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Issues in Bristol Virginia, Bristol Tennessee

By Lewis Loflin

In Bristol the underclass is simply ignored, while funds that were supposed to "fix" the problem are routinely diverted to what the elite want. While it's true a lot of poverty is self-inflicted, the system overall benefits from it. In Bristol many of the best out migrate, those too lazy or shiftless are shut away out of sight. The City government simply pretends they don't exist until applying for state/federal grants, and work to keep wage scales as low as possible to benefit local business community. It has actually been pointed out that the welfare industry (in the local press no less!) is a boon to Bristol, bringing in millions of tax dollars into the local economy.

The welfare industry exists only to perpetuate itself. As Murrey points out the "underclass" is not required to change their often destructive social behavior, while personal achievement and initiative are slapped down. Business wants cheap labor and to keep it that way, while the welfare elite limit what anyone can get or cut them off at the knees when they try. The goals of the business community and the social agencies are often at odds to begin with, but often work to similar ends.

The advantages of social apartheid

From The Sunday Times April 3, 2005 (edited extract)

US experience shows Britain what to do with its underclass – get it off the streets, says Charles Murray. Britain renamed the underclass "Neet" an acronym for “not in education, employment or training”. They hope to reduce "Neet" by 20% by 2010...Its numbers are not going to be reduced by 20% by 2010. Its numbers will increase...

...Nothing about the underclass is rocket science...children who grow up without being nurtured by two biological parents are at risk. Poverty isn’t the problem. Inadequate educational opportunities aren’t the problem. Social exclusion isn’t the problem...Children today usually still have a mother with them. The problem is the growing number of children who have no father and who live in areas where hardly anyone has a father. Girls without fathers tend to be emotionally damaged.

Among other things, they tend to search for father substitutes among young males, which in turn increases the likelihood of repeating their mother’s experience. Boys without fathers tend to grow up unsocialised. They tend to have poor impulse control, to be sexual predators, to be unable to get up at the same time every morning and go to a job. They tend to disappear shortly after the baby is born...

As Murray continues, "I use the word “tend” because none of these outcomes is carved in stone for any particular child. But we can’t deny a problem exists because some children of single women do well. Of course, there are many exceptions but the statistical tendencies are pronounced, and tendencies produce a large and problematic underclass."

These are documented facts as Murray says. He looks to the American example of how to deal with this self-inflicted problem. To quote, "During the 1960s and 1970s, the Americans tried everything: pre-school socialization programs, enrichment programs in elementary schools, programs that provided guaranteed jobs for young people without skills, ones that provided on-the-job training, programs that sent young people without skills to residential centers for extended skills training and psychological preparation for the world of work, programs to prevent school dropout, and so on. These are just the efforts aimed at individuals. I won’t even try to list the varieties of programs that went under the heading of “community development.” They were also the most notorious failures.

He goes on to criticize the British government for wanting to repeat the same failures. Here in Appalachia that has also been tried and has failed. As Murray continues, “Surely we can say that the traditional family unit is the best way to nurture children without making it a campaign to beat up single mums. With respect: you cannot. If you want to reduce the number of single mums you have to be ready to say that to bring a child into the world without a father committed to its care is wrong." He says begin to hold irresponsible parents accountable.

How to do this according to Murray? "By ending all government programs that subsidize having babies. But this moves us into the realm of solutions that haven’t a prayer of becoming reality. They haven’t in the United States, where the total package of benefits for single mothers has not been diminished despite the hoopla about welfare reform..."

Here is how America handles its underclass: "The underclass, the most important domestic policy issue of the 1980s, is no longer even a topic of conversation in the United States. The American underclass isn’t any smaller. The three indicators of an underclass — the proportion of children born to single women, criminality among young men and young men who have dropped out of the labor force — have all grown or remained steady during the past 15 years. The underclass is no longer an issue because we successfully put it out of sight and out of mind.

Consider the presence of the underclass in American cities. Fifteen or 20 years ago, the homeless, panhandlers and street hustlers were everywhere. Today they are virtually gone in most cities (San Francisco remains the exception). Graffiti used to be everywhere in American cities. Today it is rare in the better parts of town. You have no idea how depressing graffiti is until you’ve lived without it and then encounter it again, as you do in cities throughout Europe. The social segregation of the underclass has been nearly perfected. We have not learnt how to compensate for the parenting deficits that cripple the lives of children of the underclass, but we have learnt how to avoid dealing with the consequences.

American children of the middle and upper classes no longer go to school with the children of the underclass. For a number of years, progressive American educators managed to dilute the old principle that a school drew only from a restricted geographic area. That principle has been reinstated so parents can be sure that if they move to the right neighborhood their children won’t have large numbers of disruptive, foul-mouthed, sexually precocious and sometimes violent classmates. Middle and upper-class parents who remain within large cities commonly send their children to private schools.

