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When Downtown Knoxville Really Got Cranked Up

The year 2004 in Knoxville will be remembered for steps forward and steps backward. We acquired a new city mayor, a young, likable, athletic fellow who still hasn’t shown his whole hand; and a new and popular, and, so far, scandal-free UT president. But it was also the first year that the county mayor stumbled temporarily, as low-tax populism, which we prematurely buried, returned, exacting zombie-like revenge on a conservative executive’s rare progressive impulses.

Downtown, we’d thought we’d see the new main library, the new downtown cineplex, and/or the new transit center underway by the end of 2004; all ran into unexpected obstacles. Instead we’ve had to settle for the completion of various other long-delayed projects, Market Square, the Gay Street Bridge, the East Tennessee History Center, the Emporium, the Phoenix, and various other residential renovations. But that in itself has been remarkable. Never before in history, we suspect, have we seen so many people jogging, so many people dining outdoors, so many people walking so many dogs in downtown Knoxville.

Meanwhile, Greater Knoxville continued to spill headlong to the north and west, as the huge suburban development at Turkey Creek seemed finally to come into its own.

Knoxville connected to world events, as some of our friends and neighbors went off to the deadliest war since Vietnam; a phalanx of local athletes competed gallantly in the Athens Summer Olympics. A bitter presidential race split the city of Knoxville more closely than any in years, fought mainly with yard signs and T-shirts and bumper stickers, eliciting debates about whether we’re red or blue. (For the record, as of 2004, Knoxville’s still red; Knox County’s still blue. We’ll keep fighting.)

Everyone will find their own way to assess 2004—and we’ll probably think of it differently a year or two from now than we do at the moment—but at year’s end, here’s how we see it.

Bill Haslam: Our Mayor’s First Year

Mayor Bill Haslam considers his first year on the job as primarily one of foundation-building. “Anytime you start something new, you have to build a foundation. So a lot of the work we’ve been doing is not on the surface, but I’m hoping the results will show later,” Haslam allows.

Plans for a new Gay Street cineplex, reviving the Sunsphere, and other spurs to downtown redevelopment all fit this profile. So do efforts to attract employers—and thus jobs—to the barren expanse of industrial property along I-275 that centers on the former Coster Shop.

Drawing on his business background, Haslam has also placed a lot of emphasis on developing a strategic plan for the city—replete with a mission statement, goals, strategies for their achievement and a scorecard for measuring performance.

In addition to an “energized downtown” and job creation, the plan’s four goals include “stronger, safer neighborhoods” and “city services you can count on at a competitive price.”

Haslam acknowledges that the exercise is still a “work in process.” But he says, “We’ve established the four big goals that we’re going to frame everything around. Then for every goal there are proposed strategies, and the way we will measure success in achieving them.”

Performance measurement has become key to tracking everything from how long it takes to fill potholes to police response times. In addition to strengthening accountability, all the measuring is supposed to morph into a performance-management approach to city budgeting.

Balancing revenues and expenses without recurrent tax increases or erosion of city services is probably Haslam’s biggest challenge. He inherited a city government in which former Mayor Victor Ashe had been covering shortfalls by depleting the city’s reserve accounts and curtailing things like street paving. In pushing through a 35-cent increase in the city’s property tax rate, Haslam resolved to stop the depletion and restore the street paving. But he acknowledged that the tax increase only represented a short-term fix to what he’s termed a long-term structural deficit.

“My biggest job as mayor is to come up with a framework that makes Knoxville city government a viable long-term entity,” Haslam states. He sees performance-based budgeting “as a great direction for us to go in,” but adds that “I don’t expect this next year’s budget to reflect as much of that as I’d like to see us have eventually.”

A new approach to containing health-insurance cost escalation, reductions in the city’s vehicle fleet and its convention-center operating deficit are all being pursued as cost cutting measures. “I think we can cut $500,000 out of the convention center deficit this year,” Haslam reports. But that still leaves a $2 million drain (not counting $10 million a year in debt service on the facility over which the mayor has no control.)

Lottery Fever

This year finally saw the roll-out of the long-anticipated and oft-discussed Tennessee Lottery, freshly enabled by a new state law in 2003 in hopes of raising money for in-state college scholarships. With an assortment of instant scratch ‘n’ win games and, later, the institution of a multi-million-dollar Powerball lotto, the lottery had folks lined up in droves at convenience marts and other outlets all across the state.

So how did it do? That depends on who you ask. Lottery participation in the early weeks came at a record-setting pace, but had dropped sharply by mid-Spring. (Lottery executives noted that such a decrease is typical of most new lottery programs.) And by year’s end, the state’s HOPE Lottery Scholarship Program had awarded more scholarships than the heralded Georgia lottery did in its initial year but still fell well short of the numbers projected by lottery execs. In all, 30,060 Tennessee students received scholarship funds totaling more than $44 million. Not too bad. We’ll see what happens next year.

Take That, Anti-Taxers!

