THE LOST WAY BY JOAN GARRETT MCCLANE AND JOY LUKACHICK SMITH Nearly 40 years ago, an idiosyncratic multimillionaire, a North Chattanooga housewife and a tribe of idealistic baby boomers formed an unlikely alliance to rebuild a once-great Southern city. The world says they succeeded. But did they really? And could it all be happening again?

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM / THELOSTWAY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 24, 2017 CHAPTER ONE

Eleanor Cooper, 70, looks out the window of her home on Missionary Ridge on July 12, 2017. Cooper, now retired, played an integral role in the work of the Moccasin Bend Task Force. She later headed Chattanooga Venture, the groundbreaking nonprofit organization that jump-started the city’s renaissance. STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND

N THE SECOND FLOOR of Cooper kept at it. the Chattanooga Public Library, Many felt they knew the narrative of the past a locked door and a row of Chattanooga renaissance. Highly polished shelves stacked high with aging versions of it had appeared again and again Omicrofilm, 69-year-old Eleanor Cooper left in newspapers, magazines, books and the last of the boxes, brimming with documents. political speeches for decades, and tucked Well, all but one. within each was a certainty: Chattanooga One remaining box she kept at her home held the rights to a formula. Former mayor on Missionary Ridge. She planned to read Bob Corker, now one of the most powerful over its contents one last time before re- members of the U.S. Senate, would eventu- leasing the papers, now decades old, to be ally call it “the Chattanooga Way.” catalogued in the public record. But only a few people knew the real story Some of the letters contained in carefully behind the city’s rebirth. ordered manila folders were personal, even Cooper, a retired community organizer painful, and she would have to swallow hard and nonprofit organization head, was an to share them. insider who knew and worked beside the Finding, collecting and organizing the cast of characters responsible for one of the letters, emails and notes from the 1980s and most celebrated cases of urban revitaliza- 1990s, which many considered trash, had tion in American history. been thankless work. Still, year after year, And even she sometimes wondered if the

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 2 renaissance narrative deserved such acclaim. The very question sent her back to college in 2008, where she spent five years researching and writing her own 350-page answer. Was it a true, populist reinvention of a post-industrial Southern city, or just a public relations campaign strapped to a slick come- back story? Did the original true believers — idealistic baby boomers from some of Chat- tanooga’s dynastic families — really invent a system for lasting change, or just pave the way for an elaborate rebranding of the city’s tour- ism industry that ignored its most intractable problems and vulnerable citizens? Cooper knew the truth. It lived at the li- brary, hidden in those boxes and locked in the Boxes of old microfilm sit stacked on shelves behind a locked door at the Chattanooga Public Library. Just past the microfilm hearts of a handful of people, living and dead. storage area is a back room where nearly a dozen boxes This is the unvarnished, untold story of containing historical records related to Chattanooga Venture and the city’s renaissance are kept. Soon these boxes will their dreams and despair. These are the lost be cataloged by library staff and made a part of the Venture chapters of the Chattanooga story. archives. STAFF PHOTO BY MATT MCCLANE

"WITHOUT A VISION"

N THE SPRING of 2016, the city seemed caught between two energies. On one hand, Chattanooga was a boom town, and the physical proof Iwas everywhere. East M.L. King Boulevard, long neglected, was coming to life as trendy restaurants and high-rise apartment com- plexes cropped up to cater to the expanding University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Meanwhile, the empty, gold-windowed, for- mer BlueCross BlueShield headquarters a Construction crews work to complete a new apartment/ few blocks west was on its way to becoming commercial building on the 700 block of Market Street in a high-end Westin hotel. March of 2016. STAFF FILE PHOTO The central city was so filled with con- struction projects that spring that pedestri- town’s growth, but outside capital was final- ans were finding it hard to navigate traffic ly flooding in. In fact, 2016 would prove to be cones and fencing. a tipping point. For the first time, half of the For years, local money had fueled down- projects in the city’s urban core were being

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 3 funded by out-of-towners. Highly educated newcomers, fleeing larger and much more expensive cities, were com- ing to town to fill new jobs and buy condos. To them, there was no buyer’s remorse. Chat- tanooga was, as Outside magazine claimed, “The Best Town Ever.” On the other hand, much was brewing beneath the surface. Minority and working-class families with roots in the city were suffering, an abundance of research proved. Housing costs were rising, contributing to a severe shortage of affordable housing. Public schools were failing to prepare a majority of children to make a living wage. Poverty was growing among all races, and few born into poverty were finding a path out. Violent crime was escalating alongside this sense of economic desperation.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 4 And worry over this emerging narrative was giving rise to heated public conversations about housing, economic policy, police tactics and the persistence of racial inequality. Where were the solutions, many wondered aloud at a panel discussion hosted at UTC in March 2016. Where was the leadership, those in the crowd asked of the mayor, the councilman, the chief of police and other community leaders pres- ent. Where was the vaunted Chattanooga Way? “I hate to get biblical,” said Lakweshia Ewing, a 37-year-old entrepreneur, leaning forward in her chair onstage and speaking with the cer- tainty of an Old Testament prophet. “But where there is no vision, the people perish.” The words struck Cooper, who was sitting quietly in the crowd. There had been a grand vision, in the begin- ning at least, she thought to herself, remembering when she herself was 30-something, pondering the same proverb.

ASHAMED

OOPER, born Eleanor McCallie, was raised in a deeply rooted local family with close ties to Chattanooga’s wealthiest, most powerful citizens. CHer grandfather and great-uncle had founded the all-boys McCallie School in 1905, and two of her great-aunts were among the three founders of Girls Preparatory School. Still, as a teenager, she wanted nothing more than to escape her hometown. Cooper came of age in the 1960s and 1970s just as anti-Vietnam war protests and the civil rights movement were gaining energy across the county. Like so many baby boomers, she began to see the world very differently than her parents and their peers. The Bible didn’t support segregation and A young Eleanor Cooper sits on the lap of her father, slavery, she firmly believed, despite what so many Thomas Hooke McCallie. ELEANOR COOPER

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 5 Eleanor Cooper, 14, poses for a photo with her mother, Eleanor “Queenie,” father, Thomas “T. Hooke,” and four brothers in 1960. Cooper left Chattanooga to attend college in Atlanta First Presbyterian Church is seen on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017, in and didn’t return to live in the city until 1981. ELEANOR Chattanooga. STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND COOPER

Southern pastors said, and having been born from college and had long been disturbed by with a name that mattered, Cooper thought his home-church’s stance on race. she could enlighten her elders. Haden, however, said no to the day-care So one summer, while home from Ag- request. There wouldn’t be enough time to nes Scott College, she took a stand at the sanitize the church for the white children church her family had attended for gener- who came on Sunday, Cooper, Montague ations when she chose to back a bold idea and the younger Alice Lupton said the proposed by fellow church member, Alice church leader told them the day they all met Lupton, the wife of Coca-Cola heir Jack to discuss the idea. Lupton and the sister of well-known banker Their hearts fell. Scotty Probasco. Montague, disillusioned, left the church. At the time, First Presbyterian Church The Luptons pulled their membership not on McCallie Avenue sat in the middle of a long afterward. working-class, black neighborhood, and And Cooper determined that, after col- the children who lived in the surrounding lege, she would leave Chattanooga behind. blocks needed child care after school. Since For 17 years she stayed away. the church had space and equipment that She traveled to Japan, where she taught went unused most of the week, Alice Lup- English. She moved to New York where she ton, who was later instrumental in inte- worked for Dr. Caleb Gattegno, one of the grating several downtown day-care cen- most influential and prolific mathematics ters, thought the church could open to the educators of the 20th century. Later, she neighborhood. lived in Northern California, where she It was a wonderful plan, thought Cooper, worked at the American Friends Service who asked to join in on a meeting with Ben Committee, a Quaker nonprofit. Haden, then the lead pastor of First Pres- She finally returned to Chattanooga in byterian. Jack and Alice Lupton’s daughter, the summer of 1981 only because she was also named Alice, attended the meeting as between jobs and needed time to plan her well, with her boyfriend Rick Montague, a next career move. What she saw downtown liberal-leaning McCallie School graduate on the very day of her arrival shocked and from Lookout Mountain who was also home excited her so much that she never left again.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 6 Don McLean performs during one of the free, Lyndhurst Foundation-funded Five Nights concerts held throughout the month of July 1981. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE CONCERT

LUES LEGEND B.B. King was playing in downtown Chattanoo- ga, Cooper learned after reading a local newspaper on the day of her Breturn to the city in July, 1981. He was one act in Five Nights, a month-long free, open-air Tuesday night concert series being held in the heart of the city. Attending was a bad idea, Cooper’s father warned. Riots were expected. Just the year before, five elderly black women had been shot on East Ninth Street

by a Ku Klux Klan member who had driven This photo from Chattanooga Times archives show four of downtown with two other Klansmen intent the five women who were shot on East Ninth Street by a Ku on terrorizing blacks. Not long afterward, an Klux Klan member who had driven downtown with two other Klansmen intent on terrorizing blacks. Opal Jackson, Katherine all-white jury acquitted two of the Klansmen Johnson, Viola Ellison and Lela Mae Evans, from left, stand in and convicted the shooter of minor assault, front of their attorneys.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 7 and the city erupted in four nights of riots. ders, marched down Ninth street singing Blacks protested, and Klansmen threw fire- “We Shall Overcome.” They pasted green bombs at police. bumper stickers that read “Dr. M.L. King The next year the Ministers Union, a Jr. Blvd.” on street signs and utility poles as group of black clergy, began pressuring the police looked on. Chattanooga City Commission to rename Still, Cooper wasn’t afraid to attend the B.B. Ninth Street, which ran through the heart King concert that night in 1981. She was curious. of the city’s black business district, after Dr. She never imagined she would come Martin Luther King Jr. home and find a crowd downtown as the sun But the commission resisted. set. For the most part, the heart of the city T.A. “Tommy” Lupton, Jack Lupton’s sec- completely emptied at night. It was hard to ond cousin, had decided to develop two office imagine a diverse mix of people, white and buildings downtown at a time when no one black, white collar and blue collar, attending else would, and both were on Ninth Street. He anything together. was fine with East Ninth Street being re- Yet, there they were, pouring into a va- named after the civil-rights leader, the white cant lot between Broad and Market streets businessman told city commissioners, but not where the EPB building now stands. West Ninth Street, where his buildings stood. Cooper can remember senior citizens sit- When white city commissioners sided with ting in lawn chairs, bouncing babies on their Lupton and his supporters, those pushing for knees, and others resting on the curbs. Many the renaming took to the streets. stood, as well, feeling a restless excitement. That April, just months before the Maybe Chattanooga was actually chang- Five Nights concert series began in July, ing, she thought. hundreds of protesters, armed with lad- “At last,” she allowed herself to hope.

