• ARTifacts, An Art & Antique Emporium
• Hodgepodge, where you gather your home
• Rogate’s Boutique
• Ingredients, for the gourmet in you

All of these businesses are locally owned and offer shoppers the most unique inventories and fare available.

Get a jump on your preparations for your holiday celebrations and join us for this day of festivities!

CINDERELLA Jr. runs May 29 until June 13, playing Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 6pm, with 2pm matinees on Saturdays. Poor Cinderella is endlessly mistreated by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters … but with a little help from her mice friends and a lot of help from her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella goes to the ball, meets the Prince and falls in love!

Call now and reserve those seats! All tickets are $10.

This month’s Art Walk is Thursday, June 4, which is a good opportunity to visit the Roxy’s Peg Harvill Gallery and view the paintings of Betty Liles. Enjoy wine tasting via the generosity of Horace Heggie from Pal’s Package Store, and stay for the 6pm performance of CINDERELLA Jr. The show runs approximately an hour, so you will still have time to visit the other galleries and businesses participating in the Art Walk.

Nicole Kelly

You guys? This is hard.

I haven’t spent any significant amounts of time here since high school, my old friends have scattered to various parts of the country for one reason or another, and so I really feel as if I’m starting over in a new city. In the short time that I’ve been back I’ve managed to find two jobs and procure myself this column, but I’m still trying to figure out how 20-somethings new to the area meet people and get involved in the community.

And oh, it pains me to admit it, but meeting people in Clarksville has so far proved surprisingly harder than I thought it would. And I just don’t understand it.

When I got here about three weeks ago, fresh from 2 weeks in my most recent home of New York City and nine months of gallivanting around Latin America, I had high hopes for a summer—the first in about 5 years—spent in my surrogate home town, the place where I went to middle and high school, the place I swore I’d never live in again.

No offense.

It’s just that I like cities. Big cities. I like art and music and literature and feminist activism and multiculturalism. For these reasons, I like New York. I like Barcelona. I like Oaxaca and Mexico City—all cities where I have lived or spent much time in since graduating from Northeast in 2003 and heading north of the Mason-Dixon/south of the border.

After nine months with no job I was very very broke. For two weeks I slept on the couch of a friend in Brooklyn, but, just after my cash flow dropped into the teens, I was forced to reassess my choice of residence. I charged a plane ticket to Nashville and came home.

I can admit that small cities have their perks too. A small city is…conquerable. Whereas in New York I will never be able to eat in every restaurant, will certainly never visit every museum, and will only ever manage to be friends or acquainted with a tiny microcosm of the city’s inhabitants, all of those things are more or less doable here in Clarksville. A small city is accessible.

So I thought when I arrived, and shortly thereafter when I expressed my interest in writing this column. I thought, this is a college town. This is a transient town. This is—as my parents keep insisting—a growing and developing and evolving town. But so far I’ve just been baffled by the lack of youthful activity.

On my first night out on my first weekend back I drove down to Franklin Street, where I used to like to hang out when I was underage, and where some students from APSU were holding an art show.

It was warm out, though not yet uncomfortably hot. It was so quiet—the sounds of acoustic guitar and voices were released onto the street and reigned in again when the doors of the Blackhorse and the Front Page opened and closed. There was the scent of something sweet and floral in the air. Magnolias, I thought to myself, having no idea what I was talking about (magnolias just seem southern to me). It was nice. I was excited to be back. I was ready to conquer yet another city.

And then nothing happened.

The bars were more empty than not. “What’s the nightlife like around here?” I asked a lot of people, all of whom exhibited the familiar pleasant willingness to talk to strangers that I missed in New York, and the same attitude of apologetic resignation (Shrug. “This is pretty much it.”) that I hadn’t.

I made a friend—a recent Army recruit who grew up in Long Island, New York and has only been here a month—who was equally baffled. “There’s a university right down the road!” I cried in disbelief. “Where IS everyone?”

And I’ve more or less been asking that question ever since, as I search for coffee shops to write in and events to go to and continue to fail to have meaningful encounters with anyone my age.

But you know what? I like a challenge.

My first week here I used the usual mediums—Facebook, Craigslist, Google, asking around—to find out where to go and what to do. With aforementioned results. So I just spent my second Saturday night—it was rainy and cold and I was frustrated and lonely—back on the computer.