Increased geographic segregation of the underclass has facilitated social segregation. In many large cities, urban renovation has reclaimed deteriorating downtown areas for glitzy shops and gleaming offices. Gentrification has retrieved much of the urban housing stock that had fallen into disrepair. The “inner city” is seldom literally located in the inner city but in decrepit neighborhoods on the periphery that need not be on the travel route of the rest of us.

Most importantly, America has dealt with its crime problem. The crime rate has dropped by about one-third since the early 1990s. It has dropped even more in the better parts of town. People walk the streets of New York and Chicago without taking the precautions they used to take. Triple-locked doors and bars on the windows are not as necessary as they used to be. People feel safer and are safer.

We didn’t solve the crime problem by learning how to get tough on the causes of crime nor by rehabilitating criminals. We just took them off the streets. As of 2005, more than 2 million Americans are incarcerated. That number is inefficiently large — it includes many minor drug offenders — but it responds to the question “Does prison work?”

...In the United States I have called this the coming of custodial democracy — literally custodial for criminals, figuratively custodial for the neighborhoods we seal away from the rest of us. Custodial democracy is probably headed your way. It is not a happy solution. On the contrary, it means abandoning a central tenet of a free society — that everyone can exercise equal responsibility for his or her own life. But Britain, like the United States and western Europe, is locked into a welfare state that by its nature generates large numbers of feckless people. If we are unwilling to prevent an underclass by giving responsibility for behaviour back to individuals, their families, and communities, custodial democracy is the only option left.

Charles Murray, best known for Losing Ground, his 1984 book about welfare reform, and for The Bell Curve in 1994. The complete article can be read at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article376528.ece.

Mayor Weberling falls and "voodoo bookkeeping"

BRISTOL, Va. – City voters returned former Mayor Jim Rector to the City Council Tuesday while turning down the bid of its current mayor, Doug Weberling. “I feel humbled to have been the top vote-getter,” Rector said. "I talked to a lot of people and I knocked on a lot of doors. I’ve listened to a lot of concerns...about the city's debt and the rising costs of utility services. Weberling failed in his bid for a fourth four-year term. “That’s just the way it goes,” he said in a telephone interview. “I commend the people who won. It’s a huge burden off me, but I have offered to try and assist the new council members any way I can.” Two incumbents didn’t seek re-election. May 02, 2006 Bristol Herald Courier (extract)

Update May 30, 2006: According to local press reports the Bristol Virginia City budget is again $1.9 million in the red just like last year. This is after huge utility rate increase (40%) and property assessments last year and borrowing about $10 million for pay things like the city golf coarse. City residents are angry, wanting no more tax increases.

Update July 2006: Weberling and two other city council members have left and their replacements assumed office on July 1, but not before they left residents with more tax and utility increases, cuts in services, and another $5 million corporate welfare package for a private strip mall. Weberling called Mr. Spangler's budget "voodoo bookkeeping" that involves an earlier multi-million dollar corporate welfare package for the local Home Depot. There is some question if the city budget is really balanced or was this just funny accounting as former mayor Weberling implies. Paul Spangler is the Bristol City Manager.

Mr. Spangler also got into a fight with the school board saying, “(This) is a final funding figure and is not subject to further negotiation.” They wanted $9.1 million, they settled for $8.42 million, just as Mr. Spangler told them.

More bad news for Bristol, Virginia. In addition to the closing of the DANA automotive plant at Exit 7, nearby Bristol Compressors may close as well. They just fired 300 more workers.

Federal help on way for former Bristol Compressors employees. The workers are eligible to receive Federal trade readjustment assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor. TRA will assist workers with job retraining and health care premium payments. Any employee who lost their job at Bristol Compressor on or after March 2nd of this year is eligible. Ref. Bristol Herald Courier July 10, 2006

Taxpayers screwed by Bristol Compressors

Child abuse continues to rise

BRISTOL, Tenn. She remembers the girl as bright, precocious and friendly. She also was underweight and suffered injuries including bruises and cigarette burns at the hands of her mother. “It’s alarming to think that there are parents so wrapped up in their own problems that they are going to allow this to happen to their kids,” said Amy Williams, the Bristol coordinator for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Sullivan County. (CASA)

CASA has operated in Bristol Virginia and Kingsport for years. The Sullivan County chapter opened a Bristol Tennessee office on Holston Avenue just last week to handle a growing number of child-abuse cases on the eastern end of the county. Officials anticipate working nearly 130 cases this year in Bristol. Williams, the lone staff member at the Bristol Tennessee office, works with 15 volunteers who put in plenty of hours researching cases and presenting them to the court. Volunteers must go through 60 hours of training to work for the organization.

