Welcome to the PlanET MindMixer! Provide your ideas and vote on others' to help us plan for a prosperous East Tennessee! Your ideas and votes will be incorporated into the Plan East Tennessee process. Ideas from the PlanET public meetings will also be incorporated into this site to continue the conversations online!

 
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Recent Comments

»Neighborhood walkability adds value for property owners. A National Association of Realtors study found that 2/3 of Americans want to be within easy walking distance of places like grocery stores and restaurants. See http://www.efficientgov.com/smart-growth/prospective-homeowners-want-walkable-communities and http://www.realtor.org/sites/default/files/publications/2011/on-common-ground/on-common-ground-2011-06-desire-for-smart-growth.pdf for details.
»Local food is important, but I wouldn't limit it to farmers markets and community supported agriculture. Neither of these is a particularly efficient method of distributing food. For maximum benefit to people's health and the regional economy, demand for locally produced food also needs to come from area restaurants, mainstream grocery stores, and school lunch programs.
»Find ways to support communities, businesses, and churches in bringing the CHIP program (http://www.chiphealth.com/ -- Complete Health Improvement Project) into the area and educating their members on healthy lifestyle
»More support for bicycle and walking paths connecting homes and businesses could contribute in this area.
»Interestingly, the Knoxville metro area performs slightly above average in measures of educational inequality related to housing segregation and affordability, according to this Brookings Institution study: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/0419_school_inequality_rothwell/0419_school_inequality_rothwell.pdf
We have less economic segregation in housing than the average US metro area (see http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/0419_school_inequality_rothwell/0419_school_inequality_profiles/Knoxville.pdf ), and we are doing better in that regard than Nashville or Memphis, but Chattanooga's status is similar to ours. According to the study, economic segregation in housing increases educational inequality between lower-income and higher-income students.
»It's a truism that competition makes everyone better, but competition between jurisdictions within our region can be mutually destructive. We need to find ways to collaborate to make our regional pie bigger, rather than fighting over how the pie is cut up.
»In order to combat this situation and provide assistance for future employees, we must consider an educational system that serves the community of people who are living in "survival mode". In other words, many students are not able, for one reason or another, to attend school in a traditional setting. Going to school from 8-3 in an environment filled with 1200 other students and an inflexible schedule does not work for all learners. Our community needs to provide more non-traditional educational options such as home school, independent study, and alternative education centers for those students who, "live outside the box" but are not "trouble makers" This would provide employers with wage earners who had a HS diploma and were eligible to participate in higher education opportunities. This would also recoup ADA lost due to absensenteeism and high drop out rates.
»I agree. There is much more potential in greenway connectivitiy and incorporating bike lanes on existing roadways. Improving access and safer routes for non motorized commuters should be a priority.
»Greenway connectivity across the metropolitan region and along commercial corridors
»User impact fees so that people like myself who never travel outside of the inner city don't have to use our tax money for resources we will never use
»Other regions do. Norfolk Southern operates intermodal rail carrying trucks in other parts of the country. But, those corridors are generally have faster rail, although they are limited with respect to access by trucks. To compete strongly with the Interstate highways (I-40, I-75, and I-81), the parallel rail system needs to average about 60 mph today. The Norfolk Southern averages more like 25 to 30 mph on their parallel routes, and those routes are extremely limited in capacity because most of them are single track. In Farragut trains often wait over an hour on the side track so that another can pass. The East Tennessee rail lines were laid out in the mid 1800s.
You can see the relative truck freight and rail freight shares of freight that are candidates for either method. See the 4th figure (a vertical bar chart) at this URL: http://www.railsolution.org/projects/steel-interstate-demonstration/rationale-for-resolution/detailed-description-of-demo.html
»Other "ideas" are concerned about the urban sprawl. Improving the roads in the country will only contribute to this. Improving roads to have no pot holes is one thing, but upgrading them to multi-lane highways, is another. There is a reason people live in the country - for a slower lifestyle and less traffic.
»I would be interested in knowing if other regions, that already have more efficient freight transportation systems, actually use it? If not, then why not? It has to make economic sense or businesses will not use it.
»Make developers foot the bill for the extension of services. That will arrest the development and localize it to the current area.
»It is a 10 hour drive for family to visit us from Cleveland. Driving is not feasible with limited vacation time. Lower airfares would allow them to visit more often by plane and spend money in Knoxville area.

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Thanks to everyone for their contributions online and in person on the strengths and challenges of the region and your communities! Our first series of topics are now closed. All of the content can still be viewed. We are now launching a new round of feedback where we'd like you to prioritize and comment on a set of issues that have been synthesized from your feedback and the best available data in the region. Second up to 5 within each of the 5 topic areas and add your comments to each issue.

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