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In the Zone
The Last Chance Adult Theater is represented by Nashville lawyer Bob Lynch Jr., who is said have some 35 other "adult" businesses on his client list. The controversial Old City strip club has another lawyer, however, who hails from closer to home. A local co-counsel is the fabulously-connected and patrician Arthur Seymour Jr., who has not been out front in any of the club's struggles with the city of Knoxville. Seymour's discreet Last Chance involvement has not escaped the judicial notice of his brethren in the Knoxville bar, who have been tittering about it.:
"I guess they need Arthur to keep them abreast of local zoning," says one Seymour colleague. "You wonder what he's going to uncover."
Beyond Sisyphus
We've sometimes given construction projects grief for not making allowances for pedestrians, but on Cumberland Avenue between 11th and 13th Streets, construction supervisors have taken some pains to install helpful signs for our often-ignored walkers. It is, of course, in the UT-campus area, probably the most heavily pedestrian area in town.
On the Ayres Hall side, the sidewalk's closed with fences around a construction area, with an obligatory sign: "SIDEWALK CLOSED/PLEASE USE OTHER SIDE OF STREET." But then, when you obediently follow the printed advice, on the other side you find more fencing and another sign, equally helpful if not quite as polite: "SIDEWALK CLOSED USE OTHER SIDE." An obedient citizen might spend eternity crossing Cumberland Avenue at 13th Street.
All for Knoxville...
City Councilman (as she wishes to be called) Barbara Pelot was the guest speaker at a luncheon meeting of a professional women's organization recently. Members of the lawyer's group were left wondering if she was serious when she talked about her background and proudly told them that she got her start in public life as a cheerleader.
"She said that's still how she sees herself—as a cheerleader for Knoxville," one said.
Pedestrian-Hostile Hostel
Before city fathers instantly decide to replace the Hyatt Regency with another luxury hotel on the same site, they might do well to confer with members of an urban planning group that convened there not long ago. The visitors from around the region remarked on the hilltop hotel's poor siting and design. And that was before they tried to leave the Hyatt on foot, only to discover there's no sidewalk connecting the hotel to downtown. A car careening up the narrow driveway scattered urban planners merely trying to find their way to Gay Street.
The long-ago architects of the hotel were lucky not to be present that afternoon. Genuinely perplexed, one planner asked, "What were they thinking?" Perhaps we should consider adaptive reuse of the damlike building as a corporate headquarters. Or return the site to its original use: it was a Methodist graveyard.
Ball-Washing Time
Have you noticed the Sunsphere lately? This proud monument to the 1982 World's Fair that serves as the symbol of Knoxville to thousands of interstate travelers is covered with dirt and grime from the nearby convention center construction and is looking downright tawdry. A little soap and water could bring back the sparkle—and just in time for the visitors. You know what they say about cleanliness...
March 7, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 10
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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