Metro Pulse/Editor's Corner/Scruffy, It's Not

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A newcomer's first impressions of Knoxville

by Bill Carey

So what do you think of Knoxville so far?

It's an obvious question, a query I've heard again and again during my first three months here. At times, I've not known how to respond to it. I'm so busy getting moved, so busy helping my wife deal with a sleepless two-year-old, and so busy learning Metro Pulse that it's been hard to think deeply about Knoxville. But then again, that's my job, or at least it's part of it. And so I've sat down to write my honest impressions of my new home city.

Here goes:

Knoxville is not scruffy. Within my first week of moving here, I was told about the nickname scruffy and its origins. But as best I can tell, Knoxville residents who cling to this name make about as much sense as a grown man who clings to the memory of an insult that was carelessly flung at him by a girl he had a crush on in high school. In any case, most of the parts of Knoxville that I have seen are not that shabby or unkempt. By standards of other Southern cities such as Birmingham, New Orleans, and Nashville, Knoxville has less litter, fewer eyesores, fewer stray dogs, fewer abandoned cars, and a better sense of tidiness. Take Neyland Drive, for instance. In many cities, a downtown street that winds along a river would have been put to heavy industrial use and be surrounded by hazardous waste sites and covered with garbage (much like the entire east bank of the Cumberland River in Nashville). Neyland is a nice stretch; I only hope they don't ruin it by developing the south side of the river.

Knoxville operates at a leisurely pace. This may have to do with the size of the city; it may have to do with the culture of East Tennessee; it may have to do with the fact that the economy here is so influenced by public sector entities such as TVA and the University of Tennessee. People take their time here. They take their time at work; they take their time walking down the sidewalk; they take their time driving home. I've run into quite a few people who don't know the value of a simple answer to a simple question, and that will take some getting used to.

Knoxville has high property taxes, but pretty good local government services. When I first found out how much my city and county property taxes were going to be here, I had to sit down. However, I've been impressed so far with the schools, the library, the parks, the garbage collection, and public works. It's actually possible here to pick up the phone and find the right person to help you in Knoxville, and there's something to be said for that.

Knoxville has a sprawl problem. Of course, virtually every city has the same problem; the reasons for sprawl have to do with everything from the affluence of the age in which we live to public transportation policy to racism to shoddy building codes. Sprawl is bad here, but it's actually worse in the other places I've lived. Widening every road that leads out of town is not the solution (although that's exactly what's happening now). Taking pains to bring back the heart of the city and the neighborhoods that surround it as a residential area is.

Knoxville's obsession with UT football is greater than even I expected. I knew when I came to Knoxville that this was something I'd have to learn to deal with, and I'm doing my best. But I didn't expect the public library's card to be UT orange (some of my fellow reporters at Metro Pulse believe this is a coincidence, but I doubt it). I didn't expect to hear "Rocky Top" played continuously and loudly at an official Knoxville Convention Center lunch. I didn't expect to hear sermons that make references and even draw analogies to UT sporting events. I didn't expect to find so many public streets named for UT athletes and UT coaches. (What does this say about everyone else who has ever come from this city?) And I wonder about the many people who listen to and respond to talk radio shows that deal with every aspect, every angle, even every play of the latest UT game—not to mention those who send us anonymous letters calling for the firing of Phillip Fulmer.