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Catalyzing Kingsport: Strategic Responses to Demographic Shifts
Reflecting on the past year prompts us to delve into the underlying rationale behind the inception of the Move To Kingsport program, which began 24 years ago, predating the seismic shifts caused by the pandemic-driven “Great Relocation”. It was a proactive response by community leaders who foresaw our region grappling with a recurring issue seen…
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Roots of Change: Nancy Garrett’s Green Legacy
When I first began working as a naive city planner, I was under the false impression that the city had the ultimate say on all things related to building a city. I quickly learned that what matters most is private investment and the city’s ability to influence it. The city’s professional staff can propose practical…
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Rivers of Legacy: Tracing Tennessee’s Origins from Kingsport to Nashville
Recently, my son was traveling from Kingsport to Nashville for a business trip. To break up the monotony from time-to-time, he would call and say, “I just pulled off at this exit, tell me about <insert city name>.” In this case, it was Carthage, Tennessee. I explained that Carthage was located on the Cumberland River…
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Who was Glen Bruce?
With all of the beautiful decorations in Downtown Kingsport at Glen Bruce Park, someone asked me how the park got its name. When I first heard, “Glen Bruce”, it sounded like the name of a Scottish manor house from Braveheart or Outlander, but in reality, it’s a first and last name. A 1968 Times-News article…
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When Ridgefields & Fort Robinson were county neighborhoods
There’s an old adage about each generation carrying the baton for one leg of the race before handing off to the next generation to carry it for the next leg. And once we do, future generations may not remember how hard it was to move the needle in a positive direction. It’s human nature to…
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Kingsport’s Newcomers: Younger, More Diverse, Mostly from Tennessee
KINGSPORT, TN – Newly released census data confirms the success of a vision more than 26 years in the making. The Model City Coalition was formed in 1997 to set a vision for Downtown. Shortly thereafter, a major Economic Summit was held in 1999. These initiatives occurred after Eastman Chemical Company spun off from Eastman…
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Unraveling Appalachian Ancestry: The Untold Legacy of Dr. Brent Kennedy
In 1996 I read a book by Dr. Brent Kennedy about Melungeons, a mysterious, dark-skinned people living in the remote Appalachian Mountains on the edge of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky & West Virginia. In summary, Dr. Kennedy developed a mysterious, life-threatening illness while living in Atlanta. Emory University gave him a diagnosis that it was related…
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Rotary Club of Kingsport marks a century of service
On December 11, 1923, the Kingsport Times made a historic gesture by dedicating its entire front page to honor the charter celebration of the Rotary Club of Kingsport. Among the founding members, J. Fred Johnson stands out as the visionary behind the term, “Kingsport Spirit”. Other charter members included Frank Cloud, who held the distinction…
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First time visitors’ visceral response
Recently, I was giving a tour of Kingsport to a group of ladies from Richmond, Virginia. It was their first visit to East Tennessee. They were very much “Old Virginia” in the sense that their roots went back to ancestors who had discovered the new world and never saw a reason to venture any further.…
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Social Media’s Surprising Boost: How One Comment Reinforces the Value of Home
The use of technology and social media is a two-edged sword. Sometimes we become disheartened by the seemingly perpetual barrage of negative comments on just about everything. On the bad days, it’s enough to make you want to stop trying. Then out of the blue something happens that restores your faith. Lately, I’ve been sharing…
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Kingsport Spirit 