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Seven Days

Wednesday, May 28
The News Sentinel reports that the supervisor of SEC football officials says his team of striped stalwarts had "a great year." At first we thought maybe the SEC he was talking about was the Securities and Exchange Commission. Let's just say it wasn't really a wonderful year for either SEC.

Thursday, May 29
The first real public row in the relationship between Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and Knoxville City Mayor Victor Ashe arises over the long-argued Interstate Beltway, which may or may not be constructed soon to bypass Knoxville to the west. Something tells us this little flap may not be the last.

Friday, May 30
Old Knoxville High School on Fifth Avenue is officially renamed "Historic Knoxville High School." The move was spearheaded by a group of people of an age to wish that they themselves were referred to as "historic," rather than just old.

Saturday, May 31
Fugitive Eric Rudolph is arrested in nearby Murphy, N.C. after five years on the lam as a bombing suspect on the FBI's most-wanted list and with a million-dollar reward offered for his capture. He tells his guards he lived in the woods the whole time and subsisted off game, including 22 turkeys. None of the turkeys were immediately identified as FBI agents.

Monday, June 2
UT officials announce the elimination of 287 jobs and 228 academic class sections, affecting 9,000 students in response to the state's budget cuts. That situation certainly commands the attention of the school's students and faculty and the state's lawmakers.

Tuesday, June 3
In a startling reversal, UT says it will not cut jobs or class sections after all. The reductions will be in jobs and classes they would have added, not the ones already in place. You can almost visualize those additions out there in the smoke, if you look hard into the university's mirrors.

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:
Well, now we're disgusted. Nobody even replied to last week's Knoxville Found. You couldn't even take the time to guess? Sheesh.

And it was such an easy one to boot. The sign is up on the grounds of Blount Mansion. Like it says, Chisholm's tavern, either the first or one of the first taverns in what came to be Knoxville, was located nearby. John Chisholm was a sometimes agent for William Blount, a settler of Watauga, a fighter with John Sevier against the Chickamaugans (and probably at King's Mountain, S.C. against the British), a supporter of the failed State of Franklin, and husband of two Cherokee women (not at the same time). Knoxville, being the historic-minded city that it is, allowed the old tavern to be torn down some four or five decades back.

Quixotic K2K
Has Knoxville's on-line forum lost its relevance?

In May 2001 on the on-line forum K2K, the attempted recall of Knoxville's mayor and some City Council members was avidly debated, as were a proposed H-1 historic overlay for Market Square, plans for Market Square's revitalization, the proposed planetarium known as Universe Knoxville, and the Sundown in the City concert series organized by AC Entertainment. City Council elections coming up in the fall were just beginning to be discussed. By the end of the month, 864 messages would be posted to the forum.

Among the topics discussed at length on K2K in May of 2003 were mass transit, the Farmer's Market, the County Executive title change to County Mayor, the News-Sentinel's delivery policy for the 100 block of South Gay Street, and Knoxville College's effort to address its financial difficulties by partnering with SSC Service Solutions to develop a jobs program to help students pay for tuition. A total of 254 messages were posted last month, or less than one-third the number posted two years ago.

A review of the last 18 months' posts reveals similarly diminished totals. In each of the last nine months, the number of messages posted to K2K failed to reach 1,000 posts. In each of the nine months prior, the 1,000-post mark was exceeded every time. Although sheer volume of posts is not necessarily an accurate measurement of the forum's influence, it may indicate that interest is flagging in what was once a sure source of heated civic dialogue in Knoxville.

Started in November 1999 by downtown-centric architects Buzz Goss and Cherie Piercy-Goss and a few friends, K2K was originally intended to be a "forum designed to facilitate discussion about the future of [Knoxville] with particular emphasis on issues related to Downtown." It quickly attracted the attention of Mayor Victor Ashe, an inveterate (and sometimes ill-humored) poster in the forum's early years, as well as the attention of the media, including Metro Pulse staffers. In its heyday, K2K saw exchanges among the likes of Goss, Ashe, PBA head Dale Smith, Knox County Sheriff's spokesman Dwight Van de Vate, former Metro Pulse editor Jesse Fox Mayshark, current Knox GOP party chair Chad Tindell, members and former members of and candidates for City Council and County Commission, as well as many community activists. In the past, the forum has been credited with helping stop construction of a new jail downtown, assisting the passage of a historic overlay for the Fort Sanders neighborhood, and perhaps helping to launch the successful political campaigns of current City Councilmen Rob Frost and Joe Hultquist.

But in January of this year, it was revealed that the Gosses had departed the forum they had originated. A flurry of what can best be described as collective electronic soul-searching ensued on K2K, and some participants openly wondered if the forum had gone astray and driven out its founding members. Since then, questions about K2K's relative influence have lingered over the forum.

