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Call Me Ishmael
It was Monday, and none of Ear's well-informed friends knew for sure who had voted to give H.T. Hackney its rezoning during Thursday's Metropolitan Planning Commission meeting. "No problem," Ear declared. "I'll just call MPC." Whereupon the well-informed sources proceeded to laugh their butts off. "You do that," they chortled.
Come Tuesday morning, Ear is routed to the voice- mail of the person in charge of info, makes a request for the vote breakdown on the Hackney rezoning (also known as the "Rape of Ritta," since it is a "spot" rezoning that disregards not only the wishes of the majority of the citizens of the rural community and the county's Northeast Sector Plan, but MPC's own professional staff recommendation). We sit back to await a return call. Patience not being one of our strengths, we call back around 10:30 a.m. and leave a second message, following this up with a call to the voicemail of MPC Director Norm Whitaker. A nice MPC lady calls back and says the info probably won't be available till next week.
By noon, Ear is crazed, and sets forth like Ahab, trolling the treacherous courthouse waters. The answer comes. Not from MPC, but from the County Commission office, where administrator Ray Hill has had the vote tally since morning.
Late in the afternoon Whitaker calls back to explain the difficulties of producing such data and is informed that it has already been obtained from the Commission office, which got the unobtainable data from MPC many hours earlier. Return calls from the people in charge of information follow.
There Goes the Neighborhood
And here is the vote to allow Hackney's commercial zoning for its wholesale grocery distribution center in the agricultural/residential Ritta Community:
Charles Busler: no; Susan Brown: yes; R. Larry Smith: no; Mike Brown: no; Ronald Wade: did not vote; Patsy Vittetoe: yes; Chris Christenberry: yes; Chairman Phil French: yes; Rusty Baksa: no; Ellen Fowler: yes; Sarah F. Rose: yes; Herb Donaldson: yes; Tim Frazier: did not vote; Mike Edwards: yes; Charles Woods: no
Those supporting the Hackney rezoning are all city appointees to the MPC board. It was the first meeting for four new board members—Mike Edwards, Susan Brown, Mike Brown, and Patsy Vittetoe. Three of them voted for the rezoning. Chris Christenberry is the past president and current board member of the Kingston Pike, Sequoyah Hills Neighborhood Association, a group that has been criticized as being indifferent to the problems of other neighborhoods.
Asheville's Silent E
Paving another swath of Knox County and calling it the South Knoxville Boulevard Connector... $43 million.
Saving 30 of Knox County School's tutoring and remedial education programs from the budget ax... $2 million.
Watching the state spell out its imbalanced priorities... priceless.
Marius RIP
This weekend is your last chance to say good-bye to Richard Marius, who died of cancer this past fall at the age of 66. The prodigious author and UT history professor (1964-1978), often-controversial social activist, Harvard writing professor, and onetime heretical Baptist minister will have last rites at the Unitarian-Universalist Church on Kingston Pike this Saturday at 2 p.m. Several interesting friends, including retired UT professor Milton Klein, religious studies professor Ralph Norman, author Jeff Bradley, and brother John Marius, will speak about this native son whose likes we'll never see again.
Ear Plug
Can't get enough of Jack Neely's winsome prose for Metro Pulse? Well, now you can read a whole new column by the superstar of local historical writing. Neely writes a bimonthly column for none other than the Tennessee Valley Authority on its website, www.tva.com. The federal entity decided to revamp its online presence last year with the aim of making it more user-friendly with a more intuitive interface and actual content to read. Neely's column examines TVA's heritage with his usual quirky touch—for instance, relating the story of Erastus R. Lindamood who managed to keep a fire burning in his home for 74 years (until Norris Dam moved in).
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