Knoxville

Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, whose sports teams, the Tennessee Volunteers, are popular in the surrounding area. The first people to form substantial settlements in what is now Knoxville were indigenous people who arrived during the Woodland period (c.1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000) The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century. The arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in the city. As one of the largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture and is a gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. First recorded Euro-American presence in the Knoxville area was the Timberlake Expedition, which passed through the confluence of the Holston and French Broad into the Tennessee River in December 1761. Most Cherokee habitation in the area was concentrated in what the American colonists called the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, southwest of Knoxville.

History

Knoxville is the primary city name, but also Concord, Concord Farr, Concord Farragut are acceptable city names or spellings. The first people to form substantial settlements in what is now Knoxville were indigenous people who arrived during the Woodland period (c.1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000) One of the oldest artificial structures in Knoxville is a burial mound constructed during the early Mississippian culture period. The first major recorded Euro-American presence in the Knoxville area was the Timberlake Expedition, which passed through the confluence of the Holston and French Broad into the Tennessee River in December 1761. Most Cherokee habitation in the area was concentrated in what the American colonists called the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, southwest of Knoxville. Knoxville served as capital of the Southwest Territory of Tennessee (admitted as a state in 1796) until 1817, when the capital was moved to Murfreesboro. The city was named after Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who at the time was superior to Blount's superior, General George Washington. In 1793, Knoxville settlers attacked the Cherokee chief Hanging Maw, killing the chief's wife. The Treaty of Holston, which was negotiated and signed at White's Fort in 1791, was the first treaty between the U.S. and the Cherokee in the East Tennessee region. Blount College was chartered in 1794, which served as the starting point for the University of Tennessee, which uses its founding date of 1794 as its own. It is the only college in Tennessee to be named after a president.

Geography

Knoxville falls in the humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) Summers are hot and humid, with an average of 36 days per year with temperatures reaching 90 °F (32 °C) Winters are generally much cooler and less stable, with occasional small amounts of snow. Knoxville is the central city in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-designated metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that covers Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union counties. Along with unincorporated communities such as Halls Cross, Powell, Corryton, Concord, and Mascot, Knoxville's city limits also include Alcoa, Blaine, Marycoa and Loudon City. As of 2012, the population of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area was 837, as well as the larger OMB-designated Knoxville Combined Statistical Area (CSA) The Knoxville CSA also includes the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Sevierville-Sevierville Combined statistical Area (Hamblen, Graevinger, Jefferson and Jefferson counties) The city is located in the Great Appalachian Valley, about halfway between the Great Smoky Mountains to the east and the Cumberland Plateau to the west. High points include Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville at 1,391 feet (424 m) and Brown Mountain in South Knoxville. House Mountain, the highest point in Knox County at 2,064 feet (629 m), is located east of the city near Mascots.

Cityscape

Knoxville's two tallest buildings are the 27-story First Tennessee Plaza and the 24-story Riverview Tower, both on Gay Street. The city's most iconic structure is arguably the Sunsphere, a 266-foot (81 m) steel truss tower built for the 1982 World's Fair. The downtown area contains a mixture of architectural styles from various periods, ranging from the hewn-log James White House (1786) to the modern Knoxville Museum of Art (1990) Knoxville is home to the nation's largest concentration of homes designed by noted Victorian residential architect George Franklin Barber, who lived in the city. Other notable local architects include members of the Baumann family, Charles I. Barber (son of George), R. F. Graf, and more recently, Bruce McCarty. The area is roughly divided into the Downtown area and sections based on the four cardinal directions: North, South, East Knoxville, and West Knoxville. It also includes the suburban neighborhoods of Sequoyah Hills, West Hills, Bearden, Cumberland Estates, Westmoreland, Suburban Hills, Cedar Bluff, Rocky Hill, and Ebenezer, as well as the urban areas of Magnolia Avenue, Fountain City, and Five Points. It is located on the banks of the Tennessee River, which runs through the center of the city and into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east. It has a population of 1.2 million, making it the third largest city in Tennessee.

Demographics

In 2010, the population of Knoxville was 178,874, a 2.9% increase from 2000. In 2014, Forbes ranked Knoxville one of the top five most affordable cities in the United States. The city's poverty rate was 25%, compared with 16.1% in Tennessee and 15.1%) nationwide. The home ownership rate was 51%, and 74.7% of residents had been living in the same house for more than one year. Knoxville is the most affordable U.S. city for new college graduates, based on the ratio of typical salary to cost of living. The median household income was $32,609, and the per capita income is $21,528. The population density was 1,815 persons per square mile. In 2010, there were 83,151 households in Knoxville, with an average of 2.07 persons per household. In 2020, there will be 190,740 people, 83,492 households, and 40,405 families residing in the city. The racial and ethnic composition of the city was 76.1%, with 17% black, 0.4% Native American, 1.6% Asian, and 0.2% Pacific Islander. High school graduates were 83.8% of persons 25 and older, and 28.3% had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. In 2017, Knoxville had a crime rate of 13.2%. The city has a poverty rate of 25%. In 2010 the city's crime rate was 13.0%.