A $30 increase in Knox County’s wheel tax on motor vehicles was passed in June and remained in effect despite a referendum petitioned onto the November ballot by again’ers. The increase raises $12 million the county needs for budget obligations, and the ruckus it raised was begun in opposition to planning for a new central library in downtown Knoxville. County Mayor Mike Ragsdale deftly turned aside the petition drivers by getting an alternative property tax of 18 cents approved by County Commission, to take effect if the wheel-tax increase was turned back. Voters preferred the greater wheel tax to the property tax hike by a 52-48 percent margin, some of the majority opting in favor of it in terms of the promise of a new West Knox High School.

Downtown Library Tease

At the beginning of the year, it seemed as if it was a foregone conclusion that Knox County was going to build a new main library downtown. The place is packed to the gills, after all. Tens of thousands of good books in deep storage, computer classes held in the reading areas, librarians having to share desks and computers. It had been discussed for years without opposition, got preliminary approval from County Commission in public meetings, with little dissent. All that remained was where to put it, on Gay Street or off, the old News-Sentinel site being the one most discussed.

But then the phrase “wheel tax” got around the further reaches of the county, and out came the petitions like shivs. If there’s a lesson to the year 2004, it’s this: Never underestimate the power of people who haven’t been paying attention. The library’s connection to the 8-cents-a-day wheel tax increase set off an avalanche of surprising objections, much of it seeming hostility to the library itself, which some feared could become a haven for latte-drinkers. Some of these tardy opponents proposed building an aluminum addition onto the current library; some proposed building the main library in a suburban area, perhaps in an old Wal-Mart; some proposed it’s none of the county’s business to be building no libraries nohow.

In the mix, it was revealed that Knox County has more branches per capita-dollar than almost any system in the U.S., which may have something to do with some non-downtown Knoxvillians’ complacency about not building a new main library. At year’s end, there have been intriguing suggestions that the movement’s not dead, and that maybe the library’s salvation may have something to do with the salvation of the city’s underused—and wired—convention center.

New West Knox High School

Sorely needed because of overcrowding at Farragut and Karns high schools, the new $40 million school would be plopped down between them, and it’s been approved by the school board and virtually mandated by the wheel tax outcome. The sticking point is where, exactly, it should be. In that rapidly developing part of the county, tracts as large as the 50 acres needed for a high school are rare, indeed. As we went to press, no site had been selected, although the process had narrowed the options to two parcels just before Christmas, and County Commission had approved the overall plan. But the board’s chairman, Dan Murphy, was tight-lipped about the prospects, hinting that a purchase might require condemnation.

New Chiefs for Police, Fire Departments

With Mayor Bill Haslam ensconced in office, the city’s police chief, Phil Keith retired, and the interim fire chief, Ed Cureton retired again. The mayor’s search for a lawman/administrator turned up former FBI agent Sterling Owen IV, known here for years as “I-V” to take the helm at the police department, and, despite his lengthy law enforcement background, he promptly signed up for the police academy. He’s a genial, easygoing customer with special skills in sorting out white-collar crimes, and he promises to be an effective chief. At the fire department, Haslam installed Carlos E. Perez, the former executive assistant fire chief and director of trauma services for Miami-Dade County, Fla. Holder of an MBA from the University of Miami, Perez had been teaching at the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center at Texas A&M for the past two years. He’s a former chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Anti-Terrorism Committee. We feel safer already.

TennCare: the Dilemma

TennCare spent most of the year in critical care undergoing multiple surgeries and then pronouncements of its imminent demise followed by renewed expressions of hope for its survival.

At issue is the state’s ability to contain mushrooming costs of the healthcare program that covers more than 1.3 million Tennesseans, most of them impoverished. Left unchecked, the state’s TennCare costs are projected to rise by $650 million in the fiscal year ahead to more than $3 billion. That growth is far in excess of a projected $300 million increase in state revenues for the year and thus would mean eating into funding for everything from education to economic development.

Gov. Phil Bredesen began the year by announcing TennCare reform plans designed to hold its rate of growth to about $100 million a year, thus maintaining its present 26 percent share of the state’s $10 billion total budget and allowing room for growth in other programs. The most publicized of these reforms were limitations on benefits for the 430,000 enrollees whom TennCare now covers over and above the 900,000 who are eligible for the federally mandated Medicaid program. These limitations included a maximum of six prescription drugs per month, eight doctor’s visits a year and 45 days of hospitalization.

The biggest savings, though, were to be derived from a more restrictive definition of medical necessity that Bredesen pushed through the state Legislature. It would apply to all 1.3 million enrollees and was aimed primarily at curtailing use of high-priced prescription drugs, whose growing use has been by far the biggest contributor to TennCare’s cost escalation. Two categories of drugs, antihistamines and gastric-acid medicine, would be excluded from coverage altogether because they are now available over the counter. For most others, only lower-cost generic drugs would be included on TennCare’s preferred drug lists (PDL) and higher-cost branded drugs could only be obtained with prior authorization of the state’s pharmacy benefits manager.

All of these changes require approval of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) because federal matching dollars cover two-thirds of the program’s cost under the unique deal the state obtained when TennCare was launched with its expanded coverage in 1994.

State officials report they were making good headway toward obtaining CMS approval when, abruptly, on Nov. 17, Bredesen announced that he was aborting the reform plan, dismantling TennCare and reverting to a Medicaid program under which only the 900,000 eligibles would retain coverage.

