Utopia Gone

Recently, as is often the case, running some of my errands landed me in West Knoxville in the area of Northshore and Ebenezer. I was very impressed with all the improvements to the roads being implemented. Both roads are being widened, straightened, and turn lanes and side walks are being added. All the happy people of this area should be very happy now that they will not have to wait in so much traffic as they travel their suburban cruisers down a nice, smooth straight road. What a pleasure it was to see my hard earned tax dollars going to work for the good of Knoxville...uh...WEST Knoxville!

My utopian dream society quickly vanished. This is WEST Knoxville and I LIVE in SOUTH Knoxville. Well, let's see, what is being done in my humble part of town? We have the South Knoxville connector, part of it anyway. Scheduled for completion in 2000-something. We have plenty of red lights. Oh! and of course lots of billboards. Alcoa highway was refurbished back in the '80s to make it safer. Even got a new bridge. Course I hear it will again be upgraded, something about the corridor to Maryville and the airport. You know, to serve people passing through and not that live here. Back to my part of town, the Chapman Highway corridor to Seymour. Well, we have the Connector...

I suppose I can understand that it is more important to keep influential people from waiting in traffic than us common folk, many who have lived and paid taxes in South Knoxville for years. I guess. The problem with that is that we usually only wait in traffic when there is an accident and one of us gets hurt or killed. Last year a short drive to Seymour on Chapman Highway looked like a trip through a cemetery with all the crosses and shrines scattered along the route.

There are no turn lanes or merge lanes to get out of the way of traffic, while we sit and wait to try and dart through an opening in the 50-60 mph traffic that passes right by numerous residential neighborhoods, hoping that the other drivers will see our blinker and brake lights and not smash into our rear end. I guess I must admit that there are turn lanes and lower speed limits, but only where there are businesses.

I would like to say that I love South Knoxville and would not want to live anywhere else in the city. I am not asking for a four-lane interstate or a railroad bridge to be moved and rebuilt. Or a bike path, or sidewalks, or billboard restrictions (although they would be nice). I just want to be able to drive home safely and turn into my street using my turn lane.

I certainly concede that East and North Knoxville could make similar complaints of neglect. I am just wondering how many more of us have to die in brutal traffic accidents before we can get a simple turn lane. I guess when one of our beloved bureaucrats gets killed or hurt on their way to Pigeon Forge, as they smash into me or one of my neighbors trying to make a left-hand turn across traffic on our way home from work.

Jeff Morton
Knoxville

Desecration is Wrong

I, as an anthropologist, take particular offense to the May 28—June 4, 1998, issue of your magazine. The article, by Jesse Fox Mayshark, dealing with Pellissippi State's removal of a deplorable subject from their curriculum was taken very poorly by my associates. You obviously know nothing about Lynn Fox or the cause for which he stands. People like him desecrate important historical assemblages for personal gain. They produce little or no records of their excavations. These people ARE our adversaries. It is not his imagination. Did you seek interviews from the anthropologists that you so distastefully quote in your article? Or, as I suppose, was this entirely based on hearsay and Fox's paranoid delusions? Maybe Pellissippi State came to the conclusion all on their own. Maybe they realized that the desecration of important historic monuments is wrong. And maybe they realized, all on their own, that an academic institution has a responsibility to the public, both past and present.

Spence Meyers
Knoxville