Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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See Ya on the Radio

Talk at the recent Society of Professional Journalists' Front Page Follies event was that WNOX is looking re-start its news department, which was gutted by lay-offs earlier this spring. Meanwhile, the Radio and Television News Directors' Association (RTNDA) has given former WNOX newsman Sam Brown another national Edward R. Murrow Award for a series he did on mental health, "The Cynthia Barker Story." Brown, who was abruptly axed from his WNOX job, has won five Murrows in four years.

Big Bucks, No Whammies?

The Metropolitan Planning Commission has received Mayor Victor Ashe's Capital Improvement Plan recommendations, which include the controversial $6 million for Lakeshore Gardens. As we predicted a couple of weeks ago, the CIP recommendations are lit up like a Christmas tree with goodies for several Councilmanic districts, making it, Ashe evidently figures, tough for recalcitrant Councilpersons like Rob Frost, Steve Hall, and Joe Hultquist to turn down the whole ball of wax, even though they voted against the money for the fancy garden on the first go-round (under the City Charter, once approved by MPS, these recommendations must go back before City Council, where they must roll up six votes to pass. Ashe had five solid votes on the first tally.)

One of the interesting features of the Ashe recommendations are a bunch of pricey improvements for Ft. Dickerson, the Victor Ashe Park, and the new McCallie School Park, which is slated to get $100,000 worth of playground, picnic shelter, walking trails, and parking spaces. Sounds good, huh?

Well, maybe. The McCallie School Park, situated in Frost's Fourth and Gill neighborhood, measures 100 feet by 150 feet, and might just be the second-most expensive park in the city, if one measures the cost per square foot. Perhaps it should be re-named the Petite Lyons View Garden at Fourth and Gill, in honor of the project that made all this possible. Don't look for Frost to change his vote.

Politics as Usual

The rumor of a burgeoning write-in campaign to put Steve Hall back into the mayoral race that he just declined to enter is gaining legs. The story started making the rounds the day after Hall announced that he would not stand as a candidate for this fall's election, and it isn't going away.

Meanwhile, there's a telephone survey being done that is asking voters if it's "important" that the mayor of Knoxville be born and reared here.

Another Victorian Victim

Fort Sanders residents are unfortunately used to seeing old homes in their neighborhood consumed by "suspicious" fires. But the one that spread through the second and third floors of the old Pickle Mansion last Friday morning was especially heartbreaking, even to those who don't call themselves historic preservationists. The 114-year-old brick home in the 1600 block of Clinch Avenue was remarkable for its rounded front porch and large turrets—a relic of the street's grander days. It's long been cut up into apartments (former Metro Pulse writer Lee Gardner once lived here) and this isn't first fire the building has seen, but somehow it maintained its majesty. Authorities are still investigating the fire and it is unknown whether it can be rebuilt. Brown Brown & West, owners and managers of the property, say they have not decided what to do with the property yet.