Don Fenley, who heads up the Kingsport Times-News electronic edition, does a good job of comparing the numbers for the national recession versus Kingsport's version.
Fenley uses numbers to show that Kingsport's faring better than most places, but he also points out that the perception locally is one of fretfulness.
Fenley worked at a variety of newspapers, primarily in the Southwest (including Huntington Beach, CA) and the Pacific Northwest, before joining as editorial page editor at the Times-News in 1993. As such, he has a good perspective on how things work in areas beyond the Northeast Tennessee region.
While he doesn't come right out and say "we're doing better than most" in his blog post, it's implied, and I tend to agree. For all those who think the local economy is bad, it's nothing compared to many other parts of the country. From Las Vegas to Huntington Beach, from Richmond to Asheville, the economic downturn is considerably worse than it is here.
In addition, since we tend to trail the national averages in many aspects, it's been a blessing to see a resilient economy in the local region mostly buffered against the large waves of layoffs, severe housing drops and genuine despair.
We may fret in Kingsport, but we've not yet come close to despair. Yes, housing prices have declined, but the housing market's still active; so is the commercial new construction market in the region. And so are entrepreneurial opportunities for those who consider timing right to start something new.
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