Interlopers Are Us (Knoxville, Tennessee)

The gentlemen who sold me a South Gay Street condo publishes a Knox blog. Needless to say, I’ve started writing for him.

In keeping with Inside of Knoxville’s digital boosterism, my premiere polemic — Why I Left Austin for Knoxville — blows smoke up Marble City’s ass.

In my own special way (click here to read). I’m particularly proud of Dorothy’s imaginary clap-back on good witch Glinda’s smarmy “you always had the power to return home” diss.

A riff apropos of nothing much, really, but that’s entertainment! Yes, well, some readers were not amused with the hihowareya prose poem to my new stomping grounds. Anna:

tl;dr just please stop publishing things like this. Knoxvillians are suffering so much right now with the influx of Interlopers.

I’ve lived here 18 years and just as I was in my career after graduating in my field enough to save for a house everyone from every where else out bid by a landslide.

I have such fury for the influx of people. So glad everyone gets to move here and live their dream.

Wait. What?

Nothing Anna could’ve written would have wounded me more than those four letters. On the positive side, she laid the blame for my ode to carpet-bagging at my publisher’s feet. More accurately than she knew.

Until now? Nah. What are the odds she’s perusing this post? Higher than the odds that she can buy her dream home in Knoxville, apparently.

NIMBY?

Despite my antipathy to double negatives, I can’t say she’s not wrong. Gentrification has obvious winners and losers.

Lower and middle class property owners who bought cheap and sell high roll out of town rolling in once-unfathomable amounts of clover. Financially-challenged locals trying to get a foot on the housing ladder are SOL.

Residents on the wrong side of that equation see the influx of wealthy immigrants as usurpers. Entitled immigrants buying a vibe created by hard-working natives. Killing longstanding local culture with their financial “kindness.”

No question: capitalism is a bitch. But it’s nothing new. A point I made in my reply to Anna’s broadside: “We’re all interlopers.” A comment that set off Bee.

No. Some of were born here and have deep roots in Appalachia. My great-grandmother was born in a one room cabin on the side of the mountain not far from town.

I would love to own a home in my hometown, but with the influx of interlopers, I am unable to. So please stop plugging Knoxville as this sanctuary city. It won’t be for much longer.

I’m a great admirer of the pioneer spirit: the hard work and hard lives of Tennessee’s early settlers.

At the same time, it behooves their descendants to realize that the land originally belonged to someone else. People who didn’t cash-in on the newcomers’ prosperity. Far from it.

The Truth About Tennessee

For thousands of years, until the 1700’s, the land that’s now Tennessee was inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Yuchi, Muscogee and Cherokee (who came to dominate the region).

In 1763, following the conclusion of the Seven Years' War and the Treaty of Paris, the British government agreed not to let settlers cross the Appalachian Mountains.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbade colonial settlement west of a line drawn along the mountain chain, designating the area an Indian Reserve.

Thousands of white “settlers” ignored the proclamation and continued to move westward, leading to tensions and conflicts with the Natives (a.k.a., murder and mayhem).

Not to mention frustrating land speculators like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Men who saw the American Revolution as a business opportunity.

They weren’t wrong. When that deal went down, the displacement and destruction of native American tribes began in earnest.

In that regard, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was particularly effective. It led to the forced relocation of Native Americans from Tennessee – and other southeastern states – in what became known as The Trail of Tears.

At some point before, during or after the Native Americans were driven from Tennessee, Bee’s great-grandma got her one-room cabin. Someone benefited from that exfiltration. Someone didn’t. To say the least.

Churchill

I’m not judging. People do what they have to do to survive within the society they find themselves.

But I am saying that Winston Churchill was right: capitalism is the worst of all possible economic systems. Except for all the rest.

What’s more, I’m aware of the irony of my position. I left Austin because of the effects of an enormous influx of well-heeled out-of-state immigrants did to the city's character.

In my defense, I’m not a tech bro. I’m a writer who appreciates local culture, who will work to extend and defend it.

Yes but – is Knoxville bound to follow Nashville’s (and Austin’s) lead and grow into something less than it was before?

That’s not on me, mate. That will be determined by local and national economic and political forces beyond my control.

Meanwhile, again, I hope to add something valuable to Knoxville’s gestalt. Like a comparison of South Gay Street’s three ice cream parlors? Yes!

If my writing encourages newcomers to move to Marble City, I hope they’re the right people attracted by the right things for the right reason.

Sue me if I’m wrong. That too is the American way.

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