Bredesen termed it the most painful decision of his life and placed the blame squarely on Nashville attorney Gordon Bonnyman whose Tennessee Justice Center has successfully challenged several TennCare eligibility and benefit standards in federal court. Court orders already obtained by Bonnyman and the threat of more of the same precluded the state from meeting its budgetary objectives without cutting the 430,000 “expansion” enrollees from the rolls, Bredesen contended. But the draconian cuts would mainly impact children whom most other states have opted to cover under their Medicaid programs and “uninsurable” adults who can’t get commercial health insurance because of chronic conditions.

When Bonnyman responded by offering a two-year moratorium on various court proceedings, Bredesen relented and agreed to negotiations with Bonnyman in hopes of preserving coverage for all. “I’ll go to almost any length to do so,” the governor said, but “it’s got to be the bronze standard rather than the platinum standard.”

TennCare’s director, J.D. Hickey, told a legislative oversight committee on December 10 that “we’ve been concentrating on reforming the program in such a way as to preserve enrollment, and all parties involved in the negotiations have that as their first and foremost priority.”

Complicating matters is the fact that it’s become increasingly clear over the past month that meeting budgetary targets will take more extensive reforms than Bredesen originally proposed. These could well take the form of benefit limits on all 1.3 million enrollees. It’s also clear that the state has got to do a much better job of enforcing adherence to its preferred drug list. The PDL was supposed to save $200 million, but TennCare’s drug costs have continued to soar—in large part due to lack of PDL enforcement.

Air Pollution Issues

Knoxville turns up again among the U.S. cities with the most polluted air. We’re ninth on the annual list in ozone and 15th in particulates. To illustrate how bad it is, Los Angeles is worst in ozone, the next six cities are all in California, and the eighth is Houston. This is all from the American Lung Association’s compilation of data, and it tells us that we have two choices: drive fewer miles or take fewer breaths. Which, do you think, is the better option?

Flood Follies

Heavy rains throughout the first half of 2004 focused more attention on a rift between the City of Knoxville and the Knoxville Utilities Board over sewage. Still pending are a handful of lawsuits over the city’s right to levy fines on the utility for the ongoing problem of sewage overflow that often occurs during inclement weather. With the city seeing more than its fair share of precipitation, new Mayor Bill Haslam strove to find amicable solutions with a new regime at KUB.

So just how bad were the rains? Consider The Great Sinkhole, the huge hole that unexpectedly opened in the parking lot of Papermill Plaza shopping center in June. Heavy rains caused an 84-inch corrugated metal storm sewer line to collapse, opening a 70-foot rift in the parking lot at the corner of Papermill and Kingston Pike. Some of the plaza’s businesses were forced to move, while others closed temporarily. Work crews began repairing the lot’s storm water drainage system in early November.

UT’s Newest New President

In the wake of the debacle that brought down former UT President John Shumaker, the university swung from one extreme to another in its search for a successor.

Shumaker had emerged as the hand-picked candidate of Gov. Don Sundquist after a secretive search process that was largely conducted by two Sundquist aides, Steve Leonard and Kathy Cole, with the guidance of a search firm. By contrast, the search that led to the selection of UT’s new President John Petersen set a standard for openness and broad-based participation the likes of which the world of higher education had seldom if ever seen before.Candidates were initially screened by a 19-member advisory council on which students, faculty and alumni had more representatives than UT’s much-maligned trustees. After the council picked six finalists from a field of 47 applicants, trustees conducted a final round of interviews and deliberations, all in open sessions that were webcast. When Petersen, who was provost and executive vice president of the University of Connecticut, won out by a narrow margin, Gov. Phil Bredesen punctuated the point that the selection hadn’t been orchestrated from on high by casting his vote for the runner up, Utah State University President Kermit Hall.

Where Shumaker thoroughly alienated UT’s administrative hierarchy by bringing in Leonard and Cole as his executive vice president and executive assistant respectively, Petersen solidified good working relations within the university by naming veteran UT administrators Jack Britt and Lofton Stuart to these posts. He also made it clear from the outset that venerable Chancellor Loren Crabtree would preside over the Knoxville campus—something that Shumaker had left in doubt.

During his first six months in office, the 56-year-old Petersen’s watchword has been strategic. “Our highest priority for each campus is to develop strategic goals.... The system’s role is to help facilitate the plan and acquire the resources,” he said in what was billed as a State of the University address. “We should be more strategic in picking and choosing our areas of academic and research emphasis... I am not saying we will ignore our role to broadly educate undergraduate students. Good programs will certainly be maintained and nurtured. But to achieve national prominence we have to give special attention to the academic and research areas where we have strength and competitive potential.”

Uppermost among these are the sciences in which UT is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the formation of four joint institutes that are expected to attract megamillions in federal research dollars to the state. Those institutes are computational sciences, biology, nanomaterials, and neutron sciences. “Working with ORNL and partnering state dollars and ORNL funds, we can hire the best people in the world in those areas,” Petersen predicts.

