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Johnson City, Tennessee


BrasilnSC

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I went to Johnson City, TN to visit my parents this weekend and instead of sitting on my butt eating all day, I decided to get out and take some pictures of the city.

Johnson City is in northeastern Tennessee along the Appalachian Mountains and Cherokee National Forest. It has a city population of about 55,000 and a metro population of about 400,000 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) as part of the Tri-Cities region which includes Johnson City, Bristol, and Kingsport.

I hope you guys enjoy. Sorry about the large pictures. Here goes.

Heading down Roan St into the city

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Roan St north of the city, lots of retail, small suburban skyline

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Heading south towards downtown, Science Hill High School raised walkway

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DOWNTOWN (nice with lots of potential)

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Panning downtown from parking lot

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Stores ready for new retail :thumbsup:

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Public Library in the distance

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Main St

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Housing around town

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It has a city population of about 55,000 and a metro population of about 400,000 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) as part of the Tri-Cities region which includes Johnson City, Bristol, and Kingsport.

Nice pics. For a city with such a small pop, it looks surprisingly urban. But nice. Looks like a place I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon. Can I ask you, though, is Johnson City the leading city in this Tri-Cities region you mention? On Emporis, I see that Kingsport has about 44,000 and Briston 25,000, so I'm guessing JC is top dog there.

Oh, Emporis also lists the Tri-Cities metro as being very nearly 500,000. So let's not sell 'em short. :P

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Nice pics. For a city with such a small pop, it looks surprisingly urban. But nice. Looks like a place I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon. Can I ask you, though, is Johnson City the leading city in this Tri-Cities region you mention? On Emporis, I see that Kingsport has about 44,000 and Briston 25,000, so I'm guessing JC is top dog there.

Oh, Emporis also lists the Tri-Cities metro as being very nearly 500,000. So let's not sell 'em short. :P

Actually, Bristol, Tennessee has about 25,000 and Bristol, Virginia has about 17,000. It is one 'City' in two States with the State line running down the middle of the main Street (Stateline Road). Johnson City has about 60,000.

One reason I and many others like it is because of the proximity to the mountains.

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BTW, Science Hill High is where Steve Spurrier went.

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Great pics of Johnson City! Thanks for posting some in the East TN forum as well!!

Downtown Johnson City and Bristol seems to have the most potential of any of the Tri-Cities IMO from the pictures I have seen thus far of all three. Those commercial streets just seem to be begging for re-development and new tenants.

Is there much movement to revitalize downtown into a more active area of the city and region?

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BTW, Science Hill High is where Steve Spurrier went

Rub it in to those die hard UT fans, that Spurrier is from TN. It drives some of those guys crazy. :lol:

By the way Great shots. I was in JC this weekend too, along with Kingsport. Will have a few photos myself if I ever decide to put them on the computer.

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I lived in Johnson City when I was a kid (about 1987-1993). I went to Cherokee Elementary and my sister went to Liberty Bell Middle School (the only middle school in town at the time). TN 381 in the pictures was being built when we left.

The Downtown church pictured a couple of times is the Methodist church. I actually learned how to swim at their pool. I'm also very surprised that First Tennessee Bank is still around and hasn't been bought out by Chase or Wells Fargo or something.

Good memories. Thanks for the pics. Based on the orientation, I'd imagine your parents live up north, maybe off of North Roan?

It's really a great town to live in, especially as a kid. It's a beautiful area and the people there are great. I went back in 2000, and got to see some old haunts, however my old house had intimidating signs at the driveway (it was an old Civil War hospital perched on a hill off Lone Oak Road), so I didn't go up.

It's a shame to see the Downtown is such poor condition with all of the abandoned buildings. I would have thought they would have tried to revitalize it a little. Most of the stores were occupied when I was a kid. I remember specifically that the nasty part of town was just to the west of Downtown.

I'm also pretty sure that I know where that brown/yellow house in the picture is.

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Terrific photos of Johnson City! I have been meaning to get down there (only 22 miles away) to get some photos of the exact areas you posted (the old downtown area, as well as the newer area buildings). You saved me a trip down there for photos! :D

PHofKS is correct- Bristol's total population is around 45,000-47,000 now. Many people do not realize that Bristol is in Virginia as well. Many sites "split" the population of the two, simply because they are in two states, but all of the signs at the city limits state around 46,000 population - combining both. True too- metro population is well over 450,000 - when you include the smaller surrounding "suburb" cities- such as Elizabethton, Jonesborough, Colonial Heights, Blountville, Bluff City, Gate City, Abingdon- just to mention a few that I first think of and some of these are pretty busy little towns.

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Yeah, you are not that far away. I live in Bristol and we are only about 3 hours away (208 miles) according to MapQuest. Johnson City, about the same (190) miles.

We are going to be heading to Charlotte in September for the auto fair. We will be there for at least 3 days. We may drive on down to Columbia.

great pics! Despite not being that far from Charlotte, I've yet to see Johnson City
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Speaking of Johnson City, here are some photos of Elizabethton, TN- which is only 10 miles east-northeast of Johnson City.

