Well, in my last post, a bunch of the comments kept bringing up sprawl as a significant issue. Well, guess what? I've learned that as long as you've got people that are upwardly mobile, "living the American dream", you're going to have sprawl. Why? Because they all want the same thing--a piece of LAND they can call their own. And I don't mean a co-op in some high-rise building! I don't care if the lot line is ZERO, as long as it's a piece of real estate I can call my own. And guess what else? As long as we keep on growing our economy the way we have been (at a rate of 3-5% every year), sprawl will continue unless it's restricted. But I'll warn you, in the cases where I've seen sprawl restricted, you drive up the costs of property in the restricted area to the point where the middle class is unable to afford it, so what do they do, they look for affordable housing and create more sprawl as a result. You can't win this battle unless you kill off the human race.
A buddy of mine and I were talking about this last night. Knoxville is a very LONG town. It's not very wide (yet, but it'll come once the Orange/Blue/Green route gets started), but it's pretty long. Just look at how many miles of interstate it takes to go through and how long it takes to get through from West to East Knox and you'll understand, its not just Farragut, it's everywhere. If you were to take the amount of residents Knoxville has and put it in a major urban area like Atlanta, Knoxville would be significantly smaller than it is, but housing would me much more costly. What do you want? Housing in price-ranges for everyone or high-priced homes only a few can afford?
Human nature dictates that we use and take up all available space. Its who we are. That being said, a town/city leadership should and can control the amount of growth and balance it where its citizens are able to move freely and not tax it's resources unnecessarily. That's where we have failed. Our leadership both in Farragut and Knoxville has not controlled the growth correctly, so we have infrastructure that is constantly being upgraded just to meet current demand. Look at the high school situation, the road situation and I think you all can think of other situations here in town. These projects, once completed will be at capacity almost at day 1! Who are we kidding when I hear from the town leadership that folks will use the Campbell Station Connector instead of Smith Road/Grigsby Chapel to head through town and get to the interstate? Who are we kidding when we know that the new West Knox High will be 90-95% full once it opens regardless of whether that day is 2 years or 2 days from now. Unless it impacts you or your pocketbook directly, most of us couldn't care less. But guess what? Eventually it does impact you and your pocketbook, whether indirectly by property values/taxes or directly in increased costs.
This is my
opinion, I reserve the right to change it if you can convince me otherwise!
Getting off the soapbox...
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Anonymous comments are allowed, just keep them clean, o.k.