With renewed resolve I recalculated my plan for re-creating a life—a social one, let’s hope—that doesn’t rely on the apparently flailing bar scene. I joined a 20-somethings meet up group, I found somewhere to volunteer, I resolved to start a pick up kick ball league (they’re big in New York).

I’m determined to make the most of this summer. Meanwhile, I’m taking suggestions.

Beginning June 6, the Downtown Market will be open on Saturdays at One Public Square from 8:00am to 1:00pm each Saturday during market season. The Market will feature fresh, locally grown produce, nursery stock, hand made craft items and other commodities available on a seasonal basis. All vendors and artisans meeting the attached criteria are invited to come and vend. To help kick-start this year’’s market, the cost of participating is free for a basic 10” x 10” space! We have several booth spaces left at this time but act soon as we anticipate them filling up quickly!

The purpose of this organization is to provide for orderly operation of a market for area producers, artisans, and other entrepreneurs.

The spirit and intention of the Clarksville Downtown Market Association is to:

• Provide an open venue for community enjoyment;
• Provide an opportunity for vendors and consumers to sell and buy in an amicable exchange;
• Support local producers, encourage downtown shopping, and support local farm preservation.

For more information

Visit the Mongomery County Extension Office Web site

Or contact:

Jennifer Byard
Special Events Coordinator
102 Public Square
Clarksville, TN 37040
931-645-7476

The Customs House Museum’s Women’s History Month has been extended through June 28th. This special collaborative exhibit, Underneath and Overcoming, is a three part installation created by the museum’s Community Relations Director, Terri Jordan. The exhibit meshes together a visual interpretation of where woman have come from in dress and attitude. Working with poet and author R. MonaLeza and photojournalist David Farmerie, the installation can be summarized as what happens when you put an artist, a writer, and a photographer together in one room. As viewers peruse pieces from the museum collection and the images of Farmerie’s Seven Deadly Sins series, they can read the edited poetic writing of Mona’s on the coordinating panels.

David Farmerie’s documentary and humanistic work is at the core of his profession as a photographer. In 1990 he decided to engage, predominantly, in photographic projects that add to the ‘greater good’ of humanity. Through his documentary images David explores the mysteries and stories of the world’s cultures and people. Through his humanistic images, he captures moments in order to teach, and to gain understanding through the frozen moments of the images, allowing for introspection and ponder. David’s recent work has included a photographic story entitled Roadside Redemption and the documentary Tobacco Farming: An American Tradition. The Customs House Museum exhibit, Underneath and Overcoming, is his first exhibition of the Seven Deadly Sins series.

The Customs House Museum is the second largest general museum in Tennessee. The museum is located at the corner of Commerce and Second Streets, in historic downtown Clarksville.

An irony of urban redevelopment is that the purported goal of economic development is usually hampered by government’s insistence on retaining the power of eminent domain for a project. Forest City, a developer infamous for its Atlantic Yards dispute in New York, is involved in just such a situation in Fresno, Calif. Fresno decided in 2005 that the area south of Chukchansi Park, home of the city’s minor league baseball team, should be “revitalized.” The next year, the city hired mega-developer Forest City to begin the downtown redevelopment; unfortunately, the very plan designed to revitalize Fresno’s downtown is draining the area of not only its current tax base but hampering other future investments in that area.

Forest City’s plan for the 85-acre South Stadium area, which calls for a new shopping district and 700 new homes, has threatened more than 40 properties with eminent domain for private gain. ¹ Two years after the plan was first proposed, property owners and city officials alike are still waiting for development to begin. According to The Fresno Bee, Forest City must still conduct a yearlong environmental review and the city still has not come up with a public financing scheme for the project.

The Bee’s editorial summed up the situation: “The problem is that property owners in the area, and small business owners who wish to move in or expand in existing locations, are left on hold while the big developer jumps through the regulatory hoops. Few want to take a chance on an investment that might be swept away by some grander vision for downtown. Owners find it difficult to rent or see properties because of the uncertainty.” ²

The threat of eminent domain stifles native efforts to revitalize apart from the plan because entrepreneurs will not invest in a business that may not be around for more than a couple of years. Randy Miller and Robert Toman are two entrepreneurs in the area who want to open up a brewpub in a former furniture store owned by the family of Miller’s wife. Miller and Toman find themselves in limbo: because there is no council-approved plan, the city will not tell them whether it will be necessary to take the property for the Forest City development.

