Preserve The Scenic City

  • Thursday, June 8, 2023

As a long-time environmentalist and retired Chattanooga architect, I read today’s Chattanoogan.com just now and noted with pleasure that the Forest Avenue Schoolfield mansion has been preserved and sold for over $3 million recently.  Then I read that the Chattanooga Choo Choo might be converted into a facility that the "new" owners can better afford to promote and maintain (R.I.P. Cartter Patten).  Then I read the letter about the Scenic City losing its beauty to more and more clogged freeway traffic. 

I do not recall a major city, as Chattanooga finally has become, figuring out how to keep its scenic charm while adding more businesses and population and affordable housing for its newcomers. Has Memphis better handled that problem than the other Tennessee big three?

Bob Elmore, Ralph Kelley, the Pattens, and many friends did a wonderful job when I was living and working there between 1960 and 1972, when Chattanooga's population was stuck at approximately 120,000.  I doubt they could make it work today.

Best wishes to you, Tim Kelly, and all present Chattanooga leaders in your noble efforts to preserve the "Scenic City of the South”.

Bill Kampmeier

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