Residents of Highland Park, both new and old, are used to lively debates about the neighborhood we’ve chosen to call home. As transplants from the Atlanta area, my partner and I were surprised at the perceptions of locals from other parts of Chattanooga—revealed in questions like “Are you scared?” and condescending comments: “Bless your heart. You’re not from here and you don’t know better.”

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I don’t know if it’s the New Year or the weather but I keep finding myself in moments of in-depth daydreams. I told my business partner the other day that I feel like J.D. on Scrubs and if I show up on a scooter, he should worry.

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The Highland Park neighborhood began in 1889 as Chattanooga’s answer to downtown’s flooding problem. Established as a suburban neighborhood for the city’s upper-middle class residents, it was appropriately named for the higher elevation of land in which the neighborhood was settled. Large, lavish Victorian homes and smaller Arts and Crafts bungalows with huge front porches beautified the area as well as other popular house designs from the era. It soon became the place to live in Chattanooga and up until the 1940s, the houses got bigger and property values increased.

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Today marks exactly two years that Emily and I have lived in Highland Park. Winter is a great time to get out of our home state of Ohio, and it’s a great time to be in the South in general. But anyone who remembers listening to the weather forecasts a half-dozen times before bed on a school night, and then eagerly waking up first at 1 a.m., then at two, then at three to look outside their icy window, hoping to find a field or yard completely hidden by a dense layer of white, untouched snow—anyone who remembers that knows you can’t reproduce the feeling of expectation and accomplishment when the fat, wet flakes finally come.

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A series of three unfortunate car accidents recently influenced my decision to go carless. I said goodbye to the idea of car transportation and opted to investigate the idea of bicycle transportation. This made more sense rather than hunting for a semi-decent used car within a tiny budget. However, I found that buying a new bike cost almost as much as buying an okay used car. Thankfully, I had an old hybrid bicycle gathering dust in my basement. The bicycle wasn’t quite ready to ride yet, it was in great need of a major overhaul. Again, I was faced with the issue of cost. An overhaul would set me back financially, plus I have a desire to learn how to take care of the maintenance on my bicycle when necessary.

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Highland Park is one of Chattanooga’s oldest neighborhoods and has a rich history. There is much to see, learn and appreciate about this community and how it has evolved over the years.

Various Highland Park residents will contribute to this Neighborhood blog on Chattarati. Our goal is to use the blog to post news, ideas and general musings about our neighborhood. By sharing this responsibility, we hope to offer different perspectives and views about the things we see, feel and experience in Highland Park.

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Preston Roberts of Take Root and Jon Nessle of the Chattanooga Tree Commission deserve a very special THANK YOU! We learned so much this morning about proper planting and the overall environmental benefit of trees. It was a pleasure to have worked with them!!

Take Root will be planting additional trees on Vance, Kirby, and Holly later in the season. THANKS, TAKE ROOT!!!! We appreciate this opportunity to beautify and make Highland Park more green!

Again, THANKS TO EVERYONE who was able to help today, or who helps HP in other ways!! Neighborhood success depends on the commitment of folks like you!

What to look for and why it is important to report this:

• Dirty storm water: If you see a muddy storm drain, it may be runoff from a construction site that does not have adequate erosion control in place. Report the dates and locations of all muddy storm water runoff so it can be investigated and addressed.
• Storm Water and Sewer lines are supposed to stay separate. Why? Because the storm water lines run directly back out to the river without any treatment. The sewer lines MUST be treated before they are put back out into the river. The cost of treating your water comes from your tax dollars. If storm water leaks into the sewer system, it can cause backups. It also means we have to TREAT MORE WATER, which costs MORE MONEY.
• If you have bubbling manholes, or backed up sewer drains in your house during a major storm, this means that storm water is leaking into the sewer system in your area.
• The State of Tennessee had put a sanitary sewer moratorium in place in March of 1990, requiring that the combined sewer issues in the Highland Park Sub-Basin be cleared up by 1995.
• The City of Chattanooga supplied enough documentation to have the moratorium lifted but was still required to address the remaining problems in a timely manner.
• It is now 2009, a full 14 years later after the deadline, and we are still experiencing the same problems and the City of Chattanooga has not provided any resolutions to these issues. A concerted effort needs to be made by both the citizens in reporting the problem areas and the city in investigating and clearing up these problems.

Gallery Invite September 2009