But it remains to be seen whether Petersen has a winning strategy for getting the state funding needed to support these initiatives. At a budget hearing conducted by Bredesen earlier this month, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, per the governor’s instructions, presented a budget that only assumed continuation of UT operating funds at the present level for the fiscal year ahead. Petersen, on his own, appealed for an additional $42 million in four areas:

$10 million to recruit faculty for the joint institutes, including at least 15 who have the stature of membership in the national academies of science and engineering. (UT presently has three.)

$25 million to enhance science and engineering research not only at the joint institutes but also at places like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and several Research Centers of Excellence that UT established in 2001.

$6 million for graduate student stipends to further the university’s research agenda by increasing graduate enrollment to 8,300 students from the current level of 7,750.

$1 million for commercialization of UT research, primarily via support of an incubator for fledgling enterprises that is planned for the Knoxville campus.

Bredesen has seemed supportive of all of these endeavors, but he was non-committal as to how much of the requested funding the state could provide in relation to everything else that’s pulling on its budgetary resources.

Square Deals

The commercial revitalization of Market Square continued in 2005 with the unveiling of two new businesses—Vagabondia, a dress shop devoted to flowing flax and linen fashion, and Oodles, a restaurant that specializes in all forms of the noodle, from Italian pasta dishes to Thai noodle delights to good ol’ mac ‘n’ cheese. (Late 2003 saw the opening of Market Square Booksellers on the Square, just up from Tomato Head.)

Also worth noting is the fact that Market Square staple the Soup Kitchen changed hands in ‘04, and is now known as Market Square Kitchen. And the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership moved into its new digs on the Square in mid-December, as a reminder to us all of the importance of center city revitalization.

Loft-y Goals

The linchpin of downtown Knoxville’s ongoing resurgence has been residential growth, the new migration of young professionals to living quarters in and around the center city. Chief among the new developments was owner Wayne Blasius’s Phoenix Building—former home of Fowler’s Furniture—on the 400 block of Gay Street. The renovated Phoenix was unveiled in spring of ‘04 with a handful of swank new lofts as well as two ground-floor business tenants, the Downtown Grind coffee house located inside Prestige Cleaners.

Indeed, 2004 was the Year of the Loft in Knoxville; other new loftists included Earth to Old City proprietors Scott and Bernadette West, who opened a dozen second-floor units on Market Square; developer Leigh Burch, who rolled out new condos in the Lerner Building on the 400 block of Gay Street; and David Dewhirst, whose 40-unit Emporium building began hosting tenants early this year.

Metro Pulse Moves to New Old Digs

Knoxville’s Alternative Weekly Voice removed itself from its home for the last 10 years in the lovely old Arnstein Building at the southwest corner of Market Square. We shuttled our stuff across Krutch Park in December to 602 S, Gay St., the lovely old Burwell Building, at the corner of Clinch Avenue next to the Tennessee Theatre. What goes around really does come around. The Burwell was where we were before we moved to the Arnstein. It was like old home week, unpacking at the Burwell. It’s just a shame we tossed out all that stationery when we left this address the first time.

Chamber Moves to Market Square

The Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership, housed in the Old City Hall on Summit Hill for several years, moved into the old Watson’s building on the west side of Market Square in December. The Chamber took advantage of an office-condo arrangement to purchase the second floor from the building’s owner, David Dewhirst, to put itself in the middle of Knoxville’s downtown resurgence. That Chamber statement is itself an encouraging indication that the renaissance is right on track.

New tricks for the Old City

The Old City’s seen more than its fair share of failed entertainment and hospitality concepts. Damn shame, too. But when Knoxville closes a window, it opens the door to another restaurant or club...and Central Avenue got both. Old City capitalist Frank Gardner spun Lucille’s, the little jazz club that couldn’t, into Patrick Sullivan’s Back Room Bar-B-Q, an extension of the successful restaurant/venue. The place is a southern boy’s wet dream, with its cheap beer, medley of whiskey choices, damn fine barbecue and parade of deep-fried side dishes. Down the street, Red Iguana slipped into the old Thinq Tank digs, offering don’t stop ‘til you get enough dancing within its crimson walls. There’s no telling whether the new offerings will sink or swim. Here’s hoping they at least float for a bit.

World’s Fair Park

For the past few years, World’s Fair Park has been pretty much a stagnant mound of dirt. Finally, this year saw its metamorphosis as not only a beautifully redone park complete with walkways, greenspace, and flowing water, but a public locale for community events. On many hot summer days and evenings, one could find families picnicking and kids frolicking in the fountains.

In addition to its daily use, several community events were held in World’s Fair Park this year. Greekfest moved from its previous location on Kingston Pike to World’s Fair Park due to its ever-growing popularity. The festival, featuring gyros, Greek crafts, and entertainment such as the revered Greek guitarist, Pavlo, was a smashing success in its new home.

The Brewer’s Jam reached an even more raucous level than usual with a fabulous music line-up of Dixie Dirt, Garage DeLuxe, John Cowan Band, Jay Clark and the CC Stringband, and Billy Joe Shaver. The only downside of the immense attendance was that the beer ran out before the end of the event. Note to vendors: Next year, bring more beer!

