Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Vehicleans, Unite!

Downtown business owners are getting mail touting something called "The South's Center Place of America," complete with a photo of downtown Knoxville in the rearview mirror. In language that seems to have been translated from some other tongue, the development bills itself as our new "city center." And where is our new city center? Why, at the corner of Cedar Bluff Road and Kingston Pike, of course. The full-color quadri-fold mailer informs us the development aims to "cater to and please vehicle enthusiasts known today as Vehicleans who insist on driving up to where they are going and PARK FREE!" As opposed to "negative, unwanted and unsaleable misnomer 'pedestrian-friendly ' commercial developments in this 8,000-acre Center City USA corridor." It also disparages downtown as "Knoxville's Former 150-acre 'City Center' bluff — Now Federal-State-County-City 'GOVERNMENT CENTER' where you PAY TO PARK!"

The mailer from Center Place of America shows two grassy, 20-something acre plots on North Cedar Bluff Road. A letter signed by Stan Moore, executive director of The South's Center Place of America, includes drawings of a spired city-like development and says that the whole shebang has been "successfully negotiated, then executed in actual construction 1991-2002 by our governmental and land steward visionaries."

The Metropolitan Planning Commission is one of the governmental agencies cited, but MPC Executive Director Norman Whitaker says the only contact he has had with the Center Place of America had to do with an easement problem two years ago. "I guess I'm out of the loop," Whitaker said. Stan Moore was not in the office and Tom Mallory, an employee, said he is not qualified to answer questions.

Pit Bull Bynon

John Bynon is a heavyweight in the ongoing zoning wars between homeowners and developers. He weighs in representing West Hills (which seemingly stretches from downtown out to Fox Den) at almost every meeting of City Council, and occasionally at County Commission as well. Most recently, he appeared before both bodies, to oppose the rezoning of property on Gallaher View Road, which is bisected by the city limits and owned by Dave Gibson. The MPC staff backs Bynon's position, and he had his way, as usual, at City Council, where he has close allies. But he ran into sharp questioning at County Commission last month when Commissioner Phil Guthe asked to hear from Gibson's lawyer Coleman Hoffman. When Hoffman approached the lectern, Bynon shocked the audience by stiff-arming Hoffman and commanding him to "Sit down!" "Don't sit down!" yelled one of the developers standing against the back wall. The room went silent as Hoffman took his seat. Bynon continued to guard the microphone like a pit bull over a ham hock until Guthe again said he wanted Hoffman to speak. Finally, the rezoning was postponed for 30 days over Bynon's objections.

C.H., We Hardly Knew Ye

A friend shares the following story, remembering the late C.H. Butcher, who died this week. The friend had been working at a World's Fair exhibit that the Butchers were involved in funding. "The last time I saw the man was sometime during the week that the shit started hitting the fan. It was at the C&C branch on Cumberland at Concord. An associate and I needed to see our contact there. We were in the process of deconstruction of the WF exhibit and needed an answer to something. That answer, we were told, had to come from C.H., so we went to his office. When we walked in, he was sitting at his desk in a wifebeater T-shirt, looking pretty grim. When he was asked to address our concern he just shook his head and said something like, 'It doesn't matter anymore.' Our contact escorted us out."

Hanging tough

Animal Foundation of East Tennessee founder Brenda Berke wants it known that Knoxville still has a low-cost spay and neutering option—for the moment. Unbeknownst to many Knoxvillians, the foundation has been unable to solicit contributions for the past eight months. The foundation, a charitable organization that provides low-cost veterinary services and operates a no-kill shelter for adoptable animals, depends on donations to operate. From June 2001 through January of this year, while the state investigated a complaint of financial mismanagement, the foundation was not allowed to ask potential donors for money, threatening its continued viability. The state has since completed its investigation, and though it did find "weaknesses in the organization's internal operations," it found "no evidence of intentional misappropriation of funds," and granted the foundation leave to begin fundraising activities again. Time will tell whether this action comes in time to save the foundation.

Short of Film?

The estimable Lillian Bean, running to restore her civil court clerk's political fiefdom after four years out of office, drew a full house to Ramsey's Cafeteria for her patented Bean Supper Monday, but the crowd was noticably aging, and it was a little odd that more Republican politicos weren't on hand. At the 6-6:30 p.m. height of the party, there were only a couple of county commissioners, Wanda Moody and Mary Lou Horner, in evidence. There was only one city council member, Steve Hall; only one judge, Carey Garrett of the Juvenile Court (but he's a Democrat and, besides, Lil's husband Richard works for him); only one ex-commissioner, Billy Walker; only one ex-legislator, Joe Burchfield; and only one other current candidate working the tables—the sheriff's hopeful, Jimmy "J.J." Jones; furthermore, Richard Bean didn't have a camera to snap everyone's picture with Lil like he used to do. "I didn't have enough film," he said. Hah!

Throwing out the mayor's man

When Burnett's Creek Community residents held a private meeting last Thursday to talk amongst themselves about their water contamination problem, outsiders were asked to leave by organizer Vernon Rose. He let City Council member Joe Hultquist and South Knoxvillian Linda Rust remain in the room, but an uninvited visitor stayed, too. As the media exited, News-Sentinel reporter Bryan Mitchell argued that he should be allowed to stay, since two public officials—Hultquist and Mark Ritchie, who was there representing the mayor's office, were in attendance. Ritchie was sitting in the back of the room taking notes until Rose finally approached him and asked him to leave. Mitchell confronted him outside the building, and Ritchie said he had misunderstood Rose's instructions that only those who lived in the area and had wells should stay in the room.