“It would be nice if they said, ‘We’re going to demolish you and move you,’ or, ‘You can stay here,” Miller told The Bee. ³

However, the potential threat or eminent domain is driving away businesses already established in the area. Pat Cody, who has owned Wilson’s Motorcycles for 18 years, could not even find a realtor to list his property after he decided that the survival of business depended on moving somewhere where his future prospects were more stable. Cody said realtors considered his property “a waste of their time.” Even though the city most likely would have bought the property, it cannot do so yet because the city council has not officially given approval for the final project.

Property owners are also having difficulty renting out properties to tenants because the city could come and condemn the property at any point once the final plan is approved. Octavia Diener told The Bee that the city actually discourages prospective renters.

“They go to the city,” said Diener. “And the first thing the city tells them is, ‘That’s under this redevelopment plan.’” ⁴

With businesses moving away, renters staying away, and potential new businesses unable to contribute to revitalization, the city of Fresno’s potential threat of eminent domain is creating the very blight factors that officials say they wish to remedy. Unfortunately, for small business owners and independent developers, city officials have chosen their favored developer, Forest City, and city officials will not allow anything other than Forest City’s vision in the area. Unlike nearly every other neighborhood that developed organically, with many neighbors creating the spirit and content of the area, Fresno is insisting on a centrally planned model for what should take place in this district.

City Council Member Larry Westerlund, who is also the chairman of the Redevelopment Agency board, defends Forest city this way: Forest City, “has always expressed an interest in working with property owners, if there’s a way to do so and make a project that’s unique and authentic.” ⁵

The fact that most redevelopments tend to be neither unique nor authentic aside, it is ironic that the city may not consider private residents and business owners of Fresno “unique” or “authentic” enough for the plan imposed upon the area by a Cleveland-area developer.

Given those circumstances, it is not surprising that city officials seem to be indifferent to the deleterious effects of their redevelopment procedures. Fresno citizens, who are already established and committed to the area and who sincerely wish to contribute to the economic revitalization of the area are being turned away because they do not conform to the city’s visions of the future, a future that may not ever materialize.

• 1. Jeff St. John, “Keeping the city on hold,” The Fresno Bee, February 11, 2008
• 2. The Fresno Bee, “Downtown visions collide in proposed Forest City area; Big projects and smaller efforts are crucial to revitalized success,” The Fresno Bee, February 13, 2008.
• 3. St. John
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.

About CastleWatch

CastleWatch is the online publication of the Castle Coalition, the Institute for Justice’s nationwide grassroots property rights activism project. The Castle Coalition helps home and small business owners fight eminent domain abuse through the public and political processes and this is our way of letting you know what’s happening.

Several elected officials attended today’s event, including State Representative Joe Pitts, County Commissioner Lettie Kendall, and City Council members Barbara Johnson and Marc Harris.

Education

Michael Harris addressed the state of education in the Clarksville area. Discussing after school programs, he said that all of Clarksville schools provide after school tutoring for at-risk students, and also provide transportation for students using the programs. He said there are still many things being developed including assisting special needs students. The number of special needs students is growing in our community and the school system acknowledges that they need to do more to help those students.

During the question and answer session, a grandmother asked Harris, “Is there a way to get local college students to help tutor? Some of our youth are still struggling even with the at-risk programs and those same youth have excelled with tutoring. The parents don’t have the money to pay for tutoring; how can we get help?” Harris said if a child is not making it despite the at-risk program, he wants to hear about it. “We don’t want to lose anybody.” he responded.

Some of the targets he saw as goals of his tenure are smaller classroom sizes for all grades and smaller neighborhood high schools. He also made it clear that he is seeking out more minority teachers and school administrators to provide positive role models for minorities.

Director Harris also stated that he would like to see parents stay more involved in their children’s education, including that transition time when children reach the Middle School age. Harris said parents are involved up to a certain age and then they stop. He wants schools to be an open, welcoming place for parents and community leaders to volunteer and he encourages them to consider doing so.

Domestic Violence

Wanda Snead offered a seminar on domestic violence and the safe houses which are available to women and their children. She made it clear that domestic violence does not discriminate.

“It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic; anyone can be abused.”

It’s often hard for a battered person to seek help because they feel responsible for the ugliness shown to them by their abuser. It’s also much worse for children, who feel they are the cause of the problem or think that they can fix it.

She told the crowd that friends, neighbors and relatives of those in a violent situations need to reach out to the abused, and urge them to seek help. Sometimes that is the only way they will seek the help that they desperately need.