RFP for WFP

When the city of Knoxville issued a request for proposals on how to utilize the World’s Fair Park site, a flurry of interested parties answered the call. Downtown developers, non-profit organizations, and mom-and-pop businesses alike slid plans across the desks of city council members, virtually begging on their knees for the project. Ideas range from realistic to outlandish, but the jury’s still out on the prize pig—residential and commercial combinations top the list. Blanket proposals with plans for the Candy Factory and adjacent Victorian homes were accepted, as well as piecemeal plans for specific components (Tennessee Amphitheater, Sunsphere). Loft condominiums seem to be the idea of choice for the Candy Factory. We’re pulling for the proposal that’ll keep chocolate covered strawberries a hop, skip and a jump from downtown. Either way, we’ll have a winner next month.

Tennessee Theatre Renovations

The bad news is that for the first time in the 76-year history of the Tennessee Theater, the Moorish Lady of Gay Street, didn’t host any shows, or any audiences, at all. It was closed all year. For the first year since the Coolidge administration, nobody said, “I’ve got tickets for the show at the Tennessee.”

The good news is that the theater’s complicated multi-million-dollar renovation, which adds several features the place never had before, like copious modern dressing rooms, an elevator, and a deep stage, built cantilever-style over half of State Street, went well, in spite of threatened budget cuts, and is in fact almost done. It’s due to reopen in January; no reopening has ever been more eagerly anticipated.

The Bijou: Open for Business

Raise your hand if you can’t keep track of whether the historic Bijou Theater is open or closed, broke or flush, seeking a buyer or determined to go it alone. At last check-in, Bijou’s board chairman Chuck Morris has refuted the rumors that various offers have been made to buy the theater. Even if the theater was for sale, none of those offers were serious enough to consider (nor were signed checks on the table). At the end of 2004, the Bijou hosted two theatrical productions—a rousing rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre musical Sweeney Todd and the quaint holiday favorite The Best Christmas Pageant Ever—plus the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra has dates booked at the theater through April 2005. With some new (and presumably energetic) board members added to the roster, Morris and the Bijou are approaching the new year with optimism.

Downtown Movie Theater?

In mid-September, Mayor Bill Haslam held a press conference on Gay Street to announce plans to collaborate with Regal Cinemas on an eight-screen, 45,000-square-foot theater to be located in the S&W Cafeteria building. The announcement, although preliminary and still contingent on money from third-party investors, was received as a sign that downtown development can continue with a stronger sense of confidence. Mast General Store, a regional chain with outposts in Asheville, N.C., and Greenville, S.C., had previously said it would only open a store downtown if a theater opened on Gay Street, and with the announcement of the theater has firmed up plans to locate here. Other high-profile national chain retail stores and restaurants may also follow Mast’s lead. If all goes well, construction on the theater should begin early in the year and be completed by spring 2006. Expect a struggle over whether the project will include preservation of the S&W’s art-deco façade. At last count, Regal was noncommittal over the historic architecture.

Phoenix Rises with a Caffeine Buzz

Although the Phoenix building on Gay Street hasn’t filled its retail space to capacity, its first ground-floor tenants have created quite a buzz. Prestige Cleaners opened its seventh location, this one with a twist: its lobby hosts a full-fledged coffee shop serving local baked goods and locally roasted coffee. The house blend is a mild Scottish, but some folks prefer the darker roast, which switches from Kenya to Ethiopian Harrar from week to week. Indoor seating is complimented by a smart selection of reading materials (USA Today and The New York Times join this fine publication on the racks), and during fair weather patrons can sit out on the sidewalk al fresco style. The coffee shop, which is open ‘til 10:30 p.m. on weekends, has done gangbusters business and must somehow be responsible for that Prestige location being named the chain’s best store for 2004.

Movin’ on Over

On June 30, WDVX packed up and moved from Anderson County to the big city, into a slick studio on the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill with the same 89.9 and 102.9 FM frequencies. The One Vision facility provided the station with studio space and a performance area that seats 75 people for live shows, including its daily Blue Plate Special lunch broadcast. In addition, its lobby features the Café Gourmet coffee shop where customers watch live broadcasts through a large window into the ground-level studio.

“We basically had a mutual interest where we both take the heritage and culture of the region and tell people who we are and where we came from.” says Robin Hamilton, vice president of sales and marketing for the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp., also located in One Vision Plaza. “WDVX played into the heritage and culture we were trying to get across, and they were perfect because they play the music that was indigenous to the region years ago.”

Metro Pulse welcomed the station with open ears to the center city in June, and it’s quickly becoming an indispensable part of the community. If you haven’t been a party to the terrific Blue Plate Special, pack a lunch and spend an hour with east Tennessee’s own.

H-D Mega-Dealer Opens in Maryville

Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson opened its doors on West Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville over the Labor Day Weekend. At 47,000 square feet, it’s billed as the South’s largest Harley dealer, and it’s positioned just a few miles from the winding Tenn. 129 passage up to North Carolina known as the “Tail of the Dragon,” a favorite mountain cruise and test of judicious throttle-twisting for motorcyclists from across the country who labor mightily against centrifugal forces to tame the dragon while staying “shiny side up.”

The Harley aficionados now have a huge new array of H-D products and accessories at their disposal down here among the dragon’s ankles at Smoky Mountain Harley.