LYNDHURST RISING

HE ROAD TO Five Nights, Coo- wanted a blank slate, his letters show. per later learned, began with the Chattanooga faced enormous challenges 1977 death of Cartter Lupton, the in the 1980s, and rather than retreat to “little second-generation owner of the bitty conclaves” where “nobody communicat- Tcountry’s largest Coca-Cola distributor. He had ed with anybody,” like his father, Jack Lupton left behind a $200 million estate, which, at the said he wanted to find and fund solutions with time, was the largest ever probated in the South. the foundation’s holdings, which grew from His son and heir, John T. “Jack” Lupton, $35 million to $85 million after Cartter Lup- had no intention of running his family’s busi- ton’s death. ness or his family’s foundation, then called the “They wanted to keep this place a secret. Memorial Welfare Foundation, the way his They didn’t want anybody knowing about father had. For years, the majority of the foun- what a nice little deal they had here,” Lupton dation’s funds had supported Chattanooga’s told a newspaper reporter in 1986, criticizing private schools and hospitals, but Jack Lupton his father and his father’s peers. “Well, they

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 8 Rick Montague, in sunglasses on the right, walks beside William Hollingsworth “Holly” Whyte, an American urbanist who visited downtown Chattanooga in 1984. Montague was then head of the Lyndhurst Foundation. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY were full of s—-, as far as I’m concerned.” demanded creativity and risk taking of his Montague, who had married Jack Lupton’s son-in-law. daughter, Alice, in 1968, right after graduating “If we’re succeeding at everything we do, from the University of Virginia, was tapped then we haven’t been taking enough risk,” to head the foundation, which was renamed Lupton told Montague. Lyndhurst after the razed mansion the Lupton So Montague, determined to impress Jack family had owned in the Riverview neighbor- Lupton, resolved to learn the ins and outs of hood. Before the appointment, Montague had running a family foundation as quickly as he been teaching English at Baylor School. could. On the foundation’s dime, Montague Progressive and outspoken, he wore attended conferences and training sessions tennis shoes with his sport coat to import- across the United States, and over a few ant meetings, and his passion for civil rights, years he built a team of promising advisers. paired with his access to Jack Lupton, left Jack Murrah, an English teacher who had many traditionally minded elites unsettled. worked alongside Montague at Baylor, was The city was plagued by inequality, and the hired as a Lyndhurst associate. Montague and children of poor and working-class families, Murrah shared many intellectual interests, black and white, were being cut off from including an obsession with James Joyce’s opportunity, Montague had learned as a short story “The Dead.” The story asked ques- scoutmaster and later as a board member tions they both wrestled with as they grew of the Boys Club. The needs and disparities older. What is the nature of selfless love? What demanded action, he believed. is its impact, even after the grave? Jack Lupton, without dictating specifics, In other ways, Montague and Murrah

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 9 Jack Murrah, left, is pictured during a Lyndhurst Foundation-funded trip to Indianapolis, Ind., in 1983. Murrah taught English at Baylor School before leaving to work as an associate at the Lyndhurst Foundation for his friend, Rick Montague. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY were different. Montague, raised amid privilege, was relentlessly optimistic and tended to run impulsively with any idea that excited him. Murrah, on the other hand, was soft-spoken and deliberate. Despite grow- ing up in a working-class family in Clanton, Ala., Murrah had gained entry to Vanderbilt University, where he displayed great aca- demic prowess before earning a graduate degree from the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English. Meanwhile, Gianni Longo, a fiery Italian immigrant who lived and worked in New York City at the Institute for Environmen- tal Action, became another important ally to Montague and Lyndhurst. While attending a National Council on Gianni Longo, seen here in the Chattanooga Venture office, is a New York City-based consultant who worked closely with Foundations meeting in Seattle, Montague the Lyndhurst Foundation and later Chattanooga Venture. A picked up a book co-written by Longo called report he wrote on Chattanooga, published in 1980, argued “Learning from Seattle.” He was so struck that the city’s divisions had to be addressed for economic progress to occur. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY by the book’s message that he called Longo when he returned home. After receiving months of intensive study, revealed the board approval, Montague commissioned guiding logic behind Five Nights. Longo to do a study of Chattanooga. Pollution wasn’t the city’s main problem Longo’s report, completed after seven in the early 1980s. Thanks to the mandates

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 10 A large crowd gathers in downtown Chattanooga for one of the Five Nights concerts held in July of 1981. The Lyndhurst Foundation conceived of and funded the concert series, hoping it would bring the city together and renew interest in downtown. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY of President Richard Nixon’s Environmen- instead for closed-door decision making, tal Protection Agency, the smog — famously the report concluded. The city was rigged, cited by Walter Cronkite more than a decade many told Longo, run by a few individuals earlier when he called Chattanooga “Amer- and powerful families who made decisions ica’s dirtiest city” on network news — had to benefit themselves. abated. The big question for Chattanooga A reknitting had to take place, Longo was growth. Newcomers weren’t moving in told Montague after delivering his sober and the educated children of native Chatta- findings. When trust was lost, community noogans, both black and white, were fleeing. planning became an impossible endeavor. Meanwhile, the manufacturing-based econ- That was where Five Nights came in. A omy remained in freefall. free, open-air concert series with attractive And the greatest roadblock to growth, the headliners that could draw a diverse crowd cancer killing Chattanooga, argued Longo might help leaders and citizens see the city in his 1980 report, was the city’s deep and and themselves in a new light, Longo said. historic divisions. Similar events had worked elsewhere. Chattanooga was rife with conflicts — city The night of the first concert, Montague versus county, small business versus corpo- paced the streets around the once empty ration, old versus young, black versus white, parking lot. Earlier that day, according to worker versus manager and newcomers ver- Montague, former Chattanooga mayor Rob- sus native — that continually stalled and foiled ert Kirk Walker had seen him and grabbed efforts to address problems. There was also a him by the lapels. bitter hopelessness that had set in, according “The city of Chattanooga is going to blow to the Longo report, especially among poor up tonight,” he told the 36-year-old Mon- and minority residents who had little say in tague. “And I am going to hold you personally city government. For example, commission- responsible.” ers were elected “at large,” not by districts, a Montague kept walking, watching for the system that ensured majority white rule. chaos so many believed was inevitable. But Conspiracy theories ran rampant, fueling the moment never came. anger, and leaders made matters worse by He never saw Cooper, who was grinning failing to communicate with citizens, opting from ear to ear, in the crowd.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 11 “AN IRON WHIM”

ACK LUPTON, who was then busy running a Coca-Cola bottling empire that stretched across the South and West, would prove to be Jan enigma as events unfolded. For the most part, records show, he took a hands-off approach to Lyndhurst in its early years, trusting in the direction set by Mon- tague. Yet there were times when he would suddenly and abruptly engage. “He ruled with an iron whim,” Murrah, who retired from Lyndhurst in 2010 after working there for 32 years, often said of Lupton. And his moods “This town is were as unpredict- able as his interests. like a bunch of It was fairly com- g— d—, inbred mon for people to check in with Clara Collie dogs.” Lane, Lupton’s long- time assistant, and Jack Lupton was heir to a Coca-Cola bottling empire that - jack lupton ask whether he was stretched across the South and West. His family fortune running hot or cold. funded the Lyndhurst Foundation, which financially supported Chattanooga Venture, River City and the Tennessee Aquarium, No one dared bring up anything they cared among other projects. STAFF FILE PHOTO about with Lupton on one of his bad days. On his better days, however, Lupton could be His cousin, Tommy Lupton, who was opposed exceptionally charming, open and comical, to the renaming, was putting the family name spouting off the kinds of things many wanted in a negative light, he told Montague privately. to say but that only a handsome multimillion- Still, always wary of the public spotlight, he aire could get away with. didn’t want to criticize him openly. Instead, “This town is like a bunch of g— d—, he asked Montague and Lane, his assistant, inbred Collie dogs,” Montague said Lupton to invite a group of local black leaders to their once told the Lyndhurst trustees, his way of sixth-floor Lyndhurst offices, housed in his poking fun at the intermarriage among the cousin’s gleaming new Tallan building. city’s wealthiest families, including his own. What could he and Lyndhurst do to As the plans for Five Nights unfolded, help the black community, he asked the Lupton became concerned over the fight to handpicked group, which met privately for rename Ninth street as M.L. King Boulevard. several weeks.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 12 Get behind the renaming of Ninth Street, That July, as the concert series was said Irvin Overton, who would later go on to underway, Paul Clark, one of the white city be a top executive at Erlanger Hospital. That commissioners who had been resisting the was what mattered to the black community, renaming of Ninth Street, called Lupton’s Overton said. assistant and told her to tell her boss that But that was a line Jack Lupton wouldn’t he had changed his mind. Not long after- cross. Politics were unpredictable, uncon- ward, Clark surprisingly seconded black city trollable, and he wouldn’t discuss politics, Commissioner John Franklin’s motion to he told the group. rename Ninth Street, and the commission Lupton was unaware that the concert unanimously approved. series his foundation was backing was being Lupton was bewildered. He hadn’t asked seen as a veiled political statement. For that Clark to change his vote, despite rumors to matter, he was unfamiliar with many of the the contrary. Five Nights acts, including B.B. King. Montague, on the other hand, was thrilled.

THE BEND

IVE NIGHTS began a cultural shift. More than 45,000 people attended the five, free concerts, and experienced downtown as a safe, Fshared space, just as Longo had hoped. Next, Montague and his allies worked to build on the momentum. Lyndhurst had seen the impact young people could have when it funded a series of student-led community health fairs across the rural South. Why not ask young architecture students at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to help the Chattanooga community envision what a new, shared downtown might look like, Montague thought. So in the spring and summer of 1982, stu- dents recruited by Lyndhurst and mentored by UT-Knoxville professor Stroud Watson held exhibits showcasing their vision, which Stroud Watson shaped the work of the Moccasin Bend Task included the first-ever pitch for a linear park Force when he advised the group to focus on the downtown along the Tennessee River, as well as the side of the Tennessee River and not on the development first pitch for an aquarium on the riverfront. of Moccasin Bend. Watson, who taught architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, when he first At the same time, Montague and the began consulting in Chattanooga, later went on to head Lyndhurst trustees agreed to help fund an Chattanooga’s Urban Design Studio. STAFF FILE PHOTO

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 13 Urban Land Institute study of Moccasin far more about laying the groundwork for a cul- Bend, the 600-acre peninsula jutting out tural upheaval than a physical transformation. into the Tennessee River near downtown, Watson, who struck up a friendship with which was underused and being eyed by Montague while working with the UT-Knox- developers. And the study, also presented to ville architectural students, would also the public in 1982, recommended that the shape the direction of the task force. Al- city and Hamilton County let a citizen-led though the group was tasked with planning task force decide the for Moccasin Bend, fate of the Bend. Watson argued the The night of the group had the wrong presentation at the focus if it wanted to Hunter Museum of bring change to Chat- American Art, Dalton tanooga. It was the Roberts, the Hamil- downtown side of ton County executive, the river that sorely tapped Montague. needed attention “Can I call you Mr. and planning. Chairman?” Roberts So, after agreeing, asked Montague as the group approached they waited in a buf- This aerial image of Chattanooga shows downtown and city and Hamilton fet line for food. Moccasin Bend before the city’s renaissance, which was County leaders sparked in the mid-1980s when the Moccasin Bend Task Force Four others — two and Chattanooga Venture began working to engage the public and asked to do an chosen by the city in community planning initiatives. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC about-face. Instead of and two chosen by LIBRARY Moccasin Bend, they the county — also wanted to study a 20- were appointed to the citizen task force, mile length of the Tennessee River, from the which was jointly funded by Lyndhurst, the Chickamauga Dam to the Marion County line, city and the county. with a linear public park in mind. With a blank slate, it was hard to know With a green light from officials, they where to start. Some among the task force launched a national search for a consultant, believed economic development should be the and after much debate settled on the top sole aim, but Sally Robinson, then the execu- pick of Montague and Watson. tive director of the Adult Education Council, Representatives of Carr, Lynch Associ- challenged the group to think about how its ates, of Cambridge, Mass., had an approach work could heal the long-divided city. unlike any other. Their plan, they promised To many, some of the city’s most recog- the task force, would be shaped by Chatta- nizable places invoked pain. Some might noogans, not expert planners and architects, walk by the Walnut Street Bridge and see and it would evolve under public scrutiny, a beautiful, historic gem. Others might not be locked away until the last minute. imagine the bodies of black men hanging “This thing will only succeed if you reach from the steel support beams, accused and out to all in the community, and if you involve sentenced by mobs without due process. particular initiatives that get to the minority “We need places that are free from his- community,” Imani Kazana, the firm’s com- tory,” Robinson said the first time the task munity engagement expert, told Montague. force gathered over dinner at Montague’s She would need help with the outreach, home on Lookout Mountain. however. The comment struck Montague, who cared So Montague made a call to an old friend.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 14 A NEW WAY

