Freedom Thighs 2012

I couldn't tell you specifically what I like so much about the Freedom Thighs bike ride. There's an inexpressible feeling it gives you, something pictures and text may not have the ability to convey, but I'll try.

Outside the Birdhouse

The bike ride happens each 4th of July, meeting at the Birdhouse around 4pm. Bikers line up in the street, listen to a rendition on the Star Spangled Banner (this year, Dolly Parton's), and begin their patriotic cruise through the neighborhoods of Knoxville.



Most attendees are decked out in American themed apparel. I myself bought a flag vest a couple years back for my first Freedom Thighs, and it's become a go-to for this ride each year. This year, two synchronized boom boxes towed behind bikes busted out jams ranging from Ludacris's Roll Out to some USA themed songs sung in Spanish.

Eagle on Rollerblades!

I couldn't tell you either, if there is any common thread that runs through each of the bikers who come each year to ride this ride.

 I overheard one hipster-looking biker say to his friends as I slowly meandered past them, "I can't tell if this race is satirical or not. It seems like there are a lot of truly patriotic people here, but I know there are some anarchists here as well... and just so y'all know, I bought this (American flag) t-shirt at Wal-Mart."



Sidenote: I don't know much about this subject, but it's true that there is a small contingent of anarchists that like to ride bicycles in Knoxville. They're some real nice people, yet would a true anarchist attend an American-themed bike ride? Are anarchists known to be especially ironic?*

Maybe what I like about the ride is the simultaneous delight and confusion I feel.



Freedom Thighs does mostly draw a bunch of white hipsters, it's true.

Part of the route winds through some East Knox neighborhoods which are predominantly inhabited by African Americans. These are some of my favorite streets to ride through because there is such a great community presence there. So many families came out on their porches to cheer on us white kids dressed like idiots.

And together, we all cheered on America.

 If that's not patriotic, I couldn't tell you what is.

Babe-raham Lincoln

We made a stop at the Pilot on Magnolia. That Pilot made a billion dollars yesterday, and so did the ice-cream man who stopped there when he saw all of us.

Love grows at Pilot

Then some idiot started shooting fireworks. Really? At a gas station? I can't say everyone on the ride is the brightest.




I saw many faces on the ride that have moved away from Knoxville over the past few years. They come back for this ride, and that's saying something.




I didn't end up finishing out the whole route. I think they went about 10 miles in all, making various stops to rest, consume cold beverages, and eat hotdogs, but I had a cookout calling my name.

The Ice-Cream man found us

If you have been intrigued in the slightest by this post, you should consider taking a chance on shenaniganery and joining the ride next year. No one fits in, but we all do because we're American, you know what I'm saying?



 Wherever the 4th of July took you, whether you were enjoying a/c with normal, calm people or with a bunch of hooligans on bikes, I do hope it was as merry one.

Facilitators of Freedom Thighs

*Questions for another time.

Tour de Plants

I had an art opening Saturday evening at the Birdhouse. On Sunday, while cleaning up over there, I ran into Katie Ries, founder of the Urban Land Scouts.



She was there for Tour de Plants, a guided jaunt through the Fourth and Gill neighborhood. I typically become rather hermitish after art openings but decided a calm walk on such a beautiful day with mostly strangers would be better than lazing away on my couch eating leftover cupcakes all day. I was right.






















You know those real life moments that are so perfect, it makes you say something dumb like, "This is just like the movies." Well, walking around with the Urban Land Scouts felt like that, only it was more like being on a PBS special. (I mean that as a compliment, so you know.)



I don't know a lot about plants, and as I sit here looking at the photos I took, I all ready realize I've forgotten most of the names I heard yesterday, but I appreciate the knowledge that was being passed around yesterday afternoon between the ten or so people that showed up.



Young, not as young, and canine walked the urban landscape to talk about foliage. We touched, we smelled, we tasted. Someone even kept throwing around Latin names in the most unpretentious way. Information, experience, and questions were being passed around, and there was not a smart phone in sight.




I can't say that I am much closer to being an expert on the subject of edible plants in Knoxville, but I showed up, I observed, I said the pledge, and now- I'm an Urban Land Scout!























You can be one, too.

A North Knoxville Delicacy

Yesterday, I was taking some back roads to my house from the Walgreen's on Broadway. My friend Jeff was with me, visiting from out of town.

I drove by the market on 6th Avenue, an establishment I've passed many times before. As I did, I said to Jeff, "I've always wanted to stop in there," to which he replied rather slowly, "Annus."

I looked up, noticing the signage for the first time, and almost ran a stop sign when I realized he was saying the name of the market.

We pronounced it several different ways, but there was no way around it being hilarious. I don't know how I missed it all these years, and while I wonder how anyone could name anything Annus, I'm glad they did. I haven't laughed that hard in some time.

