Blog

Regional Growth Planning Process Group Announces Public Meeting Thursday, November 03, 2011

The following is excerpted from a press release issued by the Regional Growth Planning Process group. Here is the press release in its entirety.

What: Join us in laying the groundwork for engaging people from across the region in setting a course for our future. In addition to learning more about the effort, you’ll have a front row seat as three expert teams present their qualifications for facilitating the Regional Growth Planning Process. Your feedback on the expert teams will help determine which of them will coordinate the initiative.

When: Thursday, Nov. 17, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Chattanoogan Hotel (Ballroom), 1201 South Broad St., Chattanooga, TN 37402

Please RSVP to ensure we have adequate seating by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please be sure to include your name, company/organizational affiliation, phone number, and email address with your RSVP.

For more information about the process and the expert teams that will be making presentations, please see the following article (linked here) and Q&A:

1)Which counties are included in the footprint for the planning process?
Alabama Counties: Dekalb and Jackson
Georgia Counties: Catoosa, Dade, Murray, Walker, Whitfield (anchored by City of Dalton)
Tennessee Counties: Bledsoe, Bradley (anchored by City of Cleveland), Hamilton (anchored by City of Chattanooga), Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie

2)What organizations and companies have participated in the stakeholder group to launch the process?

City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, City of Cleveland, Bradley County, Whitfield County, Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, EPB, Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, Southeast Tennessee Development District, Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, Benwood Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Lyndhurst Foundation, Maclellan Foundation, CBL and Associates, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, McKee Foods, Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, Shaw Industries, Cleveland-Bradley Chamber of Commerce, Unum, and CreateHere.

3)What’s the value to citizens?
· A process for effectively managing the accelerated growth the region is already experiencing through unprecedented investments by a number of industries.
· A voice in planning how the region can be more prosperous and generate added economic opportunities for ourselves and our children.
· A forum for better understanding the region’s “big picture” and expressing our ideas, values and priorities.
· The opportunity to join with others in maintaining and enhancing what makes our communities special.

4)What’s the value for business?
· Increased community awareness about public investment decisions that support business growth.
· Greater predictability in future public investments that affect business planning.
· Improved local government collaboration across jurisdictional lines that increases efficiency and minimizes public service costs.

5)What’s the value for local governments?
· Playing a lead role in creating an economic legacy of job creation rooted in regional cooperation that ensures continuing prosperity for generations.
· Improving financial stewardship by aligning public spending with constituent priorities, values and ideas as expressed during the planning process.
· Communicating with residents about the challenges they share with people across the region and engaging them in developing broadly supported solutions.
· Coordinating with neighboring jurisdictions in order to focus on the most impactful efforts that benefit the most citizens for the least cost.

Posted by Dave Walker in Economy in Culture
RSA Networks Exchange by Katherine Currin of STAND Chattanooga Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Since 2010, I have been a Fellow of the The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Founded in 1754, the London-based society’s (recently re-articulated) mission is “to develop and promote new ways of thinking about human fulfilment and social progress which speaks directly to our strapline - 21st century enlightenment.”

The society’s current projects include Arts and Ecology, Citizen Power, Connected Communities, Design and Society, Education, Public Services, Social Brain and Technology in a Cold Climate. They coordinate events and maintain a physical space in London called The House. Most of all, the RSA connects a 27,000-strong network of fellows, representing over 70 countries, who support the mission of the society.

Chattanooga’s network is made up of around 15 fellows. Over the past 12 months, the RSA’s Chattanooga network has offered small scholarships and grants to support participation in local programs, such as museum memberships for Calvin Donaldson students, small travel stipends for fellows, and RSA membership scholarships for young professionals.

Here is a sampling of the work that Chattanooga’s RSA fellows are engaged in:
Nelson Irvine, a fellow of 40 years (and a third-generation US Fellow) plans to re-institute the RSA Reflection Riding Lectures at the Chattanooga Arboretum Bioblitz. The series focuses on environmental stewardship and conservation will re-launch with the 5th Annual Bio Blitz in 2012.

Trey Meyer is leading the Broken Windows Brigade program and has leveraged a small amount of support from the RSA network to get matching funds and a considerable community support for improvements in a distressed housing project.

Sharon Turner was awarded a RSA Catalyst grant to build a Saturday Arts Academy out of an urban school with no visual arts on the curriculum. Sharon was able to leverage the RSA funds to successfully raise matched funds of a 10:1 scale. This will help sustain the project for another three years.

Each month, the Chattanooga-based RSA fellows gather together to provide encouragement, fresh perspectives, and problem solve.

