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Seven Days

Wednesday, May 23
Mayor Victor Ashe and City Council members Jack Sharp, Larry Cox and Raleigh Wynn propose a new ordinance to make the Police Advisory Review Committee—which was strongly supported by the late Danny Mayfield—a permanent part of city government. None of which, of course, has anything to do with the fact that petitions are circulating in Mayfield's old district and elsewhere to recall Ashe, Sharp and Cox from office. Because, you know, that "recall" stuff is so negative. Nothing positive could possibly come from it.
Lamar Alexander announces he's donating his archival papers to Maryville College. They will no doubt be of great interest to future scholars of failed presidential campaigns.

Thursday, May 24
County Executive Tommy Schumpert proposes a 2001-2002 budget that increases spending by less than 1 percent. A disgruntled school board member calls it a formula for "zero growth and zero vision." Sounds about right for the people who invented "zero tolerance."

Saturday, May 26
A group of World War II history buffs gathers in Halls to re-enact a battle between American Army Airborne soldiers and a German Waffen SS unit. To help motivate the troops, local organizers encourage the men to imagine Victor Ashe is trying to annex them.

Tuesday, May 29
News-Sentinel headline, page one: "Divorce especially tough on children." Possible future headlines: "Women, men have differences"; "Different skin colors a factor in racism"; "Sex found to play role in pregnancy."

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Who but the Knoxville Fire Department could get away with a fountain displaying what in other circumstances would be considered an act of vandalism? The playful font is, as many astute readers noted, in front of the big red fire hall on Summit Hill Drive. The building (and, presumably, its statuary) was targeted for demolition and relocation in the first several versions of the endlessly evolving downtown redevelopment plan, but indications in recent months are that it will stay put. So the hydrant will hydrate on. First right answer came from Tina Bentrup of Knoxville. She wins a genuine Sea Racers bathtub boat. "It really floats!" (Batteries not included.)

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
MONDAY, JUNE 4
5 P.M.
ANDREW JOHNSON BUILDING
912 S. GAY ST.
Work session.

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6
5 P.M.
CITY COUNTY BUILDING
400 MAIN ST.
Regular monthly meeting.

No EZ Job

New PNI director faces racially charged process

Terrence Carter, recently named as the new executive director of the Partnership for Neighborhood Improvement, isn't terribly concerned about the controversy and political battles that drove his predecessor to resign abruptly last year.

PNI is the non-profit organization designated to oversee Knoxville's federal Empowerment Zone funding, an effort to build economic redevelopment in a 16-square-mile section of inner-city neighborhoods with up to $100 million over 10 years. The city has received $7.5 million over the first two years of EZ funding, and another $12.5 million is expected this year. But critics have complained, often loudly, that too few minority-owned companies have seen any of that money so far.

Those complaints—which grew bitter late last year, culminating with accusations of racism at PNI board meetings and a formal complaint to the federal department of Housing and Urban Development—led PNI's former director, Sherry Kelly Marshall, to resign in frustration in November.

Carter, who will officially start on Aug. 1 after he completes a fellowship at the City University of New York, responds diplomatically to questions about those complaints. "Obviously, any complaints we'll take very seriously," he says. "We'll try to find the basis of those and find out if there's any validity to them, and then address what we need to do."

But he also insists that he'll stick to the initial EZ plan. Empowerment Zone supporters have said repeatedly that the first two years of funding would be devoted primarily to organizational costs and the creation of six separate Zone Advisory Councils to direct the course of redevelopment in individual communities and neighborhoods, along with a handful of designated redevelopment efforts. After that, a larger percentage of EZ money will be spent on specific projects. But critics have said more money should be going to businesses, particularly minority-owned businesses, inside the Empowerment Zone, rather than to converting old industrial sites or the high-tech Digital Crossing office complex.

"What I will do is use the prospectus that was made with input from community residents and volunteers," Carter says. "We need to not lose sight of what the prospectus says. It's not the be-all-end-all of the Empowerment Zone, but it's a point to start from...My job is to implement the Empowerment Zone plan. The first thing is to get a handle on how things are now, and then make sure things are being done."

Carter has worked in local redevelopment since he graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1988, first with the city's Department of Development and then with Knoxville's Community Development Corporation. He helped create the Five Points redevelopment plan while he worked for the city. The Black Business/Contractors Association, which has spearheaded the EZ complaints, contends that plan should be a top priority for EZ funding. Carter agrees that Five Points is a good target for EZ money at some point, but he says the plan isn't specific enough yet.

Umoja Abdul-Ahad, long-time community activist, says, "Until Terrence comes on board, I don't really have any comment on him." But Abdul-Ahad repeats the BBCA's concerns about PNI. "They don't realize that the citizens are supposed to be telling them where the money should be spent," he says. "They've got it in reverse. They think they should be telling us what we're supposed to do."

PNI board chair Laurens Tullock says the national search for a director, conducted by Empowerment Zone-based firm Work Force 2000, was an effort to include a local minority-owned business in the direction of PNI. But Tullock insists that Carter's race—he's African-American, while Marshall was white—wasn't a factor in the final decision.

"Of the final 10 applicants, they had a diverse group," Tullock says. "There were women, men, African Americans, whites. It was a terrifically diverse group. But he came out on top because he was the best choice."

—Matthew T. Everett

Confederacy of Pollution

Southern governors will talk about air pollution. But will they do anything?

Today and tomorrow, Governor Don Sundquist will host a summit of Southern governors in Gatlinburg to talk about air pollution.

Held in one of the places where the decreasing air quality is being felt the strongest—the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—the Third Annual Governors' Summit on Mountain Air Quality, "Clearing the Air," is an attempt to look for regional solutions to air pollution, says Kim Olson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Air pollution has to be tackled regionally, since pollution doesn't stay within the borders of the state where it was created, Olson says. The summit will look at the history of air quality, new regulations, the Clean Air Act, and various ways that emissions can be cut.

Of the 16 governors invited to the summit, only four will attend: Sundquist, Georgia's Roy Barnes, North Carolina's Michael Easley, and Kentucky's Paul Patton.

Olson says the low turnout isn't a disappointment. In the past two years' summits, only eight governors were invited, with three attending in '99 and four attending in 2000. "This is the first year that the invitation list has been expanded," she says. "We're just trying to expand the message."

But one activist says the summit is little more than a symbolic gesture, and that the states aren't doing much to stem air pollution.

"We don't expect a whole lot," says Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a non-profit group advocating for cleaner utility generation. "Unfortunately, none of the Southern governors have really taken air pollution very seriously.

"One of the governors, the governor from Kentucky, is actually actively promoting coal power plants. It's a little ironic that he's going to come down here and talk about mountain air quality when he's promoting additional coal power, the major source of the problem," Smith says.

One thing that will be announced at the summit is an ozone forecasting program. Ozone levels will be measured and predicted two days in advance by the state, so that people with poor health or lung problems can be better aware of when they should avoid going outside.

—Joe Tarr