LEANOR COOPER jumped at over sacred land on Moccasin Bend, fearing the offer to work with the Mocca- it would be violated by future development. sin Bend Task Force and quickly The task force responded by proposing a began planning outreach with national park to protect the space. EKazana. Over a three-year period, the two There was also general anxiety about women would arrange 65 public meetings. whom the plan would ultimately help. Even Many were held at the Chattanooga Robinson feared that Chattanooga might Public Library on Broad Street. Others were end up creating a lure for tourists, rather more intimate. And some were meant to than a place that Chattanoogans could use reach minority communities in particular. and enjoy. One gathering was held at a black church, Still, as the process unfolded, Cooper and while others were hosted at Kirkman Tech- Montague watched in awe. nical High School, the Bethlehem Center in Longo’s study had painted a grim pic- Alton Park and a community center on the ture of a city divided and disenchanted, but west side of the city. meeting after meeting illustrated that a “What do you want, regarding the Ten- new, shared hope was bubbling up. Consen- nessee River?” Cooper and Kazana asked, sus seemed possible. Community-building time and again. seemed possible. Access to the water, one woman said. At the “So many details that were once the time, most of the riverbank was blocked by discussion of a task force, elements in a brush and private property, making it nearly plan, ideas on paper, were now tangible impossible to swim or launch a canoe. An objects,” Cooper wrote to Carr several elderly black man said he wanted the plans to years later, on the weekend the Tennessee include safe places to fish. A mother said she Riverpark finally opened. “What we hadn’t wanted a paved walkway so she could push her imagined was the magic of the sunlight in baby stroller along the river’s edge. May, the sound of the birds in the early There were tense moments along the way. morning, the reflection of the water in the At one packed library meeting, a land- afternoon, the music of children, black owner along Suck Creek stood up and asked and white, playing together, and the smell what was on many people’s minds. of barbecue as families of all races picnicked “We just have one question,” he said. beside the river. We didn’t even know how “When are you going to take our land?” much we needed it.” Never, answered Steven Carr, one of the In the speeches made that day, she consultants who was presenting a working noticed that the radical beginnings were draft of the river park plans. There was no already being forgotten, she wrote. hidden agenda, he said. “But there were those of us there,” she Later, American Indians voiced concern said, “who remembered.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 15 A crowd listens to a speech during the 1983 “Quality of Life” conference, which was hosted at the Read House by the D.C.-based Partners for Livable Places and funded by the Lyndhurst Foundation. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE TRIP

HE MOCCASIN BEND Task Still, this perspective wasn’t shared by those Force taught a lesson, those in- sitting in many of Chattanooga’s top offices. volved believed. There was a better City leaders, including those at the local way of doing the people’s business. Chamber of Commerce, obsessed over TAnd, in 1983, they weren’t alone in ques- recruiting industry and believed it was more tioning traditional approaches to city plan- important to sell those outside the city than ning and economic development. Longo was those inside. Coddling a public with a host of just one consultant in a growing network differing opinions wasn’t a solution. of national nonprofits and experts pushing Ron Littlefield, then a young, urban leaders of post-industrial cities to begin planner from Georgia who was working for thinking in new ways. Dave Major at the Chattanooga Chamber Groups like the D.C.-based Partners for of Commerce, disagreed. He felt the cham- Livable Places, which hosted a one-day ber, flummoxed by the falling population conference in Chattanooga in May 1983, and job numbers, should send an envoy to argued that opportunities were flocking to Indianapolis, which had been highlighted at cities that catered, not to corporate inter- the Partners for Livable Places conference ests, but to the interests of residents. Many funded by Lyndhurst. cities Partners for Livable Places showcased Major wasn’t interested, but Bob attested that a “quality-of-life” emphasis McNulty, head of Partners for Livable Plac- offered a competitive edge. es, with Lyndhurst’s backing, was able to

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 16 Ron Littlefield, right, worked for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, which was busy coming up with a plan to stir economic development in the early 1980s. He was fired from the Chamber in 1983 because he pushed back on leaders’ decision to move forward with an economic development agenda that did not engage the community. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY rally interest in a visit to Indiana. Forty-sev- ment’s work, filling the gaps Washington had en people — all middle- and upper-class left them with, those in Indianapolis said. residents from a variety of backgrounds — “Public-private partnerships,” as they called would end up going on the trip, which was them, had saved the day. It could be a slippery funded by Lyndhurst. slope to commercial control, many would Indianapolis, once called India-No-Place, later realize. But then, the approach seemed to was a thriving metropolis, and its turnaround, reflect America’s highest ideals. Government boosters argued, could be traced back to a di- became open, pliable, and far more efficient. verse, 60-member board of citizens called The Tom Hebert, a representative from the Ten- Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee. nessee Valley Authority who went on the trip, Federal funds for cities began drying up was wowed, and he wasn’t alone. Still, Major, in the late 1970s and were further cut during then the executive vice president of the Chat- the Reagan administration. Before the tanooga chamber, remained unimpressed. committee was formed, the city was shed- He had no intention of returning home and ding staff and couldn’t afford to fix potholes mimicking Indianapolis, he told Hebert. or meet the funding needs of public schools, So, in between sessions, Hebert, frustrat- but a new bottom-up approach to planning, ed, approached Montague. institutionalized with the creation of the “What should we do?” he asked. progress committee, had helped turn the tide. Montague walked him to the edge of the There were social issues the committee auditorium the group had gathered in and addressed such as desegregation and policing, pointed to someone in the seated audience. but its main success was bringing the middle “See that woman down there?” Montague class and the private sector into the govern- told Hebert. “That’s Mai Bell Hurley. Talk to her.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 17 Mai Bell Hurley, center, a community volunteer and fundraiser, stands with others from Chattanooga during a tour of Indianapolis, Ind. Hurley was one of 47 delegates who traveled to Indianapolis. When she returned, she and several others began pressuring local leaders to support a community-based planning process. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE COMMITTEE

URLEY, who worked as a news- of being underestimated. She was expert paper reporter for the Chatta- at navigating the male-dominated power nooga News-Free Press before structure, having an innate sense of when to marrying Bern Hurley, a Prov- press and when to pull back. Hident Life & Accident insurance executive, The lessons of Indianapolis would find no exerted enormous influence as a community life in Chattanooga without her. volunteer at the time, despite the city’s pa- The trip had been inspiring for many, triarchal culture. including Hurley, but city leaders simply “Can a woman lead?” a United Way board weren’t interested in the Indianapolis ap- member once asked when Hurley was proach. The chamber, under Major’s lead- tapped to head the year’s fundraising drive. ership, had its own economic development “Mai Bell Hurley can command legions!” plan underway, and, unknown to most, the a businessman scolded. newly elected city mayor, Gene Roberts, was Despite being highly educated and po- developing a plan, too. Still, rather than wait litically astute, she feigned humility, often and worry, Hurley, Hebert and Montague, calling herself “the housewife of North who began discussing strategy while in Indi- Chattanooga,” knowing the great benefit anapolis, decided to act.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 18 They would form a committee called the criticize the group’s lack of diversity. The Options Study Group to come up with a better same, established people were often tapped community planning process, they told the to represent the black community, while city mayor, and to start they invited anyone the perspective of poor and working-class who had gone to Indianapolis to be a part. blacks was often left out. Still, Hurley felt Three middle-class blacks would re- the mix was right. main involved. Claudie Clark worked for The Options Study Group, which met Coca-Cola. Jerome Page headed the Urban weekly between mid-December of 1983 and League, and Howard Roddy was then the mid-February of 1984 would end up study- head of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County ing 11 cities and conclude that those in In- Health Department. Bill Evans, a mem- dianapolis were right. Cities such as Chat- ber of the electric workers union, also was tanooga were doomed if elected officials recruited to give voice to the labor union and businessmen continued to map out the perspective. Some, including black City future in a vacuum. Commissioner John Franklin, would later The old order had to be upended.

VENTURE RISING

HE OPTIONS Study Group mem- tague found. The problems chosen to address bers felt they knew what needed to were handpicked by the business community be done. Still, it seemed they were and the process had been controlled by the too late. private sector, which had ignored issues TThe mayor and chamber, behind closed doors, such as crime and social welfare. The com- already had decided how they wanted to address munity voice was completely left out. In the city’s stagnation, Hurley soon learned. The Chattanooga, where there was so much suspi- plan, she heard, was to create a new economic cion of the “power structure,” an approach like development entity called Partners for Econom- that couldn’t work, the group concluded. ic Progress and to hire a San-Francisco-based Their concerns didn’t gain currency, though. planning firm that could guide their steps. A few months later a Chattanooga News-Free Infuriated, Hurley confronted Mayor Press article announced that 36 corporate lead- Gene Roberts, who told her not to worry. ers, all white heads of major banks and business- Just wait and hear the perspective of the San es, were backing the chamber initiative. Francisco firm, he insisted. Still, the Options Study Group members The group was well aware of the San kept working on an alternative plan until, Francisco approach, however, thanks to finally, they stumbled onto an approach they Montague, who had studied San Francisco thought could work. They would form an during months of research. independent 501-c-3 organization, and they In San Francisco, the planning — directed would call it Chattanooga Venture. by the very firm the city and county executives And its first order of business would be wanted to hire — had been top-down, not bot- a communitywide planning process unlike tom-up as it had been in Indianapolis, Mon- anything the nation had ever seen.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 19 Chattanooga Times archives show the seven members of the Coordinating Council, which was created to mediate between Chattanooga Venture, the citizen-led planning nonprofit that launched in 1984, and the business-backed planning organization Partners for Economic Progress.

THE PROTECTOR

ONTAGUE SHOULD deliver other, the $3.5 million effort at economic de- the message, the group agreed. velopment will be (another) failure.” With the backing of Lupton A third organization, one that could and Lyndhurst, he could safely mediate between a chamber-backed plan Mnegotiate with the powers behind the econom- and a community-backed plan, could be the ic development plan and be taken seriously. solution, he argued. “Slow down … long enough and hard This “super board,” as he called it, would enough to realize the benefits and opportuni- consist of seven people: The mayor, the county ties presented here,” he wrote the mayor. executive, the head of Partners for Economic Both initiatives could work together, Mon- Progress, the head of Chattanooga Venture tague proposed. and “the three most powerful corporate chair- “I don’t think that economic development men in the city who are known for their broad without wide community vision, participation vision and experience, effectiveness, trust, and leadership will work,” he added. “Unless openness and ability to listen.” the two arms embrace each other, trust each It was a power play. The key was to lever- other, listen to each other and balance each age Jack Lupton, who, once involved, could

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 20 tip things in favor of Chattanooga Venture. City leaders saw Lupton as a rare, big fish, impossible to net. He didn’t like publicity. He didn’t like drama. But a link to him and his resources could prove invaluable. This was a way to get their hook in, and Hurley and Montague knew it was a pitch few politi- cians could resist. And they were right. The offer was accepted. Montague asked Jack Lupton to sit on the Coordinating Council, as it was formally named. “I don’t think Hurley ap- proached H. Carey that economic Hanlin, the CEO of Provident insur- development ance, where her husband worked, In a news article announcing Chattanooga Venture in 1984, without wide and together they Chattanooga Mayor Gene Roberts called the business-backed convinced Olan plan “a sales effort” and the citizen-led Venture “quality community Mills, a Democratic control.” TIMES FREE PRESS ARCHIVES vision, partic- fundraiser and pho- tography business To Montague and Hurley, Lupton rep- ipation and magnate, to play a resented a known quantity, a democratic part as well. force, a protector. He had always wanted leadership The presenta- things to be done differently in Chattanoo- tion by the San ga. This was his chance. will work,” Francisco-based Those on the outside, however, couldn’t - RICK Montague firm was canceled, separate him from the Lookout Mountain and there was a mythology, from the image of wealthy standing-room-on- men, born into money they didn’t earn, ly crowd at the next Options Study Group deciding the fates of companies and cities meeting, which Hurley opened to applause. from inside private clubs, isolated from She would be the first chairperson of Venture, the impact of their decisions. Lupton was a radically open organization with free member- so private, always denying requests from ship that would be solely funded by Lyndhurst the media and fiercely guarded by those and controlled by the largest and most diverse inside his bubble, that the average Chatta- board the community had ever seen. Littlefield, noogan couldn’t guess at his motivations who by then had been fired from the Chamber, for involvement. would be its first executive director. But really, no one, not even Montague, It was a huge victory for the everyday could predict his actions, and that would Chattanoogan, they all believed at the time. become clear in the years to come.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 21 A NEW DAY

