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By BILL JONES Washington County Bureau According to a geographic canon known as the Central Place Theory only one city should exist in place of the four East Tennessee cities of Kingsport, Bristol, Johnson City, and Elizabethton, an East Tennessee State University professor says. The theory, according to Dr. Robert Peplies, was developed in Germany about 40 years ago and explains the existence of cities (termed central plaices) on the basis of market areas, transportation, and com munication. A region the size of the Kingsport, Bris tol, Johnson City. Elizabethton area should have only one large “central place’ and a number of smaller towns, according to the theory. The four cities ‘share a market area larger than that of Knoxville, “Dr. Peplies said. Only an accident of history caused four cities to develop instead of one.’ The result is a segmented market area, with each city fighting to maintain a monopoly in its own quarter of the large area according to Dr. Peplies, who is chairman of the Department of Georgraphy at HETSU. “If this area is to enjoy continued growth, all four cities must cooperate more than they have in the past. We've got to get away from the old idea that only my city is important,” Dr. Peplies said. _ “This is not to say the four cities haven't been operated in the past. Cooperation among the cities got Tri-City Airport built and made it possible to get the medical school at ETSU,” he said. But Peplies sees an even greater challenge ahead. Completion of Interstate 81 this year could be a boon to the economy of the four cities — but only if they present a united front against commercial expan sion by Knoxville. Although many local business and civic leaders disagree, Dr. Peplies expects a shift in retail buying away from the four cities unless this region completes the kind of transit system that will make inter-city travel almost as convenient as driving downtown.’ — cooperates more than it has in the past. _ develops shopping centers that will offer the variety of merchandise available in other cities the size of all four, Quad Ci ties combined. The four cities must begin to think of themselves as the “Quad Cities” and put petty jealousy away if the area is to con tinue to grow, the professor said. Although Bristol, Kingsport, and John son City have long been known as the Tri- Cities and have cooperated successfully before, they seem to resent being lumped with up-start Elizabethton, he said. Although Elizabethton is somewhat smaller than the other three cities, all four cities have substantial numbers of indus tries, have new shopping malls, and are the centers of their segment of the market area,” Dr. Peplies said. Roughly arranged in a diamond shape, the four cities surround the most populous portion of upper Fast Tennessee. All four of the cities have portion of market areas in other states, with Kingsport and Bristol both controlling portions of Southwest Virginia and Elizabethton and Johnson City claiming domains in North Carolina. Opening of Interstate 81 could have a detrimental effect on local business, unless the four cities start 10 cooperate more than they have in the past, Dr. Peplies warned. When the new highway opens, he said, area shoppers will find it easier to get to Knoxville and take advantage of the greater variety of goods and services he says are found there. The way to combat this threat, he says, is greater specializa tion in stores here . A single regional shopping center, say at the airport, would fail today, he says, “People wouldn't drive 15 miles to go there, because there's nothing else there.” But they will drive 20 miles to a new shop ping center in any of the three major towns because they hope to find something they can't find at home. Too often, he says, they are disappoint ed. Branches of chain stores in all three ci ties carry much the same merchandise. Even independent stores tend to duplicate the biggest-selling items, with a lack of depth in their lines to attract people who want or need something different. As an example, Peplies recounted the difficulty he had in obtaining a specialized camera filter for Infrared photography. By calling, long distance, camera shops in Kingsport, Johnson City, and Bristol, he discovered the filler was unavailable locally. Then, for 25 cents more toll charge than he paid for each of the three long dis tance calls in the Tri-Cities, he called a Knoxville camera shop. The fillers were on hand, and were shipped to him immedia tely, Peplies said. Area governmental and business leaders dispute Dr. Peplies' theory about the opening of Interstate 81, and a spokesman for the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce said he doubted the opening of the highway would draw many area shoppers to Knoxville. Robert B. Wood, Jr., Director of govern mental affairs and research for the Knox ville Chamber of Commerce, said he felt sure Knoxville's retail trading area would be broadened by the opening of the inters tate, but didn't believe that would take anything away from businesses in the Quad-Cities area. “I wish the interstate would do that for us, but I doubt that it will,” Wood said. Several Knoxville states have branches in the Quad-Cities and