chattanooga_milestones

Curtis D. Adams

Chairman, Hamilton County Commission

Among the events that stand out as our community began to move forward is the bold move by the City of Chattanooga and the Hamilton County government to invest $10 million in Enterprise South Industrial Park.

What a day it was when the Governor of Tennessee joined city and county leaders as we opened this magnificent industrial property and placed the "Welcome Mat" at the Enterprise South door. I am confident that we are now on the right track in our long search for industry.

Sally Robinson

City Councilwoman

In the early 1980s, before any progress could be made, we needed to start thinking and acting like a community that cared about all its people and the future-and that is what the Riverbend Festival was all about. Conceived and developed by volunteers from various backgrounds, the summer music festival was planned with the goal of bringing Chattanoogans from all walks of life together in a spirit of harmony. With jazz and zydeco, rock and roll, and blues and strutting, the festival welcomed everyone. Riverbend helped us make new friends and learn to appreciate our differences.

J. Stroud Watson

Director, Planning & Design Studio

The Image of the City exhibition by the Urban Design Studio and University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design in the summer of 1981 is an ephemeral milestone. The content displayed downtown visions, including the Miller Park Plaza District, the "heart of the city," and a return to the river as the "origin of the city," with the Tennessee Aquarium as the catalyst for a public waterfront. Principles called for us to remember that the urban public realm is our "civic living room" for all citizens; to integrate living, working, and playing; and to create diverse downtown neighborhoods.

Three thousand citizens participated, making this our initial public design "charrette," a tradition that continues today in all our planning to build the best mid-sized city in America for our citizens.

Jack Murrah

Executive Director, Lyndhurst Foundation

The work of the Moccasin Bend Task Force in the early 1980s was the first major initiative in a revitalization process that continues to strengthen the character of the city, and it laid down a pattern for others that followed. Its most pioneering and enduring features are these:

• It established a working partnership between local government and private philanthropy.

• It demonstrated how to integrate the expertise of top-flight design professionals with the vision and interests of local citizens.

• By recalling attention to the world-class natural features of the city and insisting on a development plan that aimed for the same high standards, it helped the community reclaim neglected assets and find the energizing force of self-respect.

• By placing special attention on the intersection of the river and downtown, it suggested a harmony between urban and environmental interests that may well be the most distinguishing element of the city's emerging national identity.

Clifton Cleaveland, MD

Civic Leader

Sparkle Day in 1972 transformed Chattanooga's air and our expectations for our communal future. A coalition of manufacturers, environmentalists, and government leaders demonstrated the power of civic cooperation in addressing tough issues-in this case, our city's notoriously polluted air. This successful demonstration of cleansing the air paved the way for future collaborative ventures that continue to lift the quality of life for our community.

Collaboration of a different sort placed Chattanooga firmly upon the cultural map of the United States in the 1980s. The Arts and Education Council, the University, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers joined forces to present The Conference on Southern Literature. Using a lecture and seminar format, the conference has evolved into a multi-faceted event that includes residencies and workshops in area schools and colleges and an annual writing competition in prose and poetry for K-12 students.

Mai Bell Hurley

Former City Councilwoman and Chair of Chattanooga Venture

The Walnut Street Bridge may be the perfect symbol for Chattanooga's downtown rebirth and return to the river. The 112-year-old span, once a vital connection between a vibrant downtown and a prime residential community, was abandoned and condemned, declared unsafe, and closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. A group of visionaries saw its potential; others thought the idea of a pedestrian bridge was impractical. In the end, the city government and private philanthropy saved the bridge. Today it once again connects a vibrant downtown and a thriving North Chattanooga.

In the mid-1980s, when Chattanoogans decided to restore their confidence by defining those special qualities that made their city unique, their first bold step was to build an aquarium to celebrate the Tennessee River.

The thousands of people who came together for Chattanooga Venture's Vision 2000 called for a return to the river. Their vision included parks, river walks, and a place to raise the community consciousness about the treasure that washed their shores.

The guiding principle for the Tennessee Aquarium was stated by its leader and principal funder, Jack Lupton: "If you are going to do something, make sure you do it first-class."

Jack's vision, coupled with the dreams of the many whom were a part of Vision 2000, set the standard. The $45 million privately funded Tennessee Aquarium led the way to our understanding of how very special we are and what great things we can accomplish together.

Ruth Holmberg

Publisher Emeritus, The Chattanooga Times

With the decision by the city to exit the school business, it was possible to merge the city and county systems into the Hamilton County School System. In our case, this was a true merger, not a takeover as had happened in other cities. In Chattanooga and Hamilton County, neither system predominated. A new system was created and a new superintendent hired. It was a formula for success going forward.

The Venture Visioning process allowed Chattanoogans from all walks of life to think together and to dream dreams that would begin to create the city of their choice. This was the beginning of the public/private partnerships that have transformed our community. And the Venture process has been replicated many times here, indicating that the public sector wants citizen input and citizens want to be included and to contribute.

Gene Roberts

Former Chattanooga Mayor

The transition of the University of Chattanooga into the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assured the growth in student population we have seen, the broadening and deepening of the academic curriculum, and the opportunity for poor and minority students to attend a university that would not otherwise have been possible. These changes are already contributing mightily to a healthy increase in this city's middle class and to the economic and cultural vitality of the community.

Retired Businessman

The Venture movement of the mid-1980s was really a grass roots movement, with broad participation from every level and background. The beauty of the process was that we laid down goals, and we also planned those dreams into reality. We talked about affordable housing and along comes Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise. We talked about community policing and now we have sub-precincts across the community. We talked about organizing our neighborhoods;

now we have neighborhood associations.

We moved from the vision to the reality.

Another positive outcome of the movement was that it represented the first time blacks and whites have come together, not in a crisis mode, but in a mode of equality in terms of validity of ideas. As a result, Chattanooga's race relationships have greatly improved. We've still got a long way to go, but you can see progress-we had a black superintendent of schools, a black police chief, and the CEO at Memorial Health Care System is black as is the interim CEO at Erlanger Health System. I think Chattanooga really became a community during those meetings in the '80s.