Cook: If our city is a body, Ochs Center is the brain

Whew.

We are not losing our mind.

Last week, local media reported that the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies was closing its doors, which was terrible news. If our city is a body, Ochs - the research group that gathers, analyzes and make sense of our area's most vital data - has been its brain.

Turns out, Ochs isn't closing. At least not fully.

"We are moving out of the building," said Dr. Mary Tanner. "We no longer have a physical office."

David Cook

Tanner, who stepped down as director a few months ago for family health reasons, said Ochs was forced to leave its offices not because of a work shortage, but a financial one.

"Across the nation, these centers either have a partner or huge endowment," said Tanner. "Ochs Center had neither one."

Tanner said Ochs is in fruitful talks with possible partners that would allow a more sustainable financial bottom line. She said researchers will continue to work on projects already in the pipeline - including research for green|spaces, the city, and Read 20 - yet will not take on any new large-scale research until a new financial partnership has been established.

It means that Ochs isn't dead.

"But in transition," Tanner said.

And six months from now?

"The Ochs Center will be alive and well," she said, "but will exist within a structure that's different than it has historically."

For the last 50 years, Ochs has been our city's best think tank, a storehouse of data analysis on what life is like in Chattanooga. The good, and the painful.

Like the mirror-mirror on the wall to our city's ego, Ochs produced research that was challenging, controversial and uncomfortable about the state of Chattanooga. Our health. Our education system. Our crime. Our housing.

It is one thing to Google search for city data, or browse the latest Census Bureau statistics. It is quite another to have professional researchers gather all disparate and wide-reaching data together, like a hen to its flock, and produce storybook reports that affect public policy and conversation.

Ochs was our "Money Ball" - the research body that pulled together all random and wide-reaching data that's too big for our own Google searches into something clear, meaningful and beneficial.

In 2012, under former director Dr. Ken Chilton, Ochs produced one of the finest research documents - The Comprehensive Gang Assessment - on gang violence ever written.

"The National Gang Center advised us that ours is the most comprehensive gang assessment that has been done in the entire nation," said then-Gang Task Force director Boyd Patterson. "It involves more participants, includes more communities and addresses a greater variety of social issues than any other past gang research project."

It is 173 pages (yes, I still have my copy) of clarity and numbers wisdom about one of the most sensationalized and misunderstood topics of our age: gang life. The assessment should be required reading for anyone wishing to understand gang violence, and also the ways in which a serious research center can inform and influence public perception and policy.

No city can fully exist without an independent body that researches public issues without filter or spin. No matter how much data City Hall presents, the fox won't guard the henhouse. We need an outside body with an intellectual search warrant able to gather, understand and present data with authority on our most urgent issues.

In a democracy, we need intelligent and independent research.

We need a brain we can trust.

That's the role of Ochs.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCook TFP.