The Keep Knoxville Beautiful board always picks South Knoxville for an Onion awards. If you go to the back of any retail business and take a picture of their dumpster, it should win an Onion award. They always pick a business on Chapman Hwy and make the same statement, "This is just inside the Knox County line and one of the first properties you see on your way from the Smokies." This was the statement they used for Po Boys and the same one used for Seymour Septic, in a past Onion awards.

They called the two businesses where Seymour Septic is located a junkyard. It was actually older used cars driven by employees to work. This years award to Po Boys said it is just in the Knox County line, It's actually several miles inside the Knox County line. PO Boys sells used tires to low income citizens. I assume they want to keep there expenses low like several businesses in this area to ensure lower costs to customers. Po Boys is a used tire store, but there place is not littered. I can find plenty of businesses along Kingston Pike that look as bad as Big Lots and the empty building on Chapman Hwy. I should know, our family rents to two businesses in West Knoxville that looks much worse than than the ones shown in South Knoxville.

Your photos of him cleaning the river make you wonder just how uncloncious about pollution he could be. Maybe the Onion ought to go to the KNB people themselves! I've also seem much more ugly places than those shown.

I covered the Orchids and Onions event and it did seem weighted against south Knoxville. Tom Salter, who sometimes writes here, is the executive director of KKB. He told me that nominations come from the community and "winners" were selected from those nominated by a panel of independent judges. -- s.

Hey, I'm not a member of Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Just went to cover the event. -- s.

Well, I am surprised people decided to pick on SoKno. Guess everyone has given up on West Knoxville and North since they are so perfect. Nothing to change there.

Applause to Bob Santore. I am truly impressed at his and his cohorts efforts. Thanks for the reminder Tao4Now. Santore apparently cares.

All of the comments are valid complaints that will probably lead to some type of change in the Onion Award program. We did not require that our judges select eyesore "winners" using a balanced geographic distribution. (We do require that they select at least 1 of the beautification awards from each geographic "region" of the county). We had 15 nominations for eyesores. If you know of plenty more in other parts of the community submit them to us and we'll give them to the judges next year. This year the nominations were 2 north, 4 south, 2 east, 5 west and 2 downtown. I was surprised that the judges picked 4 of 5 south. The only alternative for us at that point was to override the volunteer judge's decision and pick other "winners" and we are reluctant to do that. There are thousands of run down and blighted properties in the community, evenly distributed through the community and over the years we have encouraged property cleanups in other areas.

Don't jump on us for dissing Bob Santore. KKB serves as his group's fiscal agent and we don't charge them any overhead. All funds raised for South Knox Beautification go to trees, shrubs, paint, tools, etc. Nothing pays for staffing, office expense, etc. Last year our board inducted Bob into KKB's Hall of Fame for outstanding service to the community and having a direct positive impact in KKB's mission-related issues. When Mary Lou gives an Onion to a person from a particular area it is recognition that he or she has the power and influence to do something about the blight - it is not a slam on that person. I don't know how you figured that.

Look at this another way. Millions of dollars in new construction have been spent or being obligated to properties in South Knoxville. Should there not be some encouragement for owners of blighted or run down properties, especially those in highly visible areas, to improve those properties? You all should know that city and county building codes only go so far and if a problem does not reach the level of a health or safety violation often little can be done to force an owner to do anything. I don't know what conversations the judges had or how they justified their picks, but it wouldn't surprise me if they made their selections because of the recent increased investment in South Knoxville, not because the South community is ugly. Those are your words.

Lots of property owners screen their dumpsters - that is not unusual or particularly expensive. Dumpsters, especially those not in some type of enclosure, are often the source of blown trash and invite illegal dumping.

Sorry South Knoxville if you feel picked on by the KKB Onion awards. I doubt if that will happen again.

It's funny to read these comments from folks who have never been to a KKB event -- experts all.

Last Thursday KKB gave the "butterfly" award to a former onion in Halls -- a truly blighted corner that has been cleaned up and converted to an outlet for used clothing.

Just a thought, but perhaps those who care so deeply about the public image of their community should get out and help clean it up. Just a thought. -- s.

This is interesting:

" Ernie Gammon of Lamar Outdoor Advertising presented the 6th Orchid to Meade's Quarry in South Knoxville. Ernie grew up near Meade's Quarry and it had a terrible (well deserved) reputation as a dangerous dumping ground. He said it is now a jewel in South Knoxville."

A billboard company executive giving out beautification awards?