Economy

Knoxville is home to Pilot Flying J, the nation's largest truck stop chain and sixth largest private company. In 2011, 15.9% of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area's (MSA) work force was employed by government entities. The city's largest office building in terms of office space is the City-County Building, which has over 537,000 square feet. Knoxville's largest industrial park is the 1,460-acre (590 ha) Forks of the River Industrial Park in southeastern Knoxville. As of 2011, the median price for a home in Knoxville MSA was $140,900, compared with $173,300 nationally. In March 2009, CNN ranked Knoxville as the 59th city in the top 100 US metro areas in terms. of real estate price depreciation. The Knoxville area is home. to 596 office buildings which contain over 21 million square feet of office. space. The average rental rate per square foot was $14.79 as of 2010. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reported $10.5 billion in revenue in 2021 and employs over 12,000 region-wide. The largest bank market is Knoxville-based First Tennessee, with $2.6 billion in local deposits, representing about 16% of local bank market. The nation's fourth largest wholesale grocer, The H. T. Hackney Company, reported $3.8 billion in Revenue in 2012. Other notable privately held companies based in the city include Bush Brothers, Sea Ray (and its parent company, Brunswick Boat Group).

Culture

Knoxville is home to a rich arts community and has many festivals throughout the year. Its contributions to old-time, bluegrass and country music are numerous, from Flatt & Jethro to the Everly Brothers. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO), established in 1935, is the oldest continuing orchestra in the southeast. Knoxville was the location of Sergei Rachmaninoff's final concert in 1943, performed at Alumni Memorial Auditorium at the University of Tennessee. The city also hosts numerous art festivals, including the 17-day Dogwood Arts Festival in April, which features art shows, crafts fairs, food and live music. The Big Ears music festival, dubbed the "most ambitious avant-garde festival in America in more than a decade" in a 2014 Rolling Stone article, hosts musicians ranging from the aforementioned punk rock to chamber pop. Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville, and the city and East Tennessee are frequently mentioned in his films, such as in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, in which Bruce Willis' character (and the watch given to him by Christopher Walken's character) is from Knoxville. Mark Twain wrote about a gunfight in downtown Knoxville involving Joseph Mabbellum Mabry-Hazen House in Life on the Mississippi from 1883. In the Tennessee Country, Peter Taylor refers to a fictitious politician's main cemetery where the main character's grandfather is buried. This may refer to Knoxville's own grandfather, Robert Taylor, who was originally buried in 1912.

Sports

Knoxville, Tennessee is home to the University of Tennessee's football and basketball teams. It is also the home of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The Knoxville Ice Bears are a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. Knoxville is also home to a professional soccer team, the Knoxville Force. The telephone area code for Knoxville and eight adjacent counties is 865 (Volunteers), which is the same as the number for the city of Knoxville. The city has a population of 1.2 million people, the highest in the state of Tennessee, and one of the lowest in the U.S. in terms of population per square kilometre. The population of Knox County is 1.3 million, and the population of the surrounding counties is 2.4 million. The town's population is predominantly African-American, with the majority of the population living in Knoxville or surrounding areas. The majority of its residents are from Knox County, Tennessee, which is located on the east coast of the United States. The county has a high percentage of African-Americans, and a low percentage of whites, who live in Knox County and its surrounding counties. The number of whites living in the county is the lowest of any city in the country, with less than half of all residents living in or around Knox County. The highest percentage of blacks in the city is in Knox Valley, where the population is about 1.5 million people. The largest percentage of Hispanics live in the town, with more than 80% of the city's population.

Government

Knoxville is governed by a mayor and a nine-member City Council. It uses the strong-mayor form of the mayor-council system. The current mayor is Indya Kincannon, who was sworn in as the city's second female mayor on December 21, 2019. The Knoxville Police Department serves the citizens of Knoxville with 378 officers and a total of 530 employees. 911 ambulance service inside Knoxville is provided by AMR Ambulance under contract with Knox County. The fire department operates 19 stations with 308 uniformed personnel. The council chooses from among its members the vice mayor, the Beer Board chairperson, and a representative to the Knoxville Transportation Authority (currently Amelia Parker) The City Council meets every other Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building. The city is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for East Tennessee. It is also the home of the Knox County Sheriff's Office and the Tennessee Department of Criminal Justice. The mayor is elected to a four-year term that is eligible for reelection once, and the council members are elected through a nonpartisan, district-wide primary in which top two vote-getters advance to a city-wide runoff election in November. It has had a number of mayors, including Victor Ashe (1987-2003), Kyle Testerman (1972-1975, 1984-1987), and Randy Tyree (1976-1983) and Madeline Rogero (2011). It has a mayor who was elected in 2011.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Knoxville, Campbell County, Tennessee = 16.1. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 61. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 90. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Knoxville = 4.6 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 190,740 individuals with a median age of 35.5 age the population grows by 5.56% in Knoxville, Campbell County, Tennessee population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 1,931.90 residents per square mile of area (745.91/km²). There are average 2.07 people per household in the 83,390 households with an average household income of $31,682 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is of the available work force and has dropped -5.51% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 19.98%. The number of physicians in Knoxville per 100,000 population = 373.7.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Knoxville = 47.4 inches and the annual snowfall = 6 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 119. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 204. 88 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 30.3 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 38, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Knoxville, Campbell County, Tennessee which are owned by the occupant = 46.05%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 40 years with median home cost = $125,930 and home appreciation of -0.53%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $8.63 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $4,387 per student. There are 18.1 students for each teacher in the school, 561 students for each Librarian and 609 students for each Counselor. 4.89% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 15.42% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 9.62% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).