Price for buffet lunch is $15 (includes complimentary parking in the hotel garage).

If you plan to eat, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday, October 10 at noon.

 If you choose not to eat, a charge of $7 will cover parking and event arrangements.

The formal meeting begins at 11:55 a.m.

The city closed the Gay Street Bridge because engineers — some of the best in the country — deemed its structure so compromised that it could not safely carry vehicular traffic and would need to be replaced. But many Knoxvillians, including some candidates for City Council, still think the current bridge could be repaired.

Compass co-founders Scott Barker and Jesse Mayshark will talk about how infrastructure development — bridges, roads, stormwater systems, traffic-light networks and the like — is a core mission for local governments. This year’s city election underscores its importance — Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon is pushing for passage of the sales-tax increase referendum by emphasizing the infrastructure improvements the new revenue would fund. And Knox County government is in the process of creating its first unified development ordinance, which will overhaul subdivision regulations, road design standards, stormwater requirements and more.

Voters have an obvious interest in infrastructure policies, but turnout in local elections, particularly city elections, is embarrassingly low. Barker and Mayshark will talk about turnout and how it affects local governments’ decision-making processes.

They also will discuss the local media landscape, the need for sources like Compass and Mayshark’s new project, the Progressive South.

The mission of Compass is to help inform civic dialogue among local decision-makers and community members about the factors and forces shaping our city and county. Compass provides news, insights and analysis of Knoxville and Knox County government, politics and business. Subscribers receive an email briefing delivered straight to their inbox every weekday, with links to new stories and a roundup of other news and events. Compass website content is updated every weekday, too.

Compass was co-founded 2018 by Scott Barker and Jesse Fox Mayshark, two long-time journalists with a love of Knoxville and deep knowledge of our community’s politics and personalities. Between the two, they have nearly 50 years of experience in journalism and government.

Scott Barker, the son of Protestant omnivores, was born in Chattanooga and raised in Kingston, where his claim to fame was being the high school quarterback.

After a nomadic and forgettable college career, he worked in various jobs, including an idyllic interlude as a crew member at LeConte Lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, until he was hired as a reporter at the News Sentinel in 1999.

He won numerous national, state and regional journalism awards as a reporter and editorial page editor over his 18-year stint at the paper. He was the lead reporter of the News Sentinel’s coverage of downtown Knoxville’s redevelopment, Black Wednesday and its aftermath, the Kingston coal ash spill and other seminal news events over the past two decades.

He lives in North Knoxville with his wife, Kimberly Jones.

Jesse Fox Mayshark, the son of Zen Buddhist vegetarians, was born on the West Coast, grew up on the East Coast, and has spent most of his adult years in Knoxville, Tennessee. He first moved south in 1994, shortly after graduating from Penn State University with a degree in journalism. 

He has worked for publications large and small, including as a copy editor for The New York Times News Service; a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel; and as editor of Metro Pulse, the late, lamented alternative weekly that served Knoxville for more than 20 years.

He left journalism for a bit, spending seven years working for the City of Knoxville, where he served as senior director of communications and government relations for former Mayor Madeline Rogero — the first woman elected to the office.

In 2025, Jesse stepped back from editorial duties at Compass, though remaining a minority partner, to launch The Progressive South, a nonprofit media platform for progressive voices and values in the Southern U.S. Its first project is the weekly Headlights podcast.

Jessee also is the author of Post-Pop Cinema: the Search for Meaning in New American Film (2007) and co-author of The Scopes Trial: a Photographic History (2000).

He lives on a quiet block in North Knoxville with his wife, two children and a very fine cat.

Roots cling to boulders along Honey Creek Loop in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Oneida, Tenn.  Photo by Jesse Fox Mayshark

For more information on TSK and its meetings, please email the secretary, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him at 865-679-9854.