I have personally benefitted from these interactions. Fellows have offered valuable advice on how to creatively use the massive amount of data gleaned from the Stand survey and strategies for developing a grassroots support system.

RSA fellows from around the world can also connect with one another through the society’s website, but it is rare that we have face-to-face interactions beyond our local networks. In October, a group of four fellows from the Chattanooga network traveled to New York City for the first ever US Networks Exchange.

The purpose of our visit was to present the work we are doing in Chattanooga and to share some insights as to how we move beyond conversation into action. The RSA is looking to our community for cues on how they can foster healthy networks and enable individual fellows to engage in meaningful work. Our response: quality leadership and a strong sense of shared purpose.

It was an honor to represent our community, and we hope that our work will continue to position Chattanooga in the limelight as a place where people get things done.

+++
While in New York City, I enjoyed some of these noteworthy sightings, sites, & restaurants:

On the Lower East Side, I came across The National Debt Clock.

This was followed by a very timely run-in with members of the Occupy Wall Street movement marching to Occupy Times Square.

Just off of Times Square, streets designed for people and performance.

Passing through Chelsea, is the infamous improv and sketch comedy hub, Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.

Continuing West to hop on the High Line, which stretches from West 30th to Gansevoort between 10th and 11th Avenue, for a stroll down to the Meat Packing District.

In the West Village, Art Bar and The Jane, built in 1908 as a hotel for sailors with cabin-like rooms. (Thank you, Veronique!)

Just off of Washington Square, The Center for Architecture’s current exhibit, Buildings = Energy, brings awareness to energy issues in New York City’s built environments.

In Nolita, Lombardi’s - America’s First Pizzeria! This institution has been in operation for over 100 years and they’ve perfected their trade.

Note: the Storefront for Art and Architecture is not open on Monday’s. Their current Storefront Facade, Sacred Spaces In Profane Buildings, looks pretty great and I was sorry to miss it. The Storefront Facade is one of New York’s only alternative platforms focusing primarily on architecture and the built environment.

At the intersection of Houston and 2nd Avenue, a sliver of vacant land between two tenements was being temporarily occupied by The Guggenheim Lab, ‘a mobile laboratory traveling around the world to inspire innovative ideas for urban life.’ The lab had just wrapped up its 53-day long stay in New York and was being dismantled for travel to Berlin and then Mumbai. Over six years, the laboratory will travel to nine major cities worldwide. Part urban think tank, part community center and public gathering space, the laboratory seeks to address issues of contemporary urban life through programs and public discourse.

Staying in the East Village, for great sushi at Kanoyama and then a trip around the corner to McSorley’s Old Ale House. Established in 1854, McSorley’s offers its patrons two choices of brew: ‘light’ or ‘dark.’

Posted by Katherine Currin in Culture
Musician Christie Burnsʼs MakeWork Grant Project Is Coming to Fruition This Weekend!

Christie is bringing veteran string teacher, Pamela Wiley, to Chattanooga this weekend for the OʼConner Method Teacher Training Seminar. Join area string instructors in learning to teach the OʼConner Method at The Folk School of Chattanooga. See the above ﬂier for more details about the seminar, and this video for information on the OʼConner Method.

MakeWorkʼs art grants programs is currently raising funds to continue supporting artists like Christie to inspire Chattanooga!

Posted by Dave Walker in Arts in Culture
Simple Acts Bring Neighborhoods Together, Making Them Cleaner & Safer

Over 26,000 responses to the Chattanooga Stand questionnaire revealed that crime is a primary perceived challenge within our region. Approximately 30% of respondents provided a comment about crime, desiring a safer city. Six of the top ten social issues discussed were crime related. To address our need for safer neighborhoods, CreateHere developed the Broken Windows Brigade in 2010 in response to the Chattanooga Stand survey. Based upon the Broken Windows Theory, the Broken Windows Brigade seeks to create effective strategies to engage local residents in crime prevention.

In order to curb systemic crime in Chattanooga neighborhoods, the Broken Windows Brigade:

1. Educates citizens about the Broken Windows Theory
2. Educates citizens on how to embed crime prevention activities into their daily lives (and support ongoing police efforts)
3. Educates citizens on current crime data (real and perceived);
4. Supports social networks and community mobilization in the interest of reducing contextual factors encouraging crime.

As Trey Meyer, Coordinator of the Broken Windows Brigade says, “Whether you are a resident of a high-crime neighborhood or not, your hands, minds, and voices are needed to help reduce the context encouraging crime, for reasons other than just public safety.”

