“Our Diversity Is Our Strength”

BY MAYOR ANDY BERKE

As many of you know by now, early Sunday morning, the Walnut Street Bridge and portions of the Bluff View Art District, two of our city’s most beloved and beautiful public spaces, were defaced with swastikas. The Chattanooga Police Department is investigating and I have every confidence that the vandals will be identified and brought to justice soon.

Our Public Works crews worked diligently to remove these symbols of hate from our bridges and walls.

While we do not know the intent of those who perpetrated this act, we know that the end result is residents feeling less comfortable in their home.

Our city is resolved, as it always has been, to condemn anyone who seeks to intimidate, discriminate, or foment violence against any ethnic or religious group.

The first thing we all must do when we see hate speech and hate symbols is call them out. These symbols and this behavior have no place in our city, our state, or our nation.

A few years ago, I created the Mayor’s Council Against Hate because I wanted the Chattanooga area to be known as the most civil, safe, and welcoming community in the country, and a place that honors freedom of expression, protects marginalized populations, and regards diversity as an essential strength. Please visit cha.city/ againsthate to join this effort.

Building an inclusive community means ensuring opportunities for all of our residents to succeed and breaking down the barriers that prevented them from doing so