P.S. If you're in the area, our friend Michael is performing at The Camp House in Chattanooga tonight. An IT consultant by day, he's an accomplished picker and singer and he can spin a pretty good yarn. He told us (hope this doesn't jinx him and it's OK to mention it) that he's organizing a radio show that will be a Southern version of Prairie Home Companion.

More about the River City Sessions...

Yes, we were also amazed at the changes in Chattanooga when we first began shopping colleges for our older child, some five years back.

As you know, the UT-Chattanooga campus is truly "urban," in contrast to UT-Knoxville. Fabulous dining and entertainment destinations in all price ranges are just blocks away, as they are just off the Knox campus. The difference, though, is that Chattanooga better facilitates students' and working adults' actually frequenting all these businesses.

From bike lanes to public shuttles to its attractive and acclaimed pedestrian bridge (pictured above), Chattanooga is extremely pedestrian-friendly.

During our daughter's first year at UTC, three of the four girls in her dorm apartment lacked any car on campus. However, they had no problem whatsoever going and doing. Even the city's downtown grocer, Buellers, was minutes away and offered both a broad selection of staples and surprisingly reasonable prices.

I hope you ventured across the pictured pedestrain bridge, just barely down the riverfront from the Tennessee Freshwater and Saltwater Aquariums, to cross over to Frazier Avenue? It's an area very much like Knoxville's Old City, featuring ecclectic clothing stores, gift shops, mini museums, and eateries. There's even a doggie bakery on the block!

The more family-oriented attraction adjacent to Frazier Avenue and on that side of the bridge, though, is Coolidge Park. It's a sprawling city park right on the riverfront and offers ample space for picnicing, biking, and leisurely walks. There's a 100 year-old carousel there enclosed in a pavillion and a huge "splashpad" featuring a large ring of ornate real-and-imaginary animal statuary from which kids are sprayed. The park also has multiple outdoor and enclosed meeting facilities, making it a popular spot for events from family reunions to bridal showers.

My husband's Knoxville employer also has a Chattnooga office, which the company relocated in recent years in downtown's warehouse district. The new office is now in a buidling that reminds me very much of the drop-dead gorgeous Bradbury Hotel building in Los Angeles (scroll down to see the pic of filigree ironwork in the central atrium). When he's periodically asked to work down there for a few days, he meets up with our daughter, walking distance from his office, and they enjoy some pedistrian-friendly excursion evenings, most recently to downtown's IMAX theater.

The fact that Hamilton County Schools pays so much better than Knox does was the clincher. Our daughter simply isn't leaving Chattanooga, come her May graduation. She's already employed part-time in their school system this term, I may have neglected to report, and feels very much at home there.

She's flown the coop, but the good news is that I've found this fab weekend getaway for years to come.

Chattanooga has better plant nurseries. Knoxville has better groceries and bakeries. Chattanooga has the best waterfront.

Hamilton County Schools' pay is not very high. Almost everyone I know that teaches in the area works for Georgia schools. They pay much, much better.

Thanks for the tip, Carrie. We'll research it further.

My daughter and I had pulled pay schedules for around 12 or 15 East TN school systems and found Hamilton's rates to be higher than Knox's.

As to GA payrates, we looked at just those in the Dahlonega area (which I think were lower than Hamilton County).

The university should host a few more recruitment events prior to May, though. We'll have all the info at our fingertips by then!

Knoxville has nothing close to Chattanooga's Rembrandt's (bakery)

Oooo...another good catch, Carrie.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that visitors shouldn't miss Chattanooga's Bluff View Art District, where Rembrandt's is located. It's also walking distance from downtown and the UTC campus.

And the best downtown restaurant is Hennen's, on Chestnut Street. Al fresco seating available. Pricey (by our single-income standard), but well worth it.

Don't forget to visit the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum on the north side. During the warm months they offer six six-mile round trip steam powered rides per day across Chickamauga Creek and through the 986-foot-long Missionary Ridge Tunnel that was opened in 1858 and has needed only track and cosmetic portal repair since then.

I need reminding of the rule as to the employer's responsibility to withhold state income tax (as in an employer in northern Georgia) from wages of an employee residing in a state that lacks one (as in an employee living in the Chattanooga area of Tennessee)?

Used to know, growing old???

Could you imagine Chattanooga considering a decision of keeping their minor league baseball team or building a jail?

It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot, quite another to aim.

It has improved, but it still seems Chattanooga has been able to do what Knoxville has been talking about in the same amount of time.

Then there was that failed PFKAUK...

:-)

The Chattanooga Area Rapid Transit Authority (CARTA) has a "Mocs Express" route lying exclusively within the boundaries of the UTC campus which anyone, student or non-student, may ride for free.

CARTA also operates an electric shuttle running a route lying exclusively within the boundaries of downtown which anyone, student or non-student, can ride for free.

CARTA's other routes extend way further into the 'burbs than any of our local KAT routes do and UTC students only are able to ride all those routes for free, too, on showing their photo student IDs.

