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October 25, 2005
Economic Recruiting in Bizarro World
Remember when Chattanooga was being featured in magazines and newspapers around the world? Utne Magazine. Parade. U.S. News & World Report. Urban Land. USA Today. Outside. They were all crazy in love with Chattanooga. During the Corker and Kinsey administrations, the media was tripping over itself to tell The Chattanooga Story.
You know the one—Dirtiest City in America in the 1970’s, then the citizens come together and pull the city out of the doldrums and breathe life back into the decayed downtown, making it one of America’s loveliest small cities. Hoorah! for citizen involvement. Yay! for thoughtful design. Etc, etc.
“But will the dream continue? Unfortunately not everyone shares it.”
That bucket of cold water over the head is pulled from an article in the October issue of New York City-based Metropolis Magazine that was sent to me recently. The author, Alex Marshall, describes WorstMayorRon as, “a candidate who specifically ran against downtown development. Since taking office, mayor (funny he left out the ‘worst’ and ‘ever,’ must be a typo.) Ron Littlefield has essentially disbanded the influential design office that spearheaded many of the city’s projects, and he has stopped other center city efforts.”
Nice! Thanks, Ron! You could at least have the decency to buy us dinner before screwing us quite so hard.
That hip, young entrepreneur who was thinking of relocating her small design firm here?—yeah, maybe not. And that lawyer, just out of law school, that was entertaining an offer from a local firm?—he’s moving on to Atlanta.
This on top of the Times Free Press story assessing Ron's first 6-months where everyone from local media to local business gave Ron the thumbs down. Just what our economic recruiting efforts needed.
But here is the only upside to an article that is basically telling the world that Chattanooga has slammed the wheels of economic progress into hard reverse: In the article, Stroud Watson tells the unvarnished truth about Ron and his destructive influence:
“After twenty years of positive change, we had an election, and the candidate who won actually went on an antiurban design kick. He’s saying we don’t need to tell people how to do things. I wish it were true. I wish there were an understood vocabulary about how to build a community, but there isn’t. The best we can do is to hold on to our values and assume the city will see where to go in another four years. Right now power is being put into the hands of people who want to just build things and make money.”
God that feels good. Someone finally said it. It takes big brains to build a great city. When you leave it to small minds, you get Grand Opening Celebrations for traffic lights and giant billboards in your neighborhood. When savvy professionals are in charge, you get the 21st Century Waterfront Plan for generations to enjoy.
Littlefield is doing long-term harm to our city; his administration is pulling our city backwards. Or do you doubt your own eyes?
Comments to: worstmayorever@aol.com
| By Billy Blades | 10:10 PM
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