I just spent some time placing every public tennis court on a Google Map and since most courts are associated with a park, I'd be inclined to say that South Knoxville has plenty as is.

You could be right RE SoKno has enough tennis courts. I have no idea what the demand is for tennis courts (SoKno or elsewhere), how many tennis courts there are at each location, or the condition of the tennis courts.

I think the problem with parks in South Knox is not the amount of parks, but the quality. Many years ago I submitted an idea to the city for utilizing the Meades Quarry area, bordering Ijams nature center, as a large park which would include lodging, camping, trails, and even had a scuba center interested in moving to the site. The train tracks that are located there go directly to the Worlds Fair site, and I thought it could be utilized for World's Fair site functions and even UT football games. I had spoken briefly with the owner of the River Boat and he seemed interested in the possibility of a pick-up dock where the park borders the river. I still feel it would have been a good idea and help with tourism downtown.

Adrift in the Sea of Humility

A few years ago there was a sector plan that included park amenities and the county was amazingly balanced based on demographics and population - although all areas were (equally) below the national averages. I think probably most of the time when this type of subject comes up the main problem is that "parks" means so many different things to different people. To me "parks" means playgrounds and athletic fields but to others it means picnic shelters and nature trails. And, our local parks and recreation departments are asked to meet the desires of all citizens with an ever shrinking budget. I am a very heavy park user and I think our city and county departments do a great job with the resources that they have. Sure, we can use more but just like everything else it will come with a price. (edited for clarity - sorry, got in a hurry)

The condition of parks could have deteriorated considerably since the photos displayed on Google Maps were made. Notice there is no Victor Ashe Park on their map.

Wearybottom Associates

Can anyone explain why so much park land is described as unusable?

What Stick Thrower said, plus...

RE approximately 225 acres of SoKno parks are almost unusable: .

IC King Park (120 acres) has been closed for 10-20 years. Closed meaning there is a gate at the entrance that has been locked preventing access.

Is the Stanley Lippencott Ridge Park (22 acres) even accessible by car (i.e. parking area)? I haven't seen a way to access this park unless, I suppose, you live close by and want to walk in the woods with virtually no trails, etc.

Many consider the Fort Dickerson Park (85 acres) a little (lot?) scary and unsafe for families.

Now, maybe your question is to the City/County as to why these parks are "unusable". I don't know the answer. I do believe City Councilman Joe Hultquist has tried to get Fort DIckerson Park in better shape. I don't think he is yet winning the battle.

I'll make a couple of guesses as to why.
They don't have the money.
They can't keep them secure enough from, what do you call it, weirdos not so family friendly visitors.
Re IC King Park, they want to eventually sell it and create more urban sprawl or some such nonsense. I do think someone did try to unsuccessfully do some type of development on the back side of Fort Dickerson.

Wrt "unusable" park spaces - there's a fair amount of acreage in south Knoxville purchased for parks (e.g. Hastie Park) that's not yet been developed.

This would lead to another question. Why would they purchase more land for parks if they cannot do anything with the existing 225 acres of "unusable" parks?

Oh, and where is this new Hastie Park? I saw it listed as coming soon but no additional info.

While I know that there is a need for outdoor recreational space for people, I also think that having undeveloped land that isn't used by people has great value as well. Our songbirds and woodland birds are vanishing at an alarming rate in this country -- they need undeveloped areas without people tromping through, and certainly without their nesting trees and feeding grounds being plowed up for manicured soccer fields and kiddie play lots made of sand. I think there is a tendency to think that land that isn't built on has to at least be paved with trails and parking lots so that people can use it as much as they want, and I really disagree with that. I think it is great to have undeveloped land, even within a city, that people can't/don't use. If more soccer fields and paved "greenways" (asphaltways, I call them) are needed, tear down blighted, neglected, and abandoned buildings to do it. Don't do it by destroying the little land that is left that isn't completely overrun with humans.

The other, north entrance is open. Can't remember, but there was some (other) reason they closed the south end gate. The north side has a quite nice and fairly long trail. That is if you don't mind negotiating the Larry Craig-esque minefield, as alluded above. We stopped going a few years ago, for fear of what we might see. The circumstantial evidence was scary enough.

"Users" of Ft. Dickerson, Sharps Ridge, and other places (as I've heard) don't seem deterred by the horizontal challenges. Heh, heh.

The other, north entrance is open.

Where is this north entrance you speak of? (Sheesh, you learn something new every day on this blog!)

(One of our regrets is that they made it a park in the first place with no guns, drugs or alcohol allowed. We used to go shooting up there at the junk pile just off John Sevier Highway @ Alcoa Highway, right next to ICK park. I guess that was pretty offensive too, though.)

I.C. King "south" ought to be reopened at least to the parking area immediately inside the entrance. Bikers have reclaimed the trails through most of the park. Regardless of who this park attracts visitor-wise, it could be developed into a fantastic little lakeside park. Clear the scrub trees of the shadows but not the shade along the lake and it'd be a great bank fishing spot during the summer. People climb down along the RR tracks on the west side of Alcoa to fish anyway which is probably a lot more dangerous.

It would be interesting to see if another entrance could be created from the back of this park area off of Maryville Pike so the death risk of pulling out on Alcoa could be avoided.

it'd be a great bank fishing spot

No kidding. We used to fish back there. When the shad move back in those coves you could catch lots of crappie, stripes and bass without even trying.

Not sure, But I believe I C King was closed because of pollution in the lake. The county had planned to move the road and picnic tables further back from the lake. Thats what I think I remember about the closing.

ST, there is a back entrance. You park at the back of what used to be Dogwood Manor (the house & garden that's set up for weddings, etc.) and you can access the trails of ICK.

BG, there are acouple of parking spaces on Lippencot for the Stanley park.

Sybil will be happy to know that the neglected park on Carls Ln is now home to 4 wild turkeys, although I suspect she's more unhappy to contemplate that they were likely displaced by the "woodlands" condos.

Oops, perhaps I shouldn't mention this in a roomful of trigger happy bloggers.

____________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

The trailhead for the mountain bikers, though, does that connect with the land across the cove?

I'm not a mountain biker and I haven't walked all the way around from the south side, but a former neighbor (who more frequently used the Haw Ridge trails up by Lake Melton) told me about the bike trails at IC King.

description

map (pdf)

We walk our dog on the south side every now and then (parking at the gate), and once in a while a biker will come flying out of the woods over by the interior parking area.

So... yes, the trails go all the way around.

The trailhead for the mountain bikers, though, does that connect with the land across the cove?

ST's link was written around the time we quit going ('02). The good news was that the county worked with the bikers (or vice versa) in developing the trails, in part to bring the right type of users and scare off others. It wasn't very successful then, though it's been awhile and the trails are nice.

One reason we haven't been back is because we lost our trail runnin' dog in Jan. '04 and our current dogs aren't hip to that type of activity. We take these to closer parks and keep them on-lead. So it's not just that we're skeerd.

In fact, it's a good time to put in a plug for the UT Gardens, which is our current favorite, along with the Cherokee Blvd. park. The formerly named Trial Garden is currently undergoing renovations that will make the entrance very nice. The garden upgrades look just about done, except around the entrance.

One of the few UT bright spots.

P.S. In case it's not known, the UT garden connects directly to the bike trail at Third Creek. So that's good too.

(link...)

(link...)

(link...)