With the interest in the new Regal Riviera a lot of folks are talking about downtown. The following was posted by the blogger formerly known as South Knox Bubba on November 17, 2002 (I hope that date is correct). Ten days earlier city council had broken ground on the public space at Market Square after previously voting unanimously to accept the three-phase plan for Market Square – (1) public spaces, facade improvements to storefronts, Krutch Park extension, (2) Market Square Parking Garage, and (3) a downtown movie theater. I remember reading this with interest and deciding to clip and save it. I just found it while going over old files in a “misc” folder on my hard drive. Interesting reading, going on five years later!

Read more...

SKB Downtown Master Plan (circa November, 2002)

KNS has an article today by the Executive Director of Nine Counties One Vision on their vision for Downtown Knoxville. (Is an organization with a name like that doomed to the junk pile of irrelevance, or what?).

After two years of talk, er, hard work, they have come up with some "guiding principle" bullet points and a brochure and a consultant to come and read them to us from a PowerPoint presentation.

These insightful, inspiring, action-oriented bullet points include things like "Make downtown a regional destination that is vibrant and livable" and "Create a vibrant social environment downtown" and "Establish and perpetuate the character and quality of downtown districts". Stirring, eh?

Their bullet points are pretty good for the most part, though. The problem is they have no authority (or funding) to make any of this happen. We need some Rockefellers and Vanderbilts and Ted Turners, you know, men of vision with the wherewithal to make things happen. Men who know how to grease the wheels of progress and the palms of those at the controls. Not more committees and discussion groups and open public input forums.

Nowadays, these men of vision who can make things happen are called Developers. They are motivated by the good old American concept of profits. They are widely and vehemently condemned for being successful and having the connections and resources to create things. And profits = greed, you know. The "Keep Us Safe and Sound in the 19th Century" committees just can't stand them. Around here we send men of vision to jail for their troubles.

SKB thought about all this a while back and developed the SKB vision for downtown. SKB has lots of visions, not all of them chemically induced. Unfortunately, SKB does not have the resources or connections to make them reality.

On the off chance that such a person frequents this repository of rambling rants and ravings and awful alliterations, here' the free SKB plan with lots of vision just for you. No consultant fees, no royalties, no committees, no meetings, no PowerPoints. Just take the snap and run a QB sneak around the obstructionist defensive line into the end zone.

South Knox Bubba's Downtown Master Plan

Executive Summary:

- Locate more jobs downtown
- Develop small business/professional office space/suites
- Expand Digital Crossing and develop IT industry potential
- Anchor department store tenant
- Upscale specialty stores
- Upscale outlet stores similar to Chattanooga's Warehouse Row
- More dining/entertainment venues
- Country Music Shrine
- South Bank development

Downtown residential development is a great idea. There are plenty of people who prefer the social opportunities and the live/work/play convenience of urban life. Fine. Other people want yards for their kids and dogs to play in, or a little garden, or a shade tree to sit under and some privacy. Fine.

Whether or not you think suburbia is the gate to hell and the automobile is the devil's chariot, you must accept the reality that Knoxville's 160K population or even a significant percentage thereof is not going to move downtown. Downtown couldn't support it if they wanted to. You will also have to admit that Knoxville will never be New York City. Or Chicago. Or even Atlanta. Thank God.

As a side note, it is interesting how those who posit urban sprawl as the taxpayer funded death of civilization gladly accept taxpayer funded renovation of downtown warehouses for residential spaces.

Putting all that aside for a moment, and with all due respect to the trendy Vandyke converted loft set, the future of downtown should not focus on one or two areas such as residential development and historic preservation, or "attractions".

By definition, downtown revitalization means bringing back life to downtown. Residential development is certainly an important aspect of that. Attractions are a nice idea for the developers and architects and a few random tourists who take a wrong turn off the Interstate on their way to Dollywood. What other possible reasons might people have to go downtown, and what will bring them in larger numbers? My answer: work and conducting business, shopping, and dining/entertainment.

First, lets take work. Unless you work for a bank or the government or you are a lawyer who needs easy access to the courthouse, there aren't many jobs downtown. Despite the loss of several hundred jobs at Plasti-Line, the move of corporate headquarters downtown was a good win and a great example of how to get jobs downtown, as was the Brunswick deal. Another idea is executive suite type office setups for small/startup companies, professionals, manufacturer's reps, software/information entrepreneurs, etc.

Digital Crossing is also a great idea. Another idea is to run fiber from Digital Crossing to other office/suite facilities downtown to leverage this capability and provide shared low-cost high-speed Internet connectivity vital to businesses of the future.

Knoxville should also be developed as an Information Technology center. IT is a clean industry with jobs that pay well and promote education and training to develop a qualified workforce. With Oak Ridge, TVA, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville should be uniquely positioned to accomplish this. Efforts of Technology 2020 and the East Tennessee Technology Council are a good start but for some reason this idea is not getting traction.

OK, then, on to shopping. Contrary to popular belief, it is quite possible for downtown to compete with shopping malls if it offers more than a wig shop and a couple of delis. First, there will have to be ample free (or inexpensive) and convenient parking. Sorry, that's just reality. You can say there is already plenty of parking, but that's only because there's currently little reason to go downtown. Give people a reason to go downtown and you will have an immediate and large parking problem. Outlying parking facilities with free shuttles and/or a trolley system similar to KAT's current offering will be needed, along with more parking garages.

