Developers or Pimps?
I read your [Jan. 24] piece about Wal-Mart on Chapman Highway and that company's practice of leaving shopping centers and their tenants to die when they move out to newer, larger stores. Very soon, residents of Halls will get to watch the same death of a shopping center and the deterioration of the space Wal-Mart currently occupies there.
The residents of Halls will have developers Mark Tarver and Bud Cullom to thank for that. When the zoning was changed on the new property to allow it to be developed by Tarver and Cullom, there were 250 people who showed up at the City Council meeting. Their concern and opposition has fallen on the deaf ears of City Council, Tarver and Cullom. If the land on Norris Freeway that they now own doesn't end up being for a Wal-Mart, it will be a LowesHomeDepotTargetOfficeMaxTruckStop. Pick your poison. Whatever, rest assured it will meet the only criterion that matters to the developers/developee—money.
As for dividing up the blame, it comes down to the developers facilitating the process and their total disregard for the people who live in the affected community. You might have guessed that neither Tarver nor Cullom live in Halls. So they won't have to worry about the traffic, loss of quality of life or the effects on the community. I grew up in the same church as the Tarver family and I would think Mark knows better.
Developers of this type are totally immune to the long term consequences of their actions. It's just "supply and demand," they explain. If there were no demand for a (insert big box store name here) then there would not be a need for the land to build one. In my opinion they are supply and demand pimps, comparable to cigarette makers, liquor producers and drug dealers, harming families and the community in the long term. Just meeting a demand. A purely selfish one.
William "Bill" Murphy
Knoxville
Teaming with Success
In reference to the Metro Pulse article "Strengthening Knox Economic Development:"
The mission of The Development Corporation of Knox County is to provide land and incentives to businesses wanting to locate or expand in our community. We have been very successful in attracting and retaining high-quality companies and jobs for Knox County, and we plan on doing even better in the future.
Many people are key to our success. I want to especially thank the County Commission, County Executive Tom Schumpert, plus Mayor Victor Ashe and the other members of The Development Corporation Board, especially Chairman Hank Bertelkamp. We have a great team, and I am honored to be part of it.
Melissa A. Ziegler
Executive Director
The Development Corp. of Knox County
Knoxville
I Got Your Trash
First of all, I am by birth and heritage Poor White Trash. I was born and raised right here in Knoxville to a father who was a locksmith and a mother who was a "carhop" and later a cook at a BBQ restaurant on Magnolia Avenue that doesn't even exist anymore. That said, I have just a few questions and comments about the "article" which appeared in your tabloid Jan. 10: Do you people call this journalism? What exactly gives you the right to print what amounts to a four-page insult to a fairly good sized cross-sector of people from this area? Did all of this tripe start over a few Sam Adams at Patrick Sullivan's, exchanging Poor White Trash jokes?
Does a degree and Certificate of Appreciation from Whittle give you the right to publish bigotry? Or is it OK for you to sit in your Ivory Tower of pseudo-intelligentsia and print something like Mr. Gibson's "piece," thinking that only those anointed individuals would read it? Or did it occur to any of you that maybe, just maybe, some people might be hurt by this?
My dad asked me a very interesting question a long time ago: If everyone had a college education, who would pick up the garbage? Or dig the sewer line ditches? I didn't have an answer for him. Do you? Do you know who does pick up the garbage?
We all know that jokes based on ethnicity (or characteristics of certain ethnic groups) are wrong. But was Mr. Gibson's article right just because most Poor White Trash don't read your publication? I don't think so. Quite simply put, this article was no more appropriate to run in your publication than four pages of jokes about blacks, Poles, gays and lesbians or for that matter any group which may or may not have some identifying characteristic. It was offensive, divisive, and just plain uncalled-for.
Though the last page of the article tries, half-heartedly, to soften the blow (in essence mentioning Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams and Belle Brown to say, "Well, not all Poor White Trash are bad"), it was too little, too late.
In conclusion, contempt breeds contempt; and Mr. Gibson's (and your paper's) contempt for all those economically or educationally challenged people in this area is just sad and irresponsible... And I do not believe it was journalism. It was just wrong.
David Allen Wilson
Knoxville
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