The earthquake Friday woke is up. A precarious table rattled at 5:40. Anybody else in Blount County? We are far from the epicenter and none of the news that I have seen mentions this area as being involved.

Tennessee Dept. of Transportation (TDOT) continues to think backwards. I went to a public meeting Monday about a "Corridor Study" TDOT is doing of the I-81/I-40 corridor. TDOT is trying to determine how to improve the movement of goods and people from Bristol to Memphis. This is especially about freight traffic and whether and/or how to move freight from the interstate to rail.

We learned that they are doing NO analysis of the environmental effects of any of the alternatives. They think that environmental effects will only be considered AFTER they make recommendations about what projects to pursue.

They think in terms of dozens of finite and discrete parts of the 550 mile corridor (i.e., the 15 miles east of the I-81/I-40 split) and not in terms of the entire system.

That is bad enough, but to make decisions about whether to support freight rail improvements and if so, which ones, BEFORE considering the effects of the options on, for instance, air quality is backwards and not in the public's interest.

They also seem entirely unable to consider things like whether anyone can find and afford motor fuel in the future. Or whether the location of "development" (residential, industrial, and commercial) can be influenced by where the roads go.

The TDOT people and the consultants they hire are stuck in old and irrelevant system of transportation planning rules, and it will take public outcry and active engagement at the level of the regional transportation planning organizations (TPOs) to change it. Currently, the TPOs rock along doing what they think local officials want (county commissions, city councils, mayors, etc.)

But in Blount County, nobody on county commission plays a role in or knows anything about what the Knoxville area TPO does. And there are some 15 different and independent TPOs in the path of the I-81/I-40 corridor.

Is it any wonder that The Pavers dictate the plans?

The Knoxville Regional TPO is going to begin a long range planning process in May. Be on the lookout and be ready to participate. Or we will get more of the same.

The Daily Times' editorial Sunday advocating the completion of the Pellissippi Parkway once again resorts to several Big Lies: "A lot of taxpayer money has, we think, been wasted in continued restudying the route just to please a small group of the county's 120,000 residents who oppose and seek to block it for personal reasons."

Actually the "restudying" is being done to please a federal judge who ruled that the initial "study" did not meet the requirements of the law.

The assertion that opponents are acting "for personal reasons" is also inaccurate and based on the same blind devotion to the highway that allows public officials to be in favor of it without knowing what effects it will actually have on the county. By far the majority of opponents of the highway do NOT live in or near its path.

And of course many of the people in favor of the road say they want it because it will make it easier for them to get to work. I guess that is not a "personal" reason. Nor, I guess, is it "personal" for developers and pavers and people who bought land near the first proposed route to favor its being built.

Opponents of the PPE have been very careful to tell the truth and ask for data. Supporters, on the other hand, seem to have different standards.

Pellissippi Parkway Extension will not be good for Blount County. Please check out the analysis by The Raven Society here Link... and notice that it is Blount County (not Maryville and Alcoa) which stands to lose if it is built. In addition, there are alternatives that could actually help with traffic (which TDOT admits the PPE will NOT do) and which would not lead to higher taxes and more sprawl.

I challenge opponents of the road to say so on February 19 (or in writing by March 10). Saying so on this blog will NOT be part of the official record and will NOT HELP. The Chamber of Commerce is busy urging people to show up so if you care about this at all, BE THERE!

I challenge supporters of the road to offer evidence that anything in The Raven Society's analysis is incorrect.

The Daily Times apparently does not have room to tell its readers that the state's Attorney General has issued an opinion exonerating Wendy Pitts-Reeves and Bob Proffitt from a conflict of interest regarding their providing professional services for county employees. The Knoxville News-Sentinel managed to find room to let us know.

Seeing Immigration as Migration may help those of us who really want to understand the world (as opposed to those who do not care why immigrants live here but are against it anyway). Here is a long but very interesting analysis that makes it clear that the basic economic forces of capitalism and especially neoliberal capitalism are the drivers of migration/immigration. Link...

Pellissippi Parkway Extension and "development" are the unstated reason for the interstate, according to a persuasive letter to the Daily Times. Link...

I think Mr. Templeton correctly identifies the real pressures for this project, which of course noone will admit to in public. Since TDOT itself acknowledges that the highway will not make traffic flow any better, what other reasons are there for persuing it?