would really be cut ting their own throats with any attempt to expand toward the Quad-Cities either directly or through advertising, Wood said. , A.B. Coleman, executive director of the Kingsport chamber of Commerce, also disagreed with Dr. Peplies on the prospect of area businesses being damaged by In terstate 81's making Knoxville attractions easily accessible 10 Quad-Cities residents. You have to remember that these new roads run in both directions,and that completion of the Route 23 will make us (the Quad-Cities) an important stop on one of the most heavily traveled routes to Florida,” Coleman said. The Kingsport executive also said he felt there was as good a selection of merchan dise and services in the Quad-Cities area as there was in Knoxville. ‘People go to Knoxville on special oc casions now, to see ball games and other entertainment events and they may shop there every six months or so. People aren‘t going to po flock to Knoxville because its 30 minutes closer than it is right now.” Coleman said. Jack Strickland, director of the First Tennessee Virginia Development District, said he thought Dr. Peplies theory needed to be “re-examined” in light of re fuel si tuation, “If congress passes the proposed new gasoline tax, very fow people will be driv ing to Knoxville from this area whether there is an interstate highway or not,” Strickland said. Dr. Peplies said great strides toward minimizing factors, which keep the Quad- Cities apart could be made if a single telephone rate could be established for the entire Quad-Cities area and if the proposed Quad-Cities beltway were cons tructed. ‘Communication and transportation are the two factors which keep the cities apart from anything else. ’ Elizabethton Mayor Lionel Bunton said he would like to see the proposed Quad-Ci ties beltway built and added that he thought the four cities should increase their cooperative efforts in connection with the Tri-County Industrial Park, which, he said was not developing as fast as it should, ‘I don’t know if it's because of the economic situation or because of selfish ness among the four cities that the indus trial park isn’t growing as fast as it should. We need to work together to get industry into the park, it can be something good for all of us. Bunton said. The Elizabethton Mayor also said he felt there was some prejudice. on the part of the other three cities, against recognizing the Carter County city as a member of the community of cities, “We shouldn't be left outside and not considered a major economic force in the Quad-Cities.” Why Elizabethton and not Gate City or Rogersville or Jonesboro or Greeneville”? According to Peplies, Elizabethton fits the pattern of the other three cities better than any other community. It has its own industrial base, a shopping center which draws from a wide area, and is too close to the other cities to be ignored. Carlisle Stafford, executive director of the Carter County Chamber of Commerce, said his group passed a resolution in 1972 asking that Elizabethton be accorded equal status with the other three cities. “We feel we're an internal part of the upper Fast Tennessee area and feel it would be in the interest of all four cities to cooperate on such things as the industrial park and get ting the beltway built.” Stafford said. Bristol, Tennessee. Mayor Karl MacCor mac said he Felt there was room for greater cooperation among the four cities in the area of city-owned heavy equipment, which he said was generally used only 60 percent of the time. According to MacCor mac, Bristol, Tennessee and Virginia were experimenting with the idea of jointly owned heavy equipment doing the same among all four cities, Johnson City, City Manager William Ricker said the equipment sharing plan sounded good in theory but that he was not sure it could be put into practice. “I believe most of our heavy equipment‘is used more than 60 percent of the time and that owes out sharing it with anybody else. Expen sive, specialized equipment such as television sewer inspection equipment might be shared with other cities, however,” Ricker said. The city manager said he though there was a possibility the four cities could get together on “central purchasing.” One central purchasing agency for all four ci tes sounds like a good idea, but their would be a lot of problems implementing something like that, with four different governmental bodies involved.” Rieker said. etre ROGERSVILLE 'WN INTERSTATE 81 IN_CITY, Map shows retail trading areas in gray, while arrows indicate commercial and residential development in the “Quad-Cities” area. Solid blocks in back of cities represent industrial growth in areas of lower real estate value. ROANOKE © “QUAD-CITIES” 4 * KNOXVILLE CHATTANOOGA JIRMINGHA Map shows line of population centers along Appalachians stretching from Birmingham at bottom to Roanoke at top. The only non-city is the Kingsport-Johnson City-Bristol-Elizabethton center between Roanoke and Knoxville. Satellite photos show each center has about the same population, and is about the same distance from the next in line.
Newspaper Details
Kingsport Times News
Kingsport, Tennessee, US
Sun, Nov 24, 1974
Page 54
Full Page
Clipped by
Jay W.
WA, USA 06 Feb 2026
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