HAT KIND of city do we exchange of information, a means to focus “ want Chattanooga to be?” the collective energy of the community and That was the question a tool for solving problems and setting a Chattanooga Venture direction for the future. wouldW take to the public. Years later, reading the words of that Pat Wilcox, a Chattanooga Times writer same brochure would bring sadness. who had volunteered with Venture, hur- “I don’t know how many people shared riedly worked with others on a brochure, an my view,” Wilcox said in 2012, when Cooper invitation to the citizen-led revolution they interviewed her for her dissertation. “I ex- believed would save their city. pected it to be a permanent thing. It didn’t “Chattanooga Venture heralds a new day turn out that way.” in the way decisions will be made. A new day It was Chattanooga, after all, a place where of community based leadership,” they wrote. even the geographic grandeur whispered that They described Venture as an open there were those above and those below, those association of citizens, a channel for the that mattered and those that did not.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 22 CHAPTER TWO coming together, coming apart BY JOAN GARRETT MCCLANE AND JOY LUKACHICK SMITH

HE DREAM BEGAN in the mid- lutionary, citizen-led nonprofit organization dle of a scene. credited with jump-starting Chattanooga’s Eleanor Cooper was hanging remarkable rebirth in the last decades of the from a second-floor balcony, 20th century. As she pecked at the keys of Tchoking on fear, and below her, the contents her computer, the loss finally set in. of her purse had spilled onto the ground. She wanted to hold on to what she and “Help,” she whispered, afraid to draw hundreds of others had helped build but attention to the valuables that could have ultimately she couldn’t save it. easily been taken right from under her. It seemed very few wanted to continue Several friends were nearby. They could pioneering an approach to civic engage- hear her plea, but they didn’t respond. ment that could teach a lesson to the world, “All that is valuable to me has been despite the strides that had been made. dropped,” Cooper typed in a journal after Venture had served its purpose, some of the she woke that morning in September 1993, very people who had once argued for its per- documenting the nightmare. “I can’t do any- manence would say. It had given birth to an thing about it. And I can’t scream.” extraordinary story, as well as new dreams “I am left hanging.” of growth and development, far beyond It was a metaphor, she realized as she what anyone had imagined possible. That wrote the scene. She felt abandoned. But was enough. more than that, she felt something precious What was left of Cooper’s own vision, to the city had been lost, maybe forever. however, was grief, a sadness that would In the real world, Cooper had just said remain, festering in the corners of her mind goodbye to Chattanooga Venture, the revo- for decades.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 23 A group meets during Chattanooga Venture’s Vision 2000 process to discuss citizens’ ideas for Chattanooga’s future. About 1,700 attended Vision 2000 sessions at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE BIRTH OF A VISION

DECADE before the grief, howev- reform, studies had shown. er, there was great excitement. Still, many responded with a resounding Few in or outside the move- yes to Venture’s call. ment to change Chattanooga’s “The most exciting thing is that they wel- cultureA of top-down decision-making knew come anybody and everybody,” a special edu- what to expect when Venture launched cation teacher from Red Bank gushed to the in the summer of 1984, asking Hamilton reporter the day of Venture’s grand opening at County residents: “Would you like to have a the old Ross Hotel on Georgia Avenue. greater role in the future of Chattanooga?” “This country started with civic involve- For so many years Chattanooga’s future ment. Venture is beginning to draw people had been mapped out in the halls of the tony back into the workings of their government,” Mountain City Club. Citizens, cynical and a contractor said the same day. frustrated, believed there was little hope for A high-school counselor called Venture

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 24 Citizens participate in Chattanooga Venture’s Vision 2000 Facilitators, trained in nominal group technique, write down community-planning process. During sessions, participants citizens’ ideas during Chattanooga Venture’s Vision 2000 were asked to write down and share their best ideas. community-based planning process, held at the University of CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY Tennessee at Chattanooga. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

“the best thing invented since the wheel. It ment relations? A city council/mayoral will hopefully help get this community out form of government? of the doldrums.” Then, after all community ideas were col- And interest multiplied when Venture an- lected, the community was called together nounced its signature effort: a community-led again to vote on the long list of 2,500 ideas. planning process it called Vision 2000. Six months later, the 40 community-deter- About 1,700 attended Vision 2000 ses- mined priorities of Vision 2000 were hand- sions at the University of Tennessee at Chat- ed off to Venture task forces that anyone tanooga’s student center designed to collect with an interest could join. ideas” to improve “work, play, place, people, Compelling scientific studies undergird- government and future alternatives,” Every ed the approach, formally called “nominal opinion was counted, and no idea was con- group technique.” In the industrial era, sidered too big or too small, trained facilita- paternalistic elites didn’t make decisions tors told the groups that met to brainstorm by committee, and they justified the closed the six topics. To ensure strong attendance, culture by assuring themselves that they Chattanooga Venture, which was funded by knew better. They had the money, the the Chattanooga-based Lyndhurst Founda- connections, and often the education that tion, provided transportation and child care qualified them. Yet, study after study was for those who needed it. showing that often their choices, made in a Many of the ideas were solutions to prac- vacuum, were dead wrong. The wisdom of a tical, street-level problems. A nurse, frus- crowd almost always trumped the wisdom of trated by the number of women she treated its smartest member. for abuse, suggested the city’s first battered Looking back from the perspective of the women’s shelter. Other participants, frus- 21st century, the Tennessee Aquarium, and trated by the lack of activities available for the surrounding development it spurred latchkey kids, suggested after-school pro- stands as the most tangible result of Ven- gramming. None existed at the time. ture, but a survey conducted in 1992 showed The list of needs grew and grew. What far more was accomplished. Over nearly a about a group home for troubled boys? A decade, 223 programs and projects reflect- media campaign to end teenage pregnancy? ed the 40 community goals determined A new county-city jail? An urban magnet through the Vision 2000 process, generating school? A panel to address labor-manage- $790 million in investment.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 25 Ron Littlefield, then executive director of Chattanooga Venture, right, records the group’s ideas while directing a meeting during the Vision 2000 community-based planning process, which began in 1984. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

“SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN”

TILL, BEFORE anything tangible planner and developer, visited Chattanooga resulted from Venture’s Vision 2000, in November 1984, as Vision 2000 was under- the very young nonprofit’s communi- way, and crowned Venture the rising hope for ty planning experiment was drawing fledgling cities across the country. Sattention from across the country. Rouse, who had made his fortune from the Nowhere, according to journalists and shopping malls and suburbs that grew out of urban planners at the time, had such a process the white flight that followed integration, had been attempted, and nowhere had an attempt come to Chattanooga thanks to Rick Mon- at community engagement seen such wide- tague, the son-in-law of Coca-Cola bottling spread community buy-in. heir Jack Lupton who, at the time, headed Momentum multiplied when James Rouse, Lyndhurst, the Lupton family foundation. arguably America’s most influential urban Over the years, Rouse had become pas-

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 26 Nationally renowned developer James Rouse speaks to Chattanooga news media about Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, a nonprofit organization he and Chattanooga Venture helped found to make local housing fit and livable for all, especially the poor. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY sionate about the housing needs of the poor, fered his support. They liked the attention and he told Montague, when they met at a the city was getting from the Vision 2000 conference, that he was looking for a city process, but they remained more interested willing to partner, with his foundation, the in solving the city’s image problems than Enterprise Foundation, to create a model transforming the way decisions were made. for providing safe and affordable housing, How could they attract more tourists and as well as neighborhoods that celebrated new industry, they asked Rouse, who had once economic and racial diversity. played a key role in revitalizing Baltimore’s Chattanooga could be an example to the downtown when he developed an aquarium entire nation, he believed. Venture was and shopping district on the city’s riverfront. proving that. Help Chattanoogans, listen to Chatta- “[I sense] a very impressive spirit here noogans, Rouse insisted when he visited that something is going to happen in this Chattanooga in 1984, and the image prob- city,” Rouse said on the stage of the Tivoli lems will take care of themselves. Theatre in the fall of 1984 before a crowd of Once home, Rouse offered a more detailed more than 800 people. response in a letter to Dan Frierson, then-vice His challenge would lead Venture to president of the nonprofit Allied Arts. help create Chattanooga Neighborhood In Baltimore, he and others had brushed Enterprise, a nonprofit originally intended aside the participation of the larger commu- to build affordable housing, offer loans for nity, but times had changed, Rouse wrote. home repairs and provide financial assis- Political action required broad support. Plus, tance for potential home owners. the community could offer strong leadership. Still, while Rouse’s visit validated Ven- Nonprofits like Venture would pave the ture’s work, it also revealed a tension within way to the future, he believed. the movement. “Clearly,” he wrote. “(Venture) has Many business leaders had reluctantly mounted strong momentum which must be backed Venture only after Lupton had of- maintained and strengthened.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 27 A drawing by former Chattanooga Times cartoonist Bruce Plante shows Mai Bell Hurley, Chattanooga Venture’s first board chair, holding a package that includes images of the most significant players in the city’s renaissance. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE WISH LIST

AI BELL HURLEY, one of It was wonderful that so many had en- Venture’s architects and the gaged in the Vision 2000 process, she wrote nonprofit’s first board chair- Lyndhurst Vice President Jack Murrah after person, agreed with Rouse. the six-month process had ended. MChattanooga needed community leadership. “There is a blue sky, kid-in-a-candy-store After all, in her opinion, the powers that be quality” to Vision’s 40 goals, “which cer- had led the city nowhere thus far. tainly is hopeful,” she wrote. “But (it) will But Hurley, one of the most influential only be helpful if reason and intelligence are women in the city at the time, wasn’t a brought to bear on its prospects.” populist or an idealist, despite being so vocal The revolution required dollars and about the need for bottom-up decision mak- cents, she believed, as well as a degree of ing. She was a pragmatist. savvy. So Hurley, the consummate fund-

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 28 Mai Bell Hurley, Chattanooga Venture’s first board chairperson, speaks in 1985 to media and citizens about the state “wish list,” the five capital projects Hurley believed best reflected the community’s 40 Vision 2000 goals. Then-Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander stands behind Hurley in a navy blazer. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY raiser, began working the political channels seemed Venture leaders would let the pub- that would bring resources to bear. lic decide. To grease the skids, Hurley, the city may- Records show a Venture committee was or and a handful of business and nonprofit working to develop a survey that would leaders turned to then-Tennessee Gov. allow the public to convert the Vision 2000 Lamar Alexander. Memphis had received goals into a list of capital projects. Alexan- millions in state dollars to redo its aging der even wrote a cover letter in which he Orpheum Theatre and its iconic tourist dis- called Venture “the most important urban trict, Beale Street, and Chattanooga needed initiative in Tennessee” and asked for “advice funding too, the delegates insisted. on which goals are most important” and “what The governor wanted to help, he assured specific projects should be undertaken.” Hurley, but Alexander had stipulations. Hurley quickly took over, however. With- He would only support bricks-and-mortar out seeking board approval, she began creat- projects that were bold and unique. An ing the list herself. Privately, she tested her example, he offered, might be a state aquar- ideas on those she respected or those with ium on Chattanooga’s riverfront, an idea power who might stand opposed. Finally, she that had been proposed a few years earlier sought the approval of Lupton, as well as the by University of Tennessee students and city mayor and the governor’s staff. their mentor, architect Stroud Watson. “Timing now is everything,” Hurley wrote Once home, leaders of Venture debated to Cooper, who was then on staff with Lynd- how best to whittle down the 40 Vision hurst. “The tide seems to be turning in our 2000 goals to a short list of capital projects direction … The advice we are getting from that might entice the governor. At first, it political experts is to keep a steady course

