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Seeds are place-based, actionable projects that require collaboration from many groups.
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There's 13 acres of ridgeline sitting between Browntown Road and Lloyd Lane. Right now it's just... there. Trees, hillside, a whole lot of green that most of us drive past every day without ever setting foot on. That's a shame, because this is the kind of spot people move to Chattanooga for. It's right here in the neighborhood, close enough to walk to. And nobody's using it. The idea is simple: turn it into a real network of hiking trails. Nothing fancy, nothing paved over. Cleared paths that let neighbors actually get up on the ridge, walk the treeline, and see their own backyard from a new angle. Trails that range from "morning coffee stroll" easy to "okay, this hill means business." A place to take the dog, wear out the kids, or just get outside without loading up the car and driving across town. Here's the honest part: we don't own it. Not yet. Somebody does, and step one is finding out who and having a real conversation. Maybe they'd donate it. Maybe they'd let us build on it. Maybe they've been sitting on 13 acres of ridge wondering what to do with it, and a neighborhood full of people who'd love and protect it is exactly the answer. We've got the neighbors. We've got the vision. What we need is the land, a few hands to clear and mark the routes, and someone with the right last name to say yes.
Chattanooga helped shape miniature golf as we know it today. On Lookout Mountain, Rock City developed Tom Thumb Golf, transforming a simple putting game with whimsical hazards, themed obstacles, gnomes, and imaginative design. The idea became a national craze and remains a wonderfully kitschy part of Chattanooga’s history. That story now has a new home downtown. Chattanooga Public Library partnered with Rock City and local artist Matthew Dutton to create a permanent, playable mini-golf hole outside the Downtown Library. Fully funded by Rock City, the installation incorporates the shape of Ochs Highway, a See Rock City barn built with reclaimed wood, a gnome, Rainbow Hall, and other details inspired by Rock City and Chattanooga history. Visitors can check out clubs and balls inside the Library and play for free. The completed hole is both a public artwork and a working proof of concept. This Seed would grow that first installation into *Chattanooga in 18 Holes*, a permanent mini-golf history tour across downtown. The Downtown Library would serve as the clubhouse, starting point, and primary equipment-checkout location. Players could check out a club and ball, along with a map and scorecard sharing the location and story behind each hole. All 18 holes would be within walking distance, along the free CARTA shuttle route, or within a block or two of a shuttle stop. Each hole would be hosted and maintained by a participating cultural institution, attraction, public space, or downtown business. Different local artists and creative teams would design the holes, giving every installation its own personality while meeting shared standards for playability, durability, accessibility, signage, and maintenance. Together, the course would tell Chattanooga’s full story. Possible locations and themes could include the Tennessee River and Aquarium, Creative Discovery Museum, Walnut Street Bridge, Hunter Museum, National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, Ross’s Landing, Miller Park and Plaza, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Bessie Smith Hall, local inventions, music, public art, Indigenous history, industrial growth, environmental recovery, and Chattanooga’s continuing reinvention. The project can grow one hole at a time. An initial expansion could add three to five new partner locations, establish a reliable per-hole budget, develop host and maintenance agreements, and produce the first complete route map and scorecard. Each additional hole would extend the experience until Chattanooga has a full 18-hole downtown course. The experience would always be free and designed equally for Chattanooga residents and visitors. It would encourage people to walk, ride transit, explore downtown attractions, discover places they might otherwise miss, and learn more about the city while doing something joyful together. Success would look like families, residents, downtown workers, and tourists carrying clubs through the city, completing scorecards, sharing the experience, and returning with friends. Over time, *Chattanooga in 18 Holes* could become one of the city’s signature free attractions and one of the most memorable ways to experience downtown. It would embody Chattanooga’s kitschy spirit while showcasing its proud, complicated, creative, and continually reinventing history. Public art you can play. Local history you can walk. A uniquely Chattanooga way to explore the city.
