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Ron Watkins, Meet Carlene Malone
While most local opinion leaders are waxing enthusiastic about the $600 million public/private Worsham Watkins International plan for redesigning downtown, City Councilwoman Carlene Malone has been publicly skeptical of everything from the design to the financing. She was hanging out of a window of her Fountain City home Monday morning filling her hummingbird feeder when she got a call from WWI developer Ron Watkins, who proposed that they get together and hash these issues out. Malone, who generally meets with anyone who asks, agreed to a Wednesday morning meeting at the City Council office (alas, after our deadline). She warned Watkins, who has a reputation as an icecubes-to-Eskimos kind of supersalesman, that she has a reputation, too.
By the end of the day Monday, Mayor Victor Ashe had put out the word of the Malone/Watkins summit via the K2K email list, and Malone was bombarded with calls. She says Ashe also emailed her privately to let her know that he knew, and she says she is puzzled by his interest.
"The fact that Victor even cares that I'm meeting with Watkins makes me wonder if he doesn't have some unnatural interest in my whereabouts. Maybe I should tape the meeting and sell it."
(We'll have an update on the meeting next week.)
What's Wrong With These Pictures?
Architectural drawings are not intended to be precise. They're supposed to give a flavor of the look and atmosphere a developer has in mind. They should not be seen as final or definitive, as changes will almost certainly be made to the plans and the finished product never looks exactly like what an artist sketched.
But we noticed something peculiar about the drawings for WWI's vision for downtown, which were made by McCarty Holsaple McCarty.
In the drawings of hundreds of people strolling through the World's Fair Park, businessmen and -women in the hotel, shoppers sitting in Market Square, and people on their way to movie theater, we couldn't find a single African American.
Superstar
Hardcore political junkies never miss an issue of Campaigns and Elections, a monthly magazine chock-full of strategic campaign advice and information and insider jokes (like this one from Jay Leno: "According to a new book, 63 percent of men say they like to settle an argument by having sex afterwards. Well, that should liven up the presidential debates.") The main feature in the May issue, "Rising stars of politics 2000" has caused considerable conversation in state GOP circles because of one of the names that appears there—that of Chip Saltsman, current head of the state Republican Party. Saltsman, whose most recent prior job is listed as vice president for strategic planning, McKenzie Management Company, Cleveland, Tenn. (a high-interest check-advance loan company), is also credited with raising money for Jeb Bush and serving as a key staffer for Gov. Don Sundquist. One credential the brief bio doesn't mention is that Saltsman quarterbacked the 1998 GOP state legislative campaigns that saw the Republicans lose their slim Senate majority.
"It must have been Democrats that nominated him," says Tennessee Conservative Union Chairman Lloyd Daugherty.
Blue Monday
Whether Market Square's proposed "restrictive covenants"—some of which insist that restaurants remain open most of the day—are a good idea or not, Monday convinced us that a Downtown Restaurant Vacation Coordinating Committee might be in order. Though most of downtown's office workers, including bankers (and us), called it a regular business day, the overwhelming majority of downtown restaurants chose to take the day off. As a result, the few restaurants open were slammed. Cafe Max was completely out of food by 1 p.m. The usually sparse Subway on Market Square had a line out the door. Arby's logged their biggest day of the year so far.
July 6, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 27
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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