I’m reminded of the quote by Martin Luther King Jr.: Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. It comes down to that, as Ms. Snead points out.

Mortgages and Personal Finances

Valerie Hunter-Kelly of Keller Williams Realty spoke about mortgages and financial issues, stating that  despite the rest of the country having trouble in the housing market, Clarksville is making national news with its steady price of housing. There are many things to beware of when buying a house:  balloon payments, pre-payment penalties and variable rates.

She also urged caution regarding lending scams: cash advance loans and pre-approved credit cards with outrageous penalties, interest, and fees. Of course with the approaching tax season, refund anticipation loans is added to the list. All of these are things which prey on people desperate for instant cash.

Ms. Hunter-Kelly assured people who are having trouble with mortgage payments that there are other options possible besides foreclosure: one example she gave is short sales.

If the real estate has no equity, a homeowner may still be able to avoid a mortgage foreclosure judgment by listing the real estate for a pre-foreclosure or short sale. A short sale in real estate occurs when the outstanding loan balance against a property is greater than what the property can be sold for at fair market value.

The March

When it was time for the march, the crowd gathered in front of Burt School and with a police escort set off down Eighth Street. The march then headed down College Street. Hundreds sang together on their way up North Second and through downtown over to city hall, where all bowed their heads as a prayer was said asking for the law to be just, and justice to be fair. The march proceeded over to the county jail where another prayer was said asking for God to watch over and help those who are incarcerated. Then they traveled by the historic court house and returned back to Burt School. During the event the crowd was jubilant and their spirits were up-beat.

Image Gallery

Photos by Bill Larson. Click on any image in this article to enlarge the image.

Editor’s Note: All pictures taken taken by Bill Larson and Debbie Boen

This letter was written prior to the cancellation of the DDP redevelopment meeting. However, it’s message is one that deserves an airing, so Clarksville Online has opted to run it with the caveat that, for now, the controversial blight ordinance is on hold.

The Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan (CCRP) was approved recently by the City Council. On Thursday, January 10, 6:00PM, at Austin Peay State University’s Clement Auditorium, a meeting is scheduled at which the DDP (Downtown Business Partnership) and City officials will answer questions about the Plan.

The Plan is being challenged by concerned residents of Clarksville’s historic districts and downtown areas, the Tennessee State Historic Commission, the Tennessee Preservation Trust, and others because it contains unclear language. The document uses the term “Blighted” in describing the entire Clarksville downtown area, (with the exception of property owned by APSU), which allows for homes to be taken via eminent domain by private developers. Public meetings prior to the approval of the document were limited. No letters were sent; many in the Plan area were not even aware such a document existed prior to the Council vote this past September.

Mayor Piper stated “This is their (the DDP’s) plan. It is not the City Council’s plan.” The city sponsored the DDP through the development and approval of this document, and as mayor he is ultimately responsible for ensuring the property rights of Clarksville residents. Mayor Piper noted “Six (members of City Council) and myself were not around” when this document was developed. They were, however, present when the council voted in favor of the document. With that kind of thinking is this, and who is in charge? Who protects us and our property rights?

Think this will not affect you? Think again. This is only Phase I; there are Five Phases planned. If you own property in Clarksville, it can be condemned, razed and new construction erected, which will only benefit developers. (Photo at right: concerned citizens at the Dec. 17 Property Rights Coalition meeting)

Please attend the meeting and be educated on this issue. If you cannot attend, please contact your city council-member and voice your concern.

Editor’s Note: In submitting this letter to Clarksville Online, Shirley wrote: “The Leaf Chronicle doesn’t seem to want to print this Letter to the Editor….wonder why? Would it be possible to have you place it on Clarksville Online?”

That meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Clement Auditorium as Austin Peay State University, which is the only downtown property not affected by the redevelopment plan’s “blight” designation.

In November, 2007, the City Council passed an ordinance declared two square miles of downtown Clarksville as “blighted” for purposes of redevelopment. Homeowners caught unaware by the ordinance and its implications in terms of eminent domain and “blight” form a quick and fast protest and have called for the rescinding of that ordinance.

The CPRC, the TPT, and the NAACP requested a minimum of 30 minutes to address the Council on June 10th, time to be allocated among our three organizations, or an equal amount of time as provided to the DDP (Downtown Development Partnership), if they are given more than 30 minutes.

