Downtown Chattanooga Renewal

Success story
A group from Invent Tomorrow is visiting Tennessee city this week
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/NEWS/710080306

"When civic leaders from Fort Wayne visit Chattanooga this week, they’ll find a city that succeeded at what Fort Wayne is trying: revitalizing downtown.

Chattanooga tourism is booming. Hundreds of thousands of visitors yearly help support a burgeoning restaurant, retail and hotel district near the riverfront, in an area once almost deserted. As opportunities for work and recreation downtown expand, developers have built thousands of housing units in the old core of the city."

"Twenty years ago, the parts of downtown Chattanooga nearest the Tennessee River looked like a post-industrial ghost town."

"Pushing riverfront and downtown housing early helped bring activity back to the heart of the city, and it provided a stable customer base so businesses weren’t dependent entirely on the seasonally fluctuating tourist trade. As the downtown and riverfront improved, property values and demand rose, bringing in private-sector housing development with little or no help from foundations or local government."

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