Ye Olde Steakhouse Reopens in its Original Spot

The familiar, tile-roofed, stone and chinked-log edifice on Chapman Highway that housed South Knoxville’s famed Ye Olde Steakhouse for decades until it was heavily damaged by an arsonist’s fire in 2002 reopened to the delight of South Knoxvillians and aging UT Vol fans. The broiler was refired in the original restaurant after two years of searing steaks in the L&N Station in downtown Knoxville. The 17-year-old busboy charged with setting the fire was sentenced to six months in jail this December.

Preservation v. Demolition

The large, century-old Emporium Building, one of the most unusual Victorian-era commercial buildings downtown, had been the subject of well-meaning preservation efforts for more than a decade. With hundreds of square feet of glass panes and arched windows, it had something of the character of a turn-of-the-century train station, but was originally a home-furnishings store run by the Sterchi Brothers. A couple of years ago, it was looking like an expensive failure.

Finally, in September, the Emporium reopened to reveal a honeycomb of artists’ studios, with residences upstairs. Its gala opening drew hundreds.

At the same time, UT’s art gallery opened next door with an exhibition of the urban-whimsical paintings and sketches of Knoxville native Joseph Delaney.

Other than a few very impressive downtown projects like the Emporium, the Tennessee Theater, and the partly new history center—and the apparent salvation of the Hill Avenue home of the woman who was arguably Knoxville’s original preservationist, Mary Boyce Temple, saved through a city agreement with Hampton Inn, which plans to construct a new hotel adjacent to it—it was a chaotic and generally discouraging year for historic preservation.

Five years ago, Cherokee Country Club bought one of its neighbors, the J. Allen Smith house, the gracefully stately 1916 mansion on Lyons View, built to be the home of the founder of White Lily Flour—and later announced plans to demolish it. The exclusive club stated that they needed space for more parking and a practice-putting green.

Then-mayor Victor Ashe intervened with an edict unusual for Knoxville, historic-overlay protection, which had seemed to save the J. Allen Smith house, by giving it “historic overlay” protection.

Ashe’s successor, mayor Bill Haslam, was openly supportive of protecting the house; it wasn’t enough. Within days of when the courts said they could, but without announcement, Cherokee demolished the house on December 10.

Days after the unceremonious obliteration, at a self-styled Wake for the house hosted by a neighbor, Knox Heritage announced the J. Allen Smith Memorial Endangered Properties Fund, a new charity to save future endangered houses by buying them.

Ashe’s historic-overlay initiative, which was also protecting some other buildings like the turn-of-the-century downtown apartment building once known as Sprankle Flats, appears to be unhinged. But at year’s end, preservationists are considering other tactics, through zoning and public appeals.

Another house oft pointed to, the fire-gutted Pickle Mansion on the 1600 block of Clinch Avenue in Fort Sanders, a memorable copper-domed Victorian built by a Confederate veteran and once known as Fort Sanders Hall, was another threatened building that seemed saved by a mayoral ‘demolition by neglect’ initiative. A surprise ruling by the Better Building Board found in favor of the owner, casting a pall over its future, but the city announced its intention to appeal. In a sort of compromise, the owners offered property for sale, for $875,000, about 15 percent more than a previously rejected offer, giving preservationists some reason to hope.

And, at year’s end, the fate of the old S&W Cafeteria building, the 1935 art-deco showpiece on Gay Street, was looking dubious, with rumors that Regal, the cinema developer the city is favoring to build the promised and much-anticipated cineplex on the site, is skeptical of early proposals to save at least the shell of the beloved building as a theater lobby.

Downtown lost a landmark, the Hope Clock, a tall cast-iron pedestrian clock which has stood on a Gay Street sidewalk since the 1890s—not to demolition, but to removal. Kimball’s, which obtained the clock with the Hope Brothers store around 1930, but gave up on Gay Street a few years ago, said they’d move the clock to its new Kingston Pike store. A number of downtowners, in cooperation with the CBID, announced a drive to purchase and erect a replica Victorian clock in its place. They’re confident of ultimate success; but most admit they’d rather have the real thing back.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that the Gay Street Bridge as a signal success of historic preservation. Threatened with demolition a few years ago, the 1898 landmark was completely reenforced and restored before it was reopened this year. Today, it’s smooth, safe, and with new concrete barriers, more pedestrian-friendly than it has been since horse-an-buggy days.

History, Shiny and New

The East Tennessee History Center opened with a grand new marble-faced building on Gay Street, which is really an architecturally harmonious doubling of the 1872 Custom House at Market and Clinch, a multi-million-dollar project funded by a combination of public and private sources. The exterior of the handsome marble building, and most of the new addition, is complete; what’s not quite done is the renovation of the grand old building, including the third-floor federal courtroom that was, and will be again, the McClung Collection’s reading room. So the McClung Collection, Knox County Archives, and the East Tennessee Historical Society shifted into the new section while the old part’s being finished. Most of the building’s old functions survived without missing many beats, except for the ground-level Museum of East Tennessee History, which was closed all year; when it finally emerges from its cocoon, probably in late 2005, it’ll be bigger and more comprehensive than ever.

