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UPDATED: Tracking Knoxville’s evolution via the Carrie Bradshaw measuring stick
Posted By katie allison granju
Matt Edens makes some interesting observations on Downtown:
The film adaptation of the hit HBO series Sex and the City scored a stunning $26.1 million dollar opening night last Friday (that is—in terms the movie’s characters could relate to—enough to buy more than 30,000 overpriced pairs of Manolo Blahnik pumps, slides, and sling-backs). I don’t know the exact numbers, but downtown Knoxville apparently did its part. Most, if not all, of the evening shows at the Riviera were sold out, record numbers of cosmopolitans were consumed at the Downtown Grill and Brewery, and Gay Street was thronged with groups of women in flirty sundresses and slutty heels (even if, being Knoxville, there were more knock-offs than actual Manolos). It was a “happening,” according to one observer, while another said she’d “never seen anything like it.”
Made me wish I was single—and downtown. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, as curious a cultural phenomenon as the Sex in the City opening was, the truly astonishing thing was where Knoxville’s wannabe Carrie Bradshaws flocked to both see the film and indulge in a little Manhattan make-believe of their own. I mean, Sex in Turkey Creek doesn’t quite cut it, does it? You might be able to see the movie, but how would you round out the evening? Dinner at The Olive Garden? Drinks at O’ Charley’s? A little late-night shopping at the Wal-Mart Super Center?
Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Yet the idea of Friday night’s “happening” happening downtown would have sounded even less plausible not so long ago. When Sex and the City premiered in 1998, Market Square’s storefronts were mostly empty. A first-run film hadn’t been screened on Gay Street in decades. The Sterchi, Emporium, and what are now half a dozen other upscale addresses were just big, empty buildings. Even the over-ambitious, abortive, and downright whacky Worsham–Watkins plan for reviving downtown was a year or more down the road. Crowds returning downtown to eat, drink, and shop was crazy talk, much less the idea that, in 10 years’ time, hundreds of women would flock there to drink cosmos and catch a movie premiere.
Almost seems like a different city, doesn’t it?
Matt’s right: not so long ago, the idea that West Knox dwellers would flock to Downtown Knoxville did indeed sound like “crazytalk.”
My hope is that as “crazy” as it may sound now, City Councilman Bob Becker’s ambitious new plan to “take Knoxville to the next level” by creating (via ordinance and city investment) a network of sidewalks all over town may one day be as successful as Downtown Knoxville is today.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds is also noticing an SATC vibe in Downtown Knoxville.
Jun 5th, 2008
