Take Back Our City!

I am a former resident of Knoxville, where I lived while attending UTK, and for three more years after I graduated. I moved away in 1996 and am now living in Chicago. During these two years I have returned to Knoxville many times because I am still very fond of the city and its people. However, my visit last weekend was at the very least traumatic.

Over Sunday breakfast, I read Jack Neely's article in Metro Pulse ["Land Grab," Vol. 8, No. 39] describing the forced sale of a beautiful 75-year-old home on Terrace Avenue to UTK for the purpose of clearing the lot to build a parking garage. I spent the rest of the day in the library doing research, visiting sites of endangered homes, and talking with friends about the current proposals for demolition around UTK and Fort Sanders, which is sited for the JPI apartment complex. Of course, after living in Knoxville for eight years, I am all too accustomed to the destruction of old buildings and homes in and around the downtown and campus areas. But I, as many others are, am outraged and distraught to learn of the pace and extent of planned destruction in these areas. And it is destruction—not development, which implies progress, an idea that does not include forcing families and tenants out of historic homes to build parking garages and ugly apartment complexes.

I cannot and do not believe that, in the case of the UTK parking garage, middle-aged administrators are letting college students dictate university expansion policy, as stated in Neely's article by Greg Reed, head of UT's civil and environmental engineering department, and vice-chancellor Phil Scheurer. It should not be the university's policy to accommodate lazy and spoiled students; it should be common sense to inform and enlighten these young minds to other options. As Neely, and surely others have pointed out, there could be more progressive solutions to the problem of too many cars, such as a prohibition on freshmen and even sophomores bringing their cars to school.

Regarding the greed and cultural and environmental insensitivity that drives the Fort Sanders JPI complex project, I am horrified and heartbroken. I am ashamed of UTK's long history of bad behavior and the mayor's and City Council's tolerance of and cooperation in destroying Knoxville's heritage. While foolishly ridding the city of historically significant homes and doing the permanent community injury, UT and the city accommodate students who will leave after a few years. According to Roberta Gratz, co-author of Cities Back From the Edge: New Life for Downtown, current urban revitalization projects have shown that the cities that succeed in the long run are those that invest in what is already there and accommodate their own citizens—not adopt unwanted, out-of-town projects in hopes of drawing more tourists (and students). The tourists and students will come because there are great, unique, and local things happening in a city. After UT's orange fervor finishes with Knoxville, there might not be anything unique remaining if Mayor Ashe and other city officials don't wake up to the protests and take intelligent action.

My Sunday afternoon concluded with a visit to the Blount Mansion book store where I purchased the tourist guide Historic Knoxville, published in 1990. It's a sad little read, considering it contains many almost apologetic descriptions of historic homes that were torn down well before its publication, and now many more (at least 15 turn-of-the-century homes in Fort Sanders) that will be torn down soon if UT, JPI, and the city have their way. While I was waiting to make the purchase, I overheard a tourist say the only activity he saw downtown was a vagrant passing in the street. When asked if there was anything else happening, the clerk had to say, "No..."

Ironically, Monday night when I returned to Chattanooga to visit with my parents, I received a fund-raising call from UTK! After explaining why I have not and will not ever donate money to UTK to support the above-described disaster, the student telemarketer conveniently supplied me with more UT administrators' mailing addresses and said that she, too, is writing letters of protest. I sincerely hope that all of the great people in Knoxville that are protesting this stupidity keep it up and reach some level of success in halting any or all of these plans. Take back your city! And as for Gail and Richard McGinnis, the former owners of 1851 Terrace Ave. and now victims of extortion, I loathe the nightmare that you are living through and wish with all my strength that you could get your house back. However, if it is in fact a done deal, know that I feel just as I am sure you do—very ashamed of my alma mater. I say continue with your plans to return to Chattanooga because down here the people who appreciate and respect historical architecture are in the majority, not the minority.

Shawnaa Pate
Chicago