12 Things You Should Know About the OTHER Tri-Cities

Twitter fans know something the rest of you may not... we're not the only Tri-Cities. In fact, if you visit the East Coast and say you're from Tri-Cities there's a very good chance they won't be thinking Washington state. So who are these OTHER Tri-Citians? I'll tell you.

Google Maps

1
Tri-Cities TENNESSEE is in the northeast corner of that state
It's made up of Kingsport, Johnson City, and Briston
We're talking Appalachian country!
2
It's nearly twice our size
Estimates place Tri-Cities Tennessee at around half a million people. We're only at a quarter million.
3
It is also close to a state border
We consider Umatilla and Hermiston, Oregon, as being part of our "metropolitan area" and they consider towns in Virginia just across the border to be part of their region, too.
4
It's more complicated, politically
Most of Tri-Cities is just in two counties so it's easy to share health departments, fairgrounds, animal services and more. Sure, Burbank is in another county, as are Othello and Umatilla, but that totals four. In Tennessee "Tri-Cities" spans across 8 TN counties and 4 Virginia counties!
5
The actual cities aren't that big
Johnson City and Kingsport each have less than 65,000 and Bristol, TN and Briston, VA each have less than 50,000. But the surrounding areas comprise many more towns and unincorporated areas with a much bigger population than southeast Washington. Kennewick has almost 80,000 people, Pasco has about 68,000 and Richland has about 52,000.
6
We're WAY, WAY more racially diverse
Tri-Cities TN is 96 percent white, 2 percent African American and 2 percent other. Kennewick is 83 percent white and almost 16 percent Hispanic. Pasco is 53 percent white, 3 percent African American and 56 percent Hispanic (that math doesn't add up because some Hispanics are white, some are black). Richland is 90 percent white and 5 percent Hispanic.
7
We're wealthier
The average household in Tri-Cities TN makes about $37,000. That's about the same for Pasco, but it's $50,000 in Kennewick and closer to $60,000 in Richland.
8
They have more colleges
They have East Tennessee State University and about 8 other colleges and seminaries. We only have Columbia Basin College, WSU Tri-Cities and a handful of private, for-profit schools.
9
They're spread out
Kennewick, Pasco and Richland are adjacent and only separated by the Columbia River. Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport are really spread out not even kind of touching each other.
10
They also have a big river flowing through, kind of
The Doe River and Watauga River are stopped by Boone Dam to make Boone Lake. So you can fish and boat there too, but they're nothing like the mighty Columbia and Snake Rivers.
11
They have a NASCAR track!
The Bristol Motor Speedway is a NASCAR Spring Cup track! And East Tennessee State University has collegiate teams, obviously. But otherwise their minor league baseball team is only in an "R" league and they don't have hockey or football.
12
They have cool history
Bristol is the "Birthplace of Country Music," Kingsport was King George III's "port" to the Tennessee Valley and Johnson City was home to the first white settler in Tennessee in 1769 (and the birthplace of Mountain Dew)!

Categories: Tri-Cities News