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Seven Days

Wednesday, Aug. 8
Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols formally announced as a Democratic Party candidate for governor. Hubert Patty, Maryville's perennial candidate, chuckled.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys went to great lengths to explain how a former Knoxville Police officer was able to dodge a DUI charge through a "technicality." No explanation was really necessary.

Thursday, Aug. 9
Police Chief Phil Keith went to great lengths to explain how the shooting of a woman in her apartment by a KPD officer was necessary and justified. Uh, see Aug. 8, Item 2.

The latest fallout from the state's tax reform failure is the lowering of its bond rating on Wall Street. Gov. Don Sundquist is overheard quoting Yogi Berra: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Friday, Aug. 10
The governor's office reports that the nationwide search for a new president of the UT is moving faster than expected. Let's see, the last three presidents have been a politician, and two career administrators. None of them worked out well. Perhaps it's easier this time to find a qualified janitorial candidate to succeed the bean counter who's serving as acting, or "custodial" president. An academic candidate seems out of the question.

Monday, Aug. 13
The governor, having a busy week with no money to spend, asks the federal government for agricultural disaster funds for 31 Tennessee counties where crops have been damaged by drought and flooding, among other factors. Think anybody in Washington will believe him?

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:
Yeah, buddy. Some folks concentrated on the little (mid-day) merry-go-round in the front of the frame and missed the big ol' building back behind—which is, of course, the one and only Ciderville Music Store on Clinton Highway. Where Cas Walker ruled the roost and Marshal Andy patrols the parking lot. Where Mr. Scott Miller likes to go, come a Saturday night. Where the past is present and the present feels like a gift. It's a musical treasure, don't you know. The first right answer came from Daniel Moore, who's something of a musical treasure himself, drummer for the one and only Ray-O-Vacs and six-string slinger for the one and onlier Swamis. For his troubles (and we hope he doesn't have many), we're happy to present Daniel with a bright pink copy of Isaac Adamson's novel Tokyo Suckerpunch. The blurb on the back says it's what you'd get "if you crossbred The Big Sleep with Memoirs of a Geisha..." Just in case you ever wondered.

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

METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION
Thursday, Aug. 16
6:30 p.m.
South Knoxville Community Center
522 Maryville Pk.
The commission will discuss the South City Sector Plan.
Thursday, Aug. 16
6:30 p.m.
South Doyle High School, Choral Room
2020 Tipton Station Rd.
The commission will discuss the South County Sector Plan.
Monday, Aug. 20
6:30 p.m.
Knoxville Center, City Hall at the Mall Room
The commission will discuss the East City Sector Plan

KNOXVILLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Thursday, Aug. 16
6:30 p.m.
Montgomery Village Boys and Girls Club
4530 Joe Lewis Rd.
Empowerment Zone (EZ) investment shop informational meeting.

KNOXVILLE CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, Aug. 21
7 p.m.
City County Bldg., Main Assembly Rm.
400 Main St.
Regularly scheduled meeting.

Off and Running

City Council's 1st District race draws a crowd

South Knoxville is often maligned as a community apart, somehow less sophisticated than the city north of the river. And Knoxville's most historic neighborhood, Fort Sanders, has been the victim of speculative landlords and a revolving population of careless university students.

Those neighborhoods make up City Council's 1st District, and the characterizations—or perceptions of them—might have had something to do with drawing so many candidates into this fall's Council election. For the five open seats, the 1st district has drawn the most candidates—eight.

There are no each major divisions on the issues: They all favor commercial development, preserving and improving neighborhoods, downtown redevelopment, and fighting crime, although they differ in how they'd handle these issues.

There is no apparent front runner. Financially, Sylvia Woods leads the pack with $3,393, followed by Greg Pinkston with $2,090, Joe Hultquist with $1,660 and Gezial Dos Santos with $1,585. The remaining four candidates have raised less than $1,000. (Figures are as of July 15—the most recent filing deadline was Wednesday, Aug. 15, after press time.) An unknown factor is the university vote. If Michael Leventhal could get out his fellow UT students in big numbers for the primary, he could easily move on to the citywide general election.

The field:

Richard Bowling: A management consultant, Bowling is a member of Knoxville's Board of Zoning Appeals and the Knox County Library Board. He could not be reached for comment for this article. According to Election Central, a voting-guide website (www.korrnet.org/election), Bowling's vision for Knoxville is "Revitalization, maintaining history and charm, a destination point."

Ben Burks: An inventor and restaurant worker (Club LeConte), Burks says one of his main concerns is stopping city annexations. "I think we need to polish up the inside of Knoxville," says Burks, who sees infrastructure maintenance and development as the way to do that.

"I think downtown redevelopment is important, but we need to map it out," Burks says. He gave no details for how it should be done.

On protecting the environment, he's worried about stream and river pollution; would like to see the city and school district start using electric buses; and is in favor of alternative energy sources, such as solar, to power public buildings. And, he's in favor of vehicle-emissions tests, although he'd like to see help given to the poor to meet those standards.

"I want Knoxville to be seen as a place that does something about its infrastructure problems," Burks says. "At Disney World, we let our kids ride electric trains, but we're not practicing what we preach."

