I'm Ellen Smith, member of the Oak Ridge City Council. Thank you for visiting my blog and reading my views on public and private life in and around Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This website is my own; content here does not represent the official policies or views of the City of Oak Ridge. To add your own comments, click on the topic title to open a comment box. To read posts about a particular topic, scroll down to "Categories" (in the sidebar) or use the "Search" box in the sidebar. Look under "Archives" to see collections of past posts organized by date.
In the midst of Oak Ridge’s continual community gripefest about the dearth of retail, I discovered today that there’s a Barnes & Noble outlet right here in the Atomic City .
OK, it’s “just” the bookstore at the Roane State Community College campus, but it’s still a Barnes & Noble store…
Interesting find in the Secret City, it furthers the notion we have what we need, but the wants are bitters for many Oak Ridgers who want to see a civic responsibility fulfillment from council rather grandiose retail markets. Unfortunately I work mainly in the surrounding counties, it would be nice to see the smaller projects continue, maybe after these small steps our economic woes will subdue. There are plenty of people in our city waiting for this kind of change, but as long as city council plays the commercial development card developers will not invest in what we want.
Another little known resource is the Roane State CC library – it is open to all OR residents.