Chattarati Recent Articles

Get Lost in the Wilderness on New Year’s Eve

2011-12-08T09:00:00Z

The Features performing ‘All I Ask’ at Lake Fever in Nashville, Tenn.Lake Fever Sessions via Vimeo

If you’ve already made plans for New Year’s Eve, then you might want to change them. If you haven’t, then you’re in luck. The Features are coming back to Chattanooga, and they’ll be playing at the Honest Pint, ringing in the New Year.

Originally hailing from the tiny town of Sparta, Tenn., the band has become a fixture in the southeast, cultivating an ever-growing group of fans and is huge in the United Kingdom.

Supporting their new album, Wilderness, the Features have recently been featured on the original motion picture soundtrack of Breaking Dawn: Part 1.

The Features are one of those underappreciated bands that continue to be on the very cusp of superstardom, but for some reason can’t break free from their southern roots grasp. The band, however, has garnered a huge following in Europe. And not in a Hasselhoff kind of way. But in a very real, “these guys are good” way.

“We are excited to have the best show in town for New Year’s Eve,” said Matt Lewis, owner of the Honest Pint. “Their albums are grea,t but to see them live is something else entirely. It puts their sound on a whole other level.”

The Features are reminiscent of the 1980s southern rock darlings Drivin' 'N' Cryin'. Not so much in their musical style, but in the bands’ fanbases.

Kevn Kinney and friends toured extensively in the '80s and '90s. Their music was played religiously on college radio. With hits like “Fly Me Courageous” and “Straight to Hell,” it seemed inevitable that the band would reach national superstardom, possibly becoming as big or bigger as fellow Georgia-based band R.E.M. They even were featured on the soundtrack of the Brad Pitt film Kalifornia.

But, alas, they never made it, which is not to say they weren’t successful in their own right. They still maintain a loyal following. But does the same fate await the Features? Go. Buy your tickets. See the band. Find out for yourself.

Tickets are $10 online and $12 at the door. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. The show starts at 10 p.m. with the Bohannons as the opening act.

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The Civic Forum as Urban Catalyst

2011-11-08T15:30:00Z

Photo courtesy of River City Company.

When you're looking at 1001 Market St., the word "energy" probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. The Civic Forum was razed in 2003 and turned into a parking lot. Since then, it's sat underutilized and devoid of much activity. But given the block's size, long-term vacancy and neighboring energy companies, the former home of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce does have something going for it: potential.

For the past two and a half months, architect Steve Haase and a team of urbanists have been thinking about that potential. The team, calling itself the Big Gig, will present a new design concept for the Civic Forum block on Thursday, Nov. 10. Their presentation will be the second one in the Urban Design Challenge, a year-long series sponsored by River City Company in which teams of architects, planners and designers rethink and draft designs for select sites throughout the downtown area.

Two aspects of the Civic Forum block made it a compelling site to design for, Haase said. "It's one whole block that's empty in the central business district. So one, there's a big void. And two, there's a lack of energy in the central business district after 5 or 6. With those two things, if you're going to energize the central business district, the bigger the project the better."

The Big Gig sees the block as a connecting point between the riverfront and Main Street, Haase said, and a catalyst for the central business district itself. One of their goals was figuring how to tie those elements together.

Before putting pen to paper, the team spent several weeks discussing the site amongst themselves and with other developers. "We concentrated a lot on the actual urban design part of the challenge," Haase said. "I think we've got a great idea for the block, but the idea is kind of secondary to the urban design portion."

"The urban design portion is the first two floors and how the pedestrian accesses the site. So we concentrated a lot on that aspect of it. I think our presentation will reinforce the fact that we were thinking a lot about what happens when you walk by. And in our particular case, as you walk through."

"The permeability of the site was important. The friendliness to the pedestrian was important," he said of the design.

In all, six sites will get similar treatments throughout the Urban Design Challenge. The sites tend to come in pairs, said Christian Rushing, who is a consultant on the series along with Ann Coulter*. The complementary site for the Civic Forum block is 700 Market St., which was presented in August.

"What they share in common is the fact that they're both undeveloped vacant lots in the central business district. But they're different in that one is that one is a very narrow, confined smaller site. And the other one is a full city block," Rushing said. "So we get the opportunity to compare and contrast what you can do in similar places on different sites."

Like the Civic Forum block, many of the sites are vacant. And the teams are encouraged to approach them in a variety of ways. "When I'm briefing the teams, my advice to them is that this is a blank slate. This is a chance for you to be as creative, as innovative or as conservative as you think is necessary to show what your team's vision is for the future of downtown and this site," Rushing said.

