Letters to the editor:
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Play Nice

I wish you folks at Metro Pulse would lay off the News-Sentinel. You really don't need to go there. The N-S plays by the industry-standard rules of journalism, which does indeed include power and politics, but also includes at least a passing nod at journalism ethics. And I think they do a tolerable job of straight news reporting that does get me through my coffee in the morning. Yours is an entirely different type of publication, with excellent in-depth reporting (although somewhat slanted at times), but you also report rumor, humor, innuendo, gossip, and all the elements of Knoxville's home-made sin, which, yes indeed, is ugly. You can splash all of those elements of very readable stuff across your front page because, well, you really don't have any rules to play by. So the swipes at a publication that really can't even swipe back can't be that satisfying, and it comes off as petty. Keep up the excellent political coverage, restaurant, and music reviews (the best in East Tennessee), cultural, social, and history features, and the readers will continue to flock to you. Until those guys at the News-Sentinel do something really naughty or stupid, just leave them alone, no matter how fun it is to poke the nest.

Tim Dunaway
Heiskell

Reasonable Doubt

Finally, in the midst of all the opinions, forums, arguments, and general confusion over the "dome thing" over Market Square comes a voice of reason.

And wouldn't you know it would come from the very man who sits looking over the Square almost every day. Thank you Jack Neely, for the only sensible and heartfelt comments about one of the most absurd ideas yet about the "redevelopment of downtown" since the proposed justice center ["Free Market Square," Vol. 10, No. 7].

And to all of you folks scheming for "the dome" because you think it will be the magic bullet to prosper downtown...it sure would be nice seeing you down here spending money on the businesses and eating places with the rest of us who already live down here.

As for me, I've been here for over 15 years as a resident and I love it for the things it already has to offer. So, please, stop comparing us to other larger CITIES and get to know what's already here...not off some survey but like a normal person would get to know anyplace...on foot and on your own time.

Maybe you'll find that it's not so bad to be a TOWN instead of a CITY and nurture what we already have instead of trying to force us to be something we're NOT.

And by the way, Market Square is just that, we have plenty of shopping MALLS in every direction. If you want people to want to live down here, promote the community that we love and support the businesses who already have the guts to be here in spite of all the negative press. Housing and a grocery store would the best places to put energy to, not a "dome" that nobody wants anyway. At least not anybody who spends time down here and knows what this place is really like.

Kim Stephens
Knoxville

Talking Trash

First of all, let me tell you that picking up my copy of the Metro Pulse is one of the highlights of my week in staid Knoxville. Your articles are always well-written and even provocative.

Last week's cover story "Trashed" [by Joe Tarr, Vol. 10, No. 6] was both informative and sobering concerning the way in which we in East Tennessee are slowly burying ourselves in garbage. However, I felt you could've dedicated a bigger section of the article to the recycling efforts here. My wife and I dutifully separate our garbage and take it to the recycling center behind Kroger. But I've always wondered where all those tins, bottles, and paper go off to from there. An investigative report into that would be useful.

Samuel Manickam
Knoxville