In response to a Metro Pulse inquiry, Buzz Goss sent an email explaining the impetus for K2K's creation and the Gosses' departure from the forum: "Cherie and I created K2K in response to two very personal driving forces. First, it is in our nature, as is the case with most architects, to innovate...but more importantly, we have a strong desire to improve Knoxville and to have a lasting, positive impact on its future. K2K was specifically an attempt to broaden the public discourse about Downtown Knoxville, facilitate a platform for dialogue about its future and if we were lucky leave a legacy of activism that would have a positive effect on the future of Knoxville. Of course there was benefit to us, but it is also the right way to plan a city and ensure a beautiful, economically sustainable civic environment. We disengaged when we did only because the time was right for us; we have other personal and professional priorities that require our attention."

An informal survey of several current and former participants confirms the perception that the one-time award-winning forum's luster is fading. All acknowledge that in the past K2K held some significance for knowledgeable, civic-minded citizens, but most concede that the forum's importance has waned. The reasons suggested vary. Those who left the forum tend to cite a narrowness of opinion and negativity of tone as factors in K2K's decline. Those who still post to the forum see a wider range of influences affecting K2K.

One (relatively) recently departed K2Ker is Mike Cohen, whose participation on K2K saw him through jobs as spokesman for the Knox County Schools, PBA, and the Knox County Mayor. He acknowledges that K2K had influence at one time "for a number of reasons. One...was the people participating... many of whom were bright, committed, knowledgeable and involved. [Mayor Ashe] helped legitimize it, although it eventually turned on him and helped birth the recall effort, which contributed to K2K's reduction of influence. They went from in touch with lots of people on an issue to way out in left field compared to the general public."

Dale Smith participated on K2K early in his tenure as PBA Chief Executive but has seldom posted since early 2001. Like Cohen, he does not find the views expressed through K2K as "reflective of the overall community." Other factors that limit its influence, he says, are that it is restricted to people who have computer access and a fair amount of free time, plus, "the most active participants are a relatively small group of people who often disagree."

Of those who no longer participate on the forum, Mayor Ashe is (perhaps understandably) harshest in assessing K2K's impact. He notes that he resigned from the forum "because K2K had become so personal in its tone and attack" and goes on to observe "it has achieved little....at the start it was new and had an impact...certainly it helped stop the jail downtown...after that it has become a forum for 8 to 10 persons to voice vehement views in a very ad hominem way."

Pellissippi State Political Science Prof. Gay Lyons, who used K2K as a case study for her dissertation, would agree with Ashe's assessment of K2K's overall tone, writing, "There was always an 'edge' to a lot of posts, but in the early days these were often leavened with humor. Over time, the tone deteriorated and became more negative. New subscribers were greeted with derision and suspicion. In the last year, the quality and quantity of posts has declined significantly."

Current K2K list owner and moderator Steve Dupree offers a different perspective on the forum's deteriorating reputation: "The influence of K2K is in decline for a couple of reasons; oddly enough, its success is one of the reasons, albeit a minor one. A major reason...has been my holding the list ownership too long. Six to 12 months ago, I should have turned the whole thing over to someone else and removed the moderator status for myself and all current moderators. While I have plans to do that in the near future, it is clear to me that it should have been done months ago."

KCDC chairman Bill Lyons, husband of Gay Lyons and poli sci professor at UT, whose participation on the forum has tailed off considerably in recent months, also notes that eroding civility and the departure of "high profile" participants may have contributed to K2K's diminishment. But he goes on to elaborate on the theory that K2K is a victim of its own success: "Many on K2K decried the lack of public participation and broad involvement in Renaissance Knoxville and Universe Knoxville. Then consider the processes the city and county have used to guide the development of both Market Square and the State Street site. Where many on K2K complained bitterly about the lack of a focus in this community on downtown, the vast majority of those holding and seeking city and county office have put downtown development at or near the top of their priorities for the city. So to some degree the dissipation of K2K is a function of its success at affecting agenda setting."�

There are also those who feel K2K still has plenty to offer. Long-time participant and City Council member Rob Frost says, "I find it a good source of information and thoughts from many people with many perspectives. I've encouraged others in office and running for office to join because it is a good way to stay up on things in downtown," adding "I don't think K2K's position has declined over time." Similarly, Bill Pittman, a frequent poster and vice president of marketing for DeRoyal, says "it still serves a valuable function as a source for many to share their ideas that otherwise would go unheard....[H]owever, the unfortunate exit of some of our political leaders lessened its value....To maximize its value, we should expect participation by public figures but more importantly, a higher percentage of its 800+ members need to share thoughts."

If it has declined, can K2K still recapture its glory days? Perhaps the most perceptive analysis of the forum's relevance comes from long-time participant and civic activist Rachel Craig, who notes that "the primary importance of K2K is its ability to empower individuals to act. It does that by allowing a large number of people to exchange information very quickly. To the extent that those people use that information to become better informed and more engaged in civic life...[K2K] has influence on public decisions....

"K2K as a forum will keep influence for exactly as long as its subscribers want it to. When they no longer feel the need to use it to exchange information and discuss issues...it will die a natural death."

—Scott McNutt