Today is the Knoxville mayoral primary. Knoxville will elect its first new mayor in 16 years.
Not being a city resident, I haven’t gotten into this campaign as much as I might have, given that the outcome affects me too.
There is one issue in particular, howeverm which caught my attention. Jobs? Downtown renewal? City services? Taxes? Nope. None of those things.
I was browsing Bill Haslam’s website and came across his promise to extend local greenways. I’m pro-greenway, so this sounds immediately sounded good to me. But then I came across this line:
On a bike ride from Tyson Park to Volunteer Landing, Knoxville mayoral candidate Bill Haslam pledged today to extend and enhance the city�s already “great” system of greenways and bike trails.
[Emphasis added.]
“Already great system”? Not for biking.
True Knoxville does have over 30 miles of paved greenways. But if you look at the list of them, you will see that many of them are quite short. Unless you don’t mind riding back and forth over the same path five times, a short trail doesn’t work well for biking. In my opinion, a trail’s got to be at least two miles long to be worthwhile to go cycling on. Of Knoxville’s 22 trails, only seven meet this minimum standard, and due to their construction or currnet usage, a few of those aren’t really suitable for cycling. In short, I’d hardly call the current system of trails “great” for biking.
Much of the campaign rhetoric focused on money and commerce-related issues that typically dominate elections. But I hope whoever wins will make quality of life issues a priority as well. Our parks and recreational opportunities lag behind those of even smaller towns. And if we want Knoxville to remain an attractive community for people to live in, we’ve got to be competitive in this facet of life as well.