This is a story about my grandmother.

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Patricia (called Patty by her friends) was born in Texas and moved to the Tri-Cities as a kid. Sometimes called the Appalachian Highlands, the Tri-Cities describe the three major towns in Northeast Tennessee—Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, which is on the border of Southwest Virginia and Tennessee. Patty and I went to the same high school, which got a new building, football field, and music hall in the 50-year gap between us. Everything around the school seemed to grow quickly too—now there’s three chain grocery stores within walking distance, new drive-thru restaurants, and many more houses. 

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Johnson City, Tennessee has seen rapid change in recent years. The city has over 70,000 residents today, and experienced its highest yearly population growth since 1997 in 2022 as out-of-state residents flood into the Tri-Cities area and Northeast Tennessee at large. Patty loves to talk about the Californian next door, but it seems no one can put a name to this widespread development—gentrification. In Johnson City, development turns into gentrification with the continued in-movement of high-wage remote workers that subsequently and inadvertently outprices longtime residents. In turn, local news articles choose to highlight these remote residents’ perceptions of this growth, exemplifying a major disregard for their impact on this gentrification crisis.

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The local government’s prolonged investment in attracting new, wealthier residents instead of supporting existing residents and infrastructure is the hallmark of Johnson City’s ongoing gentrification. Starting in April 2021 and ending this past June, a joint venture between regional and city tourism boards led to a $100,000 investment in attracting remote workers with perks such as $500 bikes, $1,000 hot tubs, and incentives between $2,500-$5,000 to assist with relocation costs. This is a method used by many small metro areas to attract new residents, but what makes this iteration so insidious is the income requirement. In order to receive these benefits, you are required to make a minimum of $50,000 a year as an individual. This easily beats the median household income for the city, which sits at $47,242 according to the last census after jumping up  by $5,000 from 2020 to 2021. This significant jump in income shows the impact these remote workers have had on the larger community. Patty could’ve used that money at Crossroads before she retired, a nonprofit treatment center for drug or alcohol abuse, guiding community members through staying clean and navigating the justice system. Similar programs in other Appalachian towns, such as Beckley, WV, offer benefits regardless of income, so why is Johnson City’s tourism board choosing to prioritize wealthy remote workers instead of longtime residents? No matter their intentions, this practice furthers the ongoing process of gentrification in the region. Additionally, this remote worker program was a huge success—Johnson City attracted 44 families to the area, surpassing their original goal of 30. That’s at least $44,000 towards new hot tubs and $22,000 towards new bikes that could have gone back into affordable housing, addiction treatment, or improving infrastructure. New people and ideas are undoubtedly beneficial to the region, but not at the expense of resources that could have supported people who have lived in Johnson City their entire lives.

 

Gentrification is slowly plaguing Johnson City and the region at large, and local news articles about this development refuse to consider the perspectives of longtime residents. John Jenco and Jeff Keeling’s piece from WJHL, the local news station, attempts to address Johnson City’s massive growth from multiple perspectives, including those of city managers and public administration professionals. However, they fail to mention longtime resident opinions. Instead, a family of remote workers from Minneapolis in 2021 were interviewed about their feelings on the region. While it’s important that every resident gets a say in what happens in their neighborhood, the fact that longtime residents were not given a voice at all says more than enough. When wealthier remote workers move here, the minimum wage in their home state extends farther than our $7.25, outpricing people from the only home they’ve known. We’ve noticed the rent prices soaring 50% higher than what they were pre-pandemic. Patty lives off a fixed income, drawing social security along with her state pension, and every time her rent rises it becomes harder to buy groceries and pay utilities. 

We are currently at a precipice; we can choose to stand up and resist this gentrification, prevent our families and neighbors from being forced out of their homes, and work to build a Johnson City with enough room for all of us, or we can sit on our laurels and wait for the problem to become completely untenable. It is our decisions now that will shape the Johnson City of our children and grandchildren, and for Patty’s sake, I implore you to get involved. If not, even the Californians left in our wake will have no place to call home.

 

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Bibliography

 

“About Beckley Remote.” Live In Beckley, November 28, 2023. https://liveinbeckley.com/about-beckley-remote/. 

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“DataUSA: Johnson City, TN.” Data USA. Accessed November 2023. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/johnson-city-tn/#:~:text=About,%2447%2C242%2C%20a%2012%25%20increase. 

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Floyd, David. “Johnson City Oks $100,000 to Lure Remote Workers.” Johnson City Press, April 15, 2021. https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/news/johnson-city-oks-100-000-to-lure-remote-workers/article_6e771978-9c77-11eb-8eaf-cf5f6289338d.html#:~:text=Johnson%20City%20will%20spend%20%24100%2C000,to%20move%20to%20the%20area. 

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“Get Paid to Live in Johnson City, Tennessee - Move to Johnson City.” MakeMyMove. Accessed November 2023. https://www.makemymove.com/get-paid/johnson-city-tennessee. 

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Hackney, Kayla. “Johnson City Remote Worker Program Draws in 44 People.” Johnson City Press, August 16, 2023. https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/news/local-news/johnson-city-remote-worker-program-draws-in-44-people/article_581c7022-3c6d-11ee-a8bd-ebb849e89130.html. 

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Jenco, John, and Jeff Keeling. “Tri-Cities Leaders Try to Keep Area’s Allure despite Quick Growth.” WJHL, February 20, 2023. https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/balancing-the-boom/tri-cities-leaders-try-to-keep-areas-allure-despite-quick-growth/. 

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Jenco, John. “Outside Investors, High Demand to Blame for Rising Rent in Tri-Cities.” WJHL, August 18, 2022. https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/outside-investors-high-demand-to-blame-for-rising-rent-in-tri-cities/. 

“U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: Johnson City City, Tennessee.” US Census Bureau. Accessed April 14, 2023. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/johnsoncitycitytennessee/PST045222.

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​Jones, J. Michael. “View of the Johnson City Sign in King Commons Park from the Corner Of...” iStock, www.istockphoto.com/photo/johnson-city-sign-in-king-commons-park-gm1147447734-309514872. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.