Spring Planting Party this Saturday

If the Wigshop were to be a sorority (one can only dream!), I'd like for us to have two philanthropies: CAC Beardsley Farm and Food in the Fort. We've made friends in both organizations and we really like what they do for our community.

My friend Jess Wilkins has recently been crowned the "Food in the Fort Gardens and Lunch Coordinator" which means she is the liaison between the two groups. She would be the one to come to our chapter meetings and tell us how to be involved.

Let's pretend now we're all dressed in white sitting on the floor of a room in Panhallenic (does that place still exist?). I introduce to you, Jess, Food in the Fort Gardens and Lunch Coordinator.

You may remember reading about CAC Beardsley Community Farm in a posting last October when B wrote about her visit. Well, this time the good people at the farm have teamed up with local nonprofit Food in the Fort, a part of Redeeming Hope Ministries, to bring fresh, locally grown, and sustainably farmed fruits and veggies to the homeless and underprivileged of Knoxville.






















This Saturday their inaugural Spring Planting Party is taking place to kick off the 2011 growing season. It is an opportunity for people to come out to CAC Beardsley Community Farm, take a tour of the farm, learn Gardening 101, and enjoy some coffee and pastries. We will also be planting tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli that will benefit Food in the Fort. If you have no idea about gardening, come and learn. If you have every idea about gardening and want to put your skills to good use, come and show off. If you have nothing to do this Saturday morning come and enjoy what should be lovely weather and an even lovelier cause.

Here is what you need to know:

Saturday, February 19, 2011
9-12 (Rain or Shine) at
CAC Beardsley Community Farm,
(1719 Reynolds Street, Knoxville, TN 37921)

Contact for more information or questions:

865.546.8446,
BeardsleyFarm@gmail.com
Jess@RedeemingHope.com

A courtesy RSVP is warmly encouraged and recommended, but not required. We hope to see you there!

Thanks, Jess. Meeting adjourned.

Tomorrow could be a grim day for Knox County: The controversy of Midway

Since deciding to stay in Knoxville and make it my home, I've realized that I frequent West Knoxville less and less. You can call me pretentious (do it, I really don't care) because it's not arrogance that keeps me away but something more. As I grow older, I consider the things that are most precious to me, and as a result, discover the things I disdain. I know I risk sounding melodramatic here, but I think I've developed a chemical aversion to sprawl. (Sidenote: As you read this, please do not mistake what I mean for sprawl as progress. I am pro-progress, anti-sprawl.)

I can assure you, it's not just West Knoxville. I feel it each time I go home to Memphis and stay at my parents' home in the suburb Cordova. Back roads that were once surrounded by farmland are now rows of desolate looking cookie cutter houses, stretching for miles along treeless streets. It breaks my heart and makes me lose faith in the creativity of mankind, to see people's greed at the expense of beauty and living in quality environments. I wonder how we got here, creating places that are cold and characterless, that all look the same, from city to city. Places you can't walk around by foot. Places that only accommodate vehicles. The lofty idea of development- bulldozing land, putting up buildings in hopes to lure tenants all in the name of "stimulating economy" - has made our cities and towns identity-less.

***

Tomorrow, Knox County Commissioners will vote on whether or not to approve the proposed business park off the Midway exit in East Knox County. This has been an ongoing battle, as outlined by Jesse Mayshark in this week's Metro Pulse. If you haven't been following this very controversial plan, in essence, the Development Corporation of Knox County wants to build a 300+ acre Industrial Park in East Knox County off of I-40 at the Midway Exit. Pam Strickland of the News Sentinel writes about the problems with the plan here.

This area of mostly farmland happens to be relatively untouched, a beautiful place unscathed by development. Many Knoxvillians don't want it to be developed, especially the people who have called it home for generations.



I decided to take a drive out there yesterday to take some photographs. I wanted a fresh reminder of what is at stake here for East Knox County. It's true, there is nothing there but farmland, rivers, and homes, farmhouses, and barns on stretches of land. There is nothing commercial or sprawling about it. Not yet.





So why put a business park here? Essentially, the Development Corporation bought the land for too much money in a supposedly shady business deal and are proposing this business park in order to make back the money to cover their asses. They say it will bring in thousands of jobs, but they don't even know what business will occupy the space much less how many jobs it will provide.






















The Development Corporation masks their greed by promising that the business park will incorporate parks and natural spaces and that it won't result in a domino effect of sprawl, but everyone knows that within a few years, gas stations will pop up, fast food restaurants, and the subdivisions to "sustain" them. East Knox County will be on its way to looking like West Knoxville, and I cannot think of a sadder fate for such a beautiful area. It is a gem, the kind of place that makes East Tennessee East Tennessee- Seven Islands Wilderness, the French Broad River, and expanses of farmland as far as you can see are all there.



