No WhiteWash!

How does your city stack up?  Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has a list of US 352 cities that can be sorted by different criteria. 

Below are the Tennessee cities that have been extracted from the list.  Kingsport MSA area has the highest cost of living and the lowest median household income for the cities listed below.  Also, Kingsport has a low median household income rank of 336 for the 352 cities studied.  Using the cost of living index data below, it is 12 percent more expensive to live in the Kingsport area than Johnson City.

The Cost of Living Index is based on 100 being the national average. Income Growth is the increase in household income from 2005 to 2009. 

The entire list of cities can be found here

See the 2010 post The Kiplinger Study Kingsport Area Elected Officials Would Like to Keep Quiet

There appears to be a little battle between the City of Kingsport, TN and Northeast State Community College.

Check out the link “College conflict: Potential Northeast State Johnson City campus distresses some Kingsport officials” from the Johnson City Press to get the City of Kingsport views on Northeast State Community College putting a satellite campus in Johnson City.  It sounds like to me that Mayor Phillips of Kingsport and his pal and fishing buddy, Keith Wilson, Publisher of the Kingsport Times-News are a little bit upset that the college would even consider going to Johnson City.

I guess Mayor Phillips feels frustrated that he is losing control since another pal and fishing buddy retired as President of Northeast State Community College.

My advice to Dr. Janice Gilliam, President of Northeast State Community College is that if she thinks this is the right direction for the college, then go for it.  Fight the influence of the “good old boys club” in Kingsport and the heavy-handed tactics that they will use to stop you.

It is interesting that the Kingsport Times-News published an article on this subject on January 9, 2011 at 12:00am. which gave a link to the Johnson City Press website.  But very shortly after publishing the article, it disappeared!  If one searches on “College conflict: Potential Northeast State Johnson City campus distresses some Kingsport officials”, the article can be found in the search, but you get Invalid article when you click on the link for the Kingsport Times-News.

Why did the Kingsport Times-News take the article down?  What did they want to keep quiet?

TriCites.com gives another view below without the input from Mayor Dennis Phillips and Keith Wilson.  Click on the link below for the entire article.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, TN — Northeast State Community College wants to open a campus in Johnson City and the Downtown Centre is among its options.

According to President Dr. Janice Gilliam, Northeast State does not have any more room for classrooms or parking at the school’s main campus in Blountville. Couple that with the fact that one-third of the college’s students come from Washington County, she says it only makes sense to open a campus there.

Read more via Northeast State to create Johnson City campus, Downtown Centre a possible site | TriCities.com.

The data below shows that Johnson City has increased its retail sales share of the total retail sales in the Tri-Cities area.  The new retail establishments added in Kingsport in the last few years has not stopped its loss of market share.

Source:  Dr. F. Steb Hipple – ETSU