Kingsport is a great place to live AND work

Many still think of Kingsport and Oak Ridge as cities of commerce and industry–places to commute into work, but at the end of the day they return home elsewhere. Cities like Maryville, on the other hand, are viewed as “bedroom communities”–cities where a significant percentage of residents work elsewhere.

The Census Bureau now has an interactive tool that tracks where people live and work. The latest data was just released.

Kingsport has evolved into a well-balanced city of homes and businesses. 60% of employees who work in Kingsport live elsewhere, while 22.6% of people who live in Kingsport work elsewhere, and 17.4% both live and work in Kingsport.

That’s eerily similar to Johnson City where 59.9% of employees who work in Johnson City live elsewhere, 21.9% of people who live in Johnson City work elsewhere, and 18.1% of both live and work in Johnson City.

Although Oak Ridge has begun a concerted campaign to develop residential opportunities in the city, it still has a concentration of workers who live elsewhere (72.8%). Greeneville and Morristown are similar at 72.8% and 70.3%, respectively.

Maryville continues to be a bedroom community as 32% of its residents work elsewhere. Elizabethton and Bristol (TN+VA) are similar at 35.1% and 33.9%, respectively.

In a perfect world we’d all live and work in the same city–but that’s not practical as different spouses work in different places. If it were, perhaps we’d see less of the daily logjam on I-26. But Americans value their ability to choose, and we’ve built an infrastructure that makes it convenient to commute. And housing opportunities, prices, and preferred community amenities vary from city to city.

At the end of the day, our traffic pales in comparison to others, so rather than grumble maybe we should be more thankful that we don’t face the challenges of Atlanta, Nashvlle, or even Asheville.