Nourishing the Neighborhoods
Plans for District Seven

Overview

District Seven is made up of a number of very different communities. St. Elmo is a designated historic area and is essentially a separate village with unique characteristics not shared by many other Chattanooga neighborhoods.  In fact, St. Elmo was once a separate municipality but gave up its charter many years ago and was taken into the larger city of Chattanooga. Alton Park is a parallel community with significant residential presence and a variety of industrial properties and some vacant "brownfield" sites.

The district also includes all of the residential, commercial and industrial areas around the Howard School campus. In addition, the Ridgedale, East Lake, Cedar Hill and Piney Woods neighborhoods are in the district.

Once the home of a number of public housing projects, the general District Seven community is experiencing the replacement of the old style housing with new development. The Hope VI project in Alton Park is nearing completion and the demolition of Poss Homes is on the near horizon.

Greatest Challenge:

The residential neighborhoods and related commercial areas struggle to maintain themselves in the midst of a very urban environment.  The changing nature of manufacturing has left a legacy of vacant, underutilized and aging facilities.  The greatest challenge facing District Seven will be protecting the remaining urban fabric while that which is no longer viable is rebuilt or replaced.

Greatest Opportunity:

The transportation system for this district is outdated, disjointed and
sometimes counterproductive to revitalization efforts. The missing links in Central Avenue, the bottleneck railroad overpass on Alton Park Boulevard, the narrowness of Dodds Avenue, the heavy truck traffic through historic St. Elmo and the general disrepair of the streets throughout result in a significant problem that can become a great factor in creating a brighter future for the District.  Accordingly, improvement of streets and roads in District Seven offers the greatest opportunity.

My Plan and My Pledge

I will complete the cleanup of Chattanooga Creek.

I will connect Central Avenue from Alton Park through to Amnicola Highway.

I will realign St. Elmo Avenue and Tennessee Avenue to create an improved intersection.

I will aggressively pursue resolution of the railroad overpass bottleneck on Alton Park Boulevard.

I will continue to push for full realization of the South Broad Street Redevelopment Plan including attention to gateways and public art.

I will restore brownfield industrial sites to a useful purpose.

I will build more sidewalks and other pedestrian facilities.

I will work to implement remaining applicable portions of the adopted neighborhood plans.

I will push for more aggressive code enforcement throughout the residential neighborhoods to reduce the number of abandoned vehicles and to further minimize trash-strewn and blighted properties.

I will insist on active enforcement of the noise ordinance to eliminate the late night disturbances of booming car stereos.

I will implement "traffic calming" to slow traffic and discourage short cuts by motorists through residential areas. Thus, we will provide a quieter and safer environment for children and adults.

I will take a comprehensive approach to storm water problems.

Finally, pursuant to specific requests and comments by neighborhood residents, I promise to do a better job of maintaining the streets and roads, and I will undertake new measures to make sure that everyone has a better understanding about the scheduling and collection of trash and brush.