One important aspect of the Urban Design Challenge is to start a conversation about urban design, architecture and the built environment. At the end of the series, the designs will be compiled into a portfolio that will serve as a point of reference for future development.

"With the Urban Design Challenge, we’re looking in a new way at future opportunities for high quality development downtown,' Kim White, president of River City Company, said in a news release.

The challenge is a competition too. An outside panel of planning experts will review the designs and select a winning team for a $3,000 award at the series' end.

Haase sees his team's design, and the broader challenge, as a way to show what's possible in Chattanooga's urban landscape. "I would hope that our project will benefit River City Company when it comes to them talking about what people can do in downtown," he said. "Whether it's on this block or somewhere else."

The Big Gig tried to showcase what could be done with the Civic Forum block, Haase said. "But you could also take those same principles and apply them to other places in town."

* Christian Rushing and Ann Coulter contribute commentary on urban planning and design to Chattarati.

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Planning Across Boundaries

2011-10-27T08:00:00Z

When we think about public planning, we tend to think on a small scale: the zoning of a neighborhood, road construction or a citywide sewer system. These planning functions are essential to building a livable community, but they're mostly limited to a local area within a single jurisdiction.

Armando Carbonell thinks about planning on a much larger scale. He thinks in terms of megaregions — large, interconnected areas of urban cities and natural systems that cross county lines and, often, state boundaries.

Carbonell is the chairman of the department of planning and urban form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., where he's worked on national, regional and urban planning policies since 1999. He's also a co-chair with America 2050, a national initiative to prepare for population growth over the next four decades.

On Nov. 1, Carbonell will be in Chattanooga as the second speaker in the George T. Hunter Lecture Series. Earlier this week, he and I spoke by phone about the concept of megaregions, some basic goals for strategic growth plans, and the challenges cities will face in the future.

Q: In the forward to Megapolitan America, you write about the origin of the megaregion. Population growth is a common theme in many planning discussions, but in 2004, you started looking at clustering population growth — that is, trends around specific geographic areas. Is that a fair way to describe it?

A: The first thing we did that was unusual was we picked the year 2050, and that's a lot further out than people tend to look, although the census bureau does have projections out that far. But to get into the cluster thing, we took more specific data for counties. This was at the University of Pennsylvania. We had them buy the Woods & Poole data and projections. We sort of extended that out to 2050, so we would have a sense of where the relative growth and shrinkage was going to be in the country.

I think you get a picture out of that that shows that some parts of the country are going to grow a lot more. Some are probably going to continue to lose population. That has implications for urban form, cities, the environment, and how we use land. We used that as a starting point.

Q: How do you define the megaregion?

A: It's a relatively new way of thinking about regions and space. I see it as including metropolitan areas, the regions around cities, in particular looking at the linkages among metropolitan areas — so that you get more than one city or metro, you get bunches of them — but within some natural context. The map of megaregions that I would use is a bit fuzzy, but they include cities, they include metropolitan areas, and they include large natural systems. What we try to do is not separate the urban function from the natural function. We try to see how they relate to each other.

To pick the one that's closest to home for me, a classic megaregion is the whole northeast of the United States. That stretches from the Appalachians to the Atlantic Ocean. It includes all the big cities of the eastern seaboard and all the spaces in between.

Q: When you start to look at planning in this larger context — it goes across different boundaries in terms of cities, counties and states — what kind of new planning policies stand out as priorities that may not have been as obvious on a more traditional scale?

A: The most obvious has to do with what we call governance, as a part from government. Governance is how we make decisions across various boundaries. It's the way most regional planners now like to think about the whole policy process. So for example in a multi-state megaregion, the first issue is that each state has a lot of control over land-use policy and, to a large extent, over transportation policy. These are two big drivers of development patterns and infrastructure. There is really no easy way to get states to work together across those boundaries that exist today.

We've been interested in the inner-city rail system and especially high-speed rail. Any time a rail line is going to pass through many states, many governors have something to say about it, but also many states' departments of transportation. There's opportunity for things to get uncoordinated. What one needs to think about are the methods by which people get together and work out their needs, that may be different in different states, in some compatible way that leads to a system that works. There's sort of a built-in challenge to anything at that scale that's essentially jurisdictional.

There is no entity that has authority over a megaregion, and we're not proposing that there should be. It's not like a super state. It's a way of thinking across those boundaries about the things that need to be considered at that scale. And there are a few things that just seem obvious, like large transportation systems, large water systems, large energy systems that need to be thought about. Really the insight is that to plan effectively for certain needs, we need to get better at working across boundaries. I'd say that's one of the specialties we've developed at the Lincoln Institute, is how to do that.