Gezial Dos Santos: An insurance adjuster and reserve police officer, Dos Santos says he's seen the impact local government can have on people and wanted to get involved. He sees Knoxville at a turning point, with many big decisions to be made by Council the next few years.

"We really need to plan out a vision of what we want our city to be...What kind of attractions do we want?

"I think we've been trying to jam things down people's throats. It seems like we're catering to the minority and ignoring the majority," he adds.

For South Knoxville, he'd like to see some economic development in the way of shops, restaurants and residences, as well as some development along the waterfront. Downtown needs to be developed, and better connections established between the waterfront, downtown and Old City.

Dos Santos promises to be accountable to the people and would hold community meetings before each council meeting to get opinions. "You could have one local person who has the answer to your problem; you just need to listen to them."

Joseph Hultquist: A building contractor, Hultquist was involved in getting the Nine Counties, One Vision planning initiative going. For years the city has been annexing land in order to increase revenue, he says. With little room to grow geographically, "the city is going to have to take a whole different approach, not just to revenue growth, but residential and employment growth," he says. "The city's going to have to learn to grow internally."

In South Knoxville, Hultquist favors traditional neighborhood development, with mixed-use and village-center approaches. He says the village-center approach now being attempted in Bearden could be used for a strip of Chapman Highway.

South Knoxville's riverfront is also prime undeveloped land, which he sees going to residential, commercial and business uses. "We've got that potential to have a mixed-used area that's not tourism-dependent," he says. "Those kinds of places often become attractive to tourists."

Hultquist would like to see a master-plan process define how downtown should be redeveloped to resolve the standstill between factions fighting over downtown's future. "I think we're to the point where neither group has the power to force their will on the other. The only way out of that is to build a new consensus."

Hultquist would also stress more greenways, sidewalks and enhanced public transportation.

Michael Leventhal: A University of Tennessee student, Leventhal says he's one of those people who always shakes his head when he reads the paper or watches the news. He did it when he saw the Smokies leave town, saw old houses being torn down, read about various downtown proposals and viewed low voter turnout. "A lot of those things pushed me to run. A lot of my friends were telling me constantly, 'Why don't you run?'"

If elected, he says his first goal would be to organize neighborhood groups to find out what they want for the district. "What I've been doing is going around knocking on doors, asking regular people to vote," he says. "People really like what I'm saying."

He'd try to reform the way Council operates, making it more accountable and more open. He favors moving the public-comment period to the beginning of Council meetings and starting a committee system similar to the County Commission's. "It would let the public know about the issues before they get voted up or down. It would probably be a huge headache for Council. But it would make it more responsive to the people," he says.

He says sidewalks are the number-one issue in South Knoxville. He's also concerned about how money for the South Sector EZ development plan will be spent. He favors small-business development, neighborhood preservation and an increased police presence. He favors redeveloping downtown's old buildings and thinks a master plan is the best way to proceed.

Greg Pinkston: A former sheriff's deputy and KPD officer, Pinkston did not respond to a request from Metro Pulse asking for his views and goals. Pinkston, whose uncle, Howard "Nookie" Pinkston, is a veteran of Knox County Commission, now works as a security officer for Knox County schools. Pinkston told Metro Pulse in May that he was stressing accessibility, not issues, in his campaign. "People want somebody who's accessible, who will show up at meetings and at least listen to them whether the issues is streets, sidewalks, neighborhood security or whatever," he said at that time.

Doug Wheeling: A Knox County school teacher, Wheeling says it was a desire to serve the public that drew him into the race. "As corny as it may sound, City Council gives a person an opportunity to really make a difference. I was brought up in a family that helps people," he says. "I think it's a position where you can really make a difference and you can see it immediately."

For South Knoxville, Wheeling says he'd love to see more commercial development—pointing to Ruby Tuesday's as a good example. He also favors downtown redevelopment, although he didn't give any specifics on how that should happen. "[Downtown redevelopment] has got to be at the top of the list. But we need to know exactly what we're talking about, and not necessarily sign a blank check," he says.

Code enforcement, crime control and better relations with the county government are also among his concerns. "

"I want to be a voice for the 1st district. You want somebody representing you that can bring people together," he says. "As a teacher, I have to do that every day."

Sylvia Woods: Woods has been the secretary and bookkeeper for the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Area Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, for 20 years. "South Knoxville has the feeling that it's left out," she says. "I'd like to try to change that."

"The thing that most people have asked me about is sidewalks. They want to know why we don't have enough sidewalks. And they want someone to be available to them. A lot of public service is not just your vote on every other Tuesday night, but what you can do to help the community in between times."

Like the other candidates, Woods favors downtown redevelopment. However, she stresses that current property owners need to have a say in what happens. She says she'd also like to see tourism development along the South Knoxville waterfront, including restaurants and possibly a hotel. Likewise, Fort Dickerson should be given attention. "Fort Dickerson is a plum sitting on top of the hill there," she says.

Neighborhood preservation is another concern, and she doesn't believe any historic homes should be bulldozed unless the property owner has a solid plan for what will follow.

"I want our children to grow up and get good jobs in this neighborhood and this city and not have to leave town to have a job," she says. "I want our city to be able to pay a living wage."

Woods says City Council should be more involved with the schools. "There's ways Council can fund projects for the schools," she says.

—Joe Tarr