In making the requests, the groups involved agreed with Mayor Piper that the public needs to hear the truth about the Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan but said the only way for the public and the City Council to learn the truth about the impact of this Redevelopment Plan on the citizens who live or own property in the Plan boundaries is to hear presentations from both sides of the issues, not just one side. The majority of City Council members and City leaders did not attend public meetings on this issue at either the Hope Center (Dec. 14) and the Train Station (Dec. 17).

This Plan has legally declared as “blighted” over 1,800 parcels of property including all of downtown Clarksville and its adjacent neighborhoods” said John Summers, spokesperson for the CPRC.

“It also contains the power to condemn peoples’ homes and businesses for private development, not just for public purposes. For the public to hear the truth about the Redevelopment Plan, both sides of the issue must be presented. To date, only one side of the issue has been presented to the City Council, the one held by the Downtown District Partnership.” — John Summers

“The DDP initiated the Re-development Plan. Their membership disproportionally includes Clarksville’s development interests,” continued Summers.

Summers said:

“This meeting was announced in a January 3rd news release by the Mayor’s Office which included the statement that ‘several details of the plan have been misrepresented’ in it. We fully agree that the details and impact of the Redevelopment Plan have either been misrepresented or not fully disclosed to the Public, but by the proponents of the Plan, not by the opponents.

“That is why the Steering Committee believes that a basic sense of fairness to the citizens of Clarksville impacted by this Plan requires that both sides of the issue be fully and equally presented.”

To date, only the DDP has been afforded to opportunity to make a presentation to the City Council on the Redevelopment Plan. In a basic sense of fairness to the citizens of Clarksville, the CPRC with the TPT and the Clarksville NAACP should be afforded the same opportunity at the June 10th informational meeting, John Summers said, in making his request.

“In summary, the CPRC is asking that both the proponents and the opponents to the Plan each be given at least 30 minutes on Thursday to present to the City Council their side of this issue. These presentations will enable the public to have a more balanced view of the issue which will allow them to ask any questions from a more informed perspective.

“I have been asked by the Steering Committee of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition to serve as their spokesperson. The CPRC is an organization of residents and property owners many of which own property in the Redevelopment Plan boundaries and are directly impacted by the Plan.”

– John Summers

Summers asked for a response from Mayor Piper by noon on Wednesday to allow reasonable preparation time prior to the Thursday hearing at APSU.

According to Graham, “several details of the plan have been misrepresented in recent weeks and the Mayor and City Council are hosting this event to help residents understand the objectives of the plan. The Downtown District Partnership worked on the plan for several years before presenting it to the City Council in the fall of 2007. The City Council voted on the plan on two separate occasions and did not receive any opposition from the public.”

Clarksville Property Rights Coalition members maintain they were unaware of the details and language of the ordinance that has lumped all of the downtown area (except APSU) into a “blighted” category for purposes of redevelopment. Participants in these meetings felt “blindsided ” by the blight designation and were quick to line up and sign postcards addressed to their legislators protesting the the ordinance. The anger crossed boundaries of race, gender and income, unifying residents who were seeking answers and explanations.

The ordinance approved by the Council designates two square miles or approximately 1800 homes and businesses, as “blighted” and potentially subject to eminent domain to make way for private development of some areas. The only property exempt from this declaration was that owned by Austin Peay State University. Attorney John Summers, in calling the ordinance “audacious,” stated that the law represents the largest designation of blight to be made in the country without having a specific projects defined and ready for implementation.

Homeowners who started the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition say they were not aware of the potential ramifications of the ordinance and have called for it to be repealed. Clarksville Property Rights Coalition member Debbie Denton expressed her concerns about the relatively short notice given, and the lack of information about format of the planned city forum. Two previous meetings, one held on Dec. 14 at the Hope Center on Legion Street, and another on Dec. 17 at the Historic Train Station (at right), drew SRO crowds of angry residents who signed petitions and postcards calling for the ordinance to be repealed.

Clarksville Online publisher Bill Larson has submitted the following questions to the city over the past several weeks, but has received no response. His most recent request was made on January 3:

• Will the Clarksville Housing Authority Study used as a justification for the blight designation and for the urgency referenced in the ordinance be made available for the media or the public? I have heard of, and made my own requests for access to it and have been given the run around about securing a copy of it.

• Who will be on the panel?

• Will members of the public be given time to ask questions of the panel members?

• Exactly what details of the plan have been misrepresented and how?