Q: When you're working on projects that go across boundaries, like transportation or water quality, do they have to happen at a federal level? Or is there a way that cities can coordinate these policies in an effective way?

A: I think it goes in both directions. When we started thinking about this, we had an ambitious goal to think about national-scale plans. [But we] quickly stepped back from that and said, "That's not really tenable."

I think we learned something the more we looked at the situation: that the country's not homogeneous. Megaregions probably represent the biggest scale that you could think about getting real consensus around in terms of real planning. So we started with a more bottom-up process where megaregions really need to get together and think about their needs and present those to the national government. But we really don't see the national government telling megaregions what to do or creating the national directive to do this.

On the other hand, what we did see happening was that national government has the ability to spend money, or at least it used to. That is a great incentive for people to get together and do things. At different scales, we've seen this recently. The regional sustainability grants that have come out of HUD have brought together people who otherwise weren't getting together to plan — in some cases across state lines. And that's something we encourage them to consider: to think as big as possible in terms of federal inducements to large-scale regional planning. I think that can be a very positive role. And in the stimulus package, there was funding for high-speed rail development that made a big difference in terms of stimulating interest across state lines.

I'm not saying there is no federal role, but we generally would say that the most effective planning should come from the regions. There should be some consideration of national consequences and implications, and there's certainly still great importance to national policy. But especially in difficult times like this, you can imagine more happening at the regional level than will happen at the national level.

Q: Right now, we're in the process of putting together a large strategic growth plan that includes 16 counties across three different states. This kind of initiative has been done in other parts of the country. Your book, Regional Planning in America, highlights a few. In terms of doing that scale of planning, what are some basic goals that stakeholders, government and citizens should hope to get out of the process?

A: The very first thing is getting people to believe that they actually have some influence on the future, and that the thought of planning for a long time is even feasible. I think you have to break down a kind of resistance to the thought that the future is out of our hands — that citizens don't have much to say about it or that planners don't have much to say about it.

That's the difficulty in any one of these initiatives, because there is a kind of fatalism and even a kind of negativism that sometimes creeps in — a sense that things are not going to be as good as they were in the past. I think it's important, because there's no reason to believe that's true, to put that aside and give people a sense of the potential to have a positive effect on the future and to actually do things that will make life better in places, which is the overall goal that planners have.

Some of that has to do with what I'd call visualization. This amounts to showing the possible outcomes of different choices that people can make, often called scenarios, and helping them to see the better and the worse possibilities and the pathways that might lead to the better ones. This has to be conditioned by an understanding that we're operating in an uncertain environment. There are a lot of ways of describing scenario planning, but one of them includes a sense that you can't just pick the scenario you want. You really need to be prepared for different things to happen and consider what the most robust choices are that you can make — to open you up to the best opportunities, but also protect you from some of the worst things that could happen. It's a little bit like hedging your bets.

I think the most sophisticated versions of this kind of long-range, large-scale planning include not just, "let's just pick our favorite scenario and hope we can make it happen." Which, you know, there's some value in that actually. But I think even more valuable is to say, "What happens if energy prices go through the roof? What happens if the housing market stays down?" Consider some of the good or the bad things that might happen, and consider how different paths will fare if those things happen. Then say, "Hmm, maybe I might want to guard against that in some way."

We've done some work on planning for climate change. One of the real challenges there is that nobody can say exactly how much or how quickly climate will change; we're seeing effects of different sorts around the country. Helping people to think about how they can make the best choices — it's not the right choice, because no one knows what that is — in terms of having the fewest regrets in the future with the path that they take. This really is a recognition that communities have different preferences for risk and assess things in different ways. You can't really dictate a kind of mechanical solution to this. It's not strictly a science and engineering problem. It's a social activity to decide how to manage risk and how to think about some of the challenges in the future. Once communities can develop a vocabulary to talk about it, they can do great things in terms of getting people together to address things which otherwise might be scary or that you might just want to ignore.

Q: There's been a resurgence of interest in cities over the last couple decades. Alex Krieger was here recently, and he talked about how Americans are moving back to cities. I want to ask about their role in these bigger systems, specifically the kind of challenges cities will face in the future.

A: I don't know if we want to call it the Seinfeld phenomenon, but it seems that the popular cultural idea of cities — the stock has gone up tremendously.

I think there is a resurgence. I think there are demographic factors that will continue to feed that. I'm a classic baby boomer, and I walk to work. I went to a lot of trouble to live close enough to my office to do that. And I know lots of people who are like me, and there's going to be bunches more. That's one demographic feed going into cities. It's a lifestyle choice, and it makes sense for us.

