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Seven Days
Wednesday, Nov. 10
• A Knoxville police lieutenant says he was “amazed” to discover widespread underage drinking at a fraternity party in West Knoxville. We were amazed to learn the lieutenant has never been to a fraternity party.
Thursday, Nov. 11
• Speakers at the Tennessee Baptist Convention fret that college professors at Baptist universities aren’t teaching creationism and the word of God in science classes. Also of concern are Christian geography teachers who still display maps of the world on those heathen round balls.
Friday, Nov. 12
• An advocate in Maryville protests putting fluoride in public water supplies on the grounds that its depletes energy reserve, confuses the immune system, and causes Alzheimer’s. Let’s see... lethargy... confusion... dementia... that goes a long way toward explaining the results of our recent elections.
Saturday, Nov. 13
• The UT football team doesn’t play a football game today, taking advantage of an open date to prepare for their next game with 2-8 Vanderbilt. Even as the Commodores suffer a 14-13 loss to the University of Kentucky, most fans suspect that Vandy isn’t playing football today, either.
Sunday, Nov. 14
• Takeru Kobayashi eats 69 Krystal hamburgers at a contest in Chattanooga. As the contest winner, he earns $10,000, presented in the form of a check payable directly to his plumber.
Monday, Nov. 15
• According to the News Sentinel, county commissioners are questioning the oversight of a proposed new West Knox high school. Administrators at overcrowded area schools say the oversight has already taken place—when commissioners didn’t vote to build the thing five years ago.
Tuesday, Nov. 16
• Reports say that an Oak Ridge police officer has been taken off patrol while officials investigate an incident wherein he fired a shot at an allegedly stolen car. Investigators want to find out whether the shot was fired appropriately. We want to know how he got the bullet out of his pocket so quickly.
Street Talk
Becky Hancock
Tennessee Theatre general manager
Is everything still on schedule for the Tennessee Theatre to open in January?
We are on schedule to reopen in mid-January, but there will be finishing touches happening all the way until opening. As of November 15, the seats are installed, there is minor work to be completed on the decorative painting in the lobby and lower lounge, and finishing touches in the dressing rooms. The stage equipment will arrive and be installed in early December.
What are a few examples of surface renovations to the interior?
Every wall and ceiling surface in the historic interior (lobby, lounges, and auditorium) is painted plaster, and has been 100% restored; meaning, not merely cleaned and/or retouched in places, but full repaired where necessary and all areas repainted. The colors are more vivid, with more detail showing in the decorative elements, but are in keeping with the original color scheme. The terrazzo floor in the Grand Lobby has been repaired of its cracks. The carpet has been replaced with a replica of the 1928 interior. Decorative curtains in the lobby and lounge, many in areas left bare since 1966, are being installed. All chandeliers have been 100% restored.
What can Knoxville expect in the inaugural season?
The Theatre will present four series of events highlighting the best in live entertainment. In addition, the venue will again be the host of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks Concerts, the Knoxville Opera’s productions, and will welcome the return of the Appalachian Ballet Company, the Tennessee Children’s Dance Ensemble and numerous other community and corporate groups. Classic films will again grace the screen in the summer and at select holidays.
How do you feel downtown redevelopment is progressing?
Downtown is on the upswing, and the Tennessee Theatre is proud to be part of that momentum. The Theatre has received generous support from all facets of the community, which demonstrates that they too believe the Tennessee Theatre is crucial to the successful formula of a vibrant and expanding center city.
Do you see the proposed movie theater as competition?
No, I see it as bringing more people to the center city. Sometimes it helps having a familiar and comfortable reason to go to a place: “I know I want to see that summer blockbuster, and while I’m there I might as well try that restaurant or explore that shop or see what’s happening next weekend around here.” Financially the Tennessee could never afford to do first-run screenings, but we can show the classic films as they were intended to be, along with all the Theatre’s other offerings. It seems a perfect symbiotic relationship to me.
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Watch Out
Fourth & Gill residents initiate a Neighborhood Watch
Compared to Fort Sanders, the Fourth and Gill area has a relatively low crime rate. Still, the historic neighborhood seems to be a magnet for petty, and sometimes not-so-petty theft. A small but determined group of residents has recently banded together with an aim to form a neighborhood watch.
Patrick McInturff has been a squeaky wheel in the effort, forming a Yahoo! group called 37917 as a forum for residents to report anything from suspicious activities to actual thefts. So far, the site has gained 232 members who regularly swap ideas and post reports. The posts document seven break-ins in October and three in September, with an assortment of stolen goods from purses, laptops, and car stereos to sinks, tubs and toilets.
“Some people have gotten upset and blamed me for being the messenger and supposedly bringing down property value. But in my opinion, we need to get to the root of the problem,” McInturff says of some peoples’ concern that the neighborhood will get a reputation as a high-crime area.
McInturff credits the participants on the 37917 website along with KPD’s cooperation for the recent rise in arrests made in the area. “The theft rate has actually been going down already. Some people suspect it’s going up because of the website, but it has really just increased awareness,” he says.
Trudy Moore, another resident activist, initially had the idea of a neighborhood patrol, but she has readily partnered with McInturff in leading the watch. “When there are official watches, word gets around among criminals and crime rates really do go down,” she says.
Basically, a neighborhood watch differs from patrols in that it is more of a constant network of awareness and communication. Moore stresses the importance of reporting anything suspicious to the police and encourages residents to “be aware of the usual suspects and familiar with your neighbors and their habits.”
Photographs of the “usual suspects” or known repeat offenders are also posted on 37917. Due to the neighborhood’s proximity to two rescue missions, those offenders are widely believed to be vagrants. “Most of them I think do come from the missions,” says McInturff. He calls a few in particular “the porch thieves” who will steal outdoor furniture and sell it to nearby antique stores. “When we called in a report on the porch thieves, the police went straight over to KARM [Knoxville Area Rescue Mission],” he says.
One major benefit of having a Neighborhood Watch is having connections at KPD. Officers Michelle Goldsberry and Dennis Bible are liaisons for the Fourth and Gill area.
“It’s not that hard to get a watch, it’s just a lot of legwork,” Goldsberry says.
Volunteer block leaders will be going door-to-door to get the requisite 50 percent of residents’ signatures vowing to participate. Once they acquire the 50 percent, the watch must hold at least two meetings a year to be deemed an official watch.
Goldsberry is extremely supportive of the effort, but she warns that a watch may not take effect overnight. She cites Old North Knoxville’s 6-year-old watch as an example, saying, “They had to struggle for the first couple years, but now it basically runs itself.” Goldsberry also makes a point to dismiss lofty notions of heroic actions. “It doesn’t give you license to become vigilantes or take the law into your own hands,” she says.
—Molly Kincaid
November 18, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 47
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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