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Seven Days

Thursday, November 14
TDOT reps are in town to talk about developing a Memphis- to- Bristol... passenger rail line. Seriously. Stop laughing.

Friday, November 15
The Smith-Coughlin house, the one Cherokee Country Club wants to tear down for parking, is placed at the top of the Tennessee Preservation Trust's most endangered list. The executive director of the trust says the house would be a landmark "in a thousand cities across America." Cherokee's reply: "Well, this isn't a thousand other cities! This is Knoxville."

Saturday, November 16
Tennessee wins at Mississippi State. Rashad Baker goes down for the season. Surviving Vol football players are placed on the Tennessee Preservation Trust's most endangered list.

Sunday, November 17
It's reported that the Miss America pageant organizers have been trying to stop this year's Miss America, Erika Harold, from talking about abstinence from sex in her public appearances. So far, she has refused to quiet down. If she really wanted to be a good role model, she'd do as she's told.

Monday, November 18
The political machinations to get a veterans' nursing home in East Tennessee at long last are described in the News-Sentinel as "battle plans." Sounds simple. Arm the veterans.

Tuesday, November 19
WUOT radio's Daniel Berry reports that today is "Have a Dull Day Day," catering to those who hate to be told, ad nauseum, to "have a nice day." In the next breath mentions that this is the anniversary of the founding of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Coincidence? We don't think so.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Yes, last week's Knoxville Found photo was another obvious one—at least to frequenters of Market Square. It shows the new fence around the Square, erected to protect passersby from the construction that will be going on for the next five months. (Interestingly, the two signs that have been prominently placed on the south side of the fence, listing all the businesses on the east and west sides of the Square, give those businesses better foot-traffic advertising than they had before the fence was put up.)

Anyway, downtown resident, general cut-up, and legal owner of the name "Universe Knoxville" Brent Minchey was first to correctly identify the photo. Not that he deserves a prize for just happening to be in the right place at the right time, but Brent gets a copy of The Hydrogen Economy by Jeremy Rifkin, because we figure that's the sort of thing he reads.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT
Thursday, Nov. 21
11 a.m.
Oakwood Lincoln Park Recreation Center
Kicks off a city effort to identify ways to help neighborhood groups coordinate efforts and meet goals.

LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Monday, Nov. 25
5 p.m.
Lawson McGhee Library
Main Meeting Room
500 West Church Avenue
Regularly scheduled meeting.

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, Nov. 26
7 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regularly scheduled meeting.

Fifth Avenue Quandary
What to do with the condemned motel

With the condemnation of the 5th Avenue Motel this month, many residents and historic preservationists are hoping the building will be renovated to spur the recovery of a blighted corner of downtown. But without government help and a willing developer, the property will likely end up as an empty concrete slab.

Some 60 families were evicted from the motel with a week's notice after city codes officers inspected the 89-year-old building. There were numerous code violations, the most serious being a faulty fire alarm system. Ron Cunningham, president of Rainbow Adult Homes, which owns the building, said a power surge shortly before the inspection fried the alarms.

A non-profit agency, Rainbow used to own a series of homes for mentally handicapped adults, Cunningham says. They've sold or given most of those away, and the 5th Avenue Motel—which was donated to Rainbow about five years ago—is its last property.

With the building condemned, it will have to be brought up to modern code standards, which Cunningham estimates will cost $1.6 million.

"When you get an old building like that, the hallways aren't wide enough, the ceilings aren't high enough to meet code," Cunningham says. "We don't have the resources to bring it up to code."

But, many people say the building needs to be saved, both because of it's architectural significance and location. Councilman Rob Frost, whose district is near (but doesn't include) the 5th Avenue Motel, says traffic counts show 28,000 cars move through the intersection each day. "It's North Knoxville's entrance to downtown, and it's an important entrance at that," he says.

But that intersection also happens to include two homeless shelters, a halfway house, and some vacant buildings. With another homeless shelter considering moving there, neighborhood organizations are demanding that improvements be made.

Downtown's revitalization depends on getting people from the surrounding neighborhoods—Oakwood, Lincoln Park, 4th and Gill, Old North Knoxville—to regularly come downtown, Frost says. Some will be deterred by a blighted pathway. "We don't need to set up a barrier to these people just north of downtown."

Mayor Victor Ashe recognized the building's importance by applying for an H-1 historic overlay on the property, which would make it more difficult to demolish. However, saving it will take a lot more than zoning.

Knox Heritage is trying to recruit a developer or non-profit agency to take over the building, says Kim Trent, the organization's executive director. There are a number of tax credits and grant programs that a developer could use, she says, and Knox Heritage offers assistance in utilizing them. Historic tax credits allow a financier to get 20 percent of the rehab costs back. The credits can be sold, usually at around 90 percent of what they're worth. (So, if the building cost $1 million to renovate, the $200,000 tax credit could be sold for about $180,000.) Low-income housing tax credits are also available, but they're awarded on a competitive basis and are harder to get. Money is available through other programs such as Knoxville's Home Dollars, Trent says.

There is certainly a demand for affordable housing in Knoxville, says Calvin Taylor, director of the Community Action Committee's Homeward Bound program. (CAC helped 27 of the 5th Avenue residents relocate. The whereabouts of another 24 families is unknown, because they did not want the help the agency offered.)