But there are also a lot of young people who have really been attracted to cities, in certain cities more than others. New York has just had this tremendous boom in young people coming in, rediscovering neighborhoods, and creating real estate value. And that affects one of the challenges: Desirable cities are very expensive places to live. That starts to limit their accessibility to people with ordinary means, and they really need to be accessible to lots of people. Housing is going to be a challenge in cities. Even cities like New York, which are thought of as pretty dense places, are thinking about how to increase intensity of use in places that are less so.

So finding space for people as cities continue to be popular is a challenge. And making housing affordable is a big challenge.

There's also this differential [in that] some cities are growing, but some cities are still shrinking. The statistics out of the last census suggest that the Detroits and the Clevelands and others actually had done worse in between the two censuses than they thought.

The places that haven't grown so much — and generally what is going on now is an acceptance that some of these places are not just going to grow back to their highest population numbers — need to think about an opportunity to reconfigure themselves around smaller population and think about how to better use the space of the city.

In Cleveland for example, things related to urban agriculture are going on in a pretty significant way. [They're] dealing with empty lots and thinking about how to consolidate development as much as possible. I think there's a new realism in some of the cities that have yet to completely stabilize that they'd be better off, in a sense, accepting the smaller population, trying to rework the infrastructure that they have, and think creatively about more green space and about more compact neighborhoods and encourage people to move into more logical clusters where they can do that.

People are working at this in serious and creative ways. I think it's a new attitude, and it's the realistic approach.

Another major challenge is climate change, which I think is the biggest challenge. It's going to require us to rethink how we do a lot of things. Some places are going to be better prepared than others that haven't taken it into account. I think this will be an inescapable phenomenon, and one that we've encouraged people to think about sooner and not later.

Q: Could you give us a preview of what to expect in your lecture next week?

A: Well, I don't want to give it away too much, but I have been thinking about it. It'll be a kind of excursion through a number of scales, so be prepared to get a little dizzy as I zoom up to the level of the planet and then down to something fairly microscopic. That's kind of one of my themes. It may help as you embark on a regional initiative to think about how to think big and think small in a way that's connected. I'll also try to carry through my main idea, which has to do with the integration of cities and urbanism with natural systems. And I might end up on some suggestions on some pathways to a good life, which I think is not too much to ask that planners help us to build a good life for ourselves.

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Waiting for Us

2011-10-24T12:00:00Z

In February, Geoffrey Canada, leader of the Harlem Children's Zone and subject of the documentary Waiting for Superman, told Chattanooga residents concerned about the state of public education, "You have to do it yourself."

Last month at the Tivoli Theatre, education reform activist Michelle Rhee, who also appeared in the film, shared her ideas on how to ensure we give every student an excellent education. Their messages contained remarkable similarities:

We must demand accountability. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students can learn and achieve. And we, the citizens of Chattanooga, are responsible for making our schools successful.

To do so will require that we change the way we discuss education and that we demand our leaders make tough decisions to achieve real improvements.

One issue, Rhee noted, is that political discussions about public education are too rarely about the children and schools themselves or achievement — outcomes for the students the schools serve. Rhee also suggested that the political landscape should not be dominated by the loudest voices.

In Rhee's address, she emphasized that we must advocate for policies that focus on children.

One example from her experience as chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools that ran counter to her typical political leanings was school vouchers. Faced with a parent who saw them as the only way to provide a better opportunity for her child's education, Rhee found herself unable to look her in the eye and tell her not to use it. "We should not make public policy decisions we wouldn't subject our own children to," Rhee said.

She also shared her belief that economic disparity had to mean an achievement disparity.“Refuse to buy into the idea that poor kids cannot learn,” Rhee told the audience. She said that right now we are letting color and zip code dictate achievement, but that "is the biggest social injustice imaginable."

And discussions of school performance should focus on growth, rather than straight achievement scores. In Tennessee, we are fortunate to have a sophisticated, data-based system for measuring the year-over-year progress of our students.

Ultimately Rhee, like Canada before her, spoke of the importance of great teachers. "You cannot underestimate the power of a teacher."

As we look forward to Armando Carbonell's lecture on Nov. 1, we wanted to continue the conversation begun by Rhee and Canada on one of the most important issues facing our region. Both see teachers as critical to the educational success of our students, and both see active citizens as necessary participants in meaningful reform.

So we'd like to hear from our teachers. What can parents and residents do to help build on recent successes in academic growth in Hamilton County and continue improving our public schools? Please leave a comment below or email editors@chattarati.com with your thoughts.

Chattarati is a media sponsor of this year’s lecture series.

