Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies closes after 50 years

Former publisher of the Chattanooga Times and local philanthropist Ruth Holmberg makes a few remarks at a ceremony in the newly-named Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies on McCallie Avenue in this file photo. The center was named for Ms. Holmberg's grandfather Adolph Ochs who purchased the Chattanooga Times and the New York Times in the late-1800's. The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies is an institute for research and analysis of data about census information, polls, surveys and other studies.
Former publisher of the Chattanooga Times and local philanthropist Ruth Holmberg makes a few remarks at a ceremony in the newly-named Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies on McCallie Avenue in this file photo. The center was named for Ms. Holmberg's grandfather Adolph Ochs who purchased the Chattanooga Times and the New York Times in the late-1800's. The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies is an institute for research and analysis of data about census information, polls, surveys and other studies.

  photo  Former publisher of the Chattanooga Times and local philanthropist Ruth Holmberg makes a few remarks at a ceremony in the newly-named Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies on McCallie Avenue in this file photo. The center was named for Ms. Holmberg's grandfather Adolph Ochs who purchased the Chattanooga Times and the New York Times in the late-1800's. The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies is an institute for research and analysis of data about census information, polls, surveys and other studies.
 
 

The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies, a 50-year-old local research center that used data to highlight gross inequities in public schools, reveal the growing economic disparities between blacks and whites and provided rare insight into the city's gang problem, closed its doors Thursday.

Dr. Mary Tanner, who headed the Ochs Center for almost two years before stepping down a few months ago, said the center could no longer afford to stay open. Its business model wasn't working, and without a partnership or a large endowment, it couldn't pay salaries or do research, she said.

"It wasn't a lack of work," said Tanner, who came to Ochs after retiring from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "Things happen. Things change."

For years, funding from local foundations went toward creating the center's State of the Chattanooga Region reports on health, education, housing and crime. But after the recession, funding waned. Foundations changed their priorities and advances in technology made more data readily available online for anyone to dissect. The staff size shrank, and in recent years the future seemed uncertain, Tanner said.

There were many requests for research, Tanner said, but no steady financial backing, and income from research projects ebbed and flowed from month to month. One project in the works was an analysis of the social service side of Mayor Andy Berke's Violence Reduction Initiative.

Before Berke was elected in 2013, the Ochs Center received a grant to conduct research on gang activity. However, Berke disbanded former Mayor Ron Littlefield's gang task force, and the center had to modify the grant to include the VRI. Federal approval to modify the research was still pending.

Tanner said she doesn't know who will complete the research now.

Berke spokeswoman Lacie Stone said the absence of the Ochs Center as a research partner may result in the loss of those grant funds.

"In the last few months the city has strengthened our initial reporting so we have more accurate, real-time reports of the social service outcomes," Stone said. "In addition, we will continue to look for new, innovative ways and partners who can assist us going forward."

Ken Chilton, who headed the Ochs Center for two years before leaving to teach at Tennessee State University, said the closure is a blow to Chattanooga.

Policymakers and civic leaders need thorough local analysis and research that challenges conventional thinking and helps them move the city forward, he said. And the city also needs an entity, outside of the media, that pushes for transparency and measurable outcomes.

"It is a sad day for Chattanooga," he said.

At times, especially in recent years, the Ochs Center's findings were controversial, but they always spurred important conversations about the future, he said.

"I think we pushed the envelope, but I think world-class cities need to push the envelope," he said. "I never felt pressure from anyone to water anything down. Now whether or not people behind the scenes were upset, maybe. ... We created public awareness and made people uncomfortable. I saw that as our job."

David Eichenthal, who headed Ochs for many years, said Thursday that he feels like community leaders are more focused on data than ever before, thanks in part to the Ochs Center's work.

"The Ochs Center proved that Chattanooga can not only support and sustain independent data analysis and research, but it can also take that work and produce change," he said. "If you look at the work that the Ochs Center did -- particularly on crime and education and health -- it clearly shaped current public debate and decisions at the local and state level."

Still, Eichenthal said he is confident the center will be back, in one form or another, in the coming year.

"The conversation to make that happen has already started," he said.

Contact staff writer Joan Garrett McClane at jgmclane@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.

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