issues are led by a complete lack of 'walkable' neighborhoods and a crime rate three times the national average. The complete tree looks like this:

• ●Memphis is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Memphis has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis has moderate winters.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• Memphis Climate Comparison.jpg (Pictures)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Memphis has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Memphis has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Memphis has lower taxes than Hudson, OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Memphis has a lower cost of living index than Hudson, OH.
• ●True
• Memphis COL Comparison.jpg (Pictures)
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Memphis has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Memphis has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Memphis provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Memphis has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●False
• ○AND [1 of 2] : Memphis has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ○AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Memphis has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• 1020-Reid-Hooke.pdf (Documents)
• 17430 hwy 196.pdf (Documents)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●False
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Memphis has a high quality university.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Memphis has cultural diversity.
• ●False
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Memphis has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●False
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Memphis has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Memphis is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• Memphis_International_Airport.pdf (Documents)
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Memphis is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True
• Memphis Hospitals.jpg (Pictures)

Once again, you can't see the supporting documentation in this html blog post. Hopefully, we can have this available in the Silverlight version we are currently developing.

Based on the disappointing evaluation of Memphis, we are considering rerouting to Oxford, Mississippi, which at least has a major university (which Memphis does not).

We have also discovered that our stop in Lexington coincides with the Kentucky Derby, which explains why we are having a hard time finding a decent hotel room! This, too, is making us reconsider our timing and planned route.

Preparation: Planning the Route

This video shows the route we plan on taking; Steve is using the Microsoft Silverlight control to map our path:

We've picked this path to include towns that we believe have the characteristics we are looking of in our next home. In my next post I'll describe what some of those characteristics are. We fill in between these key stops with towns that are at an easy day's drive and which we think may have some potential as well. We add in a family visit and some scenic destinations like Yosemite, and we have a walkabout.

We have estimated the bare minimum amount of time required to cover this path with two day stops in the target destinations, and the total time required is 21 days. Since we have approximately 4 weeks for the trip, that leaves 7 days of 'slack' time. The real flexibility in our walkabout is to allocate these seven days to any place that really connects with us. By knowing our slack time we can manage our schedule without planning everything out - once we've used up our seven extra days, we have to pretty much head home as directly as possible.

We're committed to making reservations no more than one day in advance, except for places with limited hotel availability such as National Parks. We'll give our friends and family an estimated time when we'll arrive and keep them updated as we progress. We really want to maintain our flexibility as much as possible, keeping to the spirit of a 'walkabout'.