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Seven Days

Wednesday, April 9
In its account of mega-entrepreneur Warren Buffett's acquisition of our own Clayton Homes, the News Sentinel quotes Buffett as saying—not once but twice—"porn shop," when what he said was "pawn shop." Editors show a mindset there, we have to think.

Thursday, April 10
The Associated Press reports that the state paid $39.6 million in 18 months for information technology services to outside vendors, despite indications there were overpayments. The governor says he believes the state could have hired its own employees to do the work for much less. Privatization could become known as profitization?

Friday, April 11
A Nashville school bus driver is charged with DUI after his empty bus collides with another in a school parking lot just as he's to pick up kids. His explanation? A couple of beers for his birthday.

Saturday, April 12
Panera Bread Co., with three stores in Knoxville, is growing like crazy even though the economy is not, the AP reports. It's the yeast, stupid.

Sunday, April 13
The News Sentinel renames its regular travel section, "Go." Does that mean the paper doesn't expect readers to come back?

Monday, April 14
The new president and general manager of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge is quoted as saying that an important management principal is that "you must view the organizational needs higher than the needs of the individuals...." If that's so, why would any self-respecting engineer involved in management allow an organization to be made up of individuals?

Tuesday, April 15
City Councilman Steve Hall says he will get into the race for mayor, as has been speculated. The accompanying photo in the Sentinel account next morning is of the other Steve Hall, the longtime Knox County register of deeds. Well, at least the councilman starts off with wide name recognition.

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:
Such an image as last week's Knoxville Found naturally reminds us of our tender childhood years, when, with great care and gentleness, our parents would remind us, "What are you trying to do, air-condition the whole neighborhood? Shut the dang door!" And without information to tell us otherwise, disappointed would be the many readers who wrote in identifying the object in question, but who also appended pleas to have its intended function made plain.
Fortunately, first respondent Steve Walker of Knoxville appears to have the answer to this so-trying question (at least, to those of us not in the know): Steve writes, "[It is] a large box fan used to keep the air moving around golf greens so that they don't develop molds, fungi, and such." As other readers noted, this particular fan is at the Cherokee Country Club golf course.
We reward Steve's knowledge of outdoors' life with a John Deere insulated bag, with best wishes for is use of it on the green.

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

POLICE ADVISORY & REVIEW COMMITTEE
Thursday, April 17
6 p.m.
Oakwood-Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, Christenberry Club House
916 Shamrock Ave.
Regular meeting.

UT TRANSIT FAIR
Tuesday, April 22
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
University Center Plaza
University Center
Corner of Cumberland Ave. and Stadium Dr.
Information on Knoxville Area Transit and bike safety checks. One of numerous Bike Walk Bus Week activities. Call 215-2916 for more information.

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING ORGANIZATION
Wednesday, April 23
9 a.m.
City County Building
Small Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

NINE COUNTIES. ONE VISION.
Thursday, April 24
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
Room 301
525 Henley St.
Public meeting about downtown revitalization to discuss options, suggest new ideas and vote on favorites.

Smart Starts
Bike-Walk-Bus Week launches Smart Trips

Given the publicity downtown Knoxville's dearth of parking has recently received, Bike-Walk-Bus Week's timing perhaps could not be more propitious. A series of events slated for April 21-27, BWBW will focus on heightening awareness of alternative means of transportation. It will also serve as a platform from which the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization will launch its ambitious Smart Trips program.

The intent of Smart Trips is to increase the use of alternative means of transportation, which will have ancillary benefits of reducing air pollution and traffic congestion in the region. Through Smart Trips, TPO will help employers develop programs that offer incentives to employees who carpool, bike, walk, or take the bus to work. The idea is that Kelly Segars, TPO transportation planner and Smart Trips coordinator, will work with businesses to develop Commute Trip Reduction programs at their sites, but the businesses would sustain the programs themselves.

Says Segars, "One of the biggest things to get past is that it takes time to set these programs up. Employers are reluctant at first for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes it takes an employee who's really interested in it, who's willing to organize it. So it takes a lot of hand-holding. But once started, these programs can cut automobile travel at an individual work site by 10 to 30 percent." Segars speaks from experience, having implemented a similar program in Missoula, Montana, before coming to Knoxville's TPO.

After finding there wasn't such a program here, Segars got the okay to put in a proposal for funding to develop a Smart Trips program in the Knoxville area. Funding for two years was awarded through TDOT's Commuter Transportation Assistance Program and the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program. Segars doesn't think TPO will have any problem getting financing beyond that. "It's getting to be a necessary idea because of air quality issues. Some states, such as Washington, already have mandatory trip-reduction laws. Given the problems with air quality in this region, we shouldn't have any difficulty with continued funding."

To emphasize the connection between implementing Smart Trips and reducing air pollution, Segars will introduce the initiative at an Air Quality Summit that's to be held from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the UT Conference Center. Representatives of state and federal air quality agencies will be in attendance.

As a lead-in to the Smart Trips initiative, TPO is sponsoring a Commuter Challenge as part of BWB Week. Any citizen who bikes, walks, buses, or carpools to work during the week can register at www.knoxtrans.org/bikeweek to win various prizes. Rachel Craig, employer outreach coordinator for the Smart Trips program, says that, in addition to TPO and MPC personnel, TVA, ImagePoint, St. Mary's Hospital, Knox County Schools, and First Tennessee Bank are working with TPO to encourage employees to take the Commuter Challenge. Craig notes that she is in discussion with other businesses about eventually participating in Smart Trips, through individual Commute Trip Reduction programs.

The CTR is a strategy Segars and Craig will develop with each employer to reduce employee automobile trips. Each program will be tailored to a given employer's particular circumstances and may include such elements as transit allowances, rideshare matching, flextime or compressed work weeks, tele-commuting, and more.

Segars says they are targeting large employers in the downtown area first "because there are obviously parking problems, so there's a need, and because downtown is where the metropolitan transit system is concentrated."

She also says that neither the county nor the city have been approached so far, because they are such massive organizations that coordinating the program will take considerable effort. "But I'm sure we'll be working with them in time," she adds.

Their respective governments may not yet be heavily involved with Smart Trips, but Mayor Victor Ashe and County Executive Mike Ragsdale at least give a nod to the importance of BWB Week. At City Council Tuesday night, Ashe issued a proclamation about BWB Week and the positive effect a wider range of transportation choices can have on quality of life for citizens; Ragsdale will promulgate a similar sentiment at the UT Transit Fair, a BWBW event to be held at the University Center Plaza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22. Of the county's support for the event, Spokesman Mike Cohen says, "We're glad to support BWBW.... Walking and biking put far fewer demands on the infrastructure that government must build and maintain, so it's a winner in almost every respect."

The mayors of Farragut and Alcoa have similar endorsements in the works.

Other events scheduled for the week include a Bike mentor program, bike maintenance and repair classes, downtown and neighborhood walking tours, Earthfest, and several programs for children. Of the last, Segars says "It's important to expose kids to this, to get the message out earlier. Kids can educate their parents." Some downtown businesses are also offering discounts to customers who provide evidence of having used alternative transportation that day.

—Scott McNutt