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Tennessee is more centrally located to places where I travel, such as Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh, South Carolina and Florida; and sometimes St. Louis and Indianapolis. I prefer to drive to these places, but I will fly when I have to, and that is also a reason why I prefer Nashville. Since the Cincy/NKY airport has scaled back, there just aren't as many flights to/from places I need to go there; versus the growing list of destinations from BNA.
Also, there's another subjective thing to look at when comparing both states. Tennessee's populations, which is 2.5 million more than Kentucky's is more spread out in the state's three grand divisions (west, middle, east). I find myself travelling to all corners of Tennessee, and it's fairly easy. All major populations have excellent Interstate/highway access.
Finally, Tennessee is less unionized than Kentucky. Some people may like that, but most in the South do not. They wield great influence on statewide politics in the Midwest and lead to less competitive economies. Kentucky's is not as pronounced as other states in its region, but it's still greater than Tennessee. Although I understand that there is a RTW wave sweeping the Midwest. Indiana just passed RTW regs in an effort to become more competitive.
Tennessee has larger cities, more growth, no state income tax, a larger economy, professional sports, better universities, and better parks. Kentucky is more rural, less progressive, less southern, and has toll roads.
Tennessee has larger cities, more growth, no state income tax, a larger economy, professional sports, better universities, and better parks. Kentucky is more rural, less progressive, less southern, and has toll roads.
Kentucky has zero toll roads, unless your counting the Louisville I-65 and I-265 Bridges which the tolls are shared with Indiana.
Most of your other comments are subjective and can be debated. I dont think Tennessee is that much more progressive than Kentucky. Really the 2 states mirror each other in so many ways and most people outside the region view both States pretty much the same...both southern, Appalachian backwards states....which i dont agree with.
Kentucky has zero toll roads, unless your counting the Louisville I-65 and I-265 Bridges which the tolls are shared with Indiana.
Most of your other comments are subjective and can be debated. I dont think Tennessee is that much more progressive than Kentucky. Really the 2 states mirror each other in so many ways and most people outside the region view both States pretty much the same...both southern, Appalachian backwards states....which i dont agree with.
TN rural areas tend to have more tourism, better roads, and less poverty compared to KY rural areas in percentage terms. Bell County, KY, has a staggering poverty rate of over 45% with a little under 30,000 people.
Kentucky has zero toll roads, unless your counting the Louisville I-65 and I-265 Bridges which the tolls are shared with Indiana.
Most of your other comments are subjective and can be debated. I dont think Tennessee is that much more progressive than Kentucky. Really the 2 states mirror each other in so many ways and most people outside the region view both States pretty much the same...both southern, Appalachian backwards states....which i dont agree with.
I disagree. While I despise the term "progressive" because it's nearly always used incorrectly in these discussions. The prevailing image of TN across the nation is of a more prosperous, "sunbelt" magnet for people than Kentucky, which has an image (unfairly or not) of the coal country. Like it or not, those images are of a dying economy. Much is made of Southerners being "backward" and conservative and unwelcoming, but the South/Sunbelt in reality is far more accepting of newcomers and has more dynamic economies. The difference between TN and KY is not coincidentally, like the difference between the South and the Midwest. I travel to Louisville and Lexington on business and even I get asked where I went to high school. I chuckle whenever I hear that (which is not a common question in so many other places), and I joke that I have to think that far back, before my graduate degrees and before my college degrees. Then I go, "oh yeah! I didn't go to high school in Kentucky."
Most of your other comments are subjective and can be debated. I dont think Tennessee is that much more progressive than Kentucky. Really the 2 states mirror each other in so many ways and most people outside the region view both States pretty much the same...both southern, Appalachian backwards states....which i dont agree with.
Kentucky is more rural and less developed as others have stated. Tennessee is more progressive in attracting new industries, increasing the number of residents atrending college, and continues to add more residents. Only the eastern portions of either state is Appalachian.
I disagree. While I despise the term "progressive" because it's nearly always used incorrectly in these discussions. The prevailing image of TN across the nation is of a more prosperous, "sunbelt" magnet for people than Kentucky, which has an image (unfairly or not) of the coal country. Like it or not, those images are of a dying economy. Much is made of Southerners being "backward" and conservative and unwelcoming, but the South/Sunbelt in reality is far more accepting of newcomers and has more dynamic economies. The difference between TN and KY is not coincidentally, like the difference between the South and the Midwest. I travel to Louisville and Lexington on business and even I get asked where I went to high school. I chuckle whenever I hear that (which is not a common question in so many other places), and I joke that I have to think that far back, before my graduate degrees and before my college degrees. Then I go, "oh yeah! I didn't go to high school in Kentucky."
This has been my experience, too.
