Going to visit the hometowns of your college friends feels like a rite of passage in undergrad circles; when each friend takes a turn showing off where they grew up it can open the door to a whole other aspect of their life. Parading around town and visiting the best hidden gems and local haunts with people who have never been can also help us to see them with fresh eyes, no matter how many times we have passed by that particular mural or building or park or whatever it may be. My roommates and I recently partook in this ritual when we visited Chattanooga, the hometown of one of my roomies. The 1.5-hour drive from Maryville to Chattanooga was a breeze, easily doable for a weekend getaway or quick trip. We spent a day in the city’s center, walking and exploring and enjoying the scenic quality of even the most urban areas of Chattanooga. I have been to Chattanooga a few times previously but I found myself seeing it with fresh eyes on this trip, too.
The City of Chattanooga is in the process of enacting the Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Plan, or POP for short, which is an initiative for a more equitable and integrated nature and park system within the city. The goal of this project is for Chattanooga to become the first National Park City– something that would ensure the preservation and protection of natural resources in Chattanooga and completely change the precedent for what comes to mind when we think about National Parks. The city plans to not only add 7 new parks and 4 new facilities, but more importantly, they want to connect the existing nature areas with 16 miles of new greenway trails and improve the conditions of existing ones, ensuring that more people will be able to freely roam and enjoy access to a clean, safe environment.
It wasn’t hard to imagine this interconnected system of parks as reality when I was walking around downtown Chattanooga. The POP calls Chattanooga a “city within a park,” contrary to how we usually see the concentricity between those two things progressing. The people of Chattanooga have a vision for their city that sees their community deeply rooted in nature and revolving around “a system of parks and protected open spaces [that] connect people to each other, where all neighborhoods have well-loved and well-used parks, and where nature and its benefits are integrated throughout the city,” as stated on their website.
This initiative is helping to reinvent what going outside looks like for Chattanoogans, and it can help us everywhere to reimagine our own relationship to the outdoors. It is projects like this one that will help bring our communities together, because it rallies individuals around their shared home. The people of Chattanooga want to see their city thrive, and on a larger scale, we all want to see our Earth thrive. I got to see Chattanooga through the lens of my friend who calls it home, and that personal aspect is what we all need to tap into if we want to find the empathy and shared purpose that will help bring about more initiatives like the POP.
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