The fountain at the front of the Downtown Library should be one of Chattanooga’s small moments of everyday wonder. Instead, it has been out of service for too long. "Volumes", a stainless-steel public artwork created by Chattanooga sculptor Jim Collins and installed in 2001, was designed as both a fountain and a playful tribute to the books, media, and ideas found inside the Library. This Seed would restore the artwork and return water to the fountain in a safe, durable, and maintainable way. The goal is bigger than repairing a piece of equipment. It is about preserving an important piece of Chattanooga public art, reactivating the Library’s front plaza, and creating a more welcoming place for people to gather, rest, play, and enjoy downtown. The Downtown Library is an everyday civic crossroads for residents, families, students, downtown workers, and visitors. A restored fountain would offer a joyful and accessible public experience at no cost while helping transform the Library plaza into a starting point for outdoor play, public art, local history, and downtown exploration.
Bike Chattanooga should be recognized not only as a transportation system, but as an extension of Chattanooga’s park system. The “Sphere of Contentment” expands the traditional park experience beyond the boundaries of parks and greenways by using shared bicycles to connect people to recreation, public space, neighborhoods, and local businesses. A park is not simply a place—it is a feeling of health, freedom, movement, and connection. Shared bicycles allow that feeling to move through the city. When someone rides from Coolidge Park to Walnut Street Bridge, along the Tennessee Riverwalk, or between Miller Park and St. Elmo, they are already participating in the park experience. This Seed proposes strategic expansion and repositioning of Bike Chattanooga stations near parks, trailheads, libraries, affordable housing, and neighborhood commercial centers so the bicycle becomes a gateway to health, recreation, and economic vitality. Cities have long understood the value of parks. Parks are where people go to breathe, to move, to gather, and to reconnect with both nature and community. They improve public health, support mental well-being, increase surrounding property values, attract visitors, and strengthen the social fabric of neighborhoods. Yet the traditional definition of a park is often limited by geography—a fenced green space, a trail corridor, a riverfront plaza, or a recreation field. The “Sphere of Contentment” proposes a broader idea: what if the benefits of a park did not begin at the park entrance, but instead extended outward into the city itself? The concept of the Sphere of Contentment recognizes that the true value of a park is not merely its land area, but the emotional and social condition it creates. A park produces comfort, freedom, joy, calm, physical activity, and a sense of belonging. These qualities can exist beyond lawns and trees. They can be created anywhere people experience movement, safety, beauty, and connection. In this sense, a park is not simply a place—it is a condition. Bike Chattanooga provides an opportunity to expand that condition throughout the urban environment. A shared bicycle transforms transportation into recreation and turns ordinary trips into experiences of wellness and discovery. The moment a person unlocks a bicycle near the Tennessee Riverwalk, Miller Park, Coolidge Park, Renaissance Park, or along the South Chickamauga Greenway, they are no longer simply traveling to a destination. They are already inside the park experience. Cycling changes how people engage with the city. Unlike driving, where the experience is enclosed, fast, and disconnected, riding a bicycle places the individual directly within the public realm. Riders feel the air, hear the city, notice storefronts, public art, trees, water, and neighborhood life. They move at a human pace. They can stop easily, linger longer, and discover places they would otherwise pass without notice. The trip itself becomes restorative. This is where the Sphere of Contentment becomes an economic development strategy. Traditional park investments are justified by measurable outcomes: increased tourism, stronger commercial districts, improved property values, and better public health outcomes. Bike share amplifies these same returns by extending the functional reach of those parks. A visitor staying downtown can move from the Walnut Street Bridge to the Bluff View Art District, from the Aquarium to St. Elmo, or from the Southside to the Riverwalk without needing a private vehicle. The bicycle becomes the connective tissue between destinations, allowing individual parks and attractions to operate as part of a larger unified system. Instead of isolated amenities, the city becomes a network of connected experiences. This network effect matters. A single park has value, but multiple destinations connected by easy, enjoyable mobility create exponentially greater value. Restaurants benefit because cyclists are more likely to stop spontaneously. Retail districts gain because riders experience