But really, every amenity students need is within walking distance, anyway.

Ever visited San Francisco? It's just four square miles, you know? I never visited there with any car and always got around just dandy.

Except for their lack of light rail, Chattanooga's downtown/UTC area is like that.

Bike it, hoof it, ride it for free.

Our daughter has had a car on campus these last three years.

She generally comes home to Knoxville every other weekend, but she tells us that often, when she rolls back into Chattanooga, she will park her car nearby her dorm and not move it until she's ready to come home again, two weeks later.

Oh, just remembered something else: To better ensure students' abilty to safely trek across campus at night, UTC offers a "blue light" on every campus street corner.

It's a lighted button, on a box, on a pole. Push it in an emergency and a campus police officer aboard a golf cart/Cushman cart-thingy is there in a minute to transport the student where s/he needs to go.

Just one more feature that makes the campus truly pedestrian-friendly (and it gives us out-of-town parents some peace of mind, too).

Picked up the November issue of Blue Ridge Outdoors today. Chattanooga was voted the best outdoor city by readers, Richmond, VA is the runner up and Knoxville is listed along with Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and Greenville, SC as close contenders.

Read a tagline on Knoxblab the other day which sums it up nicely. Basically it read: Knoxville, a good place to live, but not a place that I would choose to visit.

Lots to enjoy if you live here, lots to see if you're visiting, but not much reason to think of it as a destination. What KSTC did and what I expect Visit Knoxville will continue to do is to take advantage of UT to organize events that bring people to Knoxville. What KSTC did not do was show an interest in small groups and tourists other, I suspect, than to mail information.

Stop by a visitors center in Asheville, Nashville, or Chattanooga and you'll helpful locals who enjoy assisting tourists and who show some pride in their community. When the visitors center was located on Volunteer Landing, it was staffed by locals who demonstrated pride in the area and who were eager to help. Since the visitors center moved to Gay Street, the help desk has been staffed by what have appeared to be minimum wage employees who have had some basic computer skills. When I stopped by a few weeks ago, it appeared the help desk is gone. Visitors can pick up brochures, but that appeared to be the extent of any tourist information. It's about what you find when you enter Shoney's. Also brought to mind South Knoxville Bubba, "Move along folks, there's nothing to see here."

Thanks for the photo of the Market Street Bridge, Randy. Below is a photo of the Nashville pedestrian bridge. A view looking toward downtown Nashville and a photo of what appears to be a new outdoor venue on the opposite side of the Cumberland River.

Both cities took advantage of existing downtown bridges and converted them to pedestrian bridges. Both are used as venues for special events. And both were converted at far less cost than the estimated cost of the proposed Knoxville pedestrian bridge.

Nothing against Rembrandt's (a great place for dessert and coffee!), but if you're gonna talk bakeries... Niedlov's Bakery owned by John and Angela Sweet on the Southside (just a block from the Blugrass Grill) is an amazing place. I would challenge you to find a better bakery for old-world style breads anywhere in the country!

I have two Flickr contacts who take me on regular 'visits' to Chattanooga, Mark Owens, who is a fine street photographer, and Jeremy Clifton, who spends a fair amount of time hanging around the Tennessee Valley Railroad.

Take a look at Mark's street scene captured recently on Broad Street.

And here is my all time favorite from Jeremy

Thanks for the correction cwg. I drew a blank and didn't drill down far enough on Google Maps to see the Walnut Street Bridge. It does highlight, however, that both the Chattanooga and Nashville pedestrian bridges are located parallel to newer well-traveled vehicular bridges that no doubt are more responsible for development than the pedestrian bridges.

I'll admit my view of Chattannooga is biased by a first impression of a smoggy industrial city from when I dated a guy from Chatt 40 years ago.

But even now I prefer Knoxville and here's why. I think of Chattanooga as being very stratified because of its heavy industrial past - there are the very very rich and a lot of poor and very poor. Knoxville had more wholesaling and merchants - more of a middle class and a middle class culture.

So of course the very rich have a lot of respources to donate to the city. But to use an agricultural analogy - is this a sprinkling of fertilizer on the surface to make the city bloom or have they really dug down and enhanced the bedrock to create a healthy economy that benefits everyone?

I'd be happy to hear someone say my my bias is BS.

I think Chattanooga is a delightful city. I just have no need to look to them for some kind of measure of our own successes or failures.

The compare and contrast between Chattanooga and Knoxville is indeed interesting. The primary difference that I see is the difference between how old and new money views wealth and the role of the wealthy in society. Knoxville does not have the "old money" base that Chattanooga does and as a consequence we see a lot of pet projects that don't necessarily tie in together very well.

For lack of better terminology our best politicians build bridges between our strengths. Our greenway system would be a prime example. Chattanooga has a much more high profile greenway around a vibrant downtown as opposed to our somewhat piecemeal system. But when you look at our total miles and differences in terrain and the amount of the county that's served, one could argue that ours is a superior greenway system. We've just always been a government town waiting on grants and unwilling to honestly admit that we depend on the largesse of the federal and state government to get things done. We don't have the base of wealthy people willing to step up with the vision and funding (beyond U.T. athletics) to make these things happen.

