Census Can't or Won't Count
I read most issues of Metro Pulse with interest and am grateful for its presence in our community. I was particularly interested in some statements in "A Moving Target," your [July 12] story on the 2000 census.
I have been a resident of the Old City for most of the past 10 years and am therefore fairly familiar with the residential patterns here in the Old City and up on Gay Street. In your article, you said census figures reveal that Tract Number One, the downtown area, has lost population since 1990, when there were 1,470 people living here, compared to 1,300 in 2000. You also suggest that those figures are surprising in light of the continuing renovations of old lofts in the Old City and on Gay Street, etc.
The figures are not at all surprising to me, but I doubt that the population has declined since 1990. Rather, I have reason to believe that the census failed to fairly survey the area.
I never received a census form in 2000. I made a number of telephone calls to various agencies in an attempt to obtain one. I was not successful. Further, I was unable to identify a single friend or neighbor living in the Old City who had received a census form. At one point, I was told that I could not be sent a form, but that of course a census taker would call on me. No one called me. It would be very difficult to survey residents in that way, because most buildings are secure, at least during non-business hours, and most residents work.
It would be interesting to know what the numbers would be if all residents of the Old City has been counted.
Bethany K. Dumas
Knoxville
Make Air a Priority
Thanks for the [July 5] cover story on air quality. I especially appreciate the suggestions for things we can do individually to reduce our pollutant emissions. I would add one more item to the list of "Things You Can Do:" Regularly urge all of your elected officials to support public policies that make environmental (including air quality) issues a top priority.
Your article stressed the role of energy conservation in reducing air-pollutant emissions. Certainly, I can reduce my energy consumption, but the increment that I don't use is available for a less conscionable person to use, and the ozone is formed anyway. Environmental awareness will motivate a few individuals to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption, but most will be motivated only by higher energy and commodity prices.
While I disagree with the statement that Southerners are especially uninformed and unconcerned with environmental issues, I recognize that humans everywhere are generally wasteful of that which seems plentiful and cheap. Cheap and plentiful electricity from TVA attracted industry and individuals to this region, so it's no surprise that per-capita consumption in the Tennessee Valley is higher than the national average. (Presumably, the figures you quoted reflect usage by industries and businesses that export their products to consumers outside the region, thus attributing that consumption to Tennesseans.) By avoiding emission-control investments, power producers can afford to continue to feed us relatively cheap electricity, which encourages further consumption by new industry and new residents.
How much more effective might it have been for the EPA to refuse to exempt pre-1985 power plants from using available technology to reduce emissions? Would electricity be more expensive now? Yes, and everyone would be more motivated to conserve. Furthermore, there would be less pollution associated with each increment of energy that we consume.
Strict and uniform enforcement of national air-quality standards would reduce emissions of ozone-forming substances and other air pollutants in our immediate area as well as the larger region (including the Ohio River valley) from which much of our air pollution originates. Such enforcement will occur only if and when public officials perceive it to be the will of the people they serve. Anyone who is serious about protecting the environment and their own health must be politically active. Write, call, and email your Congressional representatives, the President, his cabinet members, and administrators of agencies such as the EPA. Tell them that you want cleaner air and that you are willing to pay for it. You can get contact information for many of your elected officials from the Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning newsletter at www.korrnet.org/tcwp.
Patricia Cole
Knoxville
| 