The organization has grown a lot in the last few years. About a decade ago, workers at CASA dealt with only nine cases all year in Bristol. A major reason for the large increase in cases has been that the organization can handle a larger workload. Part of it, however, is because child abuse continues to be a growing problem. Department of Children's Services got 2,200 calls at the last year alleging neglect and abuse in Hawkins and Sullivan counties. May 07, 2006 Bristol Herald Courier (extract)

According to other news reports Bristol has the highest child abuse rates in Virginia, while the City Council just cut funds from child protection agencies.

Crime, Suicide, and Drug Abuse explode in the Bristol Community. Much of this is attributed to the region's economic woes.

"Voodoo" economic development at Bristol Exit 7


What $2.5 million buys in Bristol.
Photo: Lewis Loflin
Exit 7 between Bristol, Virginia and Washington County, Virginia has been a focal point for lawsuits and finger pointing. To quote the Bristol Herald Courier on January 12, 2005,

A good investment? Bristol Virginia invested $2.5 million in a 23-acre speculative real estate deal in the Exit 7 area off Interstate 81. It coughed up $175,000 to lure a Red Lobster to the same area. The city's public utility anted up another $50,000 on the same deal. So far, there's nothing to show for it, and all that city leaders can do is urge us to wait patiently. Meanwhile, plenty of people are asking if the city will see a return on its investment. Good question.

Update July 2006: Another $5 million tax dollars for a strip mall. In an unbelievable turn of events, the out going city council approved another massive corporate welfare package. This development at Bristol Exit 5 will compete directly with the stalled $2.5 million Exit 7 scam. As of July 2006 they claim to have a Cracker Barrel coming in, but three years and $2.5 million has produced nothing. This must be some of what former Mayor Weberling calls "voodoo bookkeeping."

I attended the hearings on the $2.5 million land deal and spoke to city officials on this issue. I asked directly for information on this project and was refused. In 2005 I finally got the material under the freedom of information act while controversy rages over the lack of progress at the site.

To quote the Bristol Herald Courier, Only one resident spoke at the hearing. "It's not the function of government to engage in private business ventures," Lewis Loflin told the council. "I'd like to see full disclosure of all financial information surrounding this business decision." Much of the council's talks about the impending purchase were held in closed session under Virginia law allowing such private discussion of prospective new businesses. Loflin questioned what he called "replacing a $15-an-hour job with a $6-an-hour job" with the project's focus on retail and restaurant development.
See Council unanimously approves money for Nicewonder property.

Today (January 20, 2005) I talked to Mr. Brown of Bristol, Virginia economic development. Besides sounding really annoyed, he stated that Tim Carter was supposed to pay for all infrastructure at the Nicewonder Property the city purchased ($2.5 million) for him. As of yet, there's not even a paved road though the city bought it in December 2003.

When I asked why we are using $175,000 in economic development funds for a private seafood restaurant, he claimed it's a good investment for Bristol. "People will come for miles" and the meals tax will keep the city form raising property taxes. When I asked why the city owned utility waved a $12,000 water tap fee and gave Carter $50,000, he said so they could buy a power transformer, etc. When I asked did the utility do this for other businesses, he said, "no." To quote Mr. Brown (Herald Courier Oct 30, 2003) "The jobs we're creating aren't as high-paying, but they're jobs."

Update October 27, 2005. Our historic Red Lobster has finally opened for business. This 229-seat eatery they claim will employ 130 people. City Councilman Farnham Jarrard said the Exit 7 area has so many restaurants that another one might not mean big cash for city coffers. "In the past, every new restaurant meant new revenue for the city," he said. "Now when we add a new restaurant at Exit 7 it’s taking business away from another restaurant at Exit 7. It just isn’t going to mean more money, it means that the money that’s out there is getting spread around more." We shall wait and see. (Bristol Herald Courier) January 2006: According to City officials, the Red Lobster is doing very well. Congragulations on this one!

Development cost money and lots of it. Studies show that residential construction doesn't pay enough in property taxes to cover expanded infrastructure costs. Many businesses and developers often get tax breaks and other subsidies to begin with. This is being coupled with costly expansion and building of industrial parks and cuts in state and federal grants. The result is most of the cost are shifted onto all residents, many ill able to afford it or who gain no benefit. Bristol, Virginia and other local governments are struggling with budget problems in the middle of a so-called "boom." Perhaps it's time to look at the real cost and force those getting the benefits to pay for it.