Next, at least one major department store needs incentive to come back downtown. At one time, we had Miller's (two stores), J.C. Penney, Watson's, Fowlers, Woodruff's, Athletic House, and a host of other top-notch retailers downtown. People could get there from all over Knoxville via bus. People could park in the Promenade and visit several stores via covered walkways. Because Proffitt's has long served and benefited greatly from East Tennessee, the City should give Saks/Proffitt's a huge incentive to open a Gay Street store as downtown's anchor tenant.

Next, some specialty stores are needed to complement the anchor department store. Upscale, unique shops (as opposed to wig and sword outlets) along the lines of Liz-Beth or antique stores or upscale clothiers such as the old Fogarty's or the Toggery (or the current Ann Taylor or Jos. A. Banks) would add character and attract the demographic needed to inject dollars into the downtown economy. Encouraging more artists and craftspeople to locate downtown with inexpensive and/or subsidized rents would also contribute to this aspect.

Knoxville should also look to Chattanooga's Warehouse Row upscale outlet stores as an outstanding idea for downtown development. It is already being touted as a tourist destination. Most people would probably rather drive downtown to shop at a Polo or Eddie Bauer or Brooks Bros. store than drive to Pigeon Forge as thousands of us do every weekend. This concept could also tie in to the convention center business with the potential for tremendous built in traffic from attendees.

For added incentive for people to shop downtown, some good casual and fine dining restaurants are needed. Knoxville could give local pros like Ruby Tuesday and Regas Bros. a few million in bonds and tax incentives and turn them loose to experiment with new upscale concept restaurants. Smaller local establishments such as Tomato Head and Faribanks and McLeods are also needed for character and diversity, and should be given similar incentives to stay and prosper downtown. Colorful and entertaining street vendors would also add character.

As for entertainment, Old City is a good start, but it isn't convenient from downtown. The KAT trolley system is a nice feature. The trolleys could also tie the riverfront developments to downtown and Old City and parking as one, large, coordinated shopping/dining/entertainment complex. Knoxville also needs nice, green, safe, easy pedestrian walkways to and from Old City. Old City also needs to clean up its act if it wants to attract people with money to spend. The intended "old time free-wheeling river city" feel has been executed as more of a "dirty, scary, run-down part of town with skunky beer and crappy service" feel. Sorry, but that's the perception of out-of-town visitors and sadly the reality in some cases. Church Street Station in Orlando would be a good model.

In addition, downtown Knoxville needs an upscale dining/night club venue to host popular touring acts like those playing at the Tennessee Theatre and the Bijou in a nice, upscale intimate club setting. If the S&W isn't too far gone, that would seem like a perfect place. A nice downtown movie theater would also be an asset, but not at the Tennessee or the Bijou which are serving downtown well in their current capacity.

(Which reminds me. How many here have ever had a meal at the S&W, or been to a movie at the Riviera, or shopped at Miller's downtown? If you have, then you can remember what downtown was and could be again).

If we really need an "attraction" downtown, Knoxville should exploit its status as the birthplace of Country Music. We would be Nashville except Knoxville didn't have the vision or the wherewithal to keep it here. Where is Cas Walker when we need him? The Cradle of Country Music walking tour is a great idea. Knoxville could expand that concept into an upscale Country Music shrine/showplace/entertainment center downtown. This would seem to have more appeal and be an easier sell to the surrounding demographic than a planetarium.

All of this should be approached with a goal of making downtown Knoxville the nice, safe, hip, trendy, upscale, "in" place for shopping and entertainment throughout the region. Winter Park Florida is an excellent example, albeit on a smaller scale.

The city will need to invest in getting the larger projects off the ground and in getting the small, risky "peripheral" businesses downtown and keeping them there. As has been discussed time and again, this will have to be accomplished with bonds, tax incentives, subsidized or low cost guaranteed loans, and grants. Think of it as a third-world development project. Maybe Knoxville could even get some more Free Federal Funding. We seem to be pretty good at that.

Longer term, development of the South Side of the River into a top-notch residential/leisure area from the Baptist Hospital down to Island Home with upscale condos, nice but affordable apartments, some single family housing development and continuing renovation of Island Home, all tied together via river walk style parks and anchored by a small dining/entertainment complex would be an outstanding proposition. It could be the Jewel of the South. This, too, could tie in to downtown with trolleys and a pedestrian/bicycle bridge across the river to the downtown river front development. The MPC South City sector plan is a great start on this idea.

So, that is South Knox Bubba's visionary master plan. I think it would cost a less than a luxury hotel or a planetarium (except for the South Bank development, which is longer term). Even if it cost more, I believe it will bring locals from Knoxville and surrounding areas downtown in larger numbers and more frequently. I don't think people will leave home to go downtown to stay in a luxury hotel or go to the planetarium every week. I would go to the planetarium once or twice, but that would be about it, and I don't think most vacationers will consider it a "destination". My plan would generate revenues from convention and tourism, but would be more sustainable by catering to the locals.

And before all you trendy Vandyke loft people (no disrespect, it takes all kinds) jump all over the crass commercialism and snob appeal of my plan, keep in mind that just as 5% of the earners pay 80% of the taxes, this demographic can go a long way towards sustaining the health and well-being of downtown, ensuring the long term survival of your bagel shops and newsstands and speakeasy's.

But first you have to get them downtown, and then you have to keep them coming back for more. But sorry, they aren't going to live there. They're just going to drive their dirty smelly cars from evil suburbia and park them there while they're shopping or being entertained.

OK, then.