A Saturday afternoon groundbreaking to mark the beginning of Phase 1 construction for the Alton Park Connector also marks the start of investment in Chattanooga’s underserved communities, according to one community leader.
For Alton Park community leader Maria Noel, getting to the moment of the groundbreaking ceremony evoked the Greek myth of Sisyphus, whose eternal punishment is to push a boulder up a hill only for it roll back down each time he gets to the top.
“His actions have been described as resilience,” Noel said of Sisyphus in her remarks to a small crowd assembled in a vacant lot across from WDEF News 12 Now’s station on Broad Street. “By not accepting defeat, he repeats his quest over and over and over again with the hope that someday he will succeed.
“For the underserved yet resilient South Chattanooga community of Alton Park, that someday is today,” Noel continued.
The Alton Park Connector is a 2.6-mile trail meant to connect communities in South Chattanooga, such as Alton Park, Clifton Hills and East Lake, to the Tennessee Riverwalk and city infrastructure, according to a press release shared by Coeo Strategies on behalf of the Trust for Public Land. Phase 1 of the connector will see Broad Street connected to St. Elmo Avenue.
The connector represents a long-awaited promise, Chattanooga City Council member Raquetta Dotley of East Lake said in her remarks at the ceremony. The promise began over two decades ago with the city’s Alton Park master plan, she said.
“That plan recognized that strong neighborhoods, pedestrian connectivity and access to opportunity are essential to Chattanooga’s identity and future,” Dotley said. “It acknowledged what residents already knew — that Alton Park lacked safe pedestrian connections and that greenways, (side)walks and repurposed rail corridors could serve not as dividers but as bridges between neighborhoods.”
“The vision was clear,” she continued. “The need was urgent. And, the chapter was thoughtfully written but never fully finished. Today, we restart this half-written chapter. Phase 1 of the Alton Park Connector is the continuation of a vision paused but not forgotten.”
A lineup of public and private officials spoke at the ceremony on the work that has gone into getting the connector project to this point and the expected economic development to come from the connector’s completion amid broader redevelopment in the city’s South Broad district, such as the new ballpark for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said in his remarks that the connector would bring the health benefits of the outdoors to the neighborhoods that need it most, along with helping residents get to parks, schools, jobs and essential services more safely.
(READ MORE: Lookouts stadium developer says surrounding investment will come)
Before the ceremony, two protesters arrived by bike to the Broad Street lot. Before, sometimes during and after the ceremony, the protesters shouted their criticisms of and disdain for U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, who was first to give remarks.
As the protesters departed, one lobbed a final expletive-laden statement at the lawmaker, who for his part just waved at the pair.
“There’s going to be times that there’s differences, but I think it’s great in America that two people can show up, have their First Amendment rights honored,” Fleischmann said of the protesters in an interview after the ceremony. “I didn’t appreciate some of the adjectives and some of the nouns thrown my way, but that’s part of our society.”
The protesters declined to speak to the media.
Nearly $2 million is going toward Phase 1 one of the connector, Trust for Public Land Tennessee State Director Noel Durant said in an interview. That funding comes from a $500,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in addition to matching and additional capital funds from the city, Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors spokesperson Brian Smith said in the same interview.
Fleischmann worked to secure $6.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the connector, the Coeo Strategies press release said. That funding supports Phase 3 of the connector.
Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $20 million grant that would have helped complete the connector. The EPA’s statement on the matter said the grant had been reviewed to see if it was an appropriate use of taxpayer money, following the transition from former President Joe Biden’s administration to President Donald Trump’s administration.
(READ MORE: Feds cut funding for Chattanooga’s Alton Park trail)
“Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” said the statement, emailed from EPA headquarters.
“It was a little bit of a surprise” when the $20 million grant got terminated, Fleischmann said. What Fleischmann has heard from the city about the grant request is “that they may have used rhetoric that was not as palatable to this administration as it should have been.”
“And that’s why I always say, to my friends on the left, to my friends on the right, keep it mainstream,” Fleischmann said. “Don’t throw in poison things that either side is going to say, ‘I can’t vote for this or vote for that.'”
“So, what I would suggest doing is going back, because it’s about economic development,” Fleischmann continued. “It’s not about woke stuff. It’s about going into communities that have been traditionally underserved and developing that so people can have better lives. Talk about that.”
The Trust for Public Land is part of a class action lawsuit against the EPA that seeks to get back billions in terminated grant funding for over 350 organizations and their projects. A federal district judge dismissed the case in June, with environmental groups later announcing their intent to appeal. On Saturday, Durant, with the Trust for Public Land, said the litigation was still in the appeal process, so he had no new information to provide.
Nevertheless, the Alton Park Connector continues with “the existing momentum and support” it has, Durant said. The project, he said, is “too important to stop now.”
Contact community reporter Sam Still at sstill@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6579.