It is interesting that Kentucky and Tennessee used to be very similar in population. As recently as 1960 they were almost the same size: Tennessee had 3.5 million, Kentucky had 3 million. But today, Tennessee has 6.7 million and Kentucky has 4.4 million. While rural Tennessee has some very economically depressed areas, they pale in comparison to the absolute, stark poverty and desolation that exists in much of rural Kentucky. Tennessee has no equivalent to places like Harlan County KY which had 75,000 people in 1940--3rd largest in the state at the time--but only 27,000 today.
When we look at border counties, we see that counties on the Tennessee side have fared much better than counties on the Kentucky side. I think part of this is Tennessee is a much tax-friendlier state. Look at the Clarksville-Hopkinsville area. Fort Campbell straddles the two states and has a Kentucky address. When it was established in 1941, Christian County KY was the larger county with a population of 36,129 while Montgomery County TN had a population of 33,346. Today, Christian County has a population of 72,351 (down 2.1% from the 2010 Census) while Montgomery County has a population of 195,734 (up 12.3% from the 2010 Census). All those military families assigned to Fort Campbell chose to live in tax-friendly Tennessee, and businesses and industry soon followed. Even with Tennessee's higher sales tax, retail in Clarksville is booming while Hopkinsville is stagnant.
Another example is Middlesboro KY. Middlesboro is in Bell County and is the dominant town where KY-TN-VA meet. In 1950 Bell County had a population of 47,602 while Claiborne County TN had a population of 24,788. Today Bell County has a population of 27,117 while Claiborne County has a population of 31,757. While that area in general is not doing well economically, the Tennessee side isn't hemorrhaging population at the rate of the Kentucky side.
And I agree about Kentucky's toll roads. I'm sure at the time it seemed like a good idea to make most of Kentucky's freeways tollways so that only those who used them paid for them. But what effect did they have? Even though Kentucky shares Tennessee's ideal location smack in the middle of the country's population centers, businesses and industry obviously chose Tennessee, I believe partially because of the fact that Tennessee didn't have annoying--and expensive--toll roads. All those tolls add up, especially for businesses that use a lot of trucks.
So between Kentucky's higher taxes and its toll roads, Tennessee has grown faster and has become, over all, more prosperous. Now that Kentucky has eliminated its toll roads (except the bridges in the Louisville area) Kentucky might start seeing some economic benefits. But it might not be enough to overcome Tennessee's head start and lower tax burden.
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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
who's - contraction of who is
whose - possession
alot - NOT A WORD
Keep in mind that many of the Appalachian KY and extreme southwest VA counties were essentially mining hubs. The TN counties never really were, and avoided much of that "boom/bust" cycle. While the economy in none of these counties is terrific, mining counties recorded a population boom as mining began and peaked and have pretty well collapsed since then. Without coal, you'd probably see a much more similar trendline.
Both state governments have failed to invest in their extreme eastern portions. Does Frankfort really value anything south and east of Lexington? Does Nashville really care about anything beyond Sevierville/Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge? I don't know enough about rural western TN/KY to comment accurately. One of the problems here in the Tri-Cities is that we get next to no investment, attention, or promotion from the state government, unless an official is pandering for votes. I'd imagine the same thing goes on in Kentucky.
The Tri-Cities, such as it is, is doing considerably better than places like Middlesborough, London, and Harlan. I've never spent any time in extreme northeast KY or central far eastern KY, but can't imagine they have much going on. Nashville is a good bit bigger and growing faster than Louisville. Knoxville and Lexington are pretty comparable. KY has nothing that really corresponds to Memphis.
Most of the rural and small town Appalachian KY, TN, and VA counties have failed to exploit the natural beauty/tourism/recreation aspects that could aid their economies. Western NC has done a much better job in this regard. TN is attracting more business and people, but the vast majority of that is around metro Nashville and Knoxville, to a lesser extent.
Honestly, once you get out of Nashville/Knoxville and Louisville/Lexington, neither state is doing great in the smaller metros and rural areas.
Keep in mind that many of the Appalachian KY and extreme southwest VA counties were essentially mining hubs. The TN counties never really were, and avoided much of that "boom/bust" cycle. While the economy in none of these counties is terrific, mining counties recorded a population boom as mining began and peaked and have pretty well collapsed since then. Without coal, you'd probably see a much more similar trendline.
Both state governments have failed to invest in their extreme eastern portions. Does Frankfort really value anything south and east of Lexington? Does Nashville really care about anything beyond Sevierville/Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge? I don't know enough about rural western TN/KY to comment accurately. One of the problems here in the Tri-Cities is that we get next to no investment, attention, or promotion from the state government, unless an official is pandering for votes. I'd imagine the same thing goes on in Kentucky.
