Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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To Infinity, and Beyond?

The story making the rounds this week (of, well, you know, people among whom stories make rounds) was that the backers of the Universe Knoxville proposal—who include, most prominently, Knox Superchamber majordomo Tom Ingram—were asking the semi-independent Central Business Improvement District to pledge money to the "virtual reality" planetarium/museum. A meeting of CBID's board of directors had been set for next week, (CBID is funded through an added tax assessment on downtown property, and its funds are used to promote downtown economic development.) The CBID board had already pledged conceptual support of the project, but with no financial commitment. Word was that with just a few weeks before making their final pitch to County Commission for up-to-$35 million in public funding, Universe Knoxville organizers were trying to scrape together the $1.5 million in annual private funding that was included in their most recent financial model. But CBID director Michele Hummel says there won't be any board meeting. "We've canceled that," she says, citing the complications of trying to get people together during the holidays. Hummel also says there was no firm proposal to put CBID money into Universe Knoxville. "There've been discussions for six months about how can we support Universe Knoxville, with marketing or whatever," she says. The next scheduled CBID board meeting isn't until Dec. 19—after County Commission is expected to make a decision on U.K.

Sweeping in With a New Broom?

Five new City Council members-elect met for lunch at the Tomato Head the other day for a heart-to-heart session about the future. One of the items that had to come up is the position of vice mayor, which has been held for lo these many years by Jack Sharp. There is talk that some of the newcomers would like to see that change. The words "fresh start" come up a lot when Joe Hultquist, Rob Frost and Steve Hall speak. The vice mayor is elected by Council, and five votes will decide the issue. On the other side, Barbara Pelot and Mark Brown fret about being "divisive."

The Fresh Starters are virtually certain to be joined by returning incumbent Nick Pavlis, who has made no secret of his preference for a new vice mayor. Brown's name comes up lot, although be says he would be reluctant to take the position unless a sizable majority of his future colleagues drafted him. So the question here is whether Brown, who was the leading vote-getter in the November elections, would vote for himself.

Sharp has been making the rounds seeking commitments, but made a poor impression on some of the new guys by falling asleep at Ijams Park during a get-acquainted session the week after the election. ("I just looked up and there he was—head back against the wall, mouth open..." said one witness.)

In the meantime, Sharp's foot-dragging on the issue of calling a workshop to talk about Five Points redevelopment (one has finally been set for Dec. 6 after much begging) is doubtless prompting some of Brown's constituents to make some phone calls urging him to accept the job. On the other hand, two of Brown's most prominent supporters, Sam Anderson and Tank Strickland, work for the Ashe administration, which prefers that the pliable Sharp remain just a heartbeat away from the mayor's office.

"It's a poker game," said one political watcher.

Tennis Anyone?

Some of the best tennis ever to be seen in Knoxville was played last week at UT's Goodfriend Tennis Center. But no more than 200 spectators showed up to watch any of the six days of play in the USTA/UT Challenger tournament. That's a far cry from the thousands who turn out each year amid a lot of hoopla for the Buy.com Knoxville Open golf tournament that's also billed as a satellite event to the sport's main pro circuit.

Yet the tennis tourney draws players who are much nearer the top of their sport than the golf tournament does. This year's winner, James Blake, was one of only two players to take a set off Lleyton Hewitt on the No. 1-ranked Hewitt's way to winning the U.S. Open in September. The other was that even younger American phenom Andy Roddick, who was a finalist in the inaugural Challenger tournament here a year ago.

Blake was the dominant player in a field that included former French Open champion Michael Chang and another former top-20 player, Vince Spadea. The turnout might have improved if Knoxville's own Chris Woodruff hadn't been forced to withdraw because of a shin injury.

With who knows how many thousand tennis players there must be in the Knoxville area, you'd think that more of them would show an interest in watching these top-flight pros compete. But the tournament got scant publicity in advance, and the News-Sentinel didn't even carry the daily schedule of matches. We're sorry that Metro Pulse was part of the lack-of-publicity problem, and we'll try to do better next year.

Bored with the Board?

Jim McClain won't be chairing the school board next year. In fact, the two-term member and one-term board chairman has told his friends that he's not going to run for re-election in the spring. Look for former County Commissioner Robert Bratton to step up and seek the seat. School board members are elected on a non-partisan basis, and Bratton, a Democrat, represented this GOP-dominated district for two terms before resigning to make an unsuccessful run for the state House in 1998. He enjoys considerable support from South Knox Republicans

Poking Fun

When urban retailing guru Bob Gibbs reported on the results of his study of the possibilities for marketing Market Square, he showed slides illustrating the latest national shopping trend—new town centers designed to look old. Gibbs kept making the point that Knoxville doesn't need to build a faux historic district, since we already have the real deal in Market Square. In the middle of this explication, here came a rendering of downtown Knoxville dominated by a spired skyscraper-office tower and hotel, connected by glass tubes to the convention center on the west side of Henley Street and a glass dome over Market Square.

"And then, there are grandiose plans," said Gibbs, who was clearly struggling to keep a straight face as he showed the slide of the Renaissance Knoxville plan once advanced by Worsham Watkins . When a member of the audience later asked him why droves of developers aren't already here, if there's such a great market for what Knoxville has to offer, Gibbs dryly commented that "there's a process in place" for cities to market themselves—national events where developers and cities come together to look one another over. There was one recently in Las Vegas, Gibbs said, "and Knoxville didn't have a booth."