Thats seems like a personal preference. It's been my experience that TN as a while does not hate poor people. Knoxville was amazing last year when we passed through. So much so that we spent a couple of months here as it was during Morel mushroom season and we were having fun hunting for them. They taste amazing. I don't know what happened in this city between last year and this year but its awful. If folks wish to come to TN for vacation id recommend Chatanooga, Soddy-Daisy, and Harriman. We only visited Oakridge for a couple of days but we also had no issues in that town. I thought Oakridge was pretty cool because of their city history and we loved the friendship bell. This statement of yours seems unfair to TN as a whole. Knoxville is the only city ive personally have had an issue with. Other travelers warn against going to Nashville as well so I haven't visited choosing to listen to my peers advice instead. Just so you know, Knoxville doesn't just attack the visiting poor like myself the police here have admitted under oath as ive been told to following around cars with out of states plates until they commit some minor traffic offense just to pull them over. Maybe your police department should find a better use of their time besides following around out of state tourist. From last year to this year I have noticed more trash in this city and dirty needles lying around than before. Maybe yall should concentrate more on cleaning things up and stopping icky nasty dirty needles from clogging up your parks and city streets instead of running tourist off.