Talk:Bristol, Tennessee

You cannot describe Bristol accurately without including a description of Bristol, Virginia as well. Although technically two cities, together Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA function geographically and economically as one. Bristol, Virginia's population is approximately 18,000, combined with Bristol, Tennessee's population of approximately 25,000 for a total of nearly 43,000. Bristol, Virginia contains the bulk of Bristol, VA/TN's shopping venues, and also has one college as well (Virginia Intermont College.) Bristol was, throughout most of the 20th century a manufacturing center, including steel fabrication (Bristol Steel was the 3rd largest steel fabricator in the U.S.), pharmaceuticals, defense, computers, snack foods, dairy and meat processing, and industrial bakeries. In the late 20th century much of this manufacturing base began to erode with the merger/consolidation of various manufacturing corporations nation-wide. As a result, Bristol was reduced in stature both from an economic and population standpoint. Once the lead the city for the Tri-Cities metropolitan area (Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City, TN/VA, with an estimated population approaching 500,000), it is now the smallest of three cities, even with its combined two-state population. Bristol has recently seen a brightening of its economic and cultural prospects with the revitalization of its downtown, which now hosts a very successful Bluegrass, Country, Folk, and Americana music festival known as "Rhythm and Roots", which attracts tens of thousands of visitors, and top-notch musical performing groups from across the globe. Downtown Bristol has been designated as an historical district. The Bristol Motor Speedway has also contributed to Bristol's economic growth, attracting 160,000 attendees at each race, with several such races taking place each year. The northeast end of Bristol has also experienced a great deal of retail development over the past 20 years, making it one of the largest retail districts in the Mountain Empire region. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.239.228 (talk) 20:43, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Border towns arent twin cities with themselves
If a two towns that are fairly close to each other but are relatively independent grow into each other, then you could say they are twinned. But surely if a single town is founded on or near a border, and the growth of the town means some suburbs, or even the main business district of the town is now on the other side of the border, surely it is still one town. The parts of the town over the border are not twinned with itself. A state line through a town doesnt automatically create twins. Newark is not a twin of New York. So I'm having trouble with the constant reference of Bristol TN/VA being referred to as a twin city of itself. Surely a requiste of a twin is that they have different names! 210.7.132.80 (talk) 02:53, 22 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Hm, I've seen lists of twinned towns that had the same name in different countries. (See also twin cities.)  Legally, Bristol is two cities.  —Tamfang (talk) 19:53, 15 July 2012 (UTC)


 * The two cities are legally separate and distinct. It is true that in some respects it is one town, but in other respects it's two distinct places. This is much like the situation of Minneapolis and St. Paul and other places that call themselves "twin cities", "quad cities", etc. --Orlady (talk) 21:02, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

how many boundaries?

 * The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State Street located in their common downtown district.

One might say this raises an issue parallel to that of the previous section. The word parallel implies two or more lines, and therefore a gap between the two cities. Is that the case, or should the sentence instead read something like this?


 * The boundary between the two cities is that of the States, which runs along State Street in their common downtown district.

—Tamfang (talk) 17:22, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Bristol Regional Women's Center
An article about an incident in Charleston SC involving a doctor that practices in Bristol TN at the Bristol Regional Women's Center -- Doctor charged with pointing handgun at abortion protestors -- has been offered as support for the idea that the above practice (which provides abortion services) is controversial within the local community, and notable enough for inclusion in this article. I have searched for an article actually about the practice itself, and how it is regarded within the community, and have come up empty. Until I or someone else comes up with such an article regarding the clinic, I can't see it as notable enough for the article. Thanks much -- Foetusized (talk) 17:04, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Services and products are a matter of fact
In response to your recent talk on the Bristol Regional Women's Center, this business is, as evidenced by an abundant source of national attention, a point of contention and controversy. Setting all that aside, it is simply a business that exists with the community, the same as the Bristol Motor Speedway, the television media channels and the newspapers.

By it's mere existence, and it's publicity locally, this is simply a fact of Bristol, TN. Any business that garners media attention, and exists right on State Street in Bristol, is worthy of publication.

The comments neither promote, nor endorse the clinic, they just state the reality of it's existence. Please leave in place.

A local charity in Bristol, VA called "Bristol Faith in Action" is also in the news, for good reasons, and they should also be allowed a place in the Bristol, VA page. They haven't cured cancer or ended poverty, but they would simply represent the opposite of the abortion clinic and have also garnered multiple local news stories.

Please keep in mind that these are local businesses, and this is our local community Wikipedia page. It's simply meant to highlight who we are as a local community, not how we stack up on a national, or global scale.Divinearmor (talk) 17:23, 17 October 2012 (UTC)


 * If I type "Bristol Faith in Action" into a Google News Archive search, it finds multiple articles about the charity, from the local newspaper and TV station. That is media attention.  No national attention, but local coverage.


 * If I type "Bristol Regional Women's Center" into the same search, it finds three articles about the incident in Charleston SC. That is a distinct absense of media attention for the business, neither local nor national.  If they were really notable enough to be included in the article, it shouldn't be so hard to find all this publicity that you claim exists.  If there are news stories about the clinic, please provide them.


 * There are a good number of doctors that practice in Bristol and throughout the Tri-Cities area. Those doctors, and there medical practices, do provide services and products, and are generally not notable.  Notability, and not "fact" or "existence," is the concept that keeps everyone from listing every business in a city's Yellow Pages on that city's Wikipedia page -- Foetusized (talk) 18:44, 17 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I understand your point. The media attention comes from the local newspaper and the local TV station WJHL.  It's a local story because, Gary Boyle's is a local abortion doctor with a criminal record and that's newsworthy.  Just because the news report states where he was arrested, doesn't make it irrelevant, otherwise why would our local news cover it.


 * Our city page is nice, but inaccurate and incomplete. This is what I'm trying to correct.  If we're going to include a section on culture, the culture of death, clearly qualifies.  We are charitable, hospitable and really are "A good place to live.", but that's only half the picture.  This is precisely what Wikipedia was meant to do.  Present all the facts and reality, regardless of being good or bad.


 * I did a Google search and here's a few results:
 * 
 * 
 * 


 * I don't know what the limit is, but there's plenty of local coverage. Does it matter if there's two stories, or twenty?  Either way, that doesn't change the existence of this business.


 * If we're not going to include the bad side of our town, then we need to remove the good as well. We can just list the Bristol Motor Speedway and others, on their own pages and simply direct them to the Bristol, TN page.  That way we can highlight the biggest "events", but exclude the businesses from this page.Divinearmor (talk) 19:22, 17 October 2012 (UTC)


 * This would seem to indicate your claims of Boyle having a "criminal record" are a bit of a stretch and not particularly notable (at least for an encyclopedia). — ArtifexMayhem (talk) 18:24, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Sarah Palin??
Article attributes the naming of the city after Sarah Palins daughter, Bristol?? She has been on Earth for 30 or so years!! Bristol Tenn has been around over 100 years!!98.170.239.161 (talk) 14:30, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

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Social Media Comments Policy
Should the town's Social Media Comments Policy restricting certain kinds of comments on its public forum, its being challenged, and the government's response be included? (https://www.thefire.org/news/bristol-tennessee-bans-comments-its-social-media-pages-would-negatively-affect-citys-image) 2600:6C67:1C00:5F7E:5C0C:3337:E369:DD0E (talk) 17:45, 24 September 2023 (UTC)