Category: Motivation
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Home Sweet Home (To Me)
There’s a saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Lately, I’ve been thinking about how this applies to communities. I always enjoy traveling, but I always look forward to coming home. I enjoy a good trip to the beach, or visiting a large urban center, or attending a stadium event. Those are things I can’t get at home,…
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Postcards – A Window to the Soul
A longtime childhood friend was going through a box of her late grandfather’s things and found several linen postcards of scenes from Kingsport in the early 1940s. She generously sent them to me. Long before text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Zoom, or FaceTime, postcards were the shortest, simplest way to check-in, say hello, and express feelings…
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Time.
Our days, hours, and minutes are numbered from our very first childhood memory until our last moment of consciousness. Time is a finite, exceptionally precious commodity. Like electricity, time is one of the most awesome natural forces in the universe. It is mysterious, powerful, and transformative. It can be harnessed for good, but it can…
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Big Stone Gap.
By Jeff FlemingMarch 29, 2023 I can summarize my familiarity with Big Stone Gap into six things: (1) the legendary football legacy of the Powell Valley Vikings, now merged with the Appalachia Bulldogs to form Union High School, (2) the presence of Mountain Empire Community College, (3) interaction with LENOWISCO in transportation planning across state…
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Small City. Big Heart. Global Influence.
You probably don’t expect world-changing technology to originate from a small city in the Appalachian Mountains–but it does. Both Eastman and Domtar are heavily investing in the circular economy. What’s a ‘circular economy’? Recycling. In this case, plastics and containerboard. Just this week, Eastman welcomed the President of Normandy (France) to their headquarters in Kingsport…
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Fort Light.
The wide boulevard in front of Dobyns-Bennett High School has been a hub of community activity since the beginning. When I was growing up it was known as Memorial Boulevard. Those older than me may remember it as “New” Bristol Highway. When Brooks Circle was removed, it was renamed “Fort Henry Drive” because it became…
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Portland has discovered what Kingsport has known for 106 years
For the past three decades, I’ve been trying to explain why Kingsport is called “The Model City”. Many think it’s because of the city’s physical plan that was laid out on a drawing board in Cambridge, Massachusetts by pre-eminent city planner John Nolen. In reality, it’s because Kingsport was the first city in Tennessee–and one…
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Time marches on
Some of my fondest memories of my parents were our annual beach trips. It was the only time they didn’t work. They would scrimp and save all year for that one week in Myrtle Beach. There were 12 years between my brother and I, so his daughters were more like my sisters. We doubled-up in…
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Kingsport: Fiscally conservative since…forever
As a former city manager, I know the pressure to provide the highest possible service at the lowest possible cost. Each year staff and board members agonize to cut corners, stretch dollars, and provide value. If you’ve always lived here (like me), you may not realize just how relatively valuable that fiscal conservatism is to…
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The time Broad Street shrank.
Yesterday’s post explained the evolution of Sevier Avenue and noted that Broad Street is the break point for east-west demarcation in Kingsport. A current firefighter astutely observed that the streets in Nelsontown along today’s Gibson Mill Road have east-west monikers–Gibson Street, Millpond Street, and Windsor Street–and asked if Broad Street used to extend to Stone…
Kingsport Spirit 