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Free Air!
I was happy to see your acknowledgment of Knoxville’s First Amendment Radio 90.9 FM in Eye on the Scene [April 1]. KFAR has been a wonderful asset to the Knoxville radio and music scene for the past couple of years, and I am glad to hear that they will continue to broadcast progressive, alternative news and music programs in spite of unconstitutional threats from the FCC.
Knoxville First Amendment Radio exists benignly in it’s own space, taking care not to interfere with other stations, and it is a shame to think that special-interest lobbyists have bought a wave of media consolidation that has wiped out competition on the publicly owned radio waves.
It is important for low-wattage stations such KFAR to continue to broadcast without licenses, so that violations of our First Amendment rights will continue to be challenged. Loss of freedom is a much greater risk than criminal prosecution, and I hope that the people of Knoxville will step up in support of Knoxville First Amendment Radio. (Visit www.kfar.org to find out how to get involved.)
Joan Monaco (fan of KFAR and my First Amendment rights)
Knoxville
Beisbol Has Been...
I must vigorously protest Tony Basilio’s [Sports] column in [a recent] Metro Pulse, in which he states that Major League Baseball “sucks.” Mr. Basilio has a right to his opinion, but in my opinion, nothing could be farther from the truth.
It is true that there are some monetary forces driving the “lack of parity” that Mr. Basilio describes, but I think that MLB is looking at this and some action will be taken soon. A salary cap or revenue sharing would help correct this. And even though the Yankees’ team salary has gone through the roof, by no means does that insure them a World Series victory. Injuries, team chemistry, and the improvement in other teams make it no certainty. Only time will tell.
Mr. Basilio whines about steroids, small ballparks and expansion-era watered down pitching. Steroids seems to be a problem, but even on steroids, a home run is by no means a given—you still have to put your bat on the ball. MLB will correct this. Every sport goes through some changes with time, and all sports have undergone expansion.
It is understandable that Mr. Basilio, or anyone from East Tennessee, is lukewarm toward MLB. Football is king in Tennessee, and Knoxville is not a “pro” city. It makes a difference. Several of my friends and relatives live in pro cities, and interest in MLB is high, I can assure you. For the last 12 years, a short distance away in Atlanta, the Braves have had a dynasty (the lack of world championships notwithstanding) with most, if not all, games televised. If this team and its TV exposure has not piqued the interest of Tennessee sports fans in MLB, nothing will.
Craig Rylands
Knoxville
Enviro-Smoke Dangers
Every day, children in our community are exposed to secondhand smoke in their own homes. We believe that if parents learn the facts about secondhand smoke and its health effects on children, they’ll do the right thing and choose to smoke outside until they are willing to quit smoking.
More than 27 percent of U.S. households with small children allow smoking in the home. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children under 18 months of age annually, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are also more likely to suffer from symptoms of respiratory irritation like cough, excess phlegm, and wheezing. Secondhand smoke can lead to a buildup of fluid in the middle ear, the most common cause of hospitalization of children for an operation.
Children with asthma are especially at risk. EPA estimates that up to one million children with asthma have their condition made worse by exposure to secondhand smoke. A study released by the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 found suggestive evidence of an association between young children’s exposure to secondhand smoke and the development of new cases of asthma in children who had previously not displayed symptoms of the disease.
As a community, we can make a difference in secondhand smoke exposure by supporting non-smoking bans and legislative acts. To learn more information about the health effects associated with secondhand smoke and ways to make a difference in your community, check out the following websites: www.legislation.state.tn.us and www.smokefreeknoxville.com.
Probably everyone knows someone with a child who is asthmatic or experiences periodic health problems. The only way to reduce the damaging effects of secondhand smoke is to encourage smokers to not smoke around young children. It might seem like too simple a solution, but it will make a huge impact on the life of that child.
Jennifer Greene
Gatlinburg
Eat Mo’ Parking
Am I not seeing something? We have a 283-space parking lot two blocks from Market Square that never seems to get more than 20 cars, but somehow we still need the 500+ parking spaces and 12 residences design as opposed to the 64 residential unit and 300+ parking space design [for the Walnut Street Garage].
Somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 people showed up Thursday [April 8], and hey, wadda ya know, they found a place to park. Here’s a little weekend web surfing research project for ya’; see how many examples you can find of successful downtowns that utilized parking as the key element in their revitalization efforts. Then see how many examples you can find of successful downtowns that utilized residential as the key element in their revitalization efforts.