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 29 … My real concern is that we not sponsor an seum and Memorial Auditorium should opportunity to change the package.” trump an aquarium. The decision backfired, however, when “We need to stay united behind the pack- word of a finished “wish list,” as it became age,” Hurley wrote Cooper. “It combines called, was leaked to the media. populist sentiment for the river and expert/ The “wish list,” shaped by the advice professional advice about the best way to of business and political leaders, includ- start the development!” ed funding requests for a river park and a Leading up to the Venture board meeting, fishing pier, both named by the public as angry Venture members passed out bumper priorities in the Moccasin Bend Task Force stickers that read: “Return Venture to the meetings. The Tivoli Theatre and Bessie people!” and gathered at a city commission Smith Hall, a performing arts center to be meeting to voice their opposition to the built on M.L. King Boulevard, were named. “wish list.” But the “wish “Venture is more than Mai Bell Hurley list” also included and Ron Littlefield,” a Venture board mem- a state aquarium ber said. “(They) don’t bring us into the angry venture — which came as a process. (They) don’t get a consensus and surprise to some. then cut us off and go in here and talk to members passed An aquarium had politicians … behind everyone’s backs.” not been named as “I feel that we lost track of our primary out bumper one of the 40 Vision purpose,” Pat Wilcox, a Chattanooga Times 2000 goals, but, in a editorial writer and board member, told stickers that booklet, published Hurley when the Venture board met. “The read: “Return after the community only people who were at the table were the planning process people who had always been there.” venture to the had ended, an Others, including Montague and Little- aquarium had been field, stood behind Hurley’s “wish list.” people!” listed in a bullet Cooper, troubled, pleaded with Hurley point under the goal to hold public meetings that could edu- to “establish a com- cate confused or frustrated citizens about prehensive riverfront development plan.” aquariums and the economic benefits they A “state ‘fish tank’ on the river” was listed, had brought to other cities, but Hurley along with hundreds of other citizen ideas, didn’t want the aquarium to become a during the Vision 2000 meetings. public debate. Listing an aquarium would cement the Meanwhile, Hurley’s maneuvering paid governor’s support. That seemed clear off. Before the close of 1985, Alexander to Hurley. And its inclusion had to be called with news. Chattanooga would be protected, she believed, because some getting a windfall of $9 million, a funding thought funding for existing attractions pot that would radically shape the future of such as the Tennessee Valley Railroad Mu- the renaissance already underway.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 30 LUPTON'S WAR

EW WOULD EVER know about Hurley’s role in shaping the state funding package because, to most, it seemed obvious that the puppet Fmaster, for better or worse, was Lupton. After all, Lupton represented the deep pockets behind Lyndhurst, the Moccasin Bend Task Force and Venture. He also had been a generous donor to Alexander’s gubernatorial campaigns. Venture’s Vision 2000 and its big talk about bringing bottom-up leadership to Chattanooga was all for show, some whis- pered, a theory still posited today. From the beginning, Lupton and his friends had wanted an aquarium and nothing else, some suspected. “Jack’s fish tank,” many An advertisement for New Coke published in 1985. The soft opposed would call it. drink, backed by Jack Lupton, the Chattanooga-based Coca- Cola bottling magnate, was an enormous flop and was pulled In reality, Lupton, who didn’t attend a just 79 days after being launched. COCA-COLA CO. single Venture meeting and had remained relatively hands off, had originally op- to downtown development and tourism. posed the idea of an aquarium. At the time, unbeknownst to most, it At the time, there wasn’t a single aquarium was Coke’s rival, Pepsi, not an aquarium, in the U.S. losing money. So, for cities with ac- that Lupton obsessed over. cess to a waterfront, an aquarium was a smart Pepsi, a sweeter alternative to Coke, was gamble. That was why the UT architectural drawing customers with a modern market- students had pitched the idea in 1983. It was ing campaign that played into the culture also why Steven Carr, the Cambridge-based wars raging in the 1980s. planner hired by the Moccasin Bend Task Lupton, the country’s largest bottler, Force, had worked an aquarium into the final wanted Coke to go on the offensive in the soda plans for the Tennessee Riverpark. fight, and he convinced reluctant Coca-Cola Still, Lupton was unconvinced. He was executives to go along with a new strategy. especially cold on the idea of an aquarium Coke, like Chattanooga, needed to move that celebrated the local freshwater eco- into the new era, he believed, and like Lynd- system, preferring instead something like hurst it had to take big risks. a sportfishing center, letters show. Soon, an advertising response was Eventually, it was Alexander who talked launched and, in secret, the Coke laborato- Lupton into backing and funding the ries began work on a new, sweeter formula aquarium that would become the catalyst with a bit less bite.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 31 Market research said the and Hurley was ironing out new formula was a home the state “wish list,” em- run. Only 10 percent of barrassed Lupton, who, those who tested New despite his distaste for Coke didn’t like it. the media, had served But New Coke, as a spokesman for the announced in April new product. 1985, was an enormous Soon, Montague flop and triggered an would find Lupton unprecedented brand sitting alone in a Tallan backlash that is still Building conference studied by business school room, staring at a wall students to this day. New that displayed a map of all Coke was pulled, just 79 his Coke plants. days after its launch, and Above is a button worn by participants in “It’s all gone,” he said, Coke was relaunched as the Pepsi Challenge that chose Coke over without emotion, his way Coca-Cola Classic. Pepsi in the famous test taste hosted by of communicating the Pepsi as part of its advertising strategy The whole debacle, against Coke. COCA-COLA CO. split decision to sell his which was unfolding as company shares for Vision 2000 wrapped up $1.4 billion.

A RIFT

HE 1986 SALE, a move that the money, the organization bought proper- shocked many, would further ty and recruited developers to give the area change the direction of the Chat- new life, but its work was tempered. tanooga renaissance. Afraid their efforts might displace low- TSuddenly, Lupton, armed with an enor- er-income, working residents as redevel- mous windfall, had attention to spare, which opment led to higher real estate prices and he turned to Montague, who by then was rents, the nonprofit’s leaders tried to set up working on his next big idea for how to move checks and balances that would protect the Chattanooga forward. district from the phenomenon of gentrifica- The public had created a vision, but who tion, then sweeping America. For example, would see it through? The answer, Mon- the St. Paul group was radically transparent tague found after much research, was incu- and managed by a diverse board. bating in St. Paul, Minn. Chattanooga needed an exact replica, The Lowertown Redevelopment Corp. Montague argued, a development engine was a nonprofit seeking to revitalize an old that had the people’s trust and diverse warehouse district in St. Paul with a $10 interests in mind. “Greater Chattanooga million grant from a local foundation. With Partnership Inc.,” as he called it, would

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 32 “What haven’t we put, maybe the indigent or the lame? And the black member is being appointed by people that the community appointed. So they can’t look funny at us.” - jack lupton be another major step in toppling the old order, which favored business interests above all, he believed. Cooper, working alongside Montague at Lyndhurst, wholeheartedly agreed with the approach. “Chattanooga has been plagued by a history — or at least by a pervasive attitude — that the city is sharply divided along class and race lines and that only certain ones on one side of that line get to make decisions,” Cooper wrote Montague. “In the long run, the citizens will have to pay (for) a large portion of these efforts through public funds and will be the users and consumers of the developments. Their attitude toward them and their involvement in them will continue to be crucial to their success.” The stumbling block on this path, howev- Bill Sudderth was Jack Lupton’s choice to head RiverCity, a er, was Lupton. private nonprofit created to spur downtown development and For one, Lupton didn’t like the name oversee projects such as the Tennessee Aquarium and the Tennessee Riverwalk. STAFF FILE PHOTO Montague had settled on. RiverCity Co. was more fitting, he thought. it was, in many ways, the public’s business. Montague named Jim Bowen, who had It was democratic enough that the board worked with him on the Moccasin Bend would be made up of various community Task Force, to head the new development and elected representatives, he thought. nonprofit, which would be seeded with $4.5 “You can’t do much better than we have million from Lyndhurst. The task force, tried to do as representation is concerned,” which predated Venture, had been the first Lupton told a Chattanooga Times reporter Lyndhurst-backed effort at open and trans- in 1986. “What haven’t we put [on the parent public planning. board], maybe the indigent or the lame? Lupton, meanwhile, had a different per- And the black member is being appointed son in mind. Bill Sudderth, a developer who by people that the community appointed. had worked with Lupton, had a background So they can’t look funny at us.” in real estate. Lupton also had an opinion about who The transparency posed by Montague should be on the executive board of the new was another point of contention. Lupton nonprofit, and Montague soon found he didn’t want to do business in public, even if wasn’t on the list.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 33 Former Coca-Cola bottling magnate Jack Lupton addresses a large crowd that had gathered downtown to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Tennessee Aquarium. Lupton had originally opposed the idea of an aquarium but later chose to personally shoulder a third of the costs. His family’s foundation, Lyndhurst, also provided funding. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE SABBATICAL

HERE WAS A part of Montague their relationship grew more tense. They that understood why his father- disagreed about the look and focus of the in-law pushed him aside: He had aquarium, which Lupton by then was fully never run a company. While he had behind, having agreed to shoulder a third of Tmany talents, no one considered him a busi- the costs and even engage in public, verbal nessman. Development was not his expertise. warfare over its necessity. Still, the move frustrated Montague. “We are going to build the Tennessee State RiverCity, like so many other Lyndhurst Aquarium,” Lupton once wrote Ward Crutch- initiatives, had been his brainchild, after all, field, a state senator who had insulted Lupton and he had worked hard to lay the ground- in print. “And we’re not going to charge the work for it to be successful. But who was he taxpayers another red cent — and you know it! to complain? It was Lupton’s money. It was Now you take that message back to the boys Lupton’s foundation. It was Lupton’s show, who put you up to this crap!” Montague reasoned. Montague and his father-in-law also con- What’s more, Montague loved his quirky, tinued to disagree about the type of leader- unpredictable father-in-law. ship the city needed, as community engage- Still, in the ensuing months and years, ment and goal-setting gave way to actual

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 34 Rick Montague jotted this note to Eleanor Cooper in 1989. Montague headed the Lyndhurst Foundation for 10 years before his father-in-law, Jack Lupton, asked him to take a yearlong sabbatical during a period of mounting disagreement. Montague chose not to return to work at Lyndhurst after his sabbatical ended. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

development. Montague was an insider, yet was time for a sabbatical. he couldn’t convince those spearheading Jack Murrah, a longtime Lyndhurst staff the aquarium and RiverCity to see the ben- member and close friend of Montague, efits of transparency and public participation, would assume Montague’s role at Lynd- he told Cooper in a letter a few years later. hurst, the newspapers announced, though “I felt psychologically hemmed in by JTL Montague would remain on the board. (Lupton),” Montague wrote. For years, Murrah, Cooper and Mon- Then, as RiverCity was buying up more than tague, who never rejoined the Lyndhurst 30 acres downtown to later be sold and devel- staff after being put on sabbatical, tried to oped, Lupton made another surprising move. understand Lupton’s decision. Was it about “You have put in 10 good years for me,” ego? Control? The loss of Coke? he told Montague in the summer of 1987. It Lupton never offered an explanation.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 35 Workers construct the peaks of the Tennessee Aquarium, which opened in 1992. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE MESSENGER

