Chattanooga, Tenn., used to be a great place to take a date, Mayor Andy Berke joked about his hometown to a North Little Rock luncheon crowd Wednesday, "if you wanted to be alone."
Today, Chattanooga is a thriving, high-tech city with a population of about 173,000 that offers 1 gigabit per second Internet service through its municipally owned electric utility. It is home to a vibrant arts district, popular riverfront parks along the Tennessee River and a city government that is "leading by example," Berke said.
Berke was this year's keynote speaker for the eighth annual Argenta Downtown Council fundraising luncheon that attracted about 300 city government and business leaders to North Little Rock's Wyndham Riverfront hotel.
"I think there's a lot we could take from Chattanooga and use as an example for what we could bring here to central Arkansas," state Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, said in introducing Berke. Sabin is also director of the Innovation Hub in North Little Rock's downtown.
Berke, a former two-term Tennessee state representative who was elected Chattanooga's mayor in 2013, said that after late CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite called Chattanooga "the dirtiest place in America" in 1969, civic leaders got together to change the city's direction.
"Chattanooga was a place that was dying," Berke said. "As a community in the 1980s, my hometown was staring down at a bleak future. We [the community] decided to take control of our destiny. You can actually change the destiny that's written for you.
"We refused to let history wash over us. And we haven't shied away from the struggles we faced."
The city transformed both sides of its downtown riverfront and took control of a state highway, reducing its speeds from 55 mph to 25 mph to draw people to newly formed parks along the road during the 1990s and early 2000s. The city also added a world-class aquarium downtown. Soon retail shops and offices came along.
The city moved to "brand" itself as "much more of an outdoor city," Berke said.
Chattanooga is now one of seven cities in the world, he said, with an Iron Man competition -- events include swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running a marathon -- and a half-Iron Man competition.
"Our riverfront is important," he said. "We could see how spectacular it has become on both sides."
In recent years, that brand also became "Gig City." Starting in 2009, Chattanooga built a fiber-optic network that connects to "every single home and business" providing 1 gigabit per second, the "fastest in the Western Hemisphere," Berke said.
The ultrafast Internet speeds have drawn high-tech industry, including OpenTable, an online restaurant booking site that purchased a Chattanooga start-up for $11.5 million. Cooperation and interaction between established businesses and local entrepreneurs have also been vital to the city's growth, he said, citing the creation of an Innovation District of startup businesses along with stores, housing and public places.
"The Innovation District is bringing all of our assets to the same location so we can get this interaction," Berke said. "Everything that is within a five-minute walk is part of the Innovation District."
Metro on 06/11/2015