Through a combination of local food initiatives and the installation of a new high-speed fiber optic network, the city of Chattanooga is hoping to continue its trend of recovering from years of industrial decline.
Neal Peirce visits the city to see how these two efforts are playing out, and how the city can use them to gain a competitive advantage over other regions.
"The Chattanoogians' next challenge is how to build a new economy around the rapid smart grid service - and before other regions catch up. New companies may be attracted, for example, by virtually instantaneous videoconference capability that might attract footloose young entrepreneurs in search of short commutes, mountain trails and other smaller city amenities. There is some question about how well the region supports start-up firms, but an "angel" venture capital fund - Chattanooga Renaissance - fills some of the gap.
Chattanooga's other ambitious new agenda is promotion of locally grown foods - tasty, healthy, fresh, and grown from city backyards out to the 13-county surrounding area.
The food initiative is being pushed by the locally-based Bentwood Foundation, commiting $1.65 million to a three-year "Gaining Ground" initiative."
FULL STORY: Fast Net, Slow Food: Chattanooga’s New Formula
Google Fiber Halts Expansion Plans
Alphabet will likely pursue other ways to deliver high-speed fiber-optic internet service.
How to Unlock America's Bottom-Up Innovation
Thomas Friedman uses Chattanooga, Tenn. as an example of the "innovative thrust building, bottom-up, in the U.S. economy today." In an opinion piece for the Times, he urges leaders in Washington to help unlock America's embryonic growth surge.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association