S MONTAGUE’S role in the re- 1986 with the bold aim of making housing for naissance was changing, so was the very poor fit and livable within a decade, Venture’s. according to records. Ironically, CNE ended RiverCity, which launched in up working more and more with RiverCity 1986,A began driving the city’s physical trans- to develop market-rate housing that would formation, working hard to stir downtown draw the middle class to Chattanooga. development and manage the implementa- Venture’s place in the community, howev- tion of the Tennessee Riverwalk. er, became cloudier. The aquarium, which wouldn’t open until Hurley remained as Venture board chair- 1992, was underway. woman, while also serving on the board of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, Lyndhurst and RiverCity, but Littlefield, the another child of Venture, also took center nonprofit’s first executive director, left in 1986 stage. It had opened with funding from Lynd- to run for public office. He would go on to be hurst and real-estate mogul Bob Corker in elected to two terms as the city’s mayor.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 36 To replace Littlefield, Jim Hassinger, who had been working at the planning commis- sion, was hired to run Venture, then a few years old and still solely funded by Lynd- hurst. Under Hassinger, Venture hosted a series of community forums on “policy choices facing the city,” but Venture’s main focus turned to public relations. A changing Chat- tanooga was gaining more and more notice outside the city. Scholars, hoping to find a model that could be passed on to other troubled post-industrial cities, even gave Venture’s experiments a name: “The Chat- tanooga process.” As interest grew, some group had to step into the marketing and promotions role, Hassinger argued. Also, with the conclusion of the Vision 2000 planning process and the controversy surrounding the state “wish list,” local trust and interest had begun to wane. So Venture also needed a campaign Jim Hassinger was Chattanooga Venture’s second executive aimed at Chattanoogans. director. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY In agreement, at first, Murrah and the Lyndhurst board funded the development tween the renaissance architects became of an extensive marketing plan. more and more apparent. RiverCity, Lyndhurst and the Chamber of Hurley, once Venture’s loudest advocate, Commerce would play a role in promotion, was beginning to think the citizen-led non- but Venture should serve as ground zero, profit no longer had a role to play. Less than the 1988 report argued, because it connect- a year after the marketing plan was debated, ed with the people and played the largest she left the organization she had given birth role in sparking the turnaround. Still, Ven- to and became the first woman elected to ture would never own the rights to the story. the Chattanooga City Council, formed after “Hold everything!” Lupton wrote after a federal judge ruled the city’s longstanding reading the consultant’s report. commission-style government violated the “We are focusing on the messenger and not constitutional rights of black residents. on the message,” Hurley wrote the consul- Venture board members believed the tants, after hearing their strategy. “What is the organization should be working harder to message? And who will say what it will be?” connect with and empower Chattanoogans Behind the scenes, letters show Hurley and avoid any semblance of elitism. After worked to derail the marketing plan, which all, Venture had launched to improve the positioned Venture as the lead communica- community by engaging all citizens in local tor. Her interest in Venture was giving way to decision-making. new commitments. RiverCity, she and Lupton Hurley, however, had had an epiphany, agreed, should be the promoters of downtown, she wrote Montague in 1989. as well as the teller of Chattanooga’s story. Venture had always been elitist, she ar- Meanwhile, an ideological divide be- gued, and that was its virtue.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 37 Chattanooga Venture leaders pose for a picture in front of a Venture sign in 1986. From left are Mai Bell Hurley, Rick Montague, the Rev. Robert Keesee, Jim Hassinger and Ron Littlefield. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

“It was designed … for those that want to be hopeful and helpful, for those who want to do something for others, who want prog- ress and change, who are tolerant, who have “If leadership forces cannot adopt taste, who believe that this community is ca- listening as the primary element pable of being better than it is,” she typed to Montague. And it should resist the “average within leadership, then all will be aspirations of the average Hamiltonian.” vanity and all will be arrogance If Venture wasn’t willing to be unpopular, she wrote, then there was no reason for it to and our glorious project will continue. Montague, saddened by her new thinking, become tombstones!” disagreed. - RICK Montague Chattanooga desperately needed the peacemaking and consensus building that Venture had once embodied. ship,” Montague replied. “then all will be “If leadership forces cannot adopt listen- vanity and all will be arrogance and our ing as the primary element within leader- glorious project will become tombstones!”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 38 Post-it notes, detailing local history before and after the city renaissance began, stretch across the walls in Chattanooga Venture’s office.CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

ONE MORE ROUND

ASSINGER, Venture’s director, lier ’80s won’t return, and the renewal we seek would leave Venture not long will not take place. … Before people can feel after Hurley. they belong, they must first understand.” So Montague, determined Quickly, Cooper, who left Lyndhurst in Hto return Venture to its roots as a catalyst, the fall of 1990 to head Venture, worked to convener and consensus builder, stepped in right the ship. as Venture board chairman for a short time. She asked Murrah, then president of He turned to Cooper, still on staff with Lynd- Lyndhurst, to increase its funding, justifying hurst, for help. the request by outlining a slew of new activ- Many, including Hurley, it seemed, had for- ities for the organization that would help it gotten the nonprofit’s back story and mission. reconnect with Chattanoogans. “The stories, the emerging plans and the Under Cooper’s leadership, Venture context must be repeated again, and again, and opened a “facilitators bank,” which offered again,” Montague wrote Cooper. “Until some trained individuals who could help burgeon- group fills this need, the heady days of the ear- ing community groups with planning and

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 39 all wanting to know how “the Chatta- nooga Process” could be used. And if the model, pioneered in Chattanooga, was giving hope to the rest of the county, why couldn’t it still serve the city that birthed it, Cooper thought. The redux would be called Re-Vision 2000, but this time, Cooper was determined to learn from the past. In the first community vision- ing exercise, nearly a decade earlier, crowds had been far too white, middle class and middle aged, she believed. This vision would include far more diversity, and touch on what might have been missed by Vision 2000. At first, Murrah was thrilled by the energy Cooper injected into Venture. “Eleanor has taken Venture by storm,” he wrote to the Lyndhurst board. “Everything is changed or changing … the agenda is bulg- ing with new undertakings, both substantive and celebratory.” Funding, however, was becoming a bit of a quandary, he acknowledged to the board. Cooper wanted Lyndhurst to up its support, which sat at $400,000 in 1991, by A Chattanooga police officer works with residents in Highland 50 percent, and Murrah told the board he Park in 1992 to cultivate a community garden, one of the projects Chattanooga Venture helped the neighborhood start. thought Lyndhurst should be generous with In the early 1990s, Venture helped dozens of neighborhoods Cooper in her first year as head of Venture. organize and address their hyper-local needs and concerns. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY Still, he wrote, Lyndhurst couldn’t sustain that level of funding for Venture in future conflict resolution. In addition, consultants years. The foundation also was committed were hired to help neighborhoods organize to being the principal funder of CNE, River- and identify their hyper-local concerns. City and the Tennessee Aquarium, among Venture also published materials and other things. Venture was important to the organized community meetings to educate community, he argued, but it needed to be- locals on the new form of city government. A gin fundraising outside of Lyndhurst as well. separate project involved Venture in helping A diverse pool of funders would best ensure public housing residents learn to self man- its longevity. age the government-subsidized property Surprised but not dejected, Cooper they shared. accepted the challenge, but the reception But her boldest idea was not a new one: of business and political leaders she ap- The city needed to come together again and proached for financial support was chilly. engage in the visioning process that had put “Venture — a bunch of rich people — Chattanooga on the map. just concerned with poor/social issues,” In the early 90s, Venture was inundated she wrote on a notepad, transcribing the with calls from journalists, urban plan- thoughts of some city council members. ners, civic activists and political leaders, “We don’t need any new ideas,” she jotted

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 40 A Chattanooga Venture staff member helps residents in Harrison Bluff in 1992 come up with goals for their neighborhood. In the early 1990s, Venture helped dozens of neighborhoods organize and address their hyper-local needs and concerns. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY down, after another meeting, during which downtown housing deficit. RiverCity was she had asked for support of Re-Vision 2000. overseeing the completion of the aquarium The “economic power structure” just and the riverwalk and promoting economic couldn’t see how Venture was helpful, development downtown. How was Venture someone else explained to Cooper. The still needed, they wondered. nonprofit “had outlived its usefulness.” After the vote in 1992, Murrah would Then, a bigger challenge emerged. deliver sobering news to Cooper. Lyndhurst Lupton was leaving Lyndhurst, he an- would be severing ties with Venture, Mur- nounced unexpectedly in October of 1991, and rah wrote, and would offer one final grant his children, most of whom lived outside of of $1 million, the equivalent of two years’ Chattanooga, would be taking over. It soon be- funding, to see it through the transition. came clear that they wanted to take the family How could the “essential ingredients of foundation in new directions. civic progress be made available without the At the first meetings of Lyndhurst’s new- exceptional and inevitably temporary sup- ly configured board, Murrah argued Ven- port of a single foundation?” Murrah asked ture’s worth, while also acknowledging that Cooper in the same letter. Lyndhurst should reduce its funding and “It is, perhaps, a great irony that the force Venture to be more financially inde- best time to force the resolution of that pendent. Still, the new board voted to stop issue … is when Venture is at the peak of funding altogether. CNE was addressing the its performance.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 41 Rick Montague, right, talks with citizens at a Re-Vision 2000 event at Miller Plaza in 1993. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

A FINAL BLOW

S LYNDHURST pulled away to Cooper. There was more work to be done. from Venture, the future of And this new communitywide vision, the near-decade-old nonprofit Cooper believed, better reflected the city’s seemed uncertain. diverse population and perspectives. Thir- AWithout the protection of Lupton and ty percent of participants were under 25. Hurley, it seemed no political and business Twelve percent were black. Twenty-four leaders were willing to fund the organization. percent came from households earning less The city’s image problems were beginning to than $20,000 a year. And 85 percent had not fade away. Chattanooga was back on the map participated in Vision 2000. and long-awaited development was underway, “I felt valued,” said Sajeena Geevarghese, filling downtown with bodies and businesses. a teenage Re-Vision 2000 participant who Meanwhile, in early 1993, Re-Vision was interviewed for a short video about Ven- 2000, Venture’s second community-led ture. “Someone is finally listening.” visioning process, was underway, and the “The least one sometimes can come up 2,600 participants, from 40 Hamilton Coun- with the best idea,” said Alberta Bayne, a ty zip codes, were sending another message black woman who bounced a baby on her

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 42 knee during one of Re-Vision meetings. “We may be common-thinking people, but we all are created equal.” “The more voices that converge, the more they (leaders) have to listen,” said James Fouther, then the pastor of Chattanooga United Church. “Things can change,” said Alva Crowe, an American Indian resident. “Things can happen when people come together and work together.” “We made a strong leap forward, we walked on the moon, so to speak” added then-Hamilton County Executive Dalton Roberts, referring to the first communi- ty visioning process. “So are we going to close down all our rockets now, or are we going to look at other planets? We cer- tainly have not arrived. There are a lot of things we need to do.” Still, the success of Re-Vision 2000 and the chorus of voices it ignited failed to moti- vate financial support for Venture. Eleanor Cooper, left, meets at the Chattanooga Venture So, in a last ditch effort, Cooper called office with a group of local leaders called together by former Coca-Cola bottling magnate Jack Lupton, right. The meeting Lupton. He alone could save it. She knew would deal the final blow to the nearly decade-old community that much. planning nonprofit. ELEANOR COOPER He was behind her, he told her when she reached out, and he agreed to gather a pow- she thought would work best. Venture could erful group to brainstorm Venture’s future. divide into two units. One would continue to On June 30, 1993 some of the city’s most work with the community and incubate new influential players responded to his call. ideas. The other would promote “the Chatta- Around a table at Venture’s headquarters nooga process.” With interest so high, it could on Broad Street sat Hurley, Roberts, Corker, serve as a source of revenue, she argued. photography business magnate Olan Mills But midpitch, Lupton abruptly cut Coo- and Chattanooga Times owner Ruth Holm- per off. berg. Accounting executive Joe Decosimo and He had changed his mind, he told the room. developer brothers Bo and Bill Sudderth and Some in the group snickered. Lupton so Jim Catanzaro, who had been recently elected often suffered from a sudden change of heart. chairman of Venture, also came. “Does anyone want to make the argu- At first, the group debated whether it made ment for why Venture should die?” he sense for another organization, like RiverCity, asked the room. to absorb Venture, but no conclusion was Hurley lifted her hand. reached. They also debated Venture’s role in “I’ll take a stab at it,” she said. the community until Lupton broke in. A few weeks later Cooper found herself in “I want to hear from Ele [Eleanor],” he said. the nightmare, hanging from the banister, Nervous, Cooper offered up the solution alone.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 43 Jim Catanzaro, then-president of Chattanooga State Community College, leads a Chattanooga Venture board meeting during his tenure as chair. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

