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Seven Days

Wednesday, February 12
The city reveals it has arranged for night-time surveillance flights, using infrared sensing technology, to scan the city's waters for pollutants and their sources. U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft asks if his agents can ride along to watch for possible anti-American pollution.

Thursday, February 13
Sheriff Tim Hutchison is fined and scolded by a Chancery Court judge who finds the sheriff in contempt of court. That should come as no surprise. The sheriff has shown contempt for most everybody else around here.

Friday, February 14
The weather guessers predict rain. Those among us who doubt them will soon regret it.

Saturday, February 15
UT's basketball Vols slap Florida, 66-59, disposing of a top-five team and a nasty one at that. Forget what we said last week about not remembering the last nationally ranked basketball team the Vols had beaten.

Sunday, February 16
The News-Sentinel carries a letter to the editor from Alan Carmichael, defending the Haslams against a charge that Big Jim tried to bribe a South Knoxville neighborhood group over an apartment deal. The letter doesn't mention that Alan's public relations firm, Moxley Carmichael, represents the Haslams' Pilot Oil...and the News-Sentinel. Alan has a great excuse, though. "I didn't run it by Cynthia [Moxley, his wife]."

Monday, February 17
The News-Sentinel 's pages actually shrink to about three inches shorter and an inch narrower than before. It's the new, "easier-to-handle size," the paper chirps. No mention of the real reason: to save on paper.

Tuesday, February 18
Gov. Phil Bredesen rescinds his order for 7.5 percent statewide budget cuts and says that, because of lesser than expected sales tax collections, a 9 percent cut is now necessary. At this pace, mathematicians note, the Tennessee state government will have a budget of $406.25 by 2007.

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:
"Moody Complex" is not the name of one of the many psychological afflictions that beset us here at Knoxville Found. Nor is it, as perennial Found winner Rob Frost quipped, "how the County Commissioner feels about the sheriff." No, the Moody Complex is just the name of a little ol' strip mall/office complex on Moody Avenue right off of Chapman Highway, just across from Big Lots. In happy contrast to last week's photo, many readers are familiar with this landmark. We wish we could reward them all, but first come, first served, which means Seymourian Scott Williams gets the prize this week. Fittingly, Scott receives a copy of Prozac and the New Antidepressants by William S. Appleton, M.D. We always preferred lithium for our complex moody swings...

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

MPC GENERAL PLAN OPEN HOUSE
Thursday, Feb. 20
11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
City County Bldg. Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Metropolitan Planning Commission will be showcasing its newly updated 30-year General Plan and finalizing a program to implement it.

FORT DICKERSON PARK PUBLIC INPUT MEETING
Saturday, Feb. 22
9 a.m.
Graystone Presbyterian Church
139 Woodlawn Pike
The Ft. Dickerson Task Force invites the public to provide input on the future use of the park.

COUNTY COMMISSION
Monday, Feb. 24
2-7 p.m.
City County Bldg. Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular monthly meeting.

NORTHEAST COUNTY SECTOR PLAN MEETINGS
Monday Feb. 24
6:30 p.m.
Gibbs High School Library
7628 Tazewell Pike
Additional meetings will be held Feb. 25 & 27. For more information call Buz Johnson or Mike Carberry at 215-2500.

New Antiwar Movement

A motley assemblage

Last Saturday, several hundred demonstrators endured one of the rainiest days in recent Knoxville history to register their opposition to the threat of a U.S.-led war on the other side of the planet. Media estimates of the number of demonstrators in front of the West Towne Mall vary from the News-Sentinel's conservative low of 500 to WVLT-TV's "about a thousand." One headcount by participants rendered a total of 650; a later one tallied "over 800."

On a day when other demonstrations in New York and Rome drew 500,000 or a million, Knoxville's roadside sign-waving didn't make much of a ripple on the national news. However, it was almost certainly the biggest peace demonstration in Knoxville since the multi-thousands who rallied at UT's campus during the Vietnam War, and an impressive show for this region, which hasn't always had much against war. In downtown Chattanooga, about 270 attended a comparable demonstration. According to news reports, an antiwar demonstration in the regional metropolis of Charlotte drew only 100.

Part of the difference, of course, is the fact that Knoxville's home to one of the region's largest universities. College students tend to make reliable demonstrators, and 30-odd years ago, UT's Knoxville campus was one of the liveliest antiwar campuses in the South. However, what struck many participants and observers was that Saturday's gathering wasn't necessarily the traditional student demonstration. Though WATE reported that the demonstration was "organized by UT students," college-age people were a minority (about a third, by one student leader's estimate) of those who gathered at West Town.

The group seemed to have no particular demographic description: There were some gray-hairs there, as well as some families with small children. Furthermore, there were several clues that this wasn't your Mom's antiwar demonstration. Distributed literature quoted Dwight Eisenhower and the district's U.S. Congressman, Jimmy Duncan, suggesting the presence of, or at least appeal to, conservatives of a sort who aren't accustomed to carrying antiwar placards. (Duncan, our erstwhile party-line Republican representative, has opposed the war partly on moral grounds, and partly as a fiscal conservative concerned about it ruining the already-strained federal budget.)

Those gathered may otherwise have had little in common with each other. Some were recognizable members of the radical fringe, environmentalist activists and neo-hippies. Another group represented was the Women In Black, a small pro-Palestinian group that has held weekly vigils downtown in recent months. There were some church groups—the United Church of Christ was strongly represented—and even a priest or two in evidence. A few were veterans, and some were flag-wavers; one sign, obtained from a website, read Patriots For Peace. Several of those who attended say they'd never seen most of the other demonstrators in their lives.

