Bristol VA versus Bristol TN (Abingdon, Washington: sales, neighborhoods, pros and cons)

[TN Lily]

This is a question of curiosity. If one were moving to Bristol, what are the pros and cons of which side of the state line you live?

I know TN has no state income tax, but if you live in TN and work in VA, I assume you pay VA income tax on those earnings. TN has a much higher sales tax.

Thanks in advance.

[Serious Conversation]

You do pay the tax to VA if you work in TN. Bristol, VA tends to have a lot more newer development, and IMO, better neighborhoods than Bristol, TN. Bristol, TN is quickly dying on the vine and the new development is moving to VA.

[TN Lily]

Emigrations, thank you for your response. Why is the new development moving to VA?

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by TN Lily

Emigrations, thank you for your response. Why is the new development moving to VA?

Probably due to the existing exit 5-7 retail development which have been there for at least ten years. Sales tax is also less in VA, so many people from TN will go to the VA Sams and Wal-Mart. There is another shopping center anchored by either a Bass Pro or Cabela's going up on the TN side by exit 74. There have been incentives in both projects, but I think the Bristol, VA city manager or mayor resigned when it came up that taxpayer dollars were directly funding the projects, which ran afoul of some regulation.

Most of the industry in Bristol was located on the TN side. All of this has either folded or dramatically scaled back. The area is just a hollow shell of what it was.

I wouldn't recommend living in northeast TN or southwest VA at all, but if you have to be in Bristol, the VA side is doing a bit better.

[Jim37680]

From my perspective much of the difference in development is due with geographic and topographical issues. This is clearly visible using the "terrain" mode on Google maps.

Bristol, Tennessee has fully populated and developed the easily buildable valleys that are surrounded by some steep, folded ridge systems. The really pretty side of Bristol, Tennessee lies to the southeast of the Whitetop Knobs (southeast of Vance Tank Road) with some great views of Holston Mountain. This getting kind of far out though but the new four-lane 384 extension has made this area less isolated.

The valley that runs northeast out of Bristol, Virginia toward Abingdon on the Virginia side is much more amenable to development compared to the limited open space south of the border (especially with I-81 running up that valley). It really blows me away looking at the expenditure being made (principally at taxpayer expense) to level a substantial limestone ridge on the side of I-81 at Exit 5 so that a bait shop (Cow-bella's) can be seen by motorists up and down the Interstate. I am waiting to see if they remove some or all of the sound suppression walls on the I-81 viaduct to allow better view of the bait shop by southbound motorists. Maybe a new "Exit 6" will be built into the parking lot. It would be terrible if anyone missed Exit 5 and had to go further south to The Pinnacle at the Tennessee line and got sucked into the competing bait shop being built there. A lot of landscape relocation is being done at the The Pinnacle but nothing as radical as that at Exit 5 (The Falls).

Kingsport development for both industrial/commercial, and to a lesser extent residential, has some of the same terrain issues compared to the greater Johnson City area which has much more adjacent (but rapidly disappearing) open rural valley land. For Kingsport the mountains, ridges, and rivers force substantial development off to the south of I-81 toward Washington and Greene Counties which is rather far from the center of Kingsport.

[TN Lily]

Jim37680, I like your name for that sporting goods/bait shop -- Cow-bella's.