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Back Row Film Series Concludes With ‘Truck Farm’

2011-09-14T14:30:00Z

Trailer for ‘Truck Farm.’wickedelicate

Arts & Education Council:

"How do you grow your own food in the city if you ain’t got no land?" NYC-based filmmaker Ian Cheney's solution was to plant seeds directly in the bed of his grandfather's old pickup truck. True, you don’t usually think "1986 Dodge Ram" when you think “green vehicle," but Cheney's truck with ripe rows of arugula, lettuce, broccoli, herbs, tomatoes and habaneros thriving right in its flatbed, is definitely an exception. His Truck Farm even has its own CSA plan!
Screening tomorrow night at Greenspaces, the whimsical, 50-minute documentary Truck Farm will inspire a new, improved way of thinking about how we get our food in the concrete jungle. Through a quirky series of musical, lyric-accompanied, video shorts ("The recession was upon me, my health was slipping away. I decided what I needed, was more vegetables everyday."), the film uses humor to explore creative solutions to urban farming — from rooftops to barges to porches and more. Come see the film and experience the launch of Chattanooga's own truck farm!

The Back Row Film Series screening of Truck Farm will be at Greenspaces on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 6 p.m.

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Brewhaus to Bring European Flair to Hill City

2011-09-07T13:00:00Z

David Morton

Brewhaus, the North Chattanooga gastropub, opens Thursday, Sept. 15, on Frazier Avenue.

Germany may be celebrating its world-famous Oktoberfest this month, but Hunter Hart and Mike Robinson plan to bring the event here to Chattanooga, and keep it running year-round.

Brewhaus, a new gastropub run by the local entrepreneurs, is opening Thursday, Sept. 15, on the North Shore. With 12 beers on tap and nearly four times that being offered in bottles, Brewhaus aims to add a German pub atmosphere to the Scenic City.

"Even though Oktoberfest is technically from mid-September to the end of October, we want our patrons to feel like every day is Oktoberfest," said Tiffanie Robinson, PR representative for Brewhaus. "We'll have an atmosphere that will portray this with German bar songs, new German beers on tap each month, and special brew club incentives and events."

Brewhaus takes their approach to bringing this atmosphere to Chattanooga a step further, however, by sourcing several menu items from local businesses. With breads from Bluff View Bakery, rotating offerings on tap from Chattanooga Brewing Company, and local produce and pastries, the brewpub plans on truly integrating the German experience into our local culture.

"Our vision is to bring awareness of German culture and flavor to the downtown scene along by mixing in local Chattanooga ingredients to stay in line with the local food movement Chattanooga is so proud of," said Robinson. "This is a passion of ours, and we have chosen to center our careers around the art of good food and good drinks."

Brewhaus will be running special food and drink offerings coinciding with Oktoberfest to celebrate its grand opening.

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The Bethlehem Resource Center

2011-09-02T10:00:00Z

The Brainerd area has the most wonderful thrift store, the Bethlehem Resource Center, on Brainerd Road. This center has everything that you could be looking for such as furniture, dishware, clothing, computer equipment, children’s items, and casual/formal wear. Yes, the items are "gently used," but they are in very good condition, and hidden treasures can be found if you take the time to look around.

There are plenty of furniture items that could be used in a student’s or individual's first-time apartment. There are also saw a few computer items that could be used to start a home office or to teach someone the basics of computers. And if you are looking for a formal outfit for that one occasion where you don’t want to spend lots of money, they have a wide variety. Just take it to the dry cleaners, and you would have paid no more that $25 for a great elegant outfit.

The Bethlehem Resource Center accepts items by donation or on consignment sold through the store, and they will also sell your items on Ebay for you on a 50/50 split.

Personnel will negotiate prices with you if you believe something is priced too high. They stated that they are not in the business of making lots of money but helping the community. What a great philosophy to live by!

Before you throw things out during your fall cleaning, consider donating to the Bethlehem Resource Center. They will also come and pick up your donation from your home. Take a moment to stop by on Brainerd Road (next to the costume shop) and check them out.

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Tackling the 700 Block of Market Street

2011-09-01T10:30:00Z

Today begins the first Urban Design Challenge presentation series, with proposed work for the 700 block of Market Street. While the opening event in July featuring Alex Krieger was a big hit, with several hundred in attendance, this event is expected to draw a similar crowd. Actually, since this first presentation features a team of locals and a real site, I wonder, will this event actually be more attended than the July opening with Krieger?

This is a site that has a colorful and controversial history, and is compelling to me for a number of reasons:

1. The team. Known as Dynamic Density, this team is led by two architects with whom I share an office, David Barlew and Craig Peavy. Friends and respected colleagues, I know David and Craig to both be passionate for and energetic in their roles as stewards of the built environment. Because they work within feet of me, I have had a couple of hearty conversations on their project, the role of urban design, the value of community engagement and discord, and history as it relates to design. In each case, at the conclusion of the conversation, I, or they, have remarked, “Well, that’s exactly what this Urban Design Challenge is for.”