What is even more frustrating is that the Development Corporation has been sweeping their already failed industrial parks under the carpet and won't consider using locations in Knoxville that are already vacant and perfect for commercial use. They say they need the acreage on Midway or else their plans won't succeed.



Tomorrow, the Knox County Commission will vote on whether to pass the plan or not. If it passes, it will be a dark day for not only residents of East Knox County, but all of those who oppose the plan across Knox County. Either way, I hope it will motivate a call for bigger and more organized movements to sweep across our county to protect the precious and beautiful land that makes Knoxville special and unique and to think of better, more creative ways to stimulate our economy.



Addendum added 12/13/2010: The vote by County Commission that was scheduled for today has been postponed due to inclement weather. It has been rescheduled for December 17, 2010 at 4pm. IF YOU ARE AGAINST THE PROPOSED INDUSTRIAL PARK AT MIDWAY The French Broad Preservation Association asks you to show up at 4pm at the City County Building to show your County Commissioners you don't want your tax money to be spent on it. See you there. -B

Juicy*, I've a feeling we're not in 4th and Gill anymore

Over the summer I moved from 4th and Gill to, what I lovingly call, the ghetto side of Luttrell Street. You know what I'm talking about. Turn at the Broadway BP onto Grainger and you're there. It's a wonderful and bizarre place.

The first time I moved to this neighborhood was in 2005. I was still in school and found this sweet old rental house on Grainger with tall ceilings, hardwood floors, and textured wall paper. It wasn't in the best shape, but considering my previous home was Shelbourne Towers, I could only improve my situation.

I moved in with two girls in the downstairs of the house, and four girls lived on the second floor. At 3 am on the night before classes started at UT, we awoke to something I hope to never wake up to again. The back of our house had been lit on fire by some bored and deranged soul. Welcome to the neighborhood!

I currently live right around the corner from that house, and within the first week of living here, an equally disturbing situation occurred. A strung out woman came to my door and asked for a woman named Suzy. I told her that Suzy did not live here, which caused her to curse loudly at me and call me a liar. She had knocked on my neighbors' doors as well, so we called the police. I grew up a lot that night, as I saw a glimpse into the life of a drug addict.



Now that I live here again, I began to wonder which neighborhood association claimed us. I learned it is not 4th and Gill (why am I not surprised), but actually Old North Knoxville. Much to my chagrin, Luttrell Street is divided by the Hall of Fame/Broadway exit, and so even though I live on Luttrell, which is one of my favorite streets in Knoxville, there is a difference between 4th and Gill's Luttrell and our side of Luttrell.

For one, it doesn't take even a minute's walk from my place to feel like you're sort of in a third world country. Dogs run through pothole infested streets in front of dilapidated houses. Front porches are like junk museums. You hear people yelling quite a bit, and all the neighborhood dogs bark in chorus with one another multiple times a day.



We have a man who is our self-proclaimed Neighborhood Watch. He rides the streets on his motorized wheel chair. Everytime I see him, I feel so safe.

Some of the houses are just as darling as 4th and Gill's are, but we also have a little greenway and creek nearby. Even though there are signs that warn you NEVER to touch the water in the creeks, it is incredibly beautiful in spots where the path winds through enormous trees.

I, like Wild Bill, have moved quite a bit in my eight year stint of living in Knoxville, but this is my hood these days. These streets are tough, but I've moved here twice, so I guess that's saying something.

*my cat

Welcome to the Neighborhood

This is the inaugural post in a new Wigshop mini-series welcoming you to/celebrating our neighborhoods.


As the youngest member of the Wigshop team (as well as still being a student) I tend to move fairly frequently. I have moved four times in the last four years. As recently as the end of this summer I moved into what has been the best place I have ever lived.

The area of town that I inhabit is the strange no man's land that lies in the triangle between Broadway, Central, and the train tracks that leave the Old City. My roommates and I wondered what we would call where we live. We decided to look up the history and found that we live in what is known as "The Emory Place Historic District." The drawback to living in an area called "The Emory Place Historic District" is that no one has any idea what you are talking about when you tell them where you live. We have ended up saying something to the extent of, "Outside of the Old City and across from Historic Knox High."



I love it here. We have the best neighbors I could ever ask for. Seriously, I have never had neighbors that are this great. We are also a stone's throw from Happy Holler, Downtown North, Old North Knox, 4th and Gill, Old City, and Downtown in general. There is an actual community here, I know almost the whole block around my apartment. We do get a fair amount of "working girls" as well as a bunch of transient peoples that bother us on our porch while waiting for a bus at the greyhound station. These weird, idiosyncratic encounters only fuel my love for my neighborhood. I love where I live.