LICKING WOUNDS

FTER THE meeting Lupton was time, he said, to let Venture fade away. would offer an olive branch: “I … am saddened by the ending of a vision $100,000. that we shared and the rupture of an organiza- But Venture was already dead. tion that once served the community,” Cooper CooperA could feel it. wrote Murrah, in the aftermath. “One lesson The end, detailed in her journal, would that is learned is that history does not last long.” be messy. Hoping to make what was left of Montague, always the optimist, tried to Venture’s funding last, Chairman Catanzaro console her. came up with a plan to fire almost the entire “We may have lost some small wars; we staff without consulting Cooper, who was may have tried to please some corrupt, stu- out of the country on vacation. She was told pid, insane, inept and conspiratorial ‘gener- to execute the plan upon her return. als’ in the war,” Montague wrote to Cooper. Shortly after, in the fall of 1993, Cooper, “We did what we could.” frustrated with the board’s treatment of They were idealistic, fed up with “the her and their failure to aid in fundraising, same old B.S., racism, class conflict and penned her resignation. When Lupton middlebrowism.” They had wanted to trust heard the news, he also wrote Catanzaro. It and listen, to give power and voice to every-

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 44 day people who felt alienated and angry, he wrote. Later, though, they found they were alone in those hopes, and it hurt. “Some key actors weren’t in the fight for the long haul, but, in truth, I don’t think they saw a long haul,” Montague wrote. Still, it was a great ride, he added, and “the world changed a little bit - in some rather fundamental ways.” A few weeks later, Murrah and Cooper met and tried to make sense of a decade as they hiked along a trail at the foot of Look- out Mountain. Afterward, Murrah jotted Cooper a note. “I have no more points to make about Venture,” he wrote. “What happened was that good people did the best they could with what they had every step of the way. Also some bad people did the best they could. Some died. Not enough.” Eleanor Cooper penned this letter of appreciation to “And thus was the fall of the house of Rick Montague in 1992. Both were fierce advocates of Usher.” Chattanooga Venture. ELEANOR COOPER

AN END

N THE spring of 1994, Murrah received Venture had moved to Chattanooga State a copy of Venture’s last grant report. Technical Community College. A few years It detailed how Re-Vision 2000 had later, it would disappear completely. But the created a task force to carry out more report described how Venture was emerging Ithan two dozen of the most important plans from a difficult transition and was commit- to emerge from the city’s new vision. ted to seeing the new vision through. An update on the neighborhood networks Murrah, knowing that wasn’t the case, detailed how Venture would continue to scribbled a note on a yellow sticky pad and help neighborhoods organize. Under Coo- stuck it on top of the report before he sent it per’s leadership, neighborhood associations to be filed. had grown from six to nearly 80. “Mark this as the final report from Venture. Cooper had resigned and the shell left of Close the books. Burn the files.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 45 CHAPTER THREE REWRITING A HISTORY, RECASTING A FUTURE BY JOY LUKACHICK SMITH AND JOAN GARRETT MCCLANE

S THE DOWNTOWN TOUR went on, the story — told by area business leaders and boosters — started to sound scripted. AEach narration of Chattanooga’s turn- around began the same way. “In 1969, on the evening news, Walter Cronkite called Chattanooga the dirtiest city in America,” another city leader told the group that had flown to Chattanooga from western Massachusetts in the fall of 2015. The racial conflicts and divisions that plagued the city in the early 1980s weren’t Crowds gather on the Walnut Street Bridge during the 2016 mentioned. Neither was the unprecedented Sunbelt Bakery Ironman 70.3 event. The popular pedestrian effort to topple Chattanooga’s longstanding bridge stands as just one example of the legacy left by culture of top-down decision making that Chattanooga Venture, the nonprofit that opened in 1984 to spark a citizen-led planning revolution. The organization fizzled favored businesses. a decade later after some of its fiercest advocates pulled their So, that night, after the group’s tour and support. STAFF FILE PHOTO meetings had concluded, the visitors from Massachusetts sat together and discussed said. When they asked locals about the what they had seen and heard. Marcos quality of the local public schools, they were Marrero, the economic director of Holyoke, told the Hamilton County school system Mass., was one of the first to speak up. was troubled. Where were the community’s There was something about the rosy black leaders? His companions had the same renaissance narrative that seemed off, he questions.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 46 Bailey Allen, Madeleine Dougherty and Mark Gilliland carry signs on North Moore Road during the 2016 annual M.L. King parade. The large sign challenges the claim of Outside Magazine, which called Chattanooga “The Best Town Ever” in 2015. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY TIM BARBER

The Chattanoogans they met boasted of nify Money showed Chattanooga was one of bold leadership and risk-taking, as well as the best places in the country to live for those strong “public-private partnerships.” Still, earning more than $100,000 a year. Another they weren’t bowled over by the beautiful study published by researchers at Harvard city or its highly advertised, but loosely de- University and the University of Califor- fined, “Chattanooga Way.” On first impres- nia-Berkeley, however, showed Chattanoo- sion, Chattanooga seemed like so many other ga had some of the worst economic mobility cities in America: Just one more place where rates in the country. serious political and economic problems hid Like many, Marrero and his colleagues beneath a veneer of artisan restaurants and had come to Chattanooga in search of solu- new construction. tions to economic problems. Yet, they were And, to a large extent, they were right. also looking for innovative approaches to Studies were continuing to show that Chat- America’s stickiest problems: generational tanooga was, in fact, two cities, growing fur- poverty, limited economic mobility and wors- ther apart, perhaps destined for collision in ening class and race-based segregation, factors the years to come. they knew threatened growth in the long term. For example, one study released in early Hadn’t there been a people’s movement in 2017 by the personal finance website Mag- Chattanooga, a vision, they wondered. The

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 47 Michael Gilliland leads a group of Covenant College graduates on “The People’s History” walking tour through downtown Chattanooga. Gilliland, 36, is the volunteer leader of Chattanooga Organized for Action, a grassroots group that, in recent years, has raised 6uestions about discriminatory banking practices, as well as local affordable housing policy. STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND widely publicized story of Chattanooga’s cit- On the top of the page, one site stood out. izen-led planning process had, in part, drawn Chattanooga Organized for Action — a grass- them to the Scenic City. Where had that led? roots group that, in recent years, has raised Did Chattanoogans feel, as advertised, a questions about discriminatory banking shared sense of power and hope? practices, as well as local affordable housing They had no idea where to turn for answers. policy — seemed to offer the other side to the The original renaissance architects had Cinderella narrative. passed the torch to new leaders. Coca-Cola bot- “It might come as a surprise to some that tling heir and iconoclast Jack Lupton, whose there are two Chattanoogas,” the website family fortune gave life to the Lyndurst Foun- read. “A city of opportunity for some, and dation, RiverCity, the Tennessee Aquarium a city where the gravity of poverty gains a and Chattanooga Venture, among many other stronger grip.” things, had died. So had Mai Bell Hurley, the po- It was after midnight, but Richane pulled litical juggernaut who helped secure the state up his email and began typing a request to funding that set downtown’s physical trans- Michael Gilliland, the 36-year-old volunteer formation in motion. And those who were still leader of the nonprofit organization who alive were in their late 60s and 70s, long retired, worked full-time as a restaurant manager in weary of public life and mostly forgotten. the Bluff View Art District. Greg Richane, another member of the “Help me bring the whole story home.” Massachusetts group, turned to Google. Gilliland, awake, wasn’t shocked by the He typed a string of words: “Social justice. note. After all, it wasn’t the first. It also Equity. Chattanooga.” wouldn’t be the last.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 48 A PEOPLE’S HISTORY

HE TALLAN BUILDING loomed over M.L. King Boulevard as the group of Covenant College graduates gathered in late April Tof this year and waited for “The People’s History Tour” to begin. It would be one of several narrated walks across the city that year, led by Gilliland and Jefferson Hodge, another young vol- unteer with Chattanooga Organized for Action. In the two years since connecting with the group from Holyoke, Mass., Gilli- land had received numerous requests for information about the city’s history from Covenant College graduates review historic photos and material given to them during “The People’s History” walking those who felt dissatisfied by the shorthand, tour of downtown Chattanooga. The tour was organized by booster-backed version. An increased media Michael Gilliland and Jefferson Hodge, two volunteers with Chattanooga Organized for Action. STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG spotlight on local problems related to pover- STRICKLAND ty, crime, housing and education had revived interest in the city’s past. It was a take on history that both Rick Gilliland and Hodge started the tour Montague, Lupton’s one-time son-in-law on M.L. King Boulevard for a reason, they and the former head of Lyndhurst, and told the recent college graduates. Leaders Eleanor Cooper, the last director of Venture, are willing to admit to a polluted past. Yet had feared. More than 30 years ago, they had Chattanooga’s long history of race and class believed — thanks to a groundswell of local conflict are brushed under the rug, they support and a flood of outside praise — that explained, before educating the group about they were standing at the center of a revolu- the 1980 Ku Klux Klan shooting of five black tion that taught change and consensus were women downtown, as well as the 1981 fight possible in a polarized America. to rename Ninth Street as M.L. King Boulevard. Cooper wrote Montague in 1990, just a “If we don’t tell the accurate story, we’re few years before Venture faded away: “My never going to be able to address the prob- goal, or one sign of whether we have been lems we are now facing,” Gilliland said. successful is that when we are Mai Bell To Gilliland and Hodge, Chattanooga Hurley’s age, there are lots of players, lots Venture, the nonprofit that jump-started of diverse players, diverse in age, race, sex, the city’s turnaround, wasn’t even worth location of residence, economic status, etc. mentioning. Among the leadership class, Lots of ‘us’ making decisions, leading up there had never been genuine interest in the progressive efforts, raising money, donating needs of poor and working-class Chattanoo- money and getting the glory,”. gans, they told the students that day. Today, that vision still proves elusive.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 49 Citizens gather in the mid-1980s during Chattanooga Venture’s Vision 2000 planning process, which lasted for six months, involved 1,700 Chattanoogans and resulted in 40 community-chosen goals for the future. Academics would later call the experiment “the Chattanooga process.” CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY

A WAY, LOST

ITY LEADERS ASSERT Ven- “Nominal group technique,” the formal ture and its visioning experi- name for the process Chattanooga Venture ments, Vision 2000 and Re-Vi- used during Vision 2000 and Re-Vision sion 2000, left a lasting legacy. 2000, continues to be used by area orga- C“Today we do it so often it’s in our DNA. It nizations and consultants, albeit in much has its own name, it’s the Chattanooga Way,” smaller settings. RiverCity President Kim White told a group Still, those who’ve studied Chattanooga’s of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga turnaround say the Chattanooga Way, or the students during a presentation in 2014. Chattanooga process, as academics call it, In some ways, she’s right. It’s nearly im- was cast aside decades ago. possible to find a local initiative that doesn’t In the 1980s and 1990s, Venture took a boast some form of citizen engagement. radical approach to community planning.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 50 Instead of asking the perceived best and brightest to chart Chattanooga’s future course, Venture leaders went to the general public without an agenda, records show, and asked every member of the community to build and refine the city’s goals. This degree of engagement, which re- quired enormous trust in the wisdom of di- verse groups and highly skilled facilitation, simply doesn’t exist on the scale it once did, argues Storm Cunningham, a redevelop- ment expert who studied Chattanooga for his book “reWealth!” The private, nonprofit RiverCity, for Beverly Johnson, a facilitator during Chattanooga Venture’s example, only vets larger projects with the Re-Vision 2000 in 1993, writes down ideas presented by community members present. CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC public after they are conceptualized and LIBRARY nearly ready to go. Leaders today, he said, ask more for approval than engagement. disintegration of community adhesion since These days, there is no shared vision for the 1970s, pointing to falling trust in major the future of Chattanooga, just a host of dif- institutions and dwindling membership in ferent groups engaging people in different civic clubs and churches. A host of factors, ways and spinning off their own ideas about including the advent of the Internet and social the future, informed largely by academics, media, have driven Americans into isolated experts, business leaders, politicians and pockets, experts say. The divide seems to have foundation boards, he said. deepened since the 2016 presidential election. Others who’ve studied Chattanooga agree Still, Venture pushed back on the trend with Cunningham’s assessment. for a time and shouldn’t have been killed, “Local democratic participation tended Cunningham said. to become more and more mirage or smoke- Cities need “renewal engines” such as screen for elite manipulation and control,” Venture, Cunningham argues, because they wrote Ernest J. Yanarella and Robert W. serve three important and distinct purposes Lancaster in “Getting from Here to There?: that fuel progress. They create and house Power, Politics and Urban Sustainability in a shared vision of the community’s future. North America,” after studying Chattanoo- They foster buy-in and culture change, and ga’s turnaround. they provide a neutral ground for partnering. In the meantime, local political, econom- “They had no way of knowing how cru- ic and racial polarization has worsened, cially important it is to keep visioning, cul- making a consensus on local problems and turing and partnering processes together in solutions seem more improbable than ever. one organization, and for that organization Of course, Chattanooga is not alone. to be seen as being of the people, run by the Academics have been warning about the people, for the people,” wrote Cunningham.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 51 Kim White, CEO of RiverCity Co., speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony in the 700 block of Market Street in 2015. STAFF FILE PHOTO