storefronts directly rather than passing at forty miles per hour. Event spaces become more accessible without requiring additional parking infrastructure. Residential neighborhoods near stations become more desirable because access to recreation expands beyond proximity to a single park. The Sphere of Contentment reframes bike share not as a transportation expense, but as public realm infrastructure. It is as much a parks investment as a mobility investment. This distinction is important because many cities still evaluate bike share systems too narrowly—focusing only on transportation metrics such as commute trips or mode shift percentages. While those measures matter, they fail to capture the broader civic value of shared mobility. Bike Chattanooga succeeds not only because it helps someone get to work, but because it helps people experience Chattanooga differently. It turns a lunch break into a riverfront ride. It allows a family visiting the city to experience North Shore and downtown without parking twice. It gives residents a healthy and affordable way to reconnect with their neighborhoods. People riding bicycles are typically happier, healthier, and more socially engaged. This is not merely anecdotal; it reflects the basic psychology of active movement. Physical activity improves mood and reduces stress. Outdoor movement improves mental clarity. Human-scale mobility increases social interaction and community awareness. People on bicycles wave to one another. They stop to talk. They become participants in public life rather than observers passing behind glass. In planning terms, the bicycle creates social permeability. That permeability strengthens equity as well. Parks should not be exclusive destinations accessible only to those with cars, free time, or disposable income. Shared bicycles create affordable access to recreation and mobility for residents across income levels. A station near a transit stop, affordable housing development, library, or neighborhood commercial center allows the park experience to reach more people without requiring new land acquisition or major capital expansion. It makes public space more democratic. This is especially relevant in Chattanooga, where decades of investment in the Tennessee Riverwalk, the Walnut Street Bridge, the Downtown Shuttle, and riverfront redevelopment have already established strong anchors of public life. Bike Chattanooga has the ability to connect these assets into a single behavioral system. Instead of asking people to choose between driving, walking, transit, or recreation, the city can offer an integrated experience where mobility and enjoyment are the same activity. The strongest opportunities lie at these intersections: park to greenway, greenway to neighborhood, neighborhood to commerce, commerce to transit. Every bike station near a trailhead, plaza, or public gathering space becomes a gateway. It extends the radius of comfort around that place and enlarges the zone where people choose to stay, spend, and participate. That radius is the Sphere of Contentment. From a policy perspective, the next step is to intentionally plan for this sphere. Station placement should prioritize not only transportation demand but emotional geography—where people want to linger, where public life is strongest, and where economic spillover can be maximized. Partnerships between parks departments, tourism agencies, transit operators, and local businesses should treat bike share as shared infrastructure rather than a standalone program. Success should be measured not only in trips, but in dwell time, visitor circulation, event access, small business impact, and neighborhood vitality. The long-term vision is simple but powerful: a city where the feeling of being in the park does not stop at the park gate. A person riding from Coolidge Park across the Walnut Street Bridge should feel that continuity. A resident leaving St. Elmo for the Riverwalk should feel that continuity. A visitor moving from Miller Park to the Aquarium to the Tennessee Riverpark should feel that continuity. The city becomes not a collection of separate destinations, but a continuous landscape of movement, health, and belonging. The bicycle makes that possible because it is uniquely positioned between transportation and recreation. It is efficient enough to connect destinations, yet slow enough to preserve experience. It supports economic development without demanding expensive parking structures. It improves health without requiring formal programming. It activates streets without new buildings. It expands parks without purchasing more land. This is why Bike Chattanooga should be understood not only as a bike share system, but as an urban development tool. The Sphere of Contentment is ultimately about redefining success in city building. The goal is not simply moving people faster. It is helping people live better. It is creating cities where health, happiness, commerce, and community reinforce one another. It is designing places where the journey itself adds value. In that city, the bicycle is not just transportation. It is the park in motion.