Update April 2006: According to county officials I've spoken to the $30 million plus wastewater plant may not be needed. It's hoped Bristol Virginia and Washington County may work together on a joint project to benefit both. My congratulations to our public officials if they can work this out.

DANA Dumps Bristol

But if frying fish sounds like a good news, October 2005 brought more bad news. DANA Automotive at Exit 7 announced their planned relocation to Mexico. In 2003 the local government worked with DANA to keep unions out, part of a longtime anti-labor policy of Bristol City Government. DANA claims the Union had nothing to do with their relocation to Mexico, but Mayor Weberling claims they can't get auto part plants to locate to Bristol because of the DANA union. Weberling said the city in the past six months has lost two automotive company prospects that feared Dana being union. He refuses to name those companies.

Auto parts plants are leaving the nation in droves union or not. The closing of Teleflex Automotive in Lebanon, Virginia in late 2004 along with Assured Castings in the August 2005 and TRW earlier in the year points to how bad the problem really is. While recent price hikes in steel and a 40% power rate increase in Bristol are factors, DANA's payroll in Bristol currently exceeds $8 million – not including benefits, but can be done in Mexico for $1.3 million without benefits, safety or environmental regulations. We should also note the loss of 270 good jobs can cost an additional loss of 400 lower paid service jobs. Jobs like those at Red Lobster

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, claims the pending job losses reverse a regional trend of job growth. During the past 10 months, he claims more than 1,000 new jobs have been announced at a dozen facilities across Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. He claims Bristol gained more than 2,300 net jobs between 1981 and 2001, while Washington County netted more than 8,700 during the same period. "If you look at what is lost, (it) was mostly sewing factories and apparel industries that didn’t pay much and had no health or retirement benefits...Overall, you would have to say the jobs that have come since are better. Not all have benefits and some still pay minimum wage, but many are better."

Others aren't buying it. "It all comes back to jobs," said Steve Fisher, director of the Appalachian Center for Community Services at Emory & Henry College. "With the decline of the coal industry, a lot of the good-paying jobs have disappeared...A string of factory closings has affected the economy in counties along the Interstate 81 corridor...many of the jobs that have replaced the ones in the coal mines and factories generally have been lower-paying and less likely to include benefits..."

As a final note, a good poverty indicator is free and reduced lunches at school. From 1995 to 2002 free lunches jumped from 33% to 38% in Washington County, and from 41% to 46% in Bristol, Virginia. Update: In 2007 the free lunch rate in Washington County is 40%.

BRISTOL HERALD COURIER September 28, 2005

"Labor market performance at the national level and the regional level seem to be on two different tracks," ETSU economics professor Steb Hipple wrote in the report. Job growth nationwide has occurred in just about every industry, he said. That means manufacturing jobs have rebounded across the country after years of stagnation and job losses. Job cuts in the Tri-Cities occurred in the durable and nondurable manufacturing industries as well as in the information services, government and finance sectors of the regional economy. Following a recent trend, the hospitality and service, retail, health and education, construction and professional and business services sectors of the economy posted employment gains in the region. "The news is getting better for the nation, but the region is mired in a market slowdown," Hipple said.

Wage Rates - Selected Industry Job Titles Average
General Production $7.24/hr.
Warehouse Technician $7.43/hr.
Secretary/Receptionist $5.50/hr.
Customer Service Rep. $6.18/hr.
Data Entry $6.00/hr.

Source: VCEDA Survey of local businesses, 2002 based on data before the massive downturn following September 11. There is no reason to believe it has gotten any better through January 2005.

The Christian Reich in Sullivan County, Tennessee
Jerry Falwell, the Antichrist, attacks Jews
I Lived in Mendota, and Why I Left

Higher Education

Establishment Students
(FT&PT) 		Location Affiliation Program
East Tennessee State University 12,111 Johnson City, TN Public Comprehensive
Walters State Community College 3,018 Morristown, TN Public Comprehensive
Northeast State Technical Community College 4,860 Blountville, TN Public,
Technical 		University Transfer
Virginia Highlands Community College 2,283 Abingdon, VA Public Comprehensive
Virginia Intermont College 1,138 Bristol, VA Private,
Baptist 		Comprehensive
Southwest Virginia Higher Ed Center 1,000 Abingdon, VA Public Comprehensive
Emory & Henry College 999 Emory, VA Private, Methodist Liberal Arts
Tusculum College 954 Greeneville, TN Private, Presbyterian  
Milligan College 904 Milligan College, TN Private,
Christian 		Liberal Arts
King College 805 Bristol, TN Private, Presbyterian Comprehensive
National College of Business & Technology 320 Bristol, TN Private Business

 

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