I agree with Goose as far as the social and political structure of Chattanooga, but I also think there is an expanding middle class there presently while I think ours is shrinking.

I like both towns though and think that it's pretty cool that Chattanooga, Asheville, and the Tri-Cities are all within 100 miles from here. I'm partial to the whole big little towns concept.

I just got back from enjoying the fall colors at the river bluff wilderness. Still at their prime up near the top. That is something unique to Knoxville.

Chattanooga has done a better job of integrating the greenways into everyday life. Also, none of them end up in a Lowe's parking lot.

Well, I've only visited Chattanooga (lots), but never iived there, and I have to agree with Cari concerning the above.

I was reading through these posts thinking to myself "but our greenways don't GO anywhere."

This one out my way is nothing more than a county sidewalk used by kids living in a single subdivision (Broadacres) to get to and from our middle school. It does't provide pedestrian access to our elementary school, our high school, our library, or any area restaurants or businesses of any kind.

Sometmes I'll see adult residents of this same Broadacres subdivision out walking--for exercise, not to get anywhere--but that's about it.

It certainly can't be said that the greenway in my community has made it more "pedestrian-friendly" for most residents, nor has it boosted our neighborhood economy in any way.

The foot traffic, bike traffic, wheelchair traffic and "destinations" in my community are all along Clinton Highway, not Emory Road--and this will be all the more true after the rerouting of Emory Road is completed, leaving this older stretch of Emory almost exclusively residential.

It would have been much more sensible to have placed the greenway in my community along Clinton Highway, where people are literally dying trying to traverse their neighborhood without a car.

CWG, as I recall, the Nashville pedestrian bridge like the Chattanooga bridge was to be demolished when the new vehicular bridge was built and Nashville followed Chattanooga's model by converting it to a pedestrian bridge as an integral part of the riverfront park.

Like Up Goose Creek, one of the first things I heard about Chattanooga was that it was a dirty, smog enveloped city with a minority white collar workforce. You were either blue collar and worked in the factories or you owned the factories. Obviously, that has changed and the defunct factory sites provided the land that Chattanooga has developed into riverfront parks. Up Goose Creek's vision of Chattanooga is clearly antiquated.

As for Chattanooga envy, Dave Hill clearly stated that the proposed pedestrian bridge was incorporated into the South Knoxville Development Plan because it would result in development and cited Chattanooga as a model.

I just don't think trying to figure out whether Knoxville or Chattanooga is "better" or "winning" is very useful for either city.

Actually, it was our host who said Chattanooga is "winning."

He appeared to be citing these criteria:

They have a better downtown, a better riverfront, better public transportation, a better newspaper, better diversity among top employers, a better chamber of commerce and better and more philanthropic public-private partnerships.

WRT these criteria, I then agreed with him.

I really think Cari's comments were little more than an "amen" to first our host's, then my own positive perceptions of Chattanooga by these measures.

Tamara, I understand what R. Neal said. I just think it's unproductive for Knoxvillians to compare Knoxville to Chattanooga or Asheville or anyplace else rather than focusing on making Knoxville the best Knoxville we can be.

Sure, Rachel.

And realistically, my own situation is that the mister and I have chosen to build our home in Knox County on property that's been in the family for four generations, we're therefore going to be buried right here in our backyard, so if ever I hope to enjoy on any daily basis some of these better ideas Chattanooga's developed, I'd better be focused on seeing them borrowed or adapted to Knoxville's benefit. I ain't goin' nowhere!

Rachel, as others have mentioned, when you mention Nashville, Chattanooga or Asheville, Knoxvillians often become defensive. You've been involved in the K2K discussions, in Nine Counties, One Vision, in PlanET, an MPC commissioner, what in your opinion is the best that Knoxville can be? In particular, in relation to tourism.

If you read Joe Sullivan's column in this you Metro Pulse, you read that the Tombras Group, an advertising/PR firm that's been in Knoxville for decades is planning a 12-week brand development process. One would think they would have some idea how to brand Knoxville. As I recall they have been involved in what Kim Bumpas refers to as failed attempts at sloganeering. I'm wondering who they intend to invite to the focus groups who might know more than those who live here and who have been involved in tourism.

As I mentioned previously and as others have mentioned, Knoxville is simply not a destination city. Knoxville apparently excels at being a host city with tourism being generated by events not attractions.

My cynical mind wonders if one had been standing beside the Torchbearer last Saturday and asked for directions to the McClung Museum, how many people would have known.

Ok, the one thing I could not find easily in downtown Chattanooga were stores like Bliss, Bliss Home, and Mast General Store. Did I miss something? If so, where are the shops?

Last Bastion of Inept Machine Politics in America

The certainty that can only come from a person who has never lived in Richmond, Virginia.

I am eager for the day Sevier ave resembles the north Chattanooga commercial. Bubba, Bizgrrl, and even I remember when it was thriving neighborhood commercial.