Walden's Ridge is a world class riding destination, but doesn't have bathrooms or park amenities at the base. Let's transform the existing trailhead into a community anchor that serves as a gateway to the mountain. The entry experience begins with a redesigned parking lot that flows into a landscaped perimeter, where a dense corridor of native trees along Reeds Lake Road acts as a living screen. This natural buffer dampens traffic noise and separates the park from the neighborhood, while permanent bathrooms and a grassy play area near the historic Post Oak preserves the tree as a landmark. From this central hub, the improved golf trails are integrated into a cohesive path system, offering clear, accessible connectivity for hikers and strollers to navigate the expansive field safely away from high-speed bike traffic. At the heart of this expansion is a Skills Center designed as a deliberate progression ladder to bridge the gap between a toddler’s first roll and the ridge’s legendary downhill runs. We will implement a "micro-to-mountain" flow: starting with a flat-ground toddler balance zone, progressing to a low-profile pump track for momentum control, and culminating in a wood obstacle course that mimics the technical rock gardens and narrow skinnies found at the summit. This gradient allows riders to master weight distribution and cornering in a low-consequence environment, ensuring that by the time they head up the hill, they have the technical skills required for world-class downhill terrain. To mirror the world-class bouldering found higher up the ridge, the base area will feature a bouldering skills zone specifically for education. This includes an easy climbing wall and a series of climbing boulders designed with low fall heights and specific "problem-solving" routes to teach essential footwork and grip. By providing a controlled environment for vertical progression, we ensure that the park’s climbing culture is as accessible as its cycling culture, allowing beginners to build the strength and confidence needed to tackle the massive sandstone boulders located further up the mountain. The plan is rounded out by a natural playground that utilizes the area around the natural spring, creating a tactile, water-integrated play space for families. By using native plants and earthy textures that blend into the existing mountain aesthetic, we create an adventurous environment that reflects the rugged spirit of the Chattanooga community. This synergy of climbing, biking, and nature-based play ensures that the bottom of the hill is not just a transit point, but a destination in its own right—a place where the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts is born.
Southish is the un-festival of local music—a Localist take on what a music festival should be. No big stage. No imported headliners. No standing in a field watching from a distance. Instead, Southish happens across 8–10 local venues, featuring musicians who live here, create here, and are connected to this place. You move through neighborhoods, discover new spaces, and experience music up close. Most festivals bring talent in and take money out. Southish does the opposite—investing in local artists, activating local venues, and keeping energy and dollars rooted in our community. It’s built for the people who actually make music happen in Chattanooga. In its first year, Southish will support 70–80 local musicians and bring together over 1,500 people in a format designed to grow and last. It’s not a bigger festival—it’s a better one.
A Market St. Bridge pier marked with historic Tennessee River flood levels visible to visitors on the downtown Riverfront. It should also indicate the normal pool level at downtown. At a glance, the current water level would be evident and the flood history of Chattanooga would be commemorated.
Turning a vacant lot under high voltage lines into a place for people to sit and enjoy the wetland wildlife. Currently, because it is empty and overgrown, it is not inviting. We have zero parks in our area. This would be a great addition to our neighborhood.
Imagine a picnic or breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack... where every bite heals, nourishes, and reconnects you to the land — no big-box junk, no mystery ingredients, just local, clean food grown and prepared by people who care. That’s the promise of Community Helps Itself (CHI) Markets in Chattanooga, the nation’s first National Park City: fresh, vibrant, life-giving food delivered to your door or ready for pick-up across the Valley. Picture this: a 50-mile Food Box overflowing with fragrant fruits, crisp vegetables, pasture-raised meats, fresh dairy, fermented kombuchas, raw honey, and small-batch delights — everything chosen to support your body’s regeneration, energy, and joy. From the top of Lookout Mountain to the valley trails and riverbanks where you kayak, climb, or simply breathe deeply, our food fuels real living. Local and clean: Foods sourced directly from neighbors and trusted small farms. Healing and alive: Nutrient-rich picks that support cellular renewal and vibrant health. Community-first: 14 years of partnership with local growers, nonprofits, and neighbors to offer an alternative to unhealthy, mass-market foods. Perfect for every moment: Romantic picnics, family dinners, active days on the trails, or a restorative visit to Chattanooga. How it works Choose your Food Box or Pic Nic Box for two, family, or group needs. Order Tuesday–Monday; place your order by Monday at midnight. Local deliveries arrive Wednesday (Local Delivery Day). Pickup available Thursday–Friday at community locations across Chattanooga. Start living — and tasting — the difference. Visit our Facebook page, Community Helps Itself CHI Markets, to see today’s boxes, farmer stories, and community partners. For details, box options, and to place your order, visit our website or message us on Facebook. Order your box, pack your blanket, and step into a healthier, more loving way to eat and live in Chattanooga. Reserve your box today and keep the vision of clean, local food alive.