The boarded up restaurant looks no different than the boarded up stores in Farragut. Yes, Farragut has some boarded up stores, with trash in the lot on Kingston Pike near Campbell Station. Po Boys is a retail tire store, it has merchandise (tires), not litter out front. Home Depot and Lowe's stores has merchandise in there parking lots, is that litter? The warehouse in South Knoxville is in an industrial area, no industrial zone in Knoxville looks like a picture in Southern Living. The only litter in the South Knoxville awards was behind Big Lot's. I must agree that was a true Onion, but I can also find plenty of the same standard in all parts of Knoxville.

Do you drive new car? One year the Onion went to a business they called a junkyard in South Knoxville. It was actually employees cars which are driven every day, and it was not a junkyard, it was a septic business.

We must being doing something right in the south side, our home sales steady, while the west end of Knoxville is down four percent.

Yes, I think it might be time to get rid of the Onion "awards". I asked SKB when the nominations were first announced if I should submit some "onion" suggestions. He said, No. Why be mean to someone?

Why not come up with some other method to get business owners/individuals to clean up their areas? Especially if this is the result, e.g. "Southside received 27% of the Onion nominations and 80% of the awards, and 100% of the Southside nominations were given Onions."

I've only been to one Orchids and Onions night, about two years ago. As I recall, Mary Lou's "Auntie Litter" routine was lighthearted, not mean-spirited in the slightest. As Mr. Salter said, she gives the Onions to people who have the power to do something about the sites: County Commissioners, community activists, etc. The year I attended, two sites in North Knox got Onions. These were an abandoned gas station in Halls and an falling-down building (think it was an engine repair shop) next to Central Baptist Church and across from Fountain City Park.

As I see it, the point of the Onion awards is to call attention to places that might need help. They're not trying to say one part of Knox County is uglier than the rest. That said, IMHO South Knox needs attention countywide. It's a great, unique part of Knox. There are great neighborhoods there, and I'm not just talking about Island Home. South Knox could do with a few more city and county eyes on it for awhile. The Chapman Highway corridor has great potential as a gateway to the Smokies. Some of South Knox's historic neighborhoods could use revitalization. I have personal knowledge of former industrial sites in dire need of environmental cleanup, sites with private homes right next door.

I know it's got to seem hurtful for four out of five to be awarded to your community, and that does seem excessive. However, maybe the community could see this as an opportunity to draw attention to its needs and drive beautification efforts your way. It's a good time to say to your elected officials and KKB, "OK, you think we need help, so help us." It's also a good time to rally the community. Show those KKB'ers just what a great place South Knoxville is.

I had a file on my home computer with a list of onion awards from 97 to 03. 2005 to 07 are on our website. This doesn't include the 04 numbers - north 14 (28%), south 9 (18% including this year), east 6 (12%), west 12 (24%), cbd 5 (10%) and "issue" picks that are all over the community like illegal signs 4 (8%). If you want to make a case that these are too negative and have no value, please send an email to my work address (tsalter@discoveret.org) and I'll forward everything to my board of directors.

I know it's got to seem hurtful for four out of five to be awarded to your community, and that does seem excessive. However, maybe the community could see this as an opportunity to draw attention to its needs and drive beautification efforts your way.

According to TS, they are already spending or obligated to spend money South of the river. Look at this another way. Millions of dollars in new construction have been spent or being obligated to properties in South Knoxville.

Gee, Shannon, get with the program. SoKno is being helped, thus they can be picked on. Although, I am not sure what "millions" of dollars TS is speaking that SoKno should be so thankful.

This years judges may have been biased when they dumped on South Knoxville and saved West. Please correct me if I am wrong, but one of the judges (JF) is a real estate broker whose primary business is West Knoxville. Most all of his listings are West Knoxville and he has none in South Knoxville.

The slumping real estate sales has hit West Knoxville the hardest, while South Knoxville is steady or slightly up. Considering that West Knoxville had more Onion nominations than South Knoxville, yet South Knoxville had 100% of their nominations awarded, and West Knoxville had no Onion awards, I think we had some biased judges.

Here's my analogy:

Mom decides to enroll middle daughter in a beauty contest to bring attention to the family and to fulfill her own dreams. It's true, the kid has natural beauty but is more into sports and her own hobbies, comfortable in her skin, as they say. Now the town busybodyies have decided to focus their attention on this girl and confront her loudly at the mall with a list of all her faults. Should this behavior be encouraged?

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Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

What really smells about all this(from a native South Knoxvillian's perspective) is the very real possibility that this was the first step in a concentrated effort to make acquiring property in our lovely, bucolic area easier for The Chosen Developers. An absurd stretch? Remember the "One-Man-One-Vote" fiasco for the new Lowe's at John Sevier Highway?
skyd