How We Used to Get All Around K-Town

Yesterday over at KnoxViews, I saw a very cool map, showing Knoxville's public transit lines circa 1931. The map includes the city's now defunct street car lines.

If you zoom in on the larger image, you can see where the lines went to various "street car communities," such as 4th and Gill and Island Home.

It looks like the line ran as far north as Fountain City and as far east as Chilhowee Park. If you wanted to head west, you apparently had to take something called the "Electric Coach Line. " Since there's also a separate listing for the "bus line," I'm a little stumped as to what an "electric coach" is. Any ideas?

If automobile traffic is more your style, check out Michael Wender's post on Knoxify comparing the I-40 of 1960 with the present day version. My how things how changed.

Knoxville Sidewalk Talk

Why haven't I heard anything about this anywhere else? According to WBIR, a group of concerned Fountain City residents are "pushing hard for a new citywide ordinance that would force developers to add sidewalks to any new or refurbished development" in Knoxville. Huh.

Knoxville City Councilman Bob Becker is apparently behind the proposed ordinance and says:

"Making the whole city more pedestrian-friendly changes the dynamic... It moves us from being a very good city into being a great city."

The city council is going to have a workshop on the issue on June 12th. Maybe someone should send them the link to WalkScore before then?

Smart Neighborhood Navigation

Don Jacobs over at Navigating SmartFix40 has this to say about using neighborhood cut-throughs as a way to navigate around I-40:

...I hesitate to encourage drivers to use neighborhood roads as cut-throughs. Those cut-throughs will work for awhile, but Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV and his traffic services coordinator Lt. Eve Thomas have assured me they will be deploying officers to complaining neighborhoods to discourage speeding through communities. If you have children, you can appreciate the concerns of those residents.

Living in a cut-through neighborhood myself, I wholeheartedly concur.

A Little Too Close to Home

Just saw this story over on KNS:

Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies serving an arrest warrant Wednesday night uncovered a methamphetamine lab in a West Knox County subdivision, authorities said.

Deputies from the KCSO Narcotics Unit arrived at the home, 830 Kevin Road, in the Crestwood Hills subdivision off Walker Springs Road around 5 p.m. after getting a tip from a local neighborhood watch member, KCSO Assistant Chief Deputy Robert Sexton said.

Yikes. As if that weren't bad enough, one of the comments on the story was making fun of this happening in "toney [sic] west knox."

You see, that kind of makes me nuts.

The scary part about this story is not that the meth lab was discovered in West Knoxville, but that it was discovered in a nice, quiet, well-populated subdivision at all.

The question to ask is not how could this happen in West Knoxville, but could this possibly be happening in any other otherwise respectable neighborhoods, be they North, South, East or West?

Get the Skinny on Your Zip Code

One question buyers, especially out of town ones, always ask when we're out looking at property is, "Is this a good area?"

Very fair question. Too bad I can't answer it.

Due to fair housing laws, not to mention general liability issues, agents really can't tell you if neighborhoods are "good" or "bad." Now, you can usually look around and see if you're in Dumpsville or not - cars up on blocks in the front yard, weeds everywhere, the garbage man is too scared to come and get the trash (don't laugh, I've seen it).

But what about if there are no obvious signs?

Try Zip Skinny, a site that provides US Census and data information by zip code. Basic information on a zip includes education levels, marital status, household income, and occupations of the residents. Zip Skinny will also:

• compare info on different zip codes
  
• provide information on schools


• show you a map marking the geographic center of the zip code
  

I looked up my zip, 37919, and found out that over 50% of the residents have at least a BA degree, almost 1/2 have lived in their home for 5 or more years, the median age of residents is 36.8 years, and only 2.1% are unemployed.

Check it out and let me know what you find out about your zip.

Update: Kingston Woods

I mistakenly left West Oaks out of the neighborhood of the week stats I posted yesterday. West Oaks is part of the conglomeration of neighborhoods I'm referring to here as Kingston Woods. However, it turns out I didn't miss much. There are no current pending sales in West Oaks and no sales in February '07 or '08. There is, however, one listing, 732 Waco Rd (not that Waco), with an asking price of $149,900.

Sorry West Oaks!

Neighborhood of the Week: Kingston Woods

Here goes nothin'. I'm trying out a new weekly post here called, you guessed it, neighborhood of the week. Each week, on Monday, I'll highlight current listing, pending, and sales data for one Knox County neighborhood.

The first neighborhood was an easy choice - it's mine! I live in a huge neighborhood south of West Town Mall, which is technically comprised of Kingston Woods, Kingston Park, & Kingston Hills. I'm lumping all three of these together and calling them Kingston Woods for the purposes of these stats.

Kingston Woods

Current* On-Market Listings - 6
Average Asking Price: $216,583
Median Asking Price: $214,900

Current Pending Sales -2
Average Asking Price - $186,975
Median Asking Price - NA

Closed Sales - February 2007 - 0
Average Sales Price - NA
Median Sales Price - NA
Average Days on Market - NA

Closed Sales - February 2008 - 2
Average Sales Price - $217,400
Median Sales Price - NA
Average Days on Market - 90

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 3/10/08

What other neighborhoods would you like to see stats for? Any suggestions for the type of stats you'd like to see?

KUB Tree Trimming

KUB's still not making any friends with all it's tree trimming. While I'm not a huge fan of some of the chopping they've done in my neighborhood, I also wasn't so psyched a few weeks ago when one of my neighbor's huge, old trees took out a transformer.

What do you think? Are you tired of KUB chopping up your neighborhood? Do you think they're being too aggressive or do you think all that pruning is really necessary?

KUB Tree Trimming Still At Issue - KNS