Festival Time in Tennessee

After sprawling for years between widely scattered events, some of which seemed to have little to do with dogwoods, or the arts, or any sort of festival, the Dogwood Arts Festival focused its efforts on good art and good times, concentrating its events to a few days on the refurbished Market Square, enhancing genuinely high-quality and interesting artwork with live shows, some of them fairly unusual, like the guy who combined art and aerobics, painting giant paintings to rock ‘n’ roll music. We’ve made fun of the bloated, pallid Dogwood Arts Festival as long as we’ve been Metro Pulse, and we’ll keep trying; but this year, it was harder than ever. We were almost licked.

Coinciding with the higher-brow, higher-alcohol-content Rossini Festival, held simultaneously on Gay Street, it drew tens of thousands to downtown for a jollier time than we’ve seen in years. So much was going on, between the Italian operas and the country-music shows, that we nominate Saturday, April 17, 2004, as the most fun day of this century. So far.

Viva NooKaBooCa!

New Knoxville beer, Tennessee’s only bottling brewery, returned triumphantly—or so it seemed. When some shaky investors and cash-flow problems caused the New Knoxville Brewing Co. on East Depot to close about four years ago, many mourned. In its short history the brewery had won several national awards for its curiously strong pale ales, and it was one of the best sellers at several local taprooms. It’s hard to put a price on the municipal value of a product that has your city’s name on the label, especially when the product is strong and distinctive. We always thought it worthy of taxpayer subsidy.

In April, 2004, upstart California brewer Brett Redmayne bought the facility, remodeled it with an actual ‘tasting room,’ which seemed to have the makings of a good bar in an otherwise industrial east-side neighborhood that needs one. Some thought the beer itself wasn’t quite what we remember of the old New Knoxville, but it seemed to improve with the second batch, and many agreed it was good enough, both from the bottle and from the tap. It was in the stores and the bars, and people were buying it. Multiple-keg supplies of NKBC’s IPA sold out at a couple of Market Square events over the summer.

But by the fall, there were some shakedown glitches: some grocery customers were complaining that some of the six-packs were dead flat; then, due to some staffing problems, they closed the tasting room—temporarily, they say. Redmayne says he’s working on the problems, and that after four months the business is already breaking even, producing and selling 450 cases, and 30-35 kegs, a month.

At their best, the products of the New New Knoxville Brewing Co. are worthy of the name. In hopes that they can recover from what may just be a hangover, we’re still rooting for them.

This Train Goes On

In January, Scott Miller and his band, the Commonwealth, embarked on maybe the most unusual tour of any rock ‘n’ roll band in Knoxville history. To illustrate his railroad song, “Amtrak Crescent,” and promote the album, upside/downside, Miller and the boys climbed aboard the real thing in New Orleans and played at every joint from the Big Easy to the Big Apple that would have them, from Tipitina’s to the Tribeca Rock Club—including a show at commuter rush-hour in Union Station in Washington. In all, a few thousand unsuspecting people saw Miller and the boys on the three-week trip, which was partly sponsored by Amtrak.

Tennessee Smokies become Diamondbacks Affiliate

The Tennessee Smokies, Knoxville’s favorite Sevierville AA minor league baseball team, was dropped by the St. Louis Cardinals but picked up immediately by the Arizona Diamondbacks. The franchise is doing well in attendance, drawing from all across East Tennessee. The new affiliation briefly held out the possibility that the Big Unit, Randy Johnson, might be sent down here for a rehab assignment and another haircut. He badly needed to cool his heels and keep his tangle-prone locks in check, but he was traded away to the Yankees, New York’s loser to Boston in the 2004 World Series, in the off-season.

Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Big Orange

The University of Tennessee was well represented at the 2004 Olympiad in Athens, Greece, with nearly a dozen past and former Vols competing in track and field, swimming, and basketball. Leading the charge were sprinter Justin Gatlin (Gold in the men’s 100 meter sprint, Silver in the men’s 4 x 100 relay, Bronze in the 200 meter); Tim Mack (Gold in the pole vault); Dee Dee Trotter (Gold in the women’s 4 x 400 meter sprint); and Tamika Catchings (Gold, as a member of the U.S. women’s basketball team).

On the down side, former UT decathlete Tom Pappas, a medal favorite at this year’s Olympics, dropped out of the decathlon in Athens due to a ruptured tendon he suffered during his first pole vault attempt. Pappas is resilient, though, and talented; at 27, he still has at least another Olympics left in him.

Other UT Olympians included Anthonoy Famiglietti (steeple chase); Jearl Miles-Clark (women’s 800 meters); Hazel Clark (women’s 800 meters); Gary Kikaya (men’s 400 meters); Ricky Busquels (100 meter freestyle swim); and Paulo Machado (100 meter backstroke.)

It’s Always Football Time in Tennessee

UT football was a tale of two seasons in 2004: there was the off-season, wherein head coach Phillip Fulmer was embroiled as a witness in an intrigue involving recruiting scandals at the University of Alabama. And then there was the regular season, where the Vols finished a surprising 9-2, earning a berth in the Southeastern Conference Championship game in Atlanta versus the Auburn Tigers.