Then let’s revisit this parking vs. residential units issue, as pertains to the Market Square.... Uh, I guess we can just call it a garage as it stands now, since the retail & residential space is token at best in the current design.
Arthur B. Carmichael III
Knoxville
No New Hotel
If the black hole in the city’s budget, as referenced in a recent Insights column, is the convention center, the chasm will become broader, deeper and vastly more expensive for city taxpayers if they are forced to guarantee the debt for a new taxpayer-subsidized convention center hotel.
What follows is a perfect example of how the yawning abyss of city debt will widen if a new hotel is built with taxpayer support.
A Jan. 29, 2004 story in the Myrtle Beach, S.C. Sun News included this paragraph: “The city-financed hotel at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center is expected to end its budget year in March with a more than $1 million loss, instead of the $6 million profit leaders had predicted in the feasibility study used to issue the bonds [emphasis added].”
Steven Pearlstein in the Jan. 9, 2004 Washington Post wrote a column “Resist the Mega-Hotel Hustle.”
Pearlstein wrote that the powers in Washington want to build a mega-hotel next to the city’s new convention center. He says he’s a little suspicious because officials say the city must spend an additional $500 million on a hotel to make sure they actually get the benefits of the $650 million convention center.
Other sales pitches Pearlstein references for a new Washington hotel are that even though it’s a sure bet, the private sector won’t finance it, it won’t cost the city a dime, and that consultants say it’s the only option.
These are examples of two sets of rose-colored promises of bountiful financial return that will not come true. Indeed, in Myrtle Beach’s case, the opposite is occurring.
Does this sound familiar?
Knoxville interests pushing a new taxpayer subsidized hotel continuously claim that putting taxpayers in debt another $60 million to $90 million will make the $160 million convention center a success.
All it will do is increase city taxpayer debt by about 50 percent, double the amount of the city’s present shortfall. Instead of $10 million, it becomes $20 million. Taxpayers already pay nearly $15 million per year for the convention center in taxes and subsidies.
Furthermore, the $60 million cost estimate of a new hotel is way low because the city would also have to pay for the garage, land costs, and walkway across the street to the convention center.
Like their fellow taxpayers in Myrtle Beach and Washington D.C., Knoxvillians will be forced to prop up a money-losing hotel along with a money-losing convention center. The proposed new hotel will never generate enough revenue to cover its operations, let alone debt service.
The Insights [column] suggested that existing downtown Knoxville hotels don’t want the competition that a new hotel would bring. That is not true.
Downtown Hotel Coalition members have said time and again in print, on radio, on TV and in public forums that we have no problem whatsoever with a new hotel. What we and what taxpayers have repeatedly said they object to is a new taxpayer-subsidized hotel. If someone wants to come in on their own and build a new 400-room, 600-room or 1,000-room hotel, that is their choice and we will not utter a sound.
We do not want to compete against a new hotel that is propped up by city taxpayers regardless of how much money it loses.
Members of the Downtown Hotel Coalition make our livings managing hotels. No one knows better than we do that this market cannot bear another hotel.
In December, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting public funding for a new hotel. The prohibition includes revenue bonds. To be sold, revenue bonds require the city to put its credit behind them. That means city taxpayers are on the hook.
Perhaps the most important question is whether on this issue the desires of the people who will pay the debt will be ignored?
Some 80 percent of Knoxville’s voters said in a published poll that they do not want their taxes to subsidize a new downtown hotel. More than 25,000 signatures were gathered from Knoxvillians who want the opportunity to decide this issue.
In polls, in letters to the editor, on radio talk shows, the sentiment is overwhelmingly against taxpayer subsidies for a new downtown hotel.
How many times in Metro Pulse’s columns and in local political campaigns is it written or said that the people should be more involved in formulating public policy, that it’s time to be more inclusive in the decision making process?
In the case of a new taxpayer-subsidized hotel, the focus by hotel advocates seems to be to overcome, disregard or ignore the people.
The convention center was promoted to city taxpayers as the engine that would revitalize downtown. Now a new hotel is [necessary] to revitalize the convention center. All that’s needed are more taxpayers’ dollars.
The Downtown Hotel Coalition is doing what we said we would do. We are meeting and working with all parties involved with the convention center to find solutions to make it more successful.
The hotels are working together to bring new groups and organizations to Knoxville’s convention center.
Our hope is that we and everyone else do not find ourselves diverted from that goal to battle the threat to Knoxville taxpayers that is a new taxpayer-subsidized hotel.
Ken Knight
general manager, Radisson Summit Hill
Knoxville
April 22, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 17
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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