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About Memphis
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, of which it is the county
seat. As of 2006, the city of Memphis had an estimated population of 680,768,
making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee and the 17th largest in the
United States. The greater Memphis metropolitan area has a population of
1,230,303. This makes Memphis the second largest metropolitan area in Tennessee,
surpassed only by metropolitan Nashville. Even though Memphis is the state's
largest city, it is the youngest of Tennessee's four major cities (traditionally
including Knoxville and Chattanooga as well as Nashville). Memphis is on the
Lower Chickasaw Bluff above the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Wolf
River.
Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the
American south, including musical and culinary offerings. Many notable blues
musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi, and
performed there regularly from the early 1900s onward. These included such
musical greats as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf. The
first African American-formatted radio station, WDIA, was founded in the city in
1947 by Bert Ferguson and John Pepper, and included a young B. B. King as disc
jockey. B. B. King's moniker was derived from his WDIA nickname 'Beale Street
Blues Boy', a reference to Memphis' Beale Street on which many nightclubs and
blues venues were located.
In addition to a rich musical heritage, Memphis also boasts a long culinary
legacy dominated by regional barbeque. Memphis barbeque is rendered distinct by
its sole usage of pork (as opposed to beef), focus on rib and shoulder cuts of
meat, and multiple locally-owned barbeque restaurants. Celebration of this local
dish reaches its climax each year in May, when the Memphis in May Festival holds
its annual international Memphis in May Barbeque Cook-off.
The city of Memphis is located in southwestern Tennessee and sits on the eastern
bank of the Mississippi River. It is the regional hub for a tri-state area of
Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Interstate 40 enters the city from the
northeast, and loops above the central part of the city, exiting across the
Mississippi River and traveling to the west. Interstate 55 approaches the city
from the south and connects with I-240, which completes the loop around central
Memphis with I-40, and also leaves to the west. U.S. Highway 72 leaves the city
traveling to the southeast. The west end of U.S. Highway 78 terminates in
Memphis, TN on Linden Avenue at the intersection of 2nd Street. The east end of
U.S. Highway 78 terminates in Charleston, South Carolina.
The city’s central location has led to much of its business development. Located
on the Mississippi River and intersected by two Interstate highways and seven
major U.S. highways, Memphis is ideally located for commerce among the
transportation and shipping industry. The city is also home to the world's
busiest cargo airport, in terms of tonnage, which serves as the primary hub for
FedEx shipping. Due to its location, more major metro areas can be reached
overnight from Memphis than any other city in the central U.S. Memphis has also
developed as a major manufacturing center of textiles, heating equipment,
pianos, and automobile and truck parts. Memphis Light, Gas and Water ("MLG&W")
is also one of the largest municipal utilities in the United States.
Memphis is home to a growing number of nationally and internationally known
corporations, including approximately 150 businesses from 22 countries. This
includes the corporate headquarters of three major Fortune 500 companies,
including FedEx Corporation, AutoZone Incorporated and International Paper. It
is also, home to Fred's Stores headquarters, a company which was named as one of
the five fastest growing chain-stores by Forbes Magazine. Other corporations
with a major presence in the area include Back Yard Burgers, Belz Enterprises,
Buckeye Technologies, First Tennessee Bank, Guardsmark, Hohenberg Bros. Co.,
Harrah's, Hilton, ServiceMaster, and Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. Northwest
Airlines also operates a major hub at Memphis International Airport, with daily
nonstop flights to Amsterdam.
The entertainment and film industry has also developed in recent years in the
city. Several major motion pictures have been filmed in Memphis in recent years,
including Mystery Train (1989), Great Balls of Fire! (1989), The Firm (1993), A
Family Thing (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The Rainmaker (1997),
Cast Away (2000), The Queens of Comedy(2001),21 Grams (2003), Hustle & Flow
(2005), Walk the Line (2005), Forty Shades Of Blue (2005), and Black Snake Moan
(2007).
The city appeared in the top eight of the 50 best major metro areas in the U.S.
for starting and growing a business in 2000, according to Inc. magazine.
Southern Business and Development magazine ranked Memphis as one of the most
successful models for economic development in the south, also recognized the
city as one of the top ten markets over the past decade. In October 2002, Ebony
Magazine has cited Memphis as a city for its outstanding African-American
leadership. Memphis also had the highest rate of high technology start-up
operations over the last three years among the nation’s 60 largest metro areas,
according to Brandow Company research.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.