by Joe Tarr
Local bus riders hope for extended KAT hours
One of the biggest criticisms of Knoxville's public transportation system is that it doesn't run late enough in the evenings or on Sundays. Most routes begin their final circuit between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., which means if you don't work normal business hours, you may be out of luck.
Already run at a loss, the city has in the past said that extending the hours would cost taxpayers more money.
But with a potential $50 million trolley and linkage system in the works for the downtown area, proponents of extended hours are asking the city to put up more cash for its current buses. The Knoxville Area Transit advisory board—a group made up largely of those who ride the buses—asked KAT and the city to take some of the money that might go toward trolleys and use it to extend bus service, says Steven Abeles, advisory board member.
"We can't. It's a different pot of money," says Kathy Darnell, policy analyst for the city. The potential $50 million—none of which the city has yet secured—can only be used for trolleys, linkage improvements, and parking.
However, next year the city will probably extend hours on some routes with a one-time $1 million Access to Jobs grant. The experimental program is geared to help people on welfare get back to work by providing them access to jobs, but it could benefit others who use the Knoxville bus system as well.
"We haven't figured out the exact routes yet, but we will be expanding some of the KAT routes into the later hours, maybe to 11 or 11:30 p.m.," Darnell says. It will not lead to bus service on Sundays. Money from the grant will also be used to provide other transportation, such as van pools.
"It's just for a year. We're really looking at it as a demonstration project," she says. "But I think through KAT running later evening service, we're going to get a feel for the demand, and that can be used for planning down the road."
Abeles agrees that it's a good start, but adds, "A year is not going to tell the tale. People's habits don't change that quickly. If a few folks go out and get a job, and after a year, the service ends—what then? I think there has to be a commitment from the city."
Abeles says he's not against a trolley system and understands that it could lead to downtown development, and in time, a better mass transit system. But he worries that the city's traditional bus riders—the poor, elderly and students—might get short-changed.
"If the trolley system is there, it will be competing for scarce mass transportation
dollars," Abeles says. "If the working people who are the regular users end up
competing with the trolley for funding down the road, I would not be in favor
of it."
by David Madison
A local activist organizes a Knoxville chapter
Where there are species disappearing, Earth First! appears, ready to take "direct action" in response to the destruction of the environment. Knoxville native David Irwin calls Earth First! "the tip of the spear"; an aggressive environmental group started in the Pacific Northwest and dubiously credited with inventing eco terrorism.
Irwin's most terrifying act: suspending himself from a crane at the Champion International paper mill in Carryton. Thirty or so protesters joined Irwin for the demonstration in 1997, and now the 32-year-old activist wants these and others to rally behind Earth First! again.
Irwin hopes to organize local activists looking to take "direct action" as they tackle a variety of causes from clear-cut logging to heroin addiction. Katuah Earth First!, a collection of Earth First! groups in Boone and Asheville, N.C., Athens, Ga., and Chattanooga, recently revived its chapter in Knoxville with weekly meetings at Laurel High School starting at 7 p.m.
Derided as "eco terrorists" and at times dismissed as politically inflexible by mainstream environmental groups such as the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club, Earth First! teaches members how to take direct action, or "monkey wrench."
The last time Earth First! held its international rendezvous in Tennessee, group members chained themselves to log structures and concrete-filled barrels to create a human barrier at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. The TVA considered suing Earth First! for $500,000 in lost time at the plant, but never followed through in court.
That was in 1994. When the rendezvous returns to Tennessee in June 2000, Irwin hopes to have the local Earth First! chapter up and running. The Knoxville group's specific mission will be determined by local members, he says.
"We train people and the group decides what to do," explains Irwin. Members can learn activist skills like how to man a two-way radio and how to avoid injury while being arrested (57 were taken into custody at Watts Bar alone).
Earth First! also encourages members to tackle non-environmental issues such as homelessness and the AIDS epidemic.
Irwin believes Knoxville is on the verge of a heroin crisis and thinks the local Earth First! chapter should help distribute free, clean needles. In other cities, such programs have stifled the spread of disease among junkies sharing dirty syringes. The practice remains controversial, suiting it well for a group like Earth First!.
| 
