Oh boy---yippee, even more concentration of homeless services coming to a mission district near you:

Link...

Unbelievable....well not really, at a recent meeting regarding Minvilla and the most expensive studio apartments in Knoxville history, I was assured that Knoxville was not unique in its concentration of homeless service providers. After requesting examples, I was given cities such as Portland, Maine and Jacksonville, Florida but after mapping their services it became clear that those cities' providers were several blocks and sometimes many miles apart. When I shared this information with the city employees, I asked them to correct me if I was mistaken...they did not.

Knoxville has a Ten Year Plan so our City hasn't failed to plan, but with no decentralization plan and worse, more over-concentration, it is planning fail.

Oh well,

According to this morning's KNS (Link...) , Minvilla requires even more tax breaks?

~$125k for efficiency apartments originally advertised as "basic, no frills housing".

Oh well,

After much information has been learned about the astonishing cost of the Minvilla project, unanswered questions still remain; the main ones are:

1. Given that the estimated cost of VMC's Minvilla project is now "north of $6,000,000" (according to 6/20 quote from the Ten Year Plan's Housing Coordinator) and has been rising at ~$100k per month, why are not the many and much less expensive alternatives being pursued?

2. How does it make sense to house fragile and recently homeless individuals immediatly adjacent to those who could easily re-enable the activities which may have caused their homelessness in the first place.

According to the same quote from the Ten Year Plan's Housing Coordinator (Link...), the cost "is...kind of a moving target" so we don't actually know what the final cost will be; however, we do know that many more and less expensive options are available now. (Link...)

Much has been made of my ~$200/sq ft calculation of this $6+mm and ~30,000 sq foot project but rather than argue the math...real questions need answering. Why not help more people with more efficient use of funds? Why not help them sooner by using readily available properties? Why not locate them in an area where they are less likely to be tempted or preyed upon?

Last Thursday, Ginny Weatherstone (VMC Executive Director) graciously gave a few folks a tour of the Minvilla structure. Besides myself and Ginny, other attendees included architect Dan Schuh, City employee Robert Finley, Ten Year Plan leader Jon Lawler, nearby resident David Nix and Dept. of Community Services employee Mike Dunthorn. A few key points and/or observations that came from this meeting:

Tearing down a downtown interstate and replacing it with a boulevard and an elongated park...now that's just crazy.

Link...

Just over 5 years ago, a group of thoughtful folks got together to discuss an idea that sounded crazy to some...don't improve I-40 through downtown, remove I-40 through downtown. Some folks scoffed at the idea while TDOT said it wouldn't work and that 640 could never handle 40's traffic.

Our idea was to simply to seek additional public input on a possibly more appropriate location for 40 rather than through downtown but increased public input was not a TDOT desire nor one of the Ashe administration.

Personally, I think that eliminating 40 through downtown would have made Knoxville's downtown more livable and visionary. Knox B.L.V.D. (Knoxville, building a livable & visionary downtown). Now that construction has begun, let’s examine what the potential would have been if 640 had been re-named “40” and the connection of 275 to 40 at 640’s western side could have been:

1. Knoxvillians entering downtown from the east would use a non-disconnected Magnolia Ave. which rather than being isolated from the city’s center would have begun to flourish.
2. Those entering downtown from the north and south would have used the same routes that they have now.
3. Those entering downtown from the west, would have followed the “abandoned” 40 spur from 640 which would have dropped down to a tree-lined boulevard making downtown much easier to navigate. (Turn right onto 17th for campus, turn right onto Henley for the Convention Center,t turn right onto Gay for Market Square, turn right onto Central to access the Old City, etc. etc.)
4. The footprint of the abandoned section of 40 from Fourth & Gill through Park Ridge would lead along an urban park to the Knoxville Zoo.
5. Huge amounts of land would be once again placed upon the tax rolls.
6. Through travelers seeking gas, quick dining or motels could purchase these from nearly any exit along the new “40” (Old 640) thereby creating increased tax revenues from the folks that now wait ‘til their through downtown to have their needs met.
7. Huge portions of urban neighborhoods would be reclaimed for appropriate expansion of housing stock thereby thwarting costly suburban sprawl.
8. The denser population might be able to support enhanced mass-transit options helping to relieve some of our air quality issues.
9. Struggling East Towne Mall (like Todd Steed, I can’t say Knoxville Center) would become an outlet mall and destination attraction…also increasing tax revenues.
10. There would be no need for the still un-needed James White Parkway which would be torn out to expose the underlying creek and create a greenway/river walk concept ala’ Greenville, SC.
11. The CBID would be accessible by foot from the contiguous neighborhoods.

Instead, we have the pleasure of a bigger version of something that shouldn't have been where it is in the first place. Since we didn't learn from our past mistakes, let's hope that our children do.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a convincing editorial on the Fair Tax concept:

Link...

The only arguments which I have heard against the concept is that it is very regressive and harmful to those at the lowest rungs of society's economic ladder but the referenced article discusses the idea of "pre-bate" to protect the neediest.

So what are the pragmatic, rather than the ideological, arguments against the concept of the "fair tax"?

County Mayor Mike Ragdale is right on the money in moving to sell the Andrew Johnson Building. My suggestion would be to move as many of the county employees currently in the AJ to TVA's East Tower.

I have never understood why we put our (public) servants' quarters on some of East Tennessee's most prime, waterfront real estate.

I must say that the Market Square Garage has been a boon to downtown by providing affordable, safe & convenient parking. Recently, all of the Wall Ave. metered parking west of the west side of Market Square has been converted to commercial loading / unloading. I'm not certain that this is needed but then again, I don't own a Market Square business; however, there seems in mind to exist a need for convenient parking for "customer loading". When picking up small gift or a bite to eat, the no more than $1 parking in the aforementioned garage is ideal but folks attempting to load larger, heavier items have been ticketed for parking violations on Wall & Union which of course isn't very friendly when we're trying to attract retail customers to Market Square and Gay St.

I would suggest that free, 15 minute meters such as those in front of the Post Office Bldg on Main be installed on Wall east of the east side of Market Square. Push the button and you have 15 minutes free to grab your item. This would provide a great convenience to those loading a chair or end table from Bliss Home, Abode or a case of wine from the wonderful new wine store on Gay.

Parking is very important to retail and this idea would seem to fill a current void. Any reason not to do this?

The Grand Opening of Downtown Wine & Spirits was Saturday night and I must say that it was very well done. John Sanders' architecture, well-stocked shelves, enthusiastic & helpful staff. The store is located on the 400 block of Gay St., directly across from Mast General Store, and may I just say...Bravo!

For any & all interested, Fourth & Gill will be hosting their "Historic Home Tour" on April 22nd. All pertinent information may be found at:

Link...

I've noticed on another listserv as well as in a KNS letter to the editor, that some are wondering about the need for the James White Parkway (JWP) now that Hall of Fame (HOF) has opened.

Personally, I like HOF with the following exceptions:

-Sequencing of the lights is poor.
-It was opened without street lights creating a very dangerous situation.
-It did not include an new, urban-friendly connection to Broadway.
-Additional striping at the Summit Hill interesection could help facilitate turns and prevent folks from turning into the wrong lane of oncoming traffic which I've witnessed twice.
-There is no street signage at the major intersections.
-The on/off ramps to I40 are a too short.

Now that this new "city street" is open, it does appear that it will run parallel to the new JWP when complete...which begs the question: why? With the exception of 6 Saturdays in the fall, JWP is NEVER overcrowded and the new HOF can handle the traffic very easily. If I'm not mistaken (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), but First Creek was covered up by JWP initially. Might that plot of land make a nice greenway or other river-walk type area?