Wow! Knoxville's worst areas weren't what I thought they'd be at all. What an interesting experience!

So we’re going to begin our trip in downtown Knoxville on the northern edge of downtown in a small district called Old City. This is the sketchiest part of downtown Knoxville home to the city’s main bus stop, train station and homeless shelter. There are a decent number of shops, restaurants and bars here, and this is where people go clubbing typically starting at about 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

It’s Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 11:15 am.

We’re going to leave the downtown area and head east into the worst area of Knoxville.

As you can see, many areas along the eastern side of downtown Knoxville look to be undergoing change. That’s because Knoxville has begun a gentrification process, slowly moving out the poorer members of the community further out, making room for condos, more retail and other newer and more modern buildings that will be appealing to younger, wealthier home buyers and residents.

This is the corner of McCalla Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. As you can see across the street the city has removed a large section of poor, crime ridden areas and built a more modern community. This particular community is called Five Points.

However, two blocks in front of us, if we kept going, on the other side of this new little development, is one of Knoxville’s worst projects. It’s a very interesting dynamic, where you have brand new homes on the same block as the projects.

This gentrification process is controversial. While many support improving communities, it forces poorer people out of their homes, separating them from friends and family. It is odd to see random modernized homes mixed in with older rundown homes. On some blocks, rent goes for $500 for most of the block, and then there are fixed up homes renting for $1,500 a month, or selling for $250,000 grand.

Knoxville has plans to continue modernizing its neighborhoods to lure in more affluence to the area. It seems to be working, as the Knoxville metropolitan area has grown faster than the national average, only trailing the Nashville area in terms of growth.

We’re now in the Parkridge neighborhood, which regularly gets the most attention when it comes to crime and poverty. But I’ve seen some ghetto areas, and this was tame in comparison.

Crime wise it’s not pretty. Knoxville has been called one of the 50 least livable cities, because, while the downtown area might be charming and very safe, the outskirts are very poor and dangerous. Crime in Knoxville is 131% higher than other cities of its size. 1 in 4 people in Knoxville lives in poverty, almost double the national average.

We’re going to turn left and head west back towards downtown again and head down Magnolia Avenue, one of the most dangerous streets in the greater Knoxville area. Many times, when you hear about a crime, it’s along this section of East Magnolia Avenue.

To be honest, the worst areas of Knoxville were not really even all that bad. From my perspective, the worst outlying areas of Knoxville are just generally poor with heightened crime, but NOTHING like areas in major cities across the country.

We’re going to end the drive here. We also did a drivethrough of downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, as well as a video on our drive to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. The links to those videos are in the description.

Link to the downtown Knoxville tour video:    • I Drove Through Knoxville, Tennessee....  

Tennessee Mountain tour of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg:    • I Drove Through Tennessee Mountain To...  

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