Topic: Clarksville TN

Major Gen. Gration on campaign trail in Clarksville for Obama ‘08 rally

By Terry McMoore | February 3, 2008 |

With Super Tuesday just two days away, the race for both Democratic and Republican nominations escalates. No race is heating more than that of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

On Monday, February 4, the eve of dozens of state primaries, a rally for Presidential Candidate Barack Obama will be held at the Tropicana Mexican Restaurant, 233A Tiny Town Road in Clarksville at 1:00 p.m.

Retired Major General Scott Gration, Obama’s top military advisor, will be present to speak on behalf of Obama, according to Terry McMoore, Director of the Urban Resource Center. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Politics | No Comments

Urban sprawl and the building of people-friendly communities

By Christine Anne Piesyk | December 28, 2007 |

On the Road in America is an occasional column of thoughts, ideas and observations from my travels.

When I first moved to Clarksville four years ago, I was initially fascinated with the immense geographic area of the city. It was an “urban sprawl” that included an explosion of multiple housing developments. It looked, for the most part, like the bedroom communities of exploding around New England’s major cities. Sort of. But less well planned.

In fact, the photo of downtown Northampton (above left) looks a lot like Franklin Street with the exception of the width of the Main Street, which is large enough for multiple lanes of traffic, angle parking on both side of the street, and in the winter, mountains of snow plowed into the middle of the road until the bucket loaders roll in and haul it all to the river. Just around the corner is Smith College, perhaps a tad larger than APSU, but not much. Crosswalks are located on every block and motorist beware: you will be ticketed for failing to yield to pedestrian right of way everywhere in the city. People walk, bike and bus everywhere in this city.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Residents to air concerns over “blight”

By Terry McMoore | December 10, 2007 |

The citizens of Clarksville continue to oppose an ordinance approved by the Clarksville City Council that declared most of the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods as “blighted.” This writer views “blighted” as the new buzz word for eminent domain.

The Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan, orchestrated by the Downtown District Partnership, has the potential to place over 1300 acres of land and over 1800 homes, churches, businesses, which may also include the Historic County Courthouse, in danger of seizure by the city for redevelopment.

Some believe that under this plan, developers could receive significant tax incentives for their participation in any projects developed as a result of the “blighted” designation.

A public forum and debate on eminent domain and how it relates to this controversial “Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan” will be held Friday, December 14, 2007 at 7 PM at the H.O.P.E. Resource Center, 120-A Legion Street in Clarksville. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Events, Issues, Politics | 1 Comment »

FBI hate crimes report: disturbing trends against Hispanics and gays

By David W. Shelton | December 3, 2007 |

The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently released the 2006 Hate Crimes statistics, which lists detailed information about last year’s hate crime incidents all across the country. Two major sections of this report are particularly interesting. The first was (as those who know me might suspect) are the statistics of hate crimes motivated by the victims’ sexual orientation. The second is the stats that relate to incidents against Hispanics/Latino-Americans.

The report, which can be found here, is one of the most comprehensive reports ever filed and gives a broad picture of just who is being attacked and why. In Clarksville, authorities reported a total of ten hate crimes. Three of those crimes were due to a person’s race, four were attacks based on religion, two were motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, and one was bias against the person’s ethnicity. The FBI report indicates that the single most targeted ethnic group is Hispanics/Latino-Americans.

The national statistics are fare more interesting. According to the report, there were 770 attacks across the US against Hispanics/Latino-Americans last year. Antisemitism still rears its ugly head, since 1,027 incidents against Jews occurred. In contrast, there were 1,485 attacks based on the victim’s sexual orientation. These hate crimes are everything from graffiti to robberies to assaults to hanging nooses. The report indicates “crimes against property” and “crimes against person,” and lists some broad categories of each. The crimes against persons would include assault, robbery, murder, etc. Crimes against property would be vandalism, graffiti, and other related incidents. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues | 3 Comments

Sewer problems plague Hazelwood area; moratorium on new construction

By Christine Anne Piesyk | November 30, 2007 |

Development in the Exit 1 area is on hold. Mayor Johnny Piper announced the moratorium to the city’s Gas and Water Committee, citing an overburdened sewer system and repeated back-ups of that system as the root cause.

It’s one of those “no kidding” moments. Anyone paying attention should not be surprised, since the rapid rate of development in that area has surged far beyond the capabilities of its infrastructure that currently exists to support it.

Piper, in reporting to the Committee, said that the Hazelwood lift station, which serves 4500 homes, is overloaded; it’s running at 100% capacity and has overflowed five times in the past year. Now the problem has become an issue with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News, Politics | 1 Comment »

Street lights: The whole dim truth

By David W. Shelton | November 9, 2007 |

In the last few years, sidewalks have been the heralded luxury for Clarksville subdivisions. Perhaps we should consider that street lights are also needed for our neighborhoods. At least two subdivisions are so badly lit at night that danger beckons.

Arbor Greene and Arbor Greene North, two subdivisions near the intersections of Trenton Road and Tylertown Road, are poorly lit—if there are any lights at all. Granted, I can’t say that there aren’t enough lights in the Arbor Greene subdivision since there are thirteen light poles in the neighborhood. Arbor Greene North, however, isn’t quite so lucky. That subdivision has less than one light per twelve houses.

However, if these lights were the typical mercury vapor lamps that are installed throughout the Arbor Greene South subdivision and several other “underground utility” neighborhoods, then it wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, the lights in these two areas are best described as “ornamental” lights with a globe perched on an 8- or 10-foot pole. And what kind of light bulb do these glorified candles take? If you guessed anything but a standard 100-watt bulb, you’d be mistaken. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Opinion | No Comments

Gang Awareness Task Force to launch S.E.C.U.R.E. website

By Terry McMoore | October 1, 2007 |

The Clarksville Community Gang Awareness Task Force will launching S.E.C.U.R.E., their new Safe & Effective Community Using Resources for Empowerment gang awareness and educational website, at a community open house event on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 at Xtreme Ministries Church, 1596 Fort Campbell Boulevard, Clarksville, (behind Hardees Restaurant, next to Food Lion) at 7:00 p.m.

The task force is a community-based organization consisting of parents, neighbors, youth, elected officials, faith leaders, law enforcement and educators. Their mission and purpose is to educate the community-at-large about gang violence that is occurring, and offer information on the signs and indicators of gang activity. The Task Force is chaired by Pastor Tommy Vallejos, with media coordination by Terry McMoore. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News, Technology | No Comments

Reform required: Outdated City Charter is Clarksville’s weakness

September 27, 2007 |

The Constitution of the City of Clarksville has been identified as as a weakness for the people of this community, but that’s on the brink of change.

The City finally has formed a Charter committee to look into and reform the Charter and Codes, the documents that form the Constitution of the City and its laws. But why did it take so long when it was identified years ago that the Charter was indeed a weakness.

It had been reported (LC Sept 27, 04) to the people that one of the many problems in our city government is ineffective communications between city leaders, and this is true. However, this is only a symptom of a greater problem of which was also identified. I am referring to our city constitution which was identified as “an outdated city charter.”

This was identified at a session of the Council’s strategic planning process which was facilitated by a member of U.T. Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS). MTAS is the so-called expects in the field of city government, but what exactly do they say about charters, and our abilities to understand and question our charter? «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics | No Comments