2. Speed. Dynamic Density was awarded this site and this project in late July, giving them about six weeks to understand the project goals, soak in the history of the project site, consider conceptual schemes and uses for the site, and settle on and develop a strong idea. As a comparison, were this a real architectural commission for a real project, it would require a similar team of multi-disciplinary professionals about 10-12 months, at least, to produce a thorough design for the project. The award that this team stands to receive for participation in the program would pay a licensed architect for about 3-5 days of work. The amount of work that this team will present in a short amount of time is astounding.

3. Downtown. When I think of downtown, I think of the commonly named Central Business District (CBD), which I would define strictly as 6th to 9th, Cherry to Chestnut streets. This is the densest part of the city and, seemingly, the one part of the city that needs the most help. It’s the only part of the city where the original fabric of buildings still dominates the landscape, where the streets feel like outdoor rooms, and where it’s easier to just walk four blocks than drive. However, even Christian Rushing’s favorite urban block, the 700 block of Cherry Street, perhaps the least altered continuous city block in the city, is crowned with a prominent missing tooth (a surface parking lot) at one of its corners, and it likely has more office space that is vacant than occupied. In the rest of the CBD, empty office space abounds. We’ve been trying for years to infuse a viable retail market into the city, and various efforts have been made through the years to animate the public realm in the Central Business District. But the efforts to revitalize Main Street, Frazier Avenue, and other smaller scale urban/commercial neighborhoods have been more successful at achieving a 24-hour-occupied, vibrant public realm.

Granted new projects, such as the EPB building, renovations, like the Read House and Loveman's, and events such as Nightfall have been huge for the CBD, but all in all, over the course of the last 40 years, when retailers left for the malls in the suburbs, and buildings started to be razed to make room for 30 parking spaces here and 50 there, it seems that the momentum of revitalization is elsewhere. And to me this is because the physical and architectural fabric of these smaller neighborhoods can accommodate the more suburban lifestyle that we have all grown accustomed to. We love the old buildings, the animated public sidewalks, the restaurants, the loft apartments, and in the smaller neighborhoods, there’s a chance of being able to park within two blocks. So we can have the best of both worlds. But to animate and truly re-inhabit the CBD (on a 24 hour a day basis) will take a significant lifestyle change and leap of faith by a truly large number of middle income Chattanoogans (in terms of living, playing, and working here). The 700 block has been looked at by multiple developers, many of whom rely on urban development as their bread and butter, and so far none have been able to make the project work. The challenge is not one that we can solve by conventional urban development formulas. The CBD needs our attention.

4. History. The 700 block is a symbol of Chattanooga’s past, present, and future — both because it is a historic site (its Fountain City Drugs was one of our last locally owned, walk-up pharmacies) and because of its current state as a gaping hole in the fabric of the CBD. The most geographically constricted of the six sites, the 700 block begs for an alternative analysis, one that accommodates a certain amount of small-fabric rebuilding of the site in a pattern that would be more in scale with its original development. Or does it? Is the three-to-four-story building fabric from the late 19th century the appropriate scale for a 21st century city? As friend and local expert on architectural history Andy Smith pointed out to me a few weeks ago, the precedent for size and scale in downtown Chattanooga isn’t the three-to-four-story Fountain City drugs building; instead it’s the high rise that began to be built as early as 1906 in the form of Broad Street’s James Building and others that soon followed. The Hamilton Bank tower (now First Tennessee bank building, clad in metal in the 1970s), the Maclellan Building, Chattanooga Bank Building, and nearby Patten Towers are some of the early models, with the Suntrust tower (1970s) being one of the most recent.

But at the same time, as beautiful and dignified as some of our 100-year-old towers are in downtown Chattanooga, I tend to agree with a former professor who claimed that skyscrapers suck the life off our city sidewalks. Or another colleague, who often pointed out that one of the most visited and beloved cities in the world, Paris, France, is composed almost entirely of buildings that are no more than six stories tall — none of which require an elevator. So it doesn’t seem to require 20-story developments to build a thriving 24-hour city. Maybe just six stories. Some slightly less, some slightly more.

Size is just one of the issues sure to be a topic of conversation before, during and after the first presentation by Dynamic Density. I hope the presentation additionally stirs conversation about parking in the downtown core, low and middle income housing, downtown retail, and public realm animation. I hope that it causes people to question how they live in our city, how they move around, with whom they do business, and where they fill their prescriptions.

