Several months ago I wrote about the Candy Factory. I asked the question how the Candy Factory was different from a City Park. The City of Knoxville spends over 10 million dollars per year on parks and recreation. The third rail of politics in Knoxville is that a City Park would never be sold to a developer to build condos but isn’t that exactly what is happening with the Candy Factory?

Isn’t the Candy Factory just an urban vertical park?

A new group in Knoxville has formed named “Save the Candy Factory”. This past Sunday on the WBIR Channel 10 program “Inside Tennessee” one of the new group’s representatives Donna Doyle joined the panel with City of Knoxville Policy Development Director Bill Lyons to discuss the next steps for the Candy Factory.

WBIR guest host Mark Schnyder asked Donna Doyle what the goals of her group were. Doyle said, “The main concern is loss of meeting space for community groups for the last twenty years. None of the alternatives listed by the City provide what the Candy Factory does in terms of hours, availability, or space. We would like to see alternative meeting spaces that work for the users of the Candy Factory”. Doyle felt the city’s website addressed mostly the art users of the Candy Factory and neglected the other users. Doyle went on to say, “200 groups have used the Candy Factory in the past year and the biggest percentage is community groups. If you look at the listing on the City website all but two locations charge a fee. Fees are twenty to twenty five dollars per hour. Many groups are small and don’t have the funds.”

“Inside Tennessee” panelist and local attorney Don Bosch then asked, “What is the TIF?” Bill Lyons responded with a basic definition and then smoothly moved into the City’s defense of why the Candy Factory had to be sold. Lyons said that the City could not afford to keep the Candy Factory open. He referenced the 4 million dollars in repairs to fix structural problems and address code issues. This and the annual $200,000 required to operate the Candy Factory. That amounts to two percent of the City annual budget for parks and recreation.

Lyons then said, “Estimates from the PBA (Knoxville Public Building Authority) are that over ten years ten million dollars will be required to keep the Candy Factory open.” Lyons also said “no one in any of the City council workshops challenged these numbers.” Someone needs a new calculator. These figures should be challenged because they are not correct. Ten years of operating expense at $200,000 are 2 million dollars. You add that to the 4 million dollars for “alleged” repairs and you have six million dollars. Where is the missing 4 million dollars from the PBA estimate? More importantly why has the City or the PBA not made public what repairs are needed for the Candy Factory? Does a private citizen have to go to the PBA and request this information? It should have been disclosed in the workshops in City Council meetings. The Knoxville Convention Center, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Universe Knoxville, and the Market Square re-development project all had this same kind of fudge factor mathematics.

This happens far too often in Knoxville and it needs to stop.

Lyons continued and said that the City has provided adequate alternatives for meeting space on the City website. He also said that public libraries and schools could be used and suggested that people also use Panera Bread as a public meeting place. I am not joking he actually said that.

Panelist and local attorney Dennis Francis asked, “Why can’t we use the Convention Center?” Lyons responded, “There are significant expenses to keep the KCC open and the City feels there are other spaces the community groups can use. It is just not cost effective to keep the KCC open for after hours use.”

Donna Doyle was asked by panelist and local PR consultant Susan Williams, “The City doesn’t have ten million dollars to save the Candy Factory. Why didn’t you start your group earlier?” Doyle answered that many people had spoken out in defense of the Candy Factory as a civic center in the City Council workshops but they felt time was running out to make their position clear so the group was formed. Doyle said, “The community groups need a spokesperson just like the Art Groups.” Williams then asked if Doyle was a member of any other groups and Doyle respond she was a member of the Knoxville Green Party. Williams softly said, “I see, the Green Party.”

Bill Lyons spoke of how the City had negotiated with the developer Kinsey Probasco to have $200,000 added to the deal that would be used to rent a floor at the Emporium for the displaced dancers to use. Donna Doyle said, “Why not tell the arts groups to use Panera Bread or the library? The arts groups think it is important to have an Arts Center. We think it is important to have a civic center and not have people dispersed throughout the City.”

In closing Donna Doyle said, “It is about social capital. We have been meeting with City council members requesting that they vote against the TIF. We want Council to consider the impact on community groups. Discuss the idea with the developers to have one floor set aside for public space. Meetings are in the works with the developer.”

As time grows near for the final vote on the TIF for the Candy Factory several questions remain. Why should the City negotiate a $200,000 deal with Kinsey Probasco to lease the Emporium for the first floor for the dancers but then tell the community groups that they must find libraries, schools, churches, or Panera Bread to hold their meetings? Is there a double standard at play here in Knoxville?

After so much discussion about how Knoxville is a progressive City and is sensitive to the needs of allowing people to assemble how is it that only the Arts Groups have been given any special consideration by the City?

Wasn’t a social contract with the people of Knoxville established by the 20-year use of the Candy Factory as a civic meeting center? Shouldn’t this social contract of twenty years be honored?

Posted in uncategorized on December 19th, 2005 by #9 | RSS 2.0 |