Turning blighted communities around is rarely easy. If it were, we wouldn’t have blighted communities.
But it’s not impossible, and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger deserve atta-boys for a proposal to put new tax dollars to work rebuilding East Chattanooga.
Those new tax dollars will be available thanks to a recently announced plan by Nippon to build an automotive paint factory on the former Harriet Tubman housing site. The Japanese company, which plans on hiring about 150 people, will be the first major new manufacturer to locate in the East Chattanooga area since 1917. Nippon wants to be there because, its leaders say, they like having a community workforce.
That is especially good news in a community where within a half-mile radius of the planned plant, the median household income of residents is less than $25,000 a year and nearly 30% of households don’t have automobiles.
But neighborhood renewal is, as we mentioned, a complex beast. Jobs are a great start, but strong communities also need daycare facilities and early learning centers, grocery stores, small support and retail businesses and a growing stable of affordable housing, among other things.