Western Avenue residents question the city's neighborhood plan
by Matt Edens
We're trying to redevelop this brownfield area as an alternative to suburban sprawl. When you do that, there's bound to be some unhappy people." With one sentence, Leslie Henderson with the City's Department of Development succinctly sums up the debate surrounding the Knoxville Community Development Corporation's Center City Business Neighborhood plan.
The plan, for the area bounded by Western Avenue, University and Proctor, calls for redeveloping the area with a mix of commercial, office, retail, and "high quality industrial." Immediately across Western from KCDC's Hope VI redevelopment, it's an area that already contains a few thriving business—Coca-Cola, Modern Supply, Thompson Photo—as well as numerous vacant properties and land cleared in the process of widening Western. But the area also contains roughly 40 homes. It is those homes, and their residents, that are at the center of the debate.
"They're trying to take people's land for nothing—people that have been here 40, 50, 60 years," says area resident John Paschal. Bob Sharp, whose property along Western Avenue has been in his family over 100 years, echoes those concerns: "At the very time the property is becoming real valuable—we've got the highway coming through—now they want to take it."
"It's a dying residential area," says Henderson, "most of it's zoned business and industrial already." Of the 40 houses, several are vacant. Others are in poor condition while others are being well maintained. Most, however, are wedged among vacant lots or industrial property. KCDC officials, who attempted to calm resident's fears by stressing that all acquisitions will be subject to independent appraisals, are also quick to point to the Hope VI redevelopment under construction across the street, hoping to appeal to the displaced residents. The refrain "255 new houses" was heard repeatedly from KCDC officials during the public hearing on the plan, held March 16 at the L. T. Ross Building on Western.
Architect James Canestaro, with Barge Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon, and a consultant on the plan, points out that there is "no other place in Knoxville with replacement housing within a stone's throw." He feels that the plan is a good one and displaced residents will "have the opportunity to take advantage of some of the finest affordable housing ever built in Knoxville."
Sharp, whose mother was displaced by the Western Avenue widening, is skeptical: "They say they'll find you another house, but when they do it's somewhere you won't want to live." Paschal has his own ideas about relocation, calling out during the presentation by KCDC officials: "I better be moving in with you and staying with you while you all take my land"— a comment that drew chuckles from the crowd of area residents.
Officials involved with the plan view it as a companion piece to Hope VI. Among the broad objectives outlined in the plan are "economic opportunity and self-sufficiency" and a desire to "expand the area's employment base." The plan includes strategies to link new businesses with existing job-training programs in the area as well as new ones created by the Empowerment Zone designation. "These redeveloped areas are going to produce jobs for the surrounding community," says Canestaro. "The neighborhood will benefit from these jobs, they're going to be the ones to fill those positions."
"I can understand the development," says Paschal, "but why do they have to take people's homes—they've taken 40 years of my life, what am I supposed to do?"
Once again, WUOT cancels one of its locally-created shows
by Joe Tarr
Public radio station WUOT is canceling Unhinged, Ashley Capps' 20-year-old eclectic show, replacing it with two syndicated jazz shows—and resparking a debate about what public radio should be.
The decision continues a trend at WUOT—91.9 FM—toward a more commercial radio approach, narrowing its programming content. The station also appears to be abandoning public radio's traditional mission to cater to a wide range of tastes, with an emphasis on local programming.
The station's executive director, Regina Dean, says Unhinged doesn't target the station's core audience, who tune in for jazz, classical, and National Public Radio shows.
Broadcast from 10 to midnight on Fridays, Unhinged showcased just about whatever Capps felt like playing: avant garde, jazz, blues, so-called world music, and classical. The final show will be March 31.
"About 75 percent of the music on Unhinged is world music and blues," says Dean. "It's music that is not otherwise a part of our format. It's kind of a fish out of water. It doesn't really have a place here on WUOT.
"It's not a reflection on the music, because it's good stuff. But listeners who usually like to listen to world music or whatever, don't tune to WUOT because we don't program that kind of music. Traditional listeners tune out during that period," she says.
Capps—who owns the concert promotion company AC Entertainment—says the classification of his show as "world music" is amusing, because when Dean and program director Daniel Berry (who declined to comment) originally told him last November they wanted to cancel the program, they admitted they'd never heard it.
Capps also disputes that WUOT listeners aren't interested in the music he plays. Many of the musicians he regularly features are often interviewed and profiled on NPR programs Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Fresh Air, including Uri Caine, Taj Mahal, Bill Frizell, and Ry Cooder (whose Cuban collaboration, The Bueno Vista Social Club, ranks in the top 10 of albums purchased through NPR's CD ordering service).
Furthermore, broadcast in one of the worst time slots, the show still consistently raised $2,000 to $3,000 every year for the station, Capps says.
After doing it for 20 years, Capps says he isn't so upset that he's losing his show, but that WUOT's managers have no desire to do quality local programming.
"I think there's a lack of respect for locally-produced programming and not even a real interest in local programming," Capps says. "What [WUOT's managers] are interested in is homogenizing the programming so they don't have to think about it."
Dean says that WUOT does value local programming, but says that Capps wasn't playing local music, regardless of where the show was being programmed. "Research indicates the source is not nearly as important as quality and content. We're devoted to local programming. We've dropped syndicated programs. I'm still getting hatemail for dropping [the syndicated] Radio Reader, but it didn't fit into the format. It's not dropping local in favor of adding syndicated. It's what best fits the format."
But WUOT got into a similar flap last February, when it canceled two locally-programmed Americana shows—Live at Laurel and Music of the Southern Mountains—to replace them with a rebroadcast of the Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. After a public outcry, the station worked with the local producers to develop a new show, Mountain Jubilee, which follows Prairie Home Companion. Ironically, Dean pointed to Mountain Jubilee as an example of the station's local programming.
Capps says the station simply doesn't support or show interest in local programming. Three public radio mainstays—Fresh Air, Prairie Home Companion, and Car Talk—all started out as local shows, and all broke traditional formats.
"Because somebody appreciated their uniqueness, they've become the jewels of public radio," Capps says. "I would like to think they'd take something like Live at Laurel and try to syndicate it, try to make it something real special for the entire public radio community. There's no interest in that."
March 30, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 13
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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