"We probably need at least 1,000 affordable low-income based units, widely dispersed in the county and city," Taylor says. "Is that going to happen? Not any time in the future that I can see."

Public housing, Taylor says, is mostly full. "There's so much other housing out there that is in worse shape than the 5th Avenue Motel that [the residents] need to be out of. But they're small units, they don't get inspected because they're not in the limelight. There are people living in some bad, bad conditions out there."

Local developers say there's no hope for saving the motel without government help. Mike Lewis has rehabilitated two apartment buildings, the Lakewood and the Shenandoah on Magnolia Avenue, using a Home Dollars grant and historic credits. He's been praised for keeping the buildings safe, clean, and affordable. Lewis considered taking over the 5th Avenue Motel a couple of years ago, but it was too expensive. He says he'd consider it again if he could get financial help.

"I would like to see the building saved, but it's going to take a huge amount of commitment from the city," says Lewis, who now rents to five families who were displaced from the 5th Avenue Motel. "With the right commitment and the right person willing to commit the time, I think it could be done."

Architect and developer Buzz Goss, who has renovated a number of downtown buildings, agrees that a developer would need financial help. But, he says the building needs to be saved. "In the long run, we as a community are going to have to tame 5th Avenue, turning it into something that is not an eyesore," Goss says. "I think the building can be saved, and we need to be talking about how it should be saved."

"What I think is perfect in that area is some artist housing, converting it into live-in work spaces for people who are artists—folks who don't mind pioneering an area," he says. "Those townhouses are ideal for that. There's lots of windows, so there's a lot of light, there are good views, and it's walking distance to downtown. There's a market there we're not able to provide for—generally the artists are folks who aren't into just making a profit, but they bring other value into a community."

Cunningham said he'd like to see the building saved and used as low-income housing. He says Rainbow Homes would consider donating it to someone for that purpose. But, he's also upset with how the residents were forced out. He says the motel was a scapegoat for the neighborhood's complicated problems. "The preservation people, I don't know where they've been all this time," he says. "They could have helped us some."

—Joe Tarr

Seniors' Moment
New county exec asks community to focus on retiree needs

Declaring that "We may have to look at ways of doing things as we haven't done them before; maybe the traditional ways don't work any longer," New County Executive Mike Ragsdale took the first step toward fulfilling one his campaign promises Tuesday, kicking off Knoxville's first Senior Summit at the I-75 Expo Center. It was a standing-room only affair, thanks to a crowd of more than 300 attendees, most of them "age-enhanced," as Emcee Bill Williams' euphemistically dubbed senior citizenship.

Three broad categories of need were outlined at the event: transportation, drug costs, and assisted living.

Outside the Knoxville city limits, where most residents do not have access to KAT buses, the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee Office on Aging has been working since 1993 to help seniors with their transportation needs. Since '93, CAC Transportation has increased its number of trips by 30 per cent (its total for July '01 through June '02 was 200,000 trips). CAC is currently working with KAT to develop ways to increase the availability and ease of use of public transportation for seniors.

A task force has already been working on the problem of the dramatically increasing cost of prescription drugs. Led by Dr. Zoe Evans, the task force secured funding for a six-month trial run of program called Affordable Medical Options for Seniors (AMOS). It began operation July 1 of this year. AMOS has a three-tiered strategy: 1) Identify programs available through drug companies and government agencies that help moderate prescription drug costs. 2) Initiate a campaign to inform seniors of these programs. 3) Train volunteers to assist seniors in applying for inclusion in these programs.

Perhaps the most ambitious endeavor discussed at the summit was the Broadway Center for assisted living. The center, to be located near the Broadway Baptist Church, would provide affordable adult day care, child care, community rooms, restaurants, Internet access, and senior-care training for families and care-givers, among many other amenities.

Warning Baby Boomers of "an age quake like you can't even imagine coming," Ludell Coffey, chief executive officer of the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service proposed the project. "Tennessee has the second highest number of assisted living facilities of any state in the Union," Coffey explained, but few are affordable to middle- and lower-income families. Therefore, her organization hopes to have the Broadway Center facility funded—through grants, donations, and possibly through partnering with a public entity—so that it will be affordable to all strata of income.

Coffey would not speculate on when the center might be built. She said that many people, while expressing interest in assisting with the Broadway Center, hesitated to be the first to come forward. "I think our county executive is willing to be first," she said. "We've had long talks before and since the election, so pretty much we are banking on the county to kick start this."

Ragsdale was not present when the Broadway Center was being discussed. Cynthia Finch, senior director of Knox County Community Services and main coordinator of the summit, acknowledged that discussions have taken place with representatives of the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service and that Ragsdale is interested in seeing what can be done for the proposal. "But we're still in discussions right now," she cautions.

Although presentations at the summit focused on what has been done thus far and where matters currently stand, attendees broke into small groups in the second half of the program to discuss and identify challenges to seniors. "We need to listen to the citizens first, we need to get information from those who will use these services," says Finch. "And that's what we're doing here."

According to Finch, the results from the small group discussions will be compiled by her office over the next few weeks. This information will be used to develop goals for task forces to work toward, beginning in late January. Members of the task forces will be drawn from attendees who volunteered for duty during the Senior Summit. Finch explained that the task forces will meet at least once a month, will issue periodic progress reports (which may be posted on the county web site), and will convene at a second Senior Summit in November 2003 to assess their work and establish new goals.

—Scott McNutt