• How does the city account for the apparent conflict of interest by Mayor Piper and Barbara Johnson in this matter, as both are members of the Downtown District Partnership board of directors? Should they both not have recused themselves from participation in this matter before the council? Why did they not do so?

• The state code’s definition of blight explicitly forbids using blight declarations for the purposes of increasing tax revenues, a key factor touted in the DDP land use master plan under their proactive economic development projection to the tune of $3,808,377. How does the city resolve this conflict between the cities blight declaration and state law?

• In the DDP (Downtown District Partnership) land use master plan there are 40+ planned redevelopment projects. Have each of the property owners been notified by the city or DDP of the plans for their property, other than the more generic blight notification that went out, to give them opportunity to participate in the process? If not, why?

In prior inquiries, the Housing Authority was asked to provide the studies attached to this ordinance and development plan but were unable to produce documents related to this issue. None of these questions have been answered.

On a previous request for on December 20th, Mayor Johnny Piper ignored the questions we asked, and attempted to pass the buck.

“Thank you, Bill, for your inquiry. However, I would like to ask you to contact Mr. Joe Pitts, as DDP Chairman at the time, and Mr. Wayne Wilkinson for the answers as this was a document which these gentlemen worked on for the past 2 1/2 years prior to most of us being on the council and we were told that all the sensitive issues were worked out. I think the best place for you to start would be to contact the initiators (Pitts and Wilkinson) of the document. We are planning on having a public meeting about this item for public discussion after the first of the year. It does appear that many of the discussions are based upon erroneous information which these two gentlemen should correct. I know the council agrees that they are the people who represented to them that all the affected community was kept in the information loop and evidently they were not!!!”

- Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper

These questions must be answered in the City’s public forum, or our elected officials must be held to account. Does Mayor Piper’s statement that apparently his constituency “was not kept in the information loop” grounds for the entire issue to be revisited?

If you have any questions about the community meeting, please call the City of Clarksville Mayor’s Office at 645-7444.

For more information

The following links can provide more information on state law regarding development, eminent domain and the designation of “blight.”

• www.attorneygeneral.state.tn.us/op/2006/OP/OP98.pdf
• www.tennessee.gov/sos/pub/tar/archived/2006-08.pdf
• www.tennessee.gov/sos/acts/104/pub/pc0863.pdf

They meet on New Year’s Eve at 9 p.m. to walk in the New Year.

The group pictured above joined others in walking walked three to four miles of downtown Clarksville, starting at McGregor Park, using the walking bridge that crosses Riverside and the other sidewalk “trails” created for downtown. They walked up Dog Hill, admiring some of its historic houses, then over to Public Square with its eternal flame and memorial to the soldiers.

They paused to peek in the shop windows along Franklin, then trailed down to Riverside on 2nd Street, over Riverside and across the walking bridge before ending back at the park. A walk in frigid cold, led by fast walker Suva Bastin, left all feeling exhilarated at the end. When the trail ended at 11 p.m., leaders Suva (front red) and Jack Bastin (front blue, white hat) invited all to their house for treats.

The following morning, New Years Day, Suva and Jack met with 16 people at Montgomery Bell Park for an eight mile hike. By lunchtime they had stopped by a small lake where experienced trail members brought out their picnic blankets and baby cooking stoves. Served to all was a meal of hot black eye peas, cornbread, hot mashed potatoes and desserts like fruit cobbler. Lemonade and hot chocolate, enough for everyone, appeared out of someone’s backpack. No trash was left behind.

Friends of Dunbar Cave President David Boen has done the late night hike three times, and eight-mile hike twice. He said of the leaders: “Jack and Suva’s love for hiking and the outdoors has been an inspiration to me ever since I met them.”

Besides Tennessee Trails, Jack and Suva Bastin are also very active members of Friends of Dunbar Cave and the Audubon society. Jack is a member of a wood turning club and he often does demonstrations at fairs. Tennessee Trail enthusiasts include people like local hero, J. R. Tate, who has hiked the Appalachian Trail several times.

You don’t have to be an expert to join in these walks. To warm up to this healthy active group who really appreciate the beauty of Tennessee check out their web site at http://www.tennesseetrails.org/ and hike towards health.

That first meeting was called in response to a City Council voted that placed two square miles, and 1800 homes and business under a “blighted property” designation to facilitate a Downtown Redevelopment Plan. It is the largest “blanket blighting” in the country and has raised the ire of virtually all the homeowners and many of the businesspeople who reside in or own property in that area. In addition to the start of a postcard and petition drive, the Coalition called for a repeal of the new ordinance, which many property owners say “blindsided” them, signs have also been popping up as a show of protest. The City Council is planning a forum to respond to citizen concerns but have not yet announced a date, time, place, or list of speakers.

