City of Chattanooga/State of the City 2007

I have a correspondent who sends me articles from time to time about Chattanooga, Tennessee. This piece, "City of Chattanooga/ State of the City 2007," from the Chattanooga Times Free Press (the newspaper owned by the Ochs Family before they bought the New York Times), is pretty interesting.

I was particularly impressed by this paragraph, about the city's new Department of Education, Culture, and the Arts, given all that I have written about the disparate nature of the management and funding of such resources in DC:

Missy Crutchfield set a course for EAC to begin a new magazine "In the City," promote "Connecting the Dots" - a new citywide summit on arts issues and establish a local film commission - something that the community has been talking about for more than 25 years. I questioned whether all of this was possible but she and her small staff made it happen - all while managing the Tivoli Theater, Memorial Auditorium and making greater use of the Community Theater. Furthermore, EAC has been charged with programming the North River Civic Center, The Eastgate Senior Activity Center and the new Heritage Park in East Brainerd. Someone remarked to me once that they had just come from a meeting with Missy and that she "had a thousand ideas." I had to respond that they must not have been with her very long.

Mayor Ron Littlefield said a lot more great stuff:

Now, let's look to the future and to a new initiative - something that I believe holds bright promise for our future and our children's future.

Chattanooga is a network of communities, woven together to produce centers of growth, connections and knowledge.

More than 20 years ago, citizens from all walks of life came together to reinvent and rebuild this city. They envisioned great things for a city in transition. They understood that the natural beauty of this area was a catalyst for a new beginning. Their vision was based on building strong communities that offered great places to work, to play and to raise a family. But these communities were not based solely on geographic boundaries, bricks and mortar but on thoughts, ideas…knowledge. No doubt some of the communities came together along natural and man-made limits but others were mere ideas yet to be defined.

These communities spread from the inner city, down to the riverfront, to areas that thrived in previous generations to areas that were longing for development. For us communities are more than physical locations, zip codes or tax districts. They are the way we define ourselves. Communities come together through common interests such as school districts where children are assembled to learn, to share and to achieve. Other communities are built as neighborhoods where people with similar interests work for safe streets, good homes and local pride. Yet other communities are defined by where we worship and today religious voices bridge a multitude of cultures, races and genders.

Robert Oppenheimer said, "The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge…these are what may make a vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing and ever more expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community."

And so it is about knowledge and its growth that I want to spend a few minutes. Great cities, great civilizations are known as centers of learning, of knowledge. And at the foundation of that knowledge and learning are places that draw people together to share ideas, to learn from others past and present and to encourage minds to be opened up to consume information. Libraries serve this role. Whether in a public school, on a college campus, downtown or down the street, or a small area in a recreation center or a church, a few books, a few chairs are welcome signs to come in and learn, to share, to exchange ideas with old masters and new friends.

Augustine Birrell said, "Libraries are not made; they grow."

Hmm, a mayor to watch.