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Seven Days

Wednesday, December 17
The long-awaited decision by outgoing Mayor Victor Ashe on what he's doing next is revealed in (what else?) a mayoral email. He's going back to school—at Harvard—to teach government and politics in a semester's seminar. Is this a comedown for an old Yaley?
A legislative committee that probed the scandalous end of the UT presidency of John Shumaker recommends that two of his top appointed aides be prosecuted for perjury. Probably, like Shumaker, his aides just misunderstood the questions.
The Associated Press reports that candidates for director of the TBI will have to undergo background checks, even though such information isn't legally required in the screening process. Uh, where did the Patriot Act fall short on that?

Thursday, December 18
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian Tribe says its $50 million resort development along Tellico Lake near Vonore won't include a casino or any other form of gambling, to which the native Americans are ordinarily entitled. Yeah, tell that to us again once the resort is up and running.

Friday, December 19
Snow and ice cripple traffic movement and cause wrecks all over the Knoxville area, meaning some early Christmas partiers stayed late, like overnight.

Saturday, December 20
Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is sworn into office. We guess that means it's the last time, at least for a while, that we'll call him Billy.

Sunday, December 21
Knox County Public Library computers and data bases will be available only to library card holders in the future, the News Sentinel reports. The change is explained as a way to avoid password confusion. The confusion to be avoided is about who's using which databases when, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Monday, December 22
An AP account says that the Tennessee Lottery did not pick the low bidders to set up and manage the lottery, which is starting early next year. What did you expect? These current lottery administrators aren't low-balling anything.

Tuesday, December 23
It's Christmas Eve Eve. Shop.

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:
The marker pictured looms high over the entrance to the Fidelity Building at 502 Gay St. On the national register of historic places, the building has served many uses in its 130 years. Most folks remember it as Schriver's clothing store, but it now houses three floors of lawyers and accountants (the first floor remains unoccupied).
The photo was first correctly identified by Bob Thompson. For his landmark savviness, Bob will receive a six-pack of Jones soda. We've been diggin' on Jones here at Metro Pulse World Headquarters, and we're sure that you'll enjoy it, too. Go, Bob, go!

Sidewalk Ratings Scheme
If yours isn't a No. 1, forget repairs

Greg Williams moved to Old North Knoxville—at the corner of Kenyon Street and Fremont Place—in the summer of 2002 and has been trying to have the crumbling, virtually non-existent sidewalk adjacent to his home repaired ever since.

Williams argues that the sidewalk is a main thoroughfare to Kroger for those with no other mode of transportation other than walking, and can be extremely hazardous at dark. He followed protocol to no avail. Phone calls and a letter-writing campaign proved ineffective. But, in response, the city familiarized him with its evaluation system for sidewalk repair by way of a letter.

"The City of Knoxville has a comprehensive Sidewalk Rating System whereby each sidewalk request is rated in order to determine the priority in which the sidewalk will be repaired. The rating system is based on a visual inspection by a Department of Engineering staff member."

According to Civil Engineer II Robin Tipton of that department, numbers are assigned to criteria including pedestrian usage, cracking and differential settlement. The numbers are then added up for a composite score that determines whether the sidewalk has a priority rating of 1, 2 or 3. Any sidewalk with a priority rating of 1 will have a work order written for repair or will be included in the city's annual Sidewalk Safety Program repair contract, and those with priority ratings of 2 or 3 will be put in a database for future consideration.

On review by the Engineering Department, the sidewalk in front of his home was assessed with a rating of 2. In the letter, the city says, "Your request will be placed in our database and in the event we complete repairs of all priority 1 sidewalks we will begin repair of the priority 2 sidewalks." Unless a sidewalk is rated as priority 1, it seems that there is virtually no chance of it being repaired.

When asked if a priority 2 sidewalk has ever been repaired, Tipton says, "Not to my knowledge, because new priority 1's come up all the time." She says optimistically that "if a priority 2 becomes deteriorated, it could be reevaluated as a 1."

Tipton is confident in the rating system, she says, because the straightforwardness doesn't allow for a difference of opinion. And why is there a need for a priority 3 rating if a priority 2 sidewalk has never been fixed? "Threes don't have a lot of damage. Most of the time its about the aesthetics of a sidewalk, not the functionality of it."

One might wonder how a similar section of sidewalk might be evaluated in Sequoyah Hills...

—Clint Casey

Back to Square One
The produce market returns

The Market Square District Association is planning to bring back the thing that made Market Square a romantic, popular and weird place-a farmer's market.

The farmer's market probably won't attract the diverse, oddball characters that Cormac McCarthy wrote about in Suttree. But it is expected to bring in regionally grown produce and food to Market Square every Saturday, starting May 8 and lasting into November. The hope is that produce, meats, dairy and canned goods will all be sold.

On the second Saturday of each month, local artists will be allowed to sell their work.

The details are still being worked out, says Charlotte Tolley, one of the volunteers organizing the market on behalf of the association. "We have no idea how many people are going to respond," Tolley says. "We have applications made up and we're going to start after Christmas contacting people."

One early participant is the Beardsley Farm, the organic farm located in Mechanicsville. The emphasis is going to be on the regional producers.

Farmer's markets have gone through waves of popularity over the years, with some cities having markets continuous for 100 years or more. Other cities-like Memphis-have recently started new markets.

Until the construction began last year, Market Square never completely died as a place for farmers to sell their goods, although the bazaar-like atmosphere disappeared long ago.

Farmer's markets existed around downtown Knoxville, but a formal one was established in 1853, when William Swan and Joseph Mabry donated the lot that became Market Square to the city. According to The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County Tennessee by the East Tennessee Historical Society, the land was provided on the condition the city build a house to be a "curb market for farmers forever."

The market thrived, becoming Knoxville's cultural and commercial center. The razing of the old Market House in 1960 was a blow to the farmers' business, but many kept selling produce here, in gradually decreasing numbers. There were farmers there last year, right up until the construction began.

Sherrill Perkins was the last to sell produce out in the square; he'd been doing it for 20 years. Roy Lowe had sold his food here since 1957, when the old Market House was still standing.

With more people living downtown and the square renovated and new businesses opening up, Tolley says they're making a push to reestablish the market.

"Hopefully we'll have a grocery store in the future on Market Square. But it's a way to bring fresh food to people living in the city," she says. "Hopefully we'll eventually be able to have it on a weekday, so people who work downtown can pick up things after work.

"It seems like there's a market for it, if we can get it together," she adds.

—Joe Tarr