Last night, the Los Portales Event Center at 4505 Asheville Highway was electric with tension as over 200 East Knoxville residents packed the room for a town hall called by City Councilmember Gwen McKenzie. The topic? The City of Knoxville’s controversial “deal” to sell 12.7 acres of Chilhowee Park—home of the Tennessee Valley Fair since 1916—to the Emerald Youth Foundation for a proposed $20-$30 million sports and recreation complex. What unfolded was a raw display of community frustration, distrust in city leadership, and a desperate call for transparency that’s been missing from this process since day one.

If you missed it, I’ve got you covered. I posted every unedited minute of the evening in videos on my last post, here capturing the heated exchanges, pointed questions, and moments that laid bare the disconnect between the city and its people. One clip, in particular—this 4.5-minute unedited segment from the Q&A about the Tennessee Valley Fair—deserves your attention. It’s a microcosm of the night’s chaos, featuring Mayor Indya Kincannon and Tennessee Valley Fair President Scott Suchomski, with a curious cameo from the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, David Brace, who seemed more interested in recording Suchomski than listening to him.

In the clip, Kincannon takes the microphone first, facing a barrage of heckles as she defends the city’s vision to make Chilhowee Park a “year-round” destination. She insists the city has engaged with 500 East Knoxville residents over three years through Emerald Youth’s outreach. But the crowd wasn’t buying it. Boos drowned her out, and it’s no wonder why—residents like Vivian Shipe, Tanika Harper and Sky Smith voiced what many felt: the city’s process has been opaque, leaving East Knoxville in the dark about a deal that could forever alter a historic community space. “We want to claim our park as our own,” Harper declared. “We deserve it.”

Then came Scott Suchomski, who laid out the fair’s perspective. The Tennessee Valley Fair, a cultural cornerstone for over a century, faces an uncertain future if this deal goes through. Suchomski’s measured but firm tone underscored a critical point: fair organizers have been sidelined, despite a lease guaranteeing their place at Chilhowee through 2026. The city’s vague assurances about relocating fair activities—like moving student events to the current Muse building or shifting staging areas—rang hollow. And here’s where it gets spicy: during Suchomski’s remarks, David Brace whips out his phone to record him, glancing twice at someone behind him (likely Steve Diggs, Emerald Youth’s President and CEO). The optics? Terrible. It’s as if the city was more focused on catching a gotcha moment than addressing the real concerns.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about 12.7 acres of “underutilized” land, as the city calls it. This is about trust—or the complete lack of it. The city relied on Emerald Youth’s appraisal to set a $913,518 price tag, a move even Chief Financial Officer Boyce Evans misrepresented as a city-led effort. No public input sessions were held before the proposal hit the council agenda, a stark departure from Knoxville’s usual process for major projects. Councilmember Amelia Parker nailed it: “The city owes the residents of East Knoxville and all of Knoxville a public engagement process.” Yet, Kincannon’s administration let Emerald Youth drive the bus, crafting the request for proposal to fit the nonprofit’s vision while neighbors were left out of the loop.

Emerald Youth’s plan—a sports complex with athletic fields, a gymnasium, and a career center—sounds great on paper. No one’s arguing against youth development. But when the process feels like a backroom deal, and when the land in question is part of a park woven into Knoxville’s history, people get angry. Attendees like Aisha Brown warned that the council might ignore the community’s pleas, urging everyone to show up at the September 2 vote. “We can’t leave here and think everything is OK,” she said. She’s right. The council’s decision to delay the vote on August 19 was a small victory, but it’s not a guarantee of change.

So, what’s next? The city claims it wants to move at the “speed of trust,” but trust is earned, not declared. If Kincannon and her team want to salvage this, they need to stop hiding behind Emerald Youth’s community engagement and start leading their own. The Tennessee Valley Fair deserves a seat at the table, not a pat on the head. And East Knoxville residents deserve more than a last-minute town hall after years of silence. Watch the Q&A clip, here. See the frustration, the phone recording, the side glances. Then ask yourself: is this how a city should treat its people?

Join East Knoxville at the City-County Building on September 2 at 6 p.m. for the council vote. Let’s make sure our voices are heard—because Chilhowee Park isn’t just land. It’s our history, our community, and our future.