George Brown, a South Knoxville father and schoolteacher in his 50s, may have been fairly typical. As it was for many others at the demonstration, it was his first-ever political demonstration; he heard about it through friends. "I just wanted to show my support for the movement, and against the rush toward war and [against] ignoring the will of the people," Brown says.

He got there at five minutes before 11. "I was at first surprised by how few people were there," he admits. "Just about 25 people right on the corner of Morrell and Kingston Pike." But soon he began to feel crowded and backed off the corner, and he was surprised that, when he wasn't looking, the crowd was extending up Kingston Pike and Morrell Road. "People kept streaming in," he says. "I was impressed at how diverse the crowd was. It was just a cross-section: young people who looked like students, but also older middle-aged people that looked like churchgoers." He says one held a sign that said, on one side, "Think," and on the other, "Pray."

Brown says it was a good experience. Several demonstrators held signs that said "Honk For Peace."

"I got the finger a half-dozen times" from drivers, Brown says. "But there were many, many more hornblowers and peace signs and thumbs up."

Success is said to have many fathers, but this demonstration's provocateurs seem reluctant to call themselves its leaders. A few activists proposed a rally at this time and place; a lot of people heard about it and showed up. By several accounts, there's no one organization behind the effort. One graphic designer in his 30s says, "I was vaguely aware it was organized by a local group, but I didn't know which one."

Knoxville Coalition for Justice and Peace, which has earned the awkward sideways anagram of "Ketchup," is the one most often mentioned as a motivator. No college group, it's apparently a coalition of post-collegiate Knoxvillians known to several of the demonstrators only by an email address.

Several others were clusters or individuals who heard about the demonstration on Internet groups K2K or KnoxNet, or through national groups like MoveOn.org, UnitedForPeace.org, and the Win Without War Coalition.

Will Reynolds, a graduate student in public policy, helped organize UT participation in the event. He's co-founder of a still-nameless antiwar group on UT's campus. Meeting weekly, they'd been drawing only 15 or 20 participants. He says he was hoping for 200; considering the rain, he expected to be disappointed. "It was a huge success," he says.

Reynolds has been involved in some demonstrations before; he was at the previous antiwar demonstration on Henley Street last October during President Bush's visit, which drew about 300.

Participants agree that Saturday's may just be the first of several, perhaps larger, demonstrations in Knoxville. UT's Progressive Student Alliance has assembled an antiwar exhibit on display at UT's student center this week. Another demonstration is already planned for March 5, when Reynolds' UT group is planning a noon rally and short procession down Volunteer Boulevard and Cumberland Avenue, beginning at the University Center Plaza.

—Jack Neely

Hotel in Fort Sanders?

Proposal raises neighborhood questions

A Memphis developer hopes to build a hotel at the corner of White Avenue and 11th Street, capitalizing on business from both the University of Tennessee and the new convention center.

Development Services Group, a company based in Memphis, has signed a contract on the property, where it wants to build a hotel with about 140 rooms. Company spokesman Gary Prosterman says he can't yet discuss what hotel firm will operate it.

"Our plan is to develop and design a hotel that fits within the neighborhood from a design perspective and that would serve the university and the convention center," he says.

"We think it fits well with everything that's already been developed on 11th Street," he adds, referring to the large UT parking garage now being built and several apartment buildings.

No formal plans have been drawn up, Prosterman says. But, the hope is to begin construction this summer and be open the following summer. Five homes would be demolished for the hotel construction.

C. Randall De Ford, president of the Fort Sanders neighborhood group, says it's the wrong place for commercial development for a number of reasons.

"I wouldn't want to lose the five houses there on that site. I think it's important at this point that we keep every house left in the Fort," De Ford says. "From a community standpoint, I think it's important that a hotel not just be a benign addition but really add to downtown."

In a letter sent to Mayor Victor Ashe, De Ford described the hotel as "cheap" and of an "ugly, inappropriate interstate style." Those characterizations bothered Prosterman. The hotel isn't in Fort Sanders' NC-1 conservation overlay district—which imposes design standards. But, Prosterman says he would try to meet them anyway.

"It'd be impossible to say it's a cheap interstate hotel because it hasn't been designed yet," he says. "Our plan is to incorporate many of the design guidelines they have in the neighborhood conservation district, even though we're not in the district."

Craig Griffith, deputy to the mayor, says the administration is also concerned about what the hotel will look like. "Even though it's not in the NC-1, we encourage any developer to abide by the guidelines of NC-1," Griffith says.

Another of De Ford's concerns is that the hotel would shift convention center development away from downtown and into Fort Sanders.

"I think there's a chance that a lot of the property at that area of the Fort would become businesses," he says. "It seems to me a hotel is going to have to have other places around it, places to eat and a convenience center.

"I'm assuming property in the Fort is cheaper than downtown," he adds. "What's going to stop other hotels from coming over here? That will do lots of damage to downtown's ability to revitalize."

In his letter to Mayor Ashe, De Ford also pointed out that there wouldn't be any sales tax recapture from this site because it's outside the CBID. (Additional sales taxes from development inside the CBID can be used to help pay off the debt on the convention center.)

As a compromise, De Ford suggested that the city parking lot at Poplar Street and Cumberland Avenue could be developed into a hotel. That site would keep the hotel close to both UT and the Convention Center, but move it out of the residential area.

Griffith says that although the city wouldn't get extra sales tax from that site, it would still get sales tax income from it. "We encourage development in the downtown area as much as possible, but that's not the only place development is going to happen," he says.

—Joe Tarr