Late addition is the winner
The decision by the United States General Services Administration (GSA) to locate a new federal courthouse on a 4-acre block on Vine Street reminds us of the original decision to move the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Center to … Moccasin Bend.
The decision went against the concept of moving the hospital off Moccasin Bend to pave the way for the expansion of the Moccasin Bend Archeological District and was made against the advice of most elected officials, anthropology experts and the wider community. In time, of course, that decision was rescinded.
The location for the new federal courthouse had come down to two places, the current and largely abandoned TVA complex downtown and Hawk Hill, the current home of the Chattanooga Lookouts but one the team will abandon when they complete a new stadium in the South Broad District. It had been narrowed, that is, until just last month when the Vine Street site suddenly was raised.
Of course, the new site made the least sense. The government doesn’t own the property or have access to it without convincing people whose land wasn’t for sale to sell. The TVA site, for which this page has long advocated, would add vibrancy to an area in which many hundreds used to work in the hulking federal utility complex. It also had the backing of federal, state and local elected officials as well as downtown civic organizations.