“IT’S MORE DIFFICULT”

N THE OTHER HAND, White, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, now who has been at the helm of serving a second term, said he also doesn’t RiverCity for eight years, says see the need for a community vision or a she doesn’t think the city needs Venture. The public hasn’t asked for such Oanother round of communitywide visioning an approach, and his administration does a or an organization such as Venture. She be- good job with civic engagement, he added. lieves the right stakeholders need to contin- “We do community engagement every ue to work together to tackle the city’s next day. That’s an essential part of what I do … set of challenges. part of my job is listening,” said Berke. “It “It’s really about getting the right peo- informs the decisions I make every day.” ple in the room,” she said. “Today you can’t In recent years, however, more and more just say, let’s do whatever you want. It’s a have cited a disconnect between the agendas lot more granular now. It’s not just asking a of leaders and the needs of citizens. group of citizens what they want to enact. “You call it Gig City. African-Americans It’s more difficult to have a Venture.” call it rigged city,” said the late community

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 52 Local Nation of Islam minister Kevin Muhammad speaks at Chattanooga City Hall in 2016, challenging Mayor Andy Berke’s state of the city address. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND activist Joe Rowe, who along with a group chambers of justice,” said local Nation of Is- of downtown property owners called on the lam minister Kevin Muhammad, who spoke city to suspend a controversial tax break to city council members in 2016 before a program that Berke had revived in 2014. packed audience who had come to city hall Others were frustrated when public to support his speech. feedback was discarded after meetings in It’s a bad omen for the future, Cunning- 2016 to determine how much parking de- ham warns. velopers were required to build to accom- Cleveland, Ohio is a perfect example. modate new housing. Much like Chattanooga, Cleveland faced en- “Some remembered the ‘good old days’ vironmental embarrassment in 1969 when of Chattanooga Venture: openness, trans- oily slime on its Cuyahoga River caught fire. parency, productive community discussions And, much like Chattanooga, Cleveland, a held in good faith,” Franklin McCallie, a former industrial town with a waterfront, Southside retiree, wrote in an editorial to became known for civic efforts that brought the Times Free Press. it out of crisis. But the public-private part- Community members voiced similar frus- nerships forged during that era fell apart in tration with Berke’s Violence Reduction Ini- the early 2000s. tiative, which was built by experts outside of According to Cleveland State University Chattanooga without much public feedback. economist Ned Hill, who studied the unrav- “We stand before you today as the voice eling, the shift occurred with the emergence of the voiceless, the voice of those whose of a “less democratic, top-down community voices have fallen on deaf ears and whose planning process that was driven almost deeds are not recognized in city hall and the exclusively by the city’s business elite.”

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 53 Eleanor Cooper, 70, at her home on Missionary Ridge. In 2013, after five years of researching Chattanooga Venture and community learning theory, she published her dissertation through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga titled “Citizens Changing Ideas Into Action: A Phenomenological Study of Community Learning.” STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND

REFLECTING

OOPER NEVER INTENDED to Later, after Venture was killed by some grow old in Chattanooga, a place of the very people who created it, doubt and she had considered narrow-mind- skepticism set in. Perhaps Hurley was right. ed and wedded to the past. Maybe Venture had served its purpose and CBut her friend Montague changed that needed to die, Cooper thought at times. when he took over Lyndhurst, at the request While innovative, Venture was clearly of Lupton, and began pushing city leaders, imperfect. It lacked a diverse funding base. with the help of allies like Hurley, to begin Nonprofits can rarely, if ever, rely on everlast- thinking in new ways. ing funding from a single foundation. It also In the 1980s, from her perspective, the lacked a large degree of racial and economic city was surging with energy and excitement diversity, especially in its early years. Even- as partnerships, trust and confidence were tually, its influence began to wane as its most built, first through the work of the Moccasin powerful members lost interest in its mission. Bend Task Force and then through Venture. Yet, after enrolling at UTC in 2008 and

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 54 spending five years studying the early years the long list of ideas gathered from the pub- of Venture for her doctoral dissertation, lic was presented to the public, members of Cooper came to some of the same conclu- which voted on which ideas they thought sions as Cunningham. Perhaps the Venture should be top priority. experiment could teach something to cities It’s an approach that can still make the facing big challenges in the midst of growing impossible seem possible, Cooper believes. polarization. “Learning plus connection equals vision,” There was a reason traditional civic engage- she wrote in the conclusion of her disserta- ment models often led to little public buy-in. tion. “Vision not only drives change but it also For people to care and act, they need to builds community. It has a multiplier effect.” feel connected. And Venture, in the be- These days, Cooper hopes a new genera- ginning, at least, created connections that tion, looking to innovate in the realm of civic didn’t exist before, Cooper said. engagement and consensus building, will care It created a community of people who, enough to learn from the city’s past and build as Hurley often said, wanted to be “hopeful on her generation’s successes and failures. and helpful.” People didn’t just show up to a Others agree that renewal is needed. lecture and leave. They brainstormed. They “I laud Chattanooga for what they have learned from one another. accomplished but fault them for not look- At each step of the visioning process, par- ing ahead for a set of new challenges, new ticipants were given equal weight and equal issues of today, that need to be addressed control of the process. Those running the with vigor, originality and innovation,” meetings weren’t there to convince others said Bob McNulty, founder of Partners for to oppose or support anything. They were Livable Communities, the organization that there to listen and moderate. Everyone’s introduced Chattanooga to the idea of pub- ideas, big or small, were recorded. And then lic-private partnerships in the 1980s.

“START OVER”

Gilliland, who has been working since Like many, he never knew much about graduating from UTC to get local leaders to the motivations behind Venture. Those with acknowledge and address the plight of work- money and influence eventually abandoned ing-class Chattanoogans, was born in Red the program. So he assumed its big talk about Bank in 1981, just as Montague and Cooper changing local culture and giving voice to all were beginning their work. Chattanoogans had never been genuine. Still, while Gilliland admits Chattanooga Over the years, though, he found other local is far more attractive than it was when he stories that did move him. The fights, some was growing up, he has never felt pride in the won and some lost, for workers’ rights. The renaissance narrative of his hometown. To black attorneys who argued for due process in him, the city’s story is told and retold simply to the face of mob violence. The civil rights pro- benefit Chattanooga’s rich and powerful, who tests. The federal cases, instigated by everyday are poised to benefit from surging interest. citizens, that forced government to change.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 55 Michael Gilliland grew up in Chattanooga but says he felt no pride in the city’s renaissance narrative. He and others are working to create a citizen-led planning movement with similar aims to that of Chattanooga Venture. STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG STRICKLAND

“Those are the more inspiring stories,” he And he and many others are working to said. make it happen, again. And they led him into community orga- In Nashville, a group called Nashville nizing and activism, he said. They taught Organized for Action and Hope has made him that history doesn’t just bend for the impressive strides organizing communi- Jack Luptons of the world. Ordinary people ty groups and building consensus around who share a vision can change the course of issues such as affordable housing. Turnout a city, too. in the most recent mayoral election signifi- The Venture era was certainly not the cantly spiked, thanks in part to the group’s first time Chattanoogans had organized and work, news articles show. fought to be heard, although it may have While its efforts have been stalled at the been one of the only times the fight was legislative level, its success engaging the endorsed, to a certain degree and for a short community offered hope to Gilliland and period, by those with money and power. others, who have seen many efforts to ad- “I believe in democracy and consensus, dress local problems fail to arouse action. the best of what Venture hoped for,” Gillil- So, in September of 2016, a handful of and said. Chattanooga Organized for Action mem- Venture may be dead, and the memory of bers, local union members and local clergy it long faded. Still, its original call for a di- formed Chattanoogans in Action for Love, verse city to come together and cast a vision Equality and Benevolence and began work- for the future is relevant, especially today, ing with the Gamalial Foundation, the faith- Gilliland said. based nonprofit in Chicago that trained the

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 56 group in Nashville. courting the rich to fund their efforts. In the past, Gilliland said, Chattanooga It’s a risk. Without big names and big Organized for Action had never reached out foundations and big money, many will say to churches or asked their congregants to their efforts are doomed. Gilliland knows engage in local social and political issues, that much is true. but Gamalial challenged the Chattanooga Still, there is a sense among the group nonprofit to begin building bridges. Gillil- that anything is possible. Just like those who and is learning more and more, he said, that toiled to birth Venture, those working to grow a successful movement requires partner- a new grassroots planning movement want to ships across race, class, age, geography and help the city avoid a damning crisis and offer political parties. real hope to communities that remain bitterly Since last fall, organizers of the new divided and politically log-jammed. grassroots nonprofit, through one-on-one Along the way, those leading this new meetings, have been working to build a effort may be burned by their ambition, coalition of 20 organizations that can begin said Montague, reflecting on his own efforts meeting to discuss a vision for the future of decades ago. They may fail. Or they may Chattanooga. At publication, eight organi- succeed. Regardless, though, they must zations, including several black churches, care, he said, and they must try, no matter had signed on. how daunting the feat. They don’t know what will bubble up Such audacity has always found fertile from their efforts, Gilliland said. Those ground in this breathtaking river valley. working to create a critical mass of interest- Perhaps, in many ways, this boldness is the ed groups aren’t setting an agenda, right or true Chattanooga Way. left, much like the first leaders of Venture. “Maybe the secret is, to hell with the story,” They want the agenda to come from the said Montague. “Start over!” whole, as the whole learns together and “We want to have a community that is builds trust and community. informed and inspired by history, but not a But, unlike Venture, the group isn’t slave to it.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 57 ABOUT THE REPORTING

HIS SERIES WAS REPORTED statements, newspaper archives, photos and for more than a year. To have a full government filings — from the Chattanooga grasp of the Chattanooga renais- History Museum collection and the Chatta- sance and the history of Chattanoo- nooga Public Library’s Chattanooga Ven- Tga Venture, reporters Joan Garrett McClane ture collection also were used to write this and Joy Lukachick Smith surveyed dozens historical narrative. In addition, reporters of academic case studies on Chattanooga’s traveled to Atlanta to review Coca-Cola re- rebirth, read six books and studied thousands cords in the Robert W. Woodruff collection of documents, culled from a variety of sources. at the Rose Library at Emory University. Many of these documents were reviewed Personal letters from Jack Lupton, and copied during two trips to the Louis Eleanor Cooper, Rick Montague and Jack Round Wilson Special Collections Library at Murrah and the personal journal of Cooper, the University of North Carolina at Chapel which are not part of the public record, also Hill, where the Lyndhurst Foundation’s re- were used to build the narrative. cords from 1970 to 2013 live. Records — in- To verify facts found in the records, more cluding pamphlets, studies, letters, financial than 50 people were interviewed or consulted.

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 58 CREDITS Visit timesfreepress.com/thelostway for all citations and references.

REPORTING Joan Garrett McClane and Joy Lukachick Smith

PHOTOGRAPHY Doug Strickland Chattanooga Venture archives and Chattanooga Library archives

BOOK DESIGN Matt McClane

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT Ken Barrett, John Reeder and Chris Fox

WEBSITE DESIGN Matt McClane

EDITING AND COPY EDITING Mark Kennedy, Lisa Denton, Joan Garrett McClane, Alex Chambliss and Alison Gerber

TIMESFREEPRESS.COM /THELOSTWAY 59