It stirred a bit of controversy recently when a Nashville-based think tank gave Chattanooga relatively low marks for its business climate.
After all, Chattanooga has managed in recent years to attract the huge Volkswagen plant and a big distribution center for online retailer Amazon, both at Enterprise South industrial park. The facilities are now employing thousands.
Clearly, our city, as well as Hamilton County, must be doing something right to have brought those facilities here, and Chattanooga City Council Chairwoman Pam Ladd had some justification when she said of the low rating given to Chattanooga, "I think we're a leading-edge city and should be at the top for business."
Nevertheless, while we might not necessarily agree with all the think tank's conclusions about our city, it would be wise to consider some of the points it made that undoubtedly have some validity.
For one, the free-market organization that issued the rankings -- the Beacon Center of Tennessee -- pointed out the unfortunate reality that Chattanooga has higher-than-average rates of crime. That can certainly influence companies when they are deciding where to locate new facilities.
Chattanooga also has comparatively low high school graduation rates, and it has above-average taxes. Those considerations, too, can have a significant effect on economic development prospects.
The Beacon Center considered these and other factors when it ranked Chattanooga only 40th of the 50 cities studied in Tennessee. Coming in at No. 1 was Farragut, a Knoxville suburb, followed by the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood, Franklin, Mount Juliet and Spring Hill.
Among the largest cities, Nashville ranked No. 16, Knoxville came in at 42, and Memphis finished dead last, at 50.
Of local note, Soddy-Daisy came in at 15, Red Bank was ranked 19, East Ridge was ranked 24, and Cleveland was ranked 29.
We need not embrace every finding in the Beacon Center's rankings of Tennessee cities' business climate. Chattanooga has gained some obvious notches in its economic development belt over the past few years, and there are prospects for more.
Our city would be well advised, however, not to rest on its laurels.
It is perfectly appropriate to point out and enjoy the economic growth we have had. But we do have some weaknesses in education, crime and other areas. If we have seen considerable growth despite those weaknesses, just imagine how much more growth we could attract if we focused intensely on mending our flaws and making our community even more attractive to business and industry.
The sky would be the limit!
And there is no time like the present to start making sure Chattanooga remains among the first places companies look when they want to establish or grow their operations.