The Tri-Cities, such as it is, is doing considerably better than places like Middlesborough, London, and Harlan. I've never spent any time in extreme northeast KY or central far eastern KY, but can't imagine they have much going on. Nashville is a good bit bigger and growing faster than Louisville. Knoxville and Lexington are pretty comparable. KY has nothing that really corresponds to Memphis.
Most of the rural and small town Appalachian KY, TN, and VA counties have failed to exploit the natural beauty/tourism/recreation aspects that could aid their economies. Western NC has done a much better job in this regard. TN is attracting more business and people, but the vast majority of that is around metro Nashville and Knoxville, to a lesser extent.
Honestly, once you get out of Nashville/Knoxville and Louisville/Lexington, neither state is doing great in the smaller metros and rural areas.
What a crock. You are (in)famous for lamenting what's happened to the Tri Cities, as if it's "Nashville"'s fault. As if "Nashville" runs the state. "Nashville" is merely an amalgamation of the rest of the state. East Tennessee has historically had more delegates in the state government than either Middle or West Tennessee. In fact, prior to Phil Bredesen you have to go back to 1967 to the last time Tennesseans voted for a Middle Tennessean to be their governor; in the last 50 years Tennessee has had a grand total of TWO governors from Middle Tennessee, and neither of them was native to Middle TN (one was from MS, the other from NJ). Tennessee's current, two-term governor is from East Tennessee.
The fact is, Tennessee has done a much better job at shoring up its rural counties than Kentucky has. While Kentucky's very modest growth has been centralized in the Louisville-Lexington-NKY triangle Tennessee has historically had fairly even growth throughout the state. It's only been in the last 20 years or so that the Nashville area has taken off. Memphis was the state's golden child for most of the last 100 years, and the state certainly spared no expense to build up the Tri Cities, like putting a medical school and VA hospital in Johnson City instead of Knoxville and the massive Holston Ammunition Plant just outside of Kingsport. You can't blame "Nashville" for the constant bickering between the three big NE TN cities which has led to the Tri Cities' lackluster economic growth in recent years. And remember, it was an East Tennessee governor who encouraged Nissan to locate to the Nashville area which many consider to be the beginning of Nashville's economic boom. (Nashville's very smart decision to merge with Davidson County in 1962 certainly helped.)
As far as infrastructure goes, Tennessee built its interstate allocation in East Tennessee before the rest of the state; Nashville was actually the last city in the state where its original interstate allocation was completed. Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and the Tri Cities all had their interstate highways completed before Nashville. The state helped the Tri Cities and Memphis build their large airports which, today, languish with under use. The state provided incentives for large ammunitions plants to go to the Tri Cities, Chattanoga, and Jackson--not Nashville. The state put its state-funded medical schools in Memphis and Johnson City, not Nashville. Its law schools are in Memphis and Knoxville, not Nashville. Its land grand university is in Knoxville. The state bent over backwards to accommodate the establishment of Oak Ridge and ALCOA in East Tennessee.
To insinuate that the current state of Tennessee's economy is the way things have always been is to be completely ignorant of Tennessee's economic and political history. The reality is, the state has historically done a remarkable job encouraging prosperity in all three Grand Divisions. You can't blame "Nashville" when leaders in other areas of Tennessee have made boneheaded decisions which have discouraged continued economic growth.
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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
who's - contraction of who is
whose - possession
alot - NOT A WORD
Kentucky is more rural and less developed as others have stated. Tennessee is more progressive in attracting new industries, increasing the number of residents attending college, and continues to add more residents. Only the eastern portions of either state is Appalachian.
Yes, I am aware of River Link...my comment even stated unless you are including the Toll BRIDGES, which could very easily be Indiana as they are on the border and only include crossing the bridge and half the toll revenue goes to the State of Indiana. No Interstates or Parkways are currently tolled in Kentucky.When I lived in Louisville, I think I crossed the river 2 or 3 times to get to Indiana, but most people who live in Louisville work in Louisville, and that would be the only city where tolling could be an issue, the remaining 99% of the State is not tolled currently.
I will agree that Kentucky lags behind Tennessee in terms of economic growth, and also can agree the tax situation (except sales tax which is crazy high in TN) is better than Kentucky. Thankfully Kentucky is a right to work state now and hopefully soon it can start to turn on the economic engine, as many other southern states have done in the last 10 to 15 years.
I think if Kentucky can begin to bring in large amounts of companies which offer good jobs, people will relocate here. The State's best hope right now is Louisville which has some exciting development, but Lexington is still a small city, and not much else going on in the rest of the state, compared to Tennessee with Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, TriCities and Chattanooga.
Last edited by KY_Transplant; 05-31-2017 at 10:52 AM..
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