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.
Census data have been slow trickling in. I posted earlier about Oak Ridge’s total population and housing occupancy data, which were the only statistics available. I’m very curious to see the neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdowns (they are available to computer techies, but haven’t been output in a user-friendly form yet). However, there’s information on ethnicity.
Oak Ridge’s minority [...]
I got e-mail suggesting that Americans should find out where their water comes from in honor of World Water Day (today, March 22) and to help us watch out for our families’ health. It seems that many people don’t know. I do know where our water comes from — the Clinch River. The intake is [...]
The first 2010 Census data for Tennessee have been released — and they confirm that Oak Ridge is no longer “about 27,000 people.” The total population as of 2010 was 29,330 — an increase of nearly 2,000 people since the 2000 census count of 27,387. After decades of stability (the official population was 28,319 in [...]
This coming Saturday, area residents can drop off fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, and cell phones for recycling at the Oak Ridge Wal-Mart store, where Keep Anderson County Beautiful and Anderson County Solid Waste will be celebrating America Recycles Day with a collection event and educational activities for kids. It’s scheduled from 10 am to 2 [...]
The Oak Ridge Environmental Quality Advisory Board’s long-awaited Climate Action Plan is available in draft form for public review — download it here. The plan describes recommended measures for reducing energy consumption (and thus emissions of greenhouse gases) by city government and by the community at large. I missed last Tuesday’s public meeting about it [...]
This piece on the Roane Views website is a nice feel-good story about preserving little bits of local history: Number 68 Comes Home
The author lived in a flat-top house on West Outer Drive around 1950, and was able to visit the flat-top that’s now on display at the American Museum of Science and Energy, apparently [...]
Traveling around Oak Ridge, I’ve been seeing two disconcerting trends related to signage, one temporary (“signs too soon”) and one more permanent (“signs too flashy”).
The temporary trend is political signs going up too soon. Oak Ridge’s sign ordinance (part of the zoning ordinance) specify that political signs can’t go up until 30 days before the [...]
Two bits of good news in a row: (1) The Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort now owns the Alexander Inn and (2) an additional trail segment has opened on the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement in westernmost Oak Ridge. Hurray for the people whose volunteer efforts are making good things happen!
On the Alexander Inn, Kate Groover [...]
The 3/50 Project is giving us all a simple recipe for preserving and promoting commercial activity in our communities: pick 3 independently owned local businesses that you would miss if they disappeared, and spend $50 each month at those businesses ($50 divided among all three). The basic idea is to commit a total of $50 [...]
This weekend, when it seems that most of America celebrates shopping, seems to inspire discussion of the perennial topic of “Oak Ridge retail”. My recent e-mail has included both (1) cheerleading for the 3/50 Project and (2) questions about the Oak Ridge city center development (why did the mall fail? what is the city going [...]