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Refer-Madness
State officials have told the Knox County Election Commission it must conduct a referendum in August on whether the City of Knoxville should be prohibited from spending money on a new convention center hotel. Downtown hoteliers opposed to a new city-backed hotel collected some 30,000 signatures last fall on a petition for a referendum to block it. But City Council acted to forestall the referendum by imposing the prohibition by ordinance under a provision of the City Charter that allows Council to adopt a proposition rather than put it on the ballot. However, in a letter to Knox County Administrator of Elections Greg Mackay, the state’s director of elections, Brook Thompson, ruled that state law trumps the Charter and requires that the referendum be held. Thompson instructed Mackay to place it on the Aug. 5 ballot when the county general election and primaries for the state legislators will be held. The city could appeal the ruling in court, but Mayor Bill Haslam was in Washington and couldn’t be reached for comment. Stay tuned.
Double Vision
In mid- to late-June, Gay Street will see the opening of two new restaurants, both owned and operated by familiar downtowners.
The space that most recently housed Crescent Moon at 718 S. Gay St. is being leased by Herschel Earls for a seeming carbon copy of his Market Street restaurant, Macleod’s. Macleod’s Too will feature an identical menu and be open the same hours as its predecessor. Earls says the new location is being created in the name of convenience for patrons working a bit farther from Market Square than the original restaurant.
On the opposite end of Gay Street, former Preservation Pub and Barley’s manager Gregg White intends to open a yet-unnamed sushi den, filling a void left when Old City restaurant Tomo closed its doors and relocated to West Knoxville. In the former Downtown Massage Therapy space at 135 S. Gay St., White’s restaurant will seat about 60 people. He and fiancee April Chitwood are currently in the process of auditioning local sushi chefs to plan the menu and create its Monday through Saturday fare.
Cookie Calming
A bunch of Westmorelanders calling themselves the “Cookie Brigade” took to the entrances to their tony West Knoxville neighborhood, passing out bags of home-baked cookies to motorists entering their streets off Westland Drive last Thursday. Jan Schmidt, a homeowners’ association member, says the novel approach to traffic calming went well. “There were some complaints,” she says, leading to a police officer informing the group that they were in violation of a city ordinance. (Who would have thought there was a free cookie ordinance?) The evening rush hour experiment was just about over by that time, Schmidt says, and the resultant attention, including a little TV coverage, raised awareness of the residents’ concerns about speeders on their narrow, winding streets. They’re hoping for better enforcement as well. Onward oatmeal!
May 20, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 21
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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