With this in mind, on October 26, Kip Harkness, the Director of the Stronger Neighborhoods program in San Jose, California spoke at City Share: Stronger Neighborhoods. He described methods implemented through his program that strengthened communication between neighborhoods in San Jose and the local government and dramatically reduced crime. One action taken was a simple neighborhood walk, which brought out community members to inspect their neighborhood, taking inventory of broken street lamps, graffiti, pot holes, and anything that could be reported to the city for repair. Neighborhood walks are growing in their noted effectiveness (Mayor Corey Booker shows his success in Newark, New Jersey below).

Harkness spoke Wednesday of the importance of inviting government officials to join neighborhood walks, to show them, This is our neighborhood, This is the broken streetlamp in front of my house or this is the pothole in front of my house. He said the effect is astounding, not only does the community feel more enfranchised, but the officials feel better connected with the citizens they serve. It is a win, win that costs only our time. Harkness believes that the key to a successful neighborhood walk is food; food easily brings a community together. San Jose has seen marked changes in its neighborhoods since enacting practices like walks. As Harkness said at City Share, We know that if you make a neighborhood cleaner, it becomes safer. And Chattanooga could realize dramatic gains through making our neighborhoods cleaner and safer, through reducing crime by just 5%: $225 per household per year, $25.4 million in total annual public costs saved, and $5.8 million in direct, tangible costs to local residents saved. And progress to make our community cleaner and safer is done everyday.

Cowart Place, one of Southside Chattanooga’s neighborhoods, completed its first neighborhood walk Tuesday October 25th. Photographs of the walk can be found here. Teal Thibaud, a resident of Cowart Place and a member of the Chattanooga Stand team, said the idea emerged after a series of crimes in the neighborhood. “It’s hard to talk about crime in our neighborhood, when we don’t even know who lives in our neighborhood. The most important and lasting part of the walk was being able to put a face with a house.” She said that the group identified six street lights burnt out, picked up several bags of trash, and spoke as a group about where the future they would like to see in their neighborhood.

Simple actions like the neighborhood walk taken around Cowart Place can stem lasting change within our neighborhoods. We do not have to live in neighborhoods where crime is common. To learn more about San Jose’s Stronger Neighborhoods program, and its innovative community building ideas, see Trey Meyer’s interview with Kip Harkness from earlier this year.

Posted by Dave Walker
Shift Chattanooga: One Business, One Classroom Thursday, October 27, 2011

“Schools always need outside help, and schools can give back to business.”
-Sherry Crye, Director of Workforce Development for the Bradley/Cleveland Chamber of Commerce

SHIFT CONVERSATIONS John Ballinger from ShiftCha on Vimeo.

When John Ballinger and the Enterprise Gateway Council brought One Business, One Classroom to Hillcrest Elementary School, the challenged school saw incredible gains in literacy and awareness that otherwise might not have happened without the help of local businesses adopting classrooms. Students who had never been asked what they wanted to be when they grow up were suddenly contributing to a schoolwide 400% increase in literacy, and were exposed to contemplating their future beyond high school.

During the last SHIFT BreakOut Session, discussion about One Business, One Classroom, and similar programs that can be replicated to support our classrooms, dominated the conversation. Initiatives like One Business, One Classroom can, and must, continue in our classrooms, engaging businesses across our community as proactive and positive support systems for classroom teachers. They must continue not just to inspire our children toward strong careers, but to stimulate a model for how our community can develop innovative ways to come together.

News is spreading around the our region, state, and nation about the effective collaboration between local businesses and public schools:

The call to action:
Companies aren’t getting the employees they need.
The long term under-education of our labor force affects business

Work in progress:
Business leaders inject themselves in school reform
Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce uniting businesses with local students

We need to spread the word about programs like One Business, One Classroom, because we can’t watch others become engaged, and not act ourselves. When students and teachers are not supported, our whole economy and well-being suffers. For instance, we know that a high school dropout is six times more likely to be incarcerated, four times more likely to be unemployed, and three times more likely to live in poverty than a high school graduate. We also know that as the number of college graduates in a metropolitan area increases by 10 percent, individuals’ earnings increase by 7.7 percent, no matter how educated they are. So it makes good sense to support all of our children. One Business, One Classroom is a great example of identifying a need in our public education, and making a commitment to our children’s future, and our own.

SHIFT CONVERSATIONS Perrin Lance from ShiftCha on Vimeo.

“I think that if education starts to go in a downward spiral in America, if we start to lose that, and we start to forget that we belong to each other, then, what happens?
Perrin Lance, Co-founder of Chattanooga Organized for Action

Shift Chattanooga: Together We Can Give the Present a Future

If you would like to join the Shift Chattanooga Conversation about public education, please visit the Shift Chattanooga website or Facebook page.

Posted by Dave Walker