Fulmer’s role in the ‘Bama affair was that of informant. Tired of years of alleged cheating and bribing of recruits by the notorious Tide boosters, Fulmer allegedly gave evidence of ‘Bama’s wrongdoings to the NCAA. The height of the drama: undoubtedly when Fulmer and a local attorney traveled to Alabama, wearing a wire, to record conversations with a supposedly dirty ‘Bama booster.

On the field, the Vols were overachievers in ‘04, winning the SEC’s Eastern division despite starting a pair of freshmen at quarterback. Those freshmen, the sensational Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer, turned out to be everything Fulmer had hoped for when he recruited them over more heralded prospects, leading the Vols to victories over the evil axis of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama for the first time in years. The Vols went on to fight gamely, only to suffer a 38-28 loss to the undefeated, national championship-contending Tigers in the SEC final. With a squad full of young, talented returning players, however, the Vols only look to get better in 2005.

Hoops Oops

The University of Tennessee basketball program went through some more tough times in 2004, as it finished the ‘03-04 season 15-14, capped by a first-round NIT loss to George Mason in the post-season. Though the season—the Vols’ third under head coach Buzz Peterson—was not an entirely unproductive one, Vol faithful agonized over the team’s seeming ability to win on the road (0-8 in road games in the SEC.)

On the women’s side, the Lady Vols sailed through another stellar season...only to see it spoiled (at least in part) by a loss in the national championship game to hated rival Connecticut, under the direction of Head Asshole Gene Auriemma. This season sees the arrival of the Ladies’ most heralded recruiting class ever, however, so we’ll just see how Coach Auriemma likes them oranges.

Come On Down(town)

This season of Sundown in the City was an overwhelming hit—often packing Market Square to the hilt with its alluring line-up, from folk faves like Mindy Smith and Gillian Welch to old school hip-hoppers Arrested Development, and bluegrass fusionists Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It was the only place to be on Thursday nights in the summer, drawing everyone from high school kids to mommies with strollers to downtown scenesters. When AC Entertainment announced plans to extend the concert series into the fall, they cleverly altered its title by calling it “Autumn on the Square.” Though most of us scoffed and still stubbornly called it “Sundown,” we came out in hoards for an equally eclectic line-up, featuring the legendary guitar skills of Tommy Emmanuel, the girlish charm of rocker Butterfly Boucher and more. Our only suggestion for next year would be to have more local bands open the shows.

Movies on Market Square, sponsored by Lawson McGhee Library, also met with successful turnouts for its first year in existence. The folks at the library chose an array of classics like The Princess Bride, The Goonies, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you didn’t make it out to these events this year, get yourself a KAT pass and get on down to the center of our fair city.

MetroFest

We don’t like to brag, but one Saturday this past September, Metro Pulse made Knoxville history. MetroFest, Market Square’s first festival combining written media, live music, belly dancing, a smorgasbord of food and plenty of beer made for a night enjoyed by all who attended (with the possible exception of the MP staff, who were hard at work putting on beer bracelets and filling everyone’s cups). The well-attended festival helped raise a hefty lump of cash for the forthcoming construction of the James Agee Park in Fort Sanders. The music line-up, too lengthy to list in its entirety, was strictly local, but it ranged in time through the last few decades to celebrate the release of the Knoxville music anthology Cumberland Avenue Revisited. Old favorites like The Loved Ones and Boogie Disease shared the bill with contemporary singer-songwriters Scott Miller, R.B. Morris and Todd Steed. Rising indie rock bands THAT and the Rockwells rounded out the program. During the Teenage Love reunion set, Russ Harper reverted back to his teen days, allegedly mooning onlookers, and was apprehended by the cops. But hey, what good is a party that doesn’t get a little rowdy?

Tennessee Valley Fair: Bigger & Better

Is there really a way to measure the improvement or decline in the enjoyment factor of the fair? Fair organizers claimed that a new rides vendor for 2004 meant the midway would offer better quality and more extreme rides, and their claims proved correct. Fairgoers found more rides worth riding (like the stylish replica of the Ferris wheel from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair) and a decrease in the number of rides that looked shoddy, rusty or just freakin’ scary. Food vendors rated thumbs-up from diners with a fondness for fried fare, and the newly renovated Jacob Building was in tip-top shape, although with a dwindling number of 4-H exhibits as compared to previous years. This year’s baby ducks in the petting zoo tent successfully huddled near the heat lamp without falling into the water. A handful of fairgoers canvassed by an MP reporter went home satisfied and eager to do it again in 2005.

Open Up the Ball Y’all

Is it a bizarre art project? A public information campaign? A gonzo effort organized by out-of-control World’s Fair sentimentalists? Whoever they are, the mysterious and anonymous folks behind the Open Up the Ball Y’all campaign have a manifesto few can argue with: Although the Sunsphere stands alongside the Statue of Liberty, the St. Louis Arch and Seattle’s Space Needle in stature, kitsch value and tourist potential, Knoxville’s monument to solar power is closed, unable to accept visits by curiosity seekers and local worshippers. Although Mayor Bill Haslam designated $1 million in the city’s budget to renovate the ‘Sphere, its future remains uncertain. Open Up the Ball Y’all maintains a website petition and a cache of souvenirs that spell out pro-Sphere intentions.

December 23, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 52 © 2004 Metro Pulse