In his first State of the City address in May 2002, then-Mayor Bob Corker said city and community leaders would work to develop a plan to transform the downtown waterfront, reconnect the community to the river and “forever change” the city, according to newspaper archives.
Around the same time, Corker turned 50 and decided to ride his bike 100 miles — “Just to make sure that I was still alive,” he recalled by phone.
Riding from North Chattanooga to Lookout Mountain down to Alabama and back again, Corker saw people hang gliding, running and cycling, people preparing to go caving or climbing and cars topped with kayaks. It dawned on him then, he said, the tremendous variety of opportunities in the community to get outdoors.
Then Corker encountered a man from Colorado who worked a remote job at a technology company and said he had moved to Chattanooga because it was “the best outdoor community,” Corker said.