And as I mentioned before, this is the whole point of the Urban Design Challenge. Chattanooga has an internationally acclaimed reputation as a superb small city that pulled itself up from the doldrums of economic and environmental despair, re-engaged with the place of its birth, the river, and activated the community in a decades-long process of excellent urban design to completely change the course of its history for the better. But we’re not done, and the purpose of the challenge is to reawaken the community to the strengths and necessities of good urban design. For those of you that are interested in this event, please plan to attend. Also, there is a smaller and more casual gathering planned for the following week, September 8, a Community Design Forum, which will present an opportunity for Chattanoogans to reconvene for a moderated discussion about the virtues of the 700 block presentation. The forum will be held at Greenspaces from 5:30-7:30. Hope to see many of you there.

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Michelle Rhee, Michael Pollan to Bookend Lecture Series

2011-08-14T12:00:00Z

Buoyed by high attendance and an overwhelming response in the recent past, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series returns with a lineup of nationally renowned experts for 2011-2012. Michelle Rhee, Armando Carbonell, Robert Pinsky and Michael Pollan are speakers for the series that begins Sept. 20, the Benwood Foundation announced today.

During the next eight months, each of the speakers will visit Chattanooga, discuss his or her personal experiences, and challenge residents to pursue positive, long-term change in their communities.

The series, now entering its fourth year, has become the preeminent event for bringing creative thought and new ideas to the city.

“The Hunter lecture series has always maintained a focus on bringing the nation’s foremost thinkers and leaders to Chattanooga,” said Corrine Allen, executive director of the Benwood Foundation. “By doing so, we hope to generate meaningful dialogue around big ideas and how they apply to community issues within Chattanooga.”

The first and final lectures with Rhee and Pollan will be at the Tivoli Theater. Lectures by Carbonell and Pinsky will once again be held at UTC's Roland Hayes Concert Hall.

The change in venue is one indicator of how the lecture series has grown in popularity, said Benwood's Lori Quillen. "We have received an overwhelming response to past lectures, and we wanted to provide an opportunity for even more people to be able to attend."

But it also reflects the caliber of expertise the series brings to town. The upcoming lineup includes Rhee, an educator who has helped institute significant (and sometimes controversial) reforms in education; Carbonell, a leading voice in smart growth and land-use policies; Pinsky, the celebrated U.S. poet laureate; and Pollan, an activist who is at the fore of a national conversation on food.

Named after George Thomas Hunter, the Chattanooga businessman who founded the Benwood Foundation in 1944, the lecture series correlates to the foundation's four focus areas: public education, community development, arts and culture, and the environment.

Dates and topics for the speakers are listed below. The lectures are free and open to the public.

About the Speakers

Michelle Rhee is an educator with an 18-year career in teaching, administration and advocacy. Her lecture, "Putting Students First in Public Education Reform," will be at the Tivoli Theater on Sept. 20.

Rhee was chancellor of DC public schools from 2007-2010. Upon her appointment, the system was one of the worst performing in the country, and it was entrenched with special interests and political division. She became a lightning rod for criticism due to her willingness to challenge teachers unions on merit pay and tenure. However, test scores and the overall graduation rate showed marked improvement during her administration.

Rhee later appeared in Waiting for Superman, a documentary film about educational reform inspired by the work of Geoffrey Canada. She recently founded the advocacy group StudentsFirst, which pursues reform through state governments. She lives in Nashville, Tenn.

Armando Carbonell is a senior fellow with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. His lecture, "Planning for Increased Growth, Livability and Economic Vitality in the Chattanooga Region," will be at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall on Nov. 1.

With almost 30 years experience in professional planning and urban growth policy, he has emerged as one of the country's top voices on smart growth.

In 2009, Carbonell became a co-chair for America 2050, a national initiative to prepare the United States for explosive population growth in the next four decades. The organization develops research and policies for 11 mega-regions — systems of metropolitan areas connected through their economies, natural resources, and transportation systems. (Chattanooga is part of the Piedmont Atlantic System.)

Carbonell has co-edited three books on regional planning. He teaches at Harvard University.

Robert Pinsky is a writer, literary critic and former U.S. poet laureate — the first to serve three consecutive terms from 1997-2000. His lecture, "Placing Value on the Arts in Tough Economic Times," will be at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall on Feb. 7, 2012.

Pinsky has published 27 books, including his acclaimed translation of Dante's Inferno, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic magazines.

In 1998 the poet laureate created the Favorite Poem Project, a one-year call for Americans to submit their favorite poems. Though he initially expected a modest response, more than 18,000 people contributed to the project. The submissions became the subject of several well-attended public readings, and many of the poems were collected into two anthologies, Poems to Read and Americans' Favorite Poems.

