Blog
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City R&D: Bright Minds, Increased Connectivity Friday, August 27, 2010
Four potentially transformative ideas for the future of connectivity between downtown Chattanooga and Enterprise South were generated last Friday at City R&D, a summit composed of more than forty of the best and brightest minds in Chattanooga.
Our participation in City R&D was driven by one of the most important things that we learned from 26,263 responses to the Chattanooga Stand survey: citizens are worried about pollution, traffic, congestion and other issues of growth. Exploring connectivity between our urban core and the emerging center of commerce known as Enterprise South was a great opportunity to gather many of our city’s great minds together to think about how we might connect our city for common betterment.
While Chattanooga has a rich history of public planning and civic action, this particular civic muscle always stands in danger of atrophy. City R&D served as a chance to remember that we are all greater when we work together across disciplines on common issues.
In our opinion, City R&D was a win by lunch as our diverse group of business and non-profit professionals, civic leaders, artists, and architects began the day by traveling to the Enterprise South Fire Department via multiple highway, bike, and public transportation routes. Many participants experienced their city—its problems and opportunities—with fresh eyes. We consider the work that happened in the afternoon to be the icing on the cake for moving Chattanooga forward.
As for how each project explored lives on, we’ll be sharing the work produced at City R&D with as many stakeholders as possible and will be looking for additional forums to explore bike lane advocacy, public art connectivity between downtown and Enterprise South, animation of public and private spaces in less animated areas, and the possibility of light rail connectivity in the areas studied.
There are many resources available if you want to get acquainted with the work done at City R&D. Download a summary of the outcomes of our day that includes an info-graphic of our four major outcomes, check out our Flickr Stream from the day, or watch an impromptu set of bus interviews that one our teams shot during their travels.
And, of course, special thanks goes out to GOOD Magazine and the rest of our partners for helping make this event happen: AIGA, The American Institute of Architects, The Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Association, the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and The Lyndhurst Foundation.
