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Note: The following article expresses the opinions of the author. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Old North News or Old North Knoxville, Inc. Other viewpoints are welcomed, and will be published in future newsletters. I love living in Old North Knoxville! I think we have the greatest neighborhood in Knoxville. I have never lived anywhere where the neighbors are so friendly and helpful. Where else in Knoxville can you go to the football game and be home before the post game shows are well under way? I can be anywhere in the county within 20 minutes. I feel safe in my neighborhood. I see people out walking at all hours of day and night and I enjoy nothing better than to sit on my front porch swing and greet my neighbors as they go by. I love living in Old North Knoxville! Having said that, I need to voice my deep displeasure at the way I feel our neighborhood is being treated by some parts of the City. Last year after a long and arduous process of negotiation with the city, we, in Old North, told the city that we were not going to pursue getting period streetlights, for which we were going to pay, installed in our neighborhood. This was because when we finally got the city and KUB to quote a "firm" price it was more than triple the price originally quoted. Of course, during the same time the City managed to find funds to purchase and install the exact same lights in Mechanicsville as apology for the well known mix-up with the Boys & Girls clubs' new facility colling tower, AKA jet engine. Of course, that was paid for with our taxes so the price didn't matter. One of the best things to happen in Old North was Police Officer Kelvin Reed. After Old North had gone through the long TNT process and stated that areas of policing were of concern, Officer Reed showed up at one of our monthly meetings, introduced himself and began acting as a liaison between Old North and the Knoxville Police Department. What a brilliant PR coup on the part of the KPD! Officer Reed came to as many of our meetings as his schedule permitted for the next several years and became a good friend of our neighborhood. It was great! Several times I answered a knock at my door to find Officer Reed wanting to bring me and the neighborhood up to date on happenings within the neighborhood, like the time they made a big drug bust in the neighborhood. Well, all good things must come to an end. Officer Kelvin Reed got a well-deserved promotion and transfer. We sent him away with our best wishes and a letter of commendation to Police Chief Keith. We then waited to see who our next neighborhood officer would be. And waited. And waited. At each monthly meeting I asked who our next neighborhood officer would be and when could we expect to meet him or her? Knowing from Officer Reed that the KPD had been very short of officers and had just graduated a big class, I advised patience. Finally, in November, Figuring enough time had passed, I called the KPD to inquire about whom was assigned to us? After the usual "it's not this department" runaround, I talked to someone in the East Sector office (did you know we are in the East Sector?) who informed me that KPD does not assign officers to neighborhoods other than as beat officers and certainly not as liaisons. However, if I would give them enough notice for a particular meeting, they would be happy to have someone attend. Thanks, KPD. This year, after a long and arduous process (sound familiar?), Old North finally got approval to have the City repair the worst of the sidewalks in the neighborhood. Not only did we get approval to have them repaired, we even got approval to have them use a mix modified from their normal mix so the repairs would not stick out like a sore thumb in our 100+ year old neighborhood. By the way, the mix formula is the exact same one that Sequoyah Hills got for their sidewalks with no hassle at all. Things seemed to be going our way. Of course, they took out he brass markers in the sidewalks where they promised they wouldn't. But thanks to the quick work of Lowell and Penny Baxter, we managed to save at least one of them. Fast-forward several months. Crews are working diligently on removing and repairing the worst of the sidewalks. But what's this? They are not using the proper formula. call City Engineering and complain. Their response? We're sorry, please forgive us. That's not all! While working on Harvey between Oklahoma and Anderson, the repair crews apparently got carried away and removed the granite curb along with the old sidewalk. Quick! Call City Engineering. Their response? We're sorry, we are checking to see whose responsibility it is. Please forgive us. Well, we did find out that in this case, Bell South was to blame. However, they did have a permit issued by the City and they are going to correct it. By the way, the City official who issued the permit apparently was not too worried about his mistake. In conversations with Ann Bennett and Andy Anderson, he indicated that he didn't think too much of our neighborhood and could not see why we were upset. ENOUGH! I, for one, have had it with the motto that "it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." It is time for the City to live up to its commitments and responsibilities without exception. As long as we allow the City to beg forgiveness rather than do the job right, we will continue to get excuses and apologies. I think the sidewalks done wrong should be broken out and replaced with the proper mix. If the cost of doing this is high, let the City officials to to the public and explain why! I know that I will never deal with any City official without having at least one other person present as a witness, and I will request any promises or commitments from any part of the City to be in writing and signed by the responsible party. Isn't it a shame that we cannot trust the people to whom we pay our city taxes? And the worst offenders are not elected, so what recourse do we have? Tell our elected official? Yeah, right. Return to newsletter table of contents
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