Pinsky is the poetry editor at Slate and teaches in the graduate writing program for Boston University.

Michael Pollan is a journalist, activist and author of four New York Times best-selling books. His lecture, "How to Eat: Making Food Choices That Nourish Your Body and Your Community," will be at the Tivoli Theater on April 19, 2012.

In the past decade, Pollan has been at the fore of a national conversation on food. Time magazine named him one of the world's most influential people in 2010.

His 2008 book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, challenges the often-complicated theorems of nutritionism with a simple maxim, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The same year, he starred in Food, Inc., a documentary film based on his work that examines the industrial production of food, its effects on personal health and the environment, and the powerful interests that shape agribusiness.

His writing has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the New York Review of Books. He teaches at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Pollan's lecture is co-sponsored by Gaining Ground.

About the Series

Started in 2007, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series has quickly emerged as a must-attend event. Past speakers include Madeline Albright, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Brooks, Geoffrey Canada and Malcolm Gladwell.

The series is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, and CreateHere.

Chattarati is a media sponsor of this year's lecture series.

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Weekend Deals for Aug. 6-7

2011-08-06T10:30:00Z

Resident bargain hunter Adrienne Royer lists some of the best deals in Chattanooga and from around the Web. Cross-posted from Modernbelleblog.com.

In case you've missed the news, it's a tax-free holiday in Tennessee. Clothes and school supplies up to $100, and computers up to $1,500, are tax free. For more details go to the state's official page on it.

Also, don't forget the Junior League of Chattanooga's liquidation sale of the Bargain Mart and the Warehouse Boutique Sale at Loose Cannon.

This weekend also marks the World's Longest Yard Sale, which swings through parts of Hamilton County. This sale is fabulous, and I've furnished two apartments (almost all vintage from 1920s through the '60s) from it alone. If you need furniture, this is the absolute best time and place to buy it.

Since time is short this morning — I've gotta get to the Bargain Mart! — these are the best deals to take advantage of this weekend.

Misc. Deals

The focus this weekend is on clothes, computers and school supplies, but there are some other offers:

Rimmel: Print off a $2 off of one item coupon from Facebook. Some blogs are reporting cosmetics as low as 24 cents with this. (via This Frugal Life)

Denizen Jeans: I just won a free pair of jeans! If you like Denizen Jeans by Levi on Facebook, you can enter to win either a free pair of jeans or discounts.

Download a free audio version of the complete Chronicles of Narnia. Love this deal! I'm a big C.S. Lewis fan, so this is exciting. (via Mojo Savings)

Restaurants

O'Charleys: $5 off of a purchase of $20 with this coupon. (via Mojo Savings)
Ruby Tuesday: Get a coupon for two free mini burgers and fries when you like them on Facebook. (via Totally Target)
If you want some deals on fast food including Quiznos, Little Caesar's, Dairy Queen, Baja Fresh and KFC, The Krazy Coupon Lady has deals and coupons.

School Supplies

Time2Save Workshops has the ultimate wrap-up on pencils, paper, backpacks, glue and any other school or office supplies you could need. Go there to find deals on these items.
If your just going to Target, here's a list of discounts from Mojo Savings. Also, Don't forget to look at Target coupons.
Crayola has some rare coupons available right now on Facebook. (via Hip2Save)

Retail

Hip2Save has a great round-up of retail offers. Check it out before you go shoppping. I'll be using the Ulta coupon.
Clipper Girl also has some retail deals highlighted.
Sam's Club: This weekend is an open house for non-members. That means there's no 10% surcharge for non-members. For members, that just means Sam's Club is even more crazy. (via Moneywise Moms)
Kohl's: Print off a shopping pass to take off an extra 20% your entire purchase. This includes sale and clearance items. (via Coupon Cravings)
Gap Outlet: If you live near a Gap Outlet in Tennessee (remember Georgia isn't doing a tax holiday this year), save 20% off of a purchase of $75 or more with this coupon. Valid only at Gap Outlets. (via Coupon Cravings)
Express: Save $15 off a purchase of $30 with this coupon. (via Fantabulously Frugal)
Old Navy: Deals on jeans starting at $10 for the kiddies. The Old Navy Super Cash deal is still going on, so you get back $10 with every $20 you spend. (via Time2Save Workshops)
Shoe Carnival: Print off a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $39.98 or more. (via The Krazy Coupon Lady)
Ann Taylor and Loft: The Friends & Family Sale is still going on, so take 30% off of your entire purchase.
Michaels: Starting tomorrow, there's a coupon for 40% off of one item.

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