These are looking toward Johnson City (southwestward) - you can see the severe storms in the distance (note dark sky).

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These are looking southeast- (toward North Carolina) - actually, that cloud you see in the distance was about on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line- if not actually all the way across the state line.

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Yeah, you are not that far away. I live in Bristol and we are only about 3 hours away (208 miles) according to MapQuest. Johnson City, about the same (190) miles.

We are going to be heading to Charlotte in September for the auto fair. We will be there for at least 3 days. We may drive on down to Columbia.

You should definitely come down to Columbia :thumbsup:

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Actually, the most impressive thing about the Tri-Cities area is the giant Eastman Chemical complex in Kingsport.

I wouldn't want to live near there, but just the expanse of the chemical industry infrastructure blew me away.

Thank you! I had been wondering just what the heck that was and now you've answered it for me. My wife and daughter and I drove through there on our way from Greenville, SC to Huntington, WV a couple of years ago (had a craving for a Stewart's Hot Dog that couldn't be denied) and we passed that huge expanse and I was quite simply floored.

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  • 1 month later...

Nice pics. For a city with such a small pop, it looks surprisingly urban. But nice. Looks like a place I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon. Can I ask you, though, is Johnson City the leading city in this Tri-Cities region you mention? On Emporis, I see that Kingsport has about 44,000 and Briston 25,000, so I'm guessing JC is top dog there.

Oh, Emporis also lists the Tri-Cities metro as being very nearly 500,000. So let's not sell 'em short. :P

If these comments are your idea of a "compliment," I would hate to see what an insult would be... -_-

Johnson City has a population estimate of 58,000 as of 2005. Up nearly a thousand from 2004. A town with almost 60,000 people is not that "small." Of course everyone knows it doesn't compare with a big city, but at one time, New York City had less than half Johnson City's population. It is growing, and thats what matters most. Most cities up north would kill for growth like that. The downtown areas of all the Tri Cities have suffered recently, but now that communities across the country realize that strong downtown cores are important for overall health, they are trying harder to revitalize. They will never have big retail back, so now they must become more unique in offerings-such as unique cafes, restaurants, boutiques, nightclubs, museums, bookstores, lofts, apartments, etc.

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Having lived for several years in Mountain City, TN; I constantly frequented Johnson City and developed many friends there. It is indeed a growing city, the quickest growing of the three Tri Cities. It is a major commercial destination and cultural destination (thanks to ETSU.) The vibe in the city is one that can't hardly be matched anywhere. I truly loved it and contemplated moving there. Thanks for the pics, they brought back fond memories.

BTW, I didn't see anything in any previous posts that I would consider "insulting" to this area.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you really want to see what I consider an insult, I'll send you a PM.

I dunno what your problem is. I gave the area a modest compliment. I was honest. What did you want me to say?

Just yanking your chain a bit, mate. No offense intended. I guess I just have a different definition of big and small than most people. I'm from a town that had exactly 2 stop lights. You could throw a rock from end to end. Johnson City dwarfs it many, many times over.

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Just yanking your chain a bit, mate. No offense intended. I guess I just have a different definition of big and small than most people. I'm from a town that had exactly 2 stop lights. You could throw a rock from end to end. Johnson City dwarfs it many, many times over.

Don't worry about it.

I come from a city -- Cranston, Rhode Island -- that has approximately 80,000 residents. And many stoplights.

And zero cultural value.

We have an urban area on our eastern border where we touch Providence, but that's something that most Cranston residents would very much like to forget or ignore. We don't have a vibrant college scene. We don't have any colleges at all, unless you count a single vocational school. Which I don't, because vocational schools don't lend themselves to a thriving liberal arts community. We don't have a dense urban core or many of those great old mixed-use retail buildings JC has -- we have a few, but precious few, and we've long since given up trying to promote that sort of development.

We are, in a word, a suburban sprawl community. The only urban elements we have are remnants of a distant past. Either that, or they've seeped in from Providence: a sheer accident of geography, I assure you. Now, Providence, the leading city in our metro area, is a different story. Providence dwarfs Johnson City in every way. But I don't exactly live in Providence, I live in Cranston. Providence is my de facto cultural capital, as my city has nothing of its own to offer.

Point being, size means nothing. Character is everything. Providence has character. Johnson City appears to have character. Cranston has no character. At all. <_<

I wish Johnson City the best of luck in its revitalization efforts.

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great pics. i've spent plenty of time in the JC...couple siblings went to ETSU, i dated a girl who lived there for a while and my best friend got married there. good job on capturing the city...downtown has a lot of potential. is Atomic Comics still there? i hope it is, always a cool place to visit and a sign that parts of JC's downtown are still alive. speaking of, i remember a nice model/hobby store downtown from when i was a kid in the early 90s. i miss the days of steady downtown retail.

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It's good to see this thread back up at the top. I have a few more pics of Johnson City and I-26 through the mountains that I'll try to post soon.

JC is a cool little city and ETSU definitely helps it out. I was surprised to know that 10,000+ students attend ETSU, very impressive.

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