Atomic City Talk

2000 Census
Average age (years)
United States 36.22
Tennessee 36.67
Oak Ridge 42.30
Knox County 37.05
Anderson County 39.75
Roane County 39.99

Most elderly communities in East Tennesee

Wartburg 44.10
Lake City 43.29
Oak Ridge 42.30
Loudon 42.15
Rockwood 41.84
Harriman 41.00
Alcoa 40.26
Clinton 39.93
Oliver Springs 39.32
Maryville 39.17
Pigeon Forge 38.79
Farragut 38.64
Morristown 38.24
Knoxville 36.95
Lenoir City 36.91

Good post, Eric. I've been saying this for years.

On a percentage basis (2000 census), Oak Ridge has 21.5% of our residents listed as 65 or older.

Compare that to the national average of 12.4%
or to the Tennessee average of 12.4%
or to the State of Florida average of 17.6%

We clearly need to be able to attract new residents who are younger.

This can't be healthy for any community.

Besides a refurbished high school, what are we doing to correct this? We do have a superior school system with conscientous people running it. It is an asset.

Pellissippi Parkway was seen as a step in the right direction, but back-fired in terms of commuters allowing Hardin Valley and Farragut to prosper. New developments in OR seem to target retiring baby boomers with their marketing.

Youth has been escaping Oak Ridge for decades. It took me 30 years to return, but now I am adding to the problem.

The Chamber of Commerce has a "Live where you work" program. Billy Stair from ORNL thinks the city should have a point person to make sure the 4 families per week that the Labs hire have questions answered about Oak Ridge. Since a family moving here often uses the web to survey the area, the city web site needs to be vastly reworked (same goes for the schools, the visitor's bureau, etc).

Concepts like these need to be made real. If we can get a close rate of just 1 out of 4 of those new hires, in about 10 years our problem will be solved.

The average age of my household is 26.8; one of the very few things we find missing in Oak Ridge is adequate retail. Since I also pay attention to local government operations, I also understand that our lack of adequate retail is not only a personal inconvenience -- it's also a grave and worsening problem for local governments (the City, the County, and the school system) via decreasing sales tax revenue.

I'm not sure that the tax rate is really that big an issue for younger families. For one thing, the tax payment is wrapped into their mortgage so they never actually write a check for the total; secondly, most are bright enough to understand that the cost difference is not as great as the local tax rate might indicate after you consider the "add-on" fees for things like garbage collection and fire/ambulance services, the difference in homeowners' insurance costs (lower in OR than surrounding communities), etc.

In my opinion, our lack of retail is the greatest obstacle to both our demographic imbalance, as well as the financial situation driving the property tax rate higher than we would like for it to be. Cutting our way to a lower tax rate would decrease the quality of services available, so it really seems prudent to fix the problem in order to generate the revenue needed to maintain the services desired.

CN brings up a good point with the 4 families per week coming in through ORNL, but what was not mentioned is that ORNL has some sort of agreement where all recruits are referred to one of two real estate companies (one of those being in Knoxville). Unfortunately, Knoxville realtors tend to be reluctant to show Oak Ridge (they don't know the market, it's less convenient to them personally), and they frequently pass along inaccurate information regarding the safety (with regard to nuclear activities) and resale values.

Billy Stair is in a good position to change that process at ORNL, and make sure that Oak Ridge gets a fair chance to welcome these new families. What do we have to do to make that happen?

2007 tax rates of TN cities are listed here...see where Oak Ridge is in competing for new retail and other business with tax incentives...the only good news is the combined Knoxville city/county tax rate which is a hair higher than Oak Ridge...anyone wonder why businesses are flocking to Lenoir City, Clinton, Knox county outside of the Knoxville? As far as tax incentives, they only penalize local businesses who are left to pay higher tax rates...I must stop before I start sounding like Oakridger X.

http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/PAnew/LR.asp?W=07

In the end, it doesn't matter what Netmom or JustMe think. It matters what a *majority* of Oak Ridgers think and what people who work in Oak Ridge think.

The "lack of retail" can easily be explained. The retail picture in Oak Ridge reflects how Oak Ridgers in aggregate spend their money. Since a disproportionate share of Oak Ridgers are on fixed incomes, the retail in Oak Ridge reflects this demographic.

This isn't rocket science. I grew up in OR in the '60s and early '70s when downtown was a destination. Millers (Lovemans), the Gateway, Kimballs, Sturms, A&P, Federal Bakery and Hamilton Nat'n Bank were all ongoing concerns. You could walk the horseshoe of Downtown on a Saturday and see lots of your friends. Now it's a ghost town.

What was different? Oak Ridge was full of scientists and engineers in their peak earning years, procreating and raising families. Those scientists and engineers have retired (my in-laws are among them) and their kids have mostly left. The kids who didn't leave have raised kids of their own who have left.

I like my old hometown, despite the lies some here have posted about me. But unlike some here, I have a clear-eyed view of the problem. Oak Ridge is old. It was chosen as a "secret city" because of its secluded setting. People live there for three reasons: (1) they are retired; (2) they love the bucolic setting away from the unsettling city life; and/or (3) they like the school system.

For the retired, historical preservation (and cheap, familiar retail) is the future, and keep the property taxes low. For those who love the bucolic setting, the fewer people, the better (so keep the retail at arms length) and keep the property taxes low. For those who like the school system, let's bring in more retail to keep the property taxes low.

As I said many posts ago, Oak Ridge is at war with itself. Too many people want things just as they are. The vital younger citizens like Netmom and AT that could drive change are (a) too few and/or (b) consist of too many taxophobes. Oak Ridge was built by a generation that believed that government could do good and was worth paying for. Indeed, Oak Ridge is entirely a creation of the government and tax money. Until you recreate the demographic of the '60s, ain't nothin' gonna change.

While the city web site does look cleaner (thanks for that), it still lacks important usability features. Here are a few examples. There are more.

Think about the folks wishing to move here. The front page has a Live, Work, Play option on the left center. The Work section should have pointers to jobs. If they pick Live, the options are police, schools, and utilities. Why nothing for housing under Live? How about links to local realtors or a map showing available homes/apartments? How can they learn about the neighborhoods? How can they get excited about coming here?

Think about integrating stuff. If you go to the calendar to find the next City Council meeting, why do you have to go back to the home page to search for the agenda and supporting materials? There does not seem to have been enough thought about how the site is to be used.

The Visitors Bureau leads us to shopping in the City Center (You know, the mall and environs) where they list almost 40 active stores. You gotta go back to the '90s to find shopping like that.

For a town that is supposed to have some technology, we are missing the boat and not marketing ourselves very well either.

"a future built by people not by governments"

Well, there's a clue right there. Government in America *is* people. Everyone in government is a person, and in the vast majority of cases, they are American citizens. The idea that Government is an entity separate from people is a myth.

The US Government built Oak Ridge. Without federal funding, Oak Ridge would be like Oliver Springs. That will never change. Why? Well, look around. If government was holding back Oak Ridge (as JustMe implies), why hasn't Oak Ridge been overtaken by Kingston, Rockwood, Oliver Springs, Clinton, Karnes, or any of the other small rural E. Tennessee towns that weren't held back by Government?

"I do not and never will agree that governments have or ever will create sustainable economies"

Wrong. Oak Ridge, as a city, was founded and has been sustained for its entire existence because of the government. For Oak Ridge, government isn't the problem--it is its sole raison d'être. And the siting of Oak Ridge owes itself to another government program--the TVA. You need to take off that tinfoil hat and learn some history, my friend.