Today we present a second tape, this one of the Dec. 17 Clarksville Property Rights Coalition meeting held at the historic L&N Train Station in the heart of what is quickly becoming referred to as “Blightsville” USA.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More faces of the concerned

Editor’s Note: Train station forum Photography by Bill Larson, Merry Christmas from Blightsville Photograph by Christine Piesyk,  Video shot by Mark Haynes

The City Council, which had considered the plan a done deal, is now facing the need to justify the Downtown Redevelopment Plan. They will respond to an angry constituency with a meeting of their own, a public forum to be held in January on a yet to be determined date and time and location. The Council hearing will be led by an as yet unnamed attorney. They’ll need a big room, since the opposition is growing steadily, as noted with the three hundred people who showed up for the December 17 petition drive at the Historic Train Station on Tenth Street.

Brainchild of the Downtown District partnership, the plan includes a tax-incentive financing package meant to boost private development in an extensive downtown area including Dog Hill, Emerald Hill, Red River and Brandon Hills. The plan also deemed everything except Austin Peay State University “blighted.”Many of the people living in these areas object to the term blighted, and to language that states property may be taken by eminent domain “to provide for the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized land” and to “eliminate structures not suitable for rehabilitation.” It also allows for “assemblage,” in which the taking by eminent domain of perfectly good property is allowed and facilitated if necessary of perfectly good property in order to assemble the land needed for larger projects, including those by private developers.

The uproar by an angered constituency forced the Council to respond, and they have done so by announced their own forum on the issue. Much of the council has endorsed the upcoming meeting as a way to clear the air.While some council members continue to speak in favor of the ordinance, Ward 6 Councilman Marc Harris has called for its repeal. He acknowledged that while there are parcels of lands that are clearly blight, or simply lying fallow and in need of development, the blanket designation of the entire downtown area as blighted was simply “not right.”

Atty. John Summers of Nashville, said in two community sponsored meetings that comparisons to plans in Nashville show distinct differences in both size and scope of the projects. Nashville’s seven redevelopment districts each had a project, and specific plan, for what was to happen. Where’s the [specific] plan here?”

The Clarksville Property Rights Coalition, sponsor of the Train Station community meeting, has collected signatures of irate resident and homeowner throughout the area for submission to city and county officials. NAPA Auto Parts briefly displayed a Welcome to Blightville sign on their frontage but it was removed Saturday night.

Coalition members are cataloging signatures and going door to door to contact all homeowners in the area and have vowed to continue their quest for a repeal of the ordinance.

A second meeting, sponsored by the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition, was held December 17 at the Train Station. That session drew nearly 300 area residents.

Approximately 50 residents, taxpayers, and homeowners attended that session, which featured the panelists: Nashville Atty. John Summers who currently chairs the Tennessee Historic Preservation Coalition, Dan Brown, Executive Director of the Tennessee Preservation Trust, Civil Rights activist and advocate Jimmie Garland Sr. (at right) who is currently serving as President of the Clarksville branch of the NAACP, and author and Human Relations Commissioner David Shelton. Ward 6 Councilor Marc Harris was scheduled to be on this panel but failed to appear. The panelists discussed the issue of eminent domain and the scope of the proposed redevelopment.

Mark Haynes videotaped the HOPE Center meeting in full, and we now present that tape in its entirety to our readers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Affected residents and business owners of these “blighted” areas are calling on the Clarksville City Council members to rescind their support and ask that the redevelopment plan ordinance and its wording be restructured to protect the people and their property rights.

Under state law, the city is only allowed to take property by emininent domain for infrastructure development, while the county can take land for any purpose. The use of a “blighted” declaration is specifically prohibited for the purpose of taking land for development to increase tax revenues.

I believe the current ordinance is too vague, giving city administrators a blank check to do as they please. In its present form, the plan seems to mask an attempt to leverage property for maximum potential tax revenues.

At the last public meeting on this issue, over 60 residents opposing this plan wore buttons saying No Blight Without A Fight. The debate on this issue will continue at this event.

Bring your questions, concerns, comments and complaints to this event, which is free and open to all concerned citizens. For more information, contact Terry McMoore at (931) 378-1999.