Chattanoogans compare Southside proposal to past developments

Former mayor, beloved radio host see similarities between new Lookouts Stadium proposal to building Tennessee Aquarium

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) — The Southside development at the former U.S. pipe site has left many in local city and county governments with split opinions on its development.

However, some longtime Chattanooga public figures say they’ve seen this all before.

Former Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield and radio personality Earl Freudenberg see similarities in today’s debates of rebuilding the Southside to those of past city developments — most notably, the debate behind building the Tennessee Aquarium.

Revitalizing a storied city landscape is not new to either Chattanooga or Hamilton County government.

Littlefield saw it for himself when many in the city complained about building a “fish tank” off of the Tennessee River.

The Riverfront was a very different place at that time,” Littlefield said. “You wouldn’t want to go there. It was a lot of dilapidated, abandoned structures and so forth.”

The former mayor isn’t the only one who sees the similarities.

Freudenberg says that in the ’80s, the Aquarium was the hot topic on his radio talk show.

“Most of the time, when you threw the phone lines open, [the] conversation would be about the Aquarium,” Freudenberg said. “There was opposition to taking care of the infrastructure, which led to, ‘Well, we don’t need a big fish tank downtown, anyway.'”

Freudenberg does support the development of the former pipe site.

Aquarium aside, he says the proposal’s controversy also mimics the developments behind UTC’s McKenzie Arena, Hamilton Place and Volkswagen.

“I think primarily, right now, what a lot of people don’t want to see with this new project would be an increase in their property taxes,” Freudenberg said. “I think the school system’s going to want quite a bit of money to fix buildings or build some new ones, and that was the same opposition back in the 1980s when they were talking about building the Aquarium.”

Littlefield says that big developments will attract criticism.

But just like back in the day, he believes the positives of the project will silence all doubt.

“The ballpark, we can argue all day about the money,” Littlefield said. “But I am betting that a few years down the road, it’ll be just like the Aquarium. All people who were against it will think they were for it.”

While Freudenberg does support development, he believes the city and county need to be more clear with the public about the plan’s details and host open meetings surrounding them.

He says for 25 years as a talk show host, all he ever did was hear from the people.

Concerning the new development, he wants to see local government do the same.