The crowd waited in great anticipation for the exact moment to shout, “We’re Number Three!”
Forget all those football fanatics who wave crazily into the ESPN camera on game day, holding up a single finger to signify their hold on No. 1.
The long-distance runner in the New York Marathon who crosses the finish line thinks that the most important spot is at the top of the heap.
Think again.
There are some lists on which you want to be in the first position, but on others, falling slightly behind is all right.
Crime rates, which were disputed here several years ago, led to arguments as to whether the data collectors captured the correct measurements or were double counting. Going up the list was not a sign of achievement — the lower the better.
Making the top of the list for low-performing public schools is not achievement; staying off the list is.
Being second to Mississippi for an automobile plant was not a gold star moment for the community, but local economic development recruiters learned a few pointers on timeliness, politics, available workers and perseverance.
But for now, the clarion call in our community is: “We’re number three!”
It is not that our sights are set too low or that being on top is unachievable. You climb one rung at a time, and if you begin in fourth position, the next step is to replace No. 3.
The distinction of having the third-biggest population among Tennessee cities brings a little bragging and a few more federal dollars.
It probably means more than the archaic argument by some at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that the 1969 merger agreement guaranteed that the local campus would be on par with a similarly named institution about 80 miles up I-75. If the goal at UTC is to wag a finger in the face of the Volunteers in Knoxville, we probably have a better chance of success to pass by that city into the third spot in population.
Joe Bailey, a Knoxville city councilman, said his East Tennessee city remains a hub. “We are trying to grow in a smart way,” he said. “I do think Chattanooga 15 or 20 years ago was kind of on the bottom of everybody’s list, and now it seems like it is at the top of a lot of people’s lists.”
Thank you, councilman, for the kind words and the perspective.
Being No. 3, as Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield proclaimed, means a Southeast Tennessee city experiences, in addition to the bragging rights, growth.
The city attracts new residents — no more population flight or propping up numbers through the miracle of annexation. These are people choosing to come here from someplace else.
And for Mayor Littlefield, after getting over being astonished by new growth numbers for Chattanooga, the horizon provides a glimpse of more business if the population trend continues.
When Knoxville feels a breeze blowing by on I-75, it is not another frustrated motorist trying to maneuver around orange highway barrels; it is the city of Chattanooga growing out.
