Mike Ross owns a LOT of land in Blount County. This is the subdivision you see up in the mountains beyond Jellico between here and KY along I-75:

Federal authorities have cited a prominent East Tennessee developer for illegally strip-mining coal at a gated, luxury golf resort touted as an "eco-friendly community" under construction in Campbell County.

Link...

CNN/Money Magazine has compiled their list of best small cities for families. Franklin is the only Tennessee small city to make the list, number 45. To be included in this list, a city must have a population between 50,000 and 300,000.

Maryville is too small to be considered. Here is how Maryville compares to the top 10 best places to live. Alcoa is way too small and no comparison is included for our tiny town.

In 2007, Money Magazine looked for the best towns in America and compared towns with a population of 7,500 to 50,000. Bartlett was the only Tennessee town to make the top 100, at number 95. Here's how Alcoa and Maryville compare to the 2007 best towns in America. Alcoa shows good job growth and a higher than average racial diversity index. Maryville shows a lower than average commute time and a higher than average percentage of the population that walk or bike to work.

H/T's to Kleinheider and Jack Lail.

Parkway Update

Here's a writeup at KnoxViews re. a couple of interesting land use programs Mr. McMahon mentioned in his presentation this week, i.e the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and Location Efficient Mortgages.

(LEMs are still in a pilot program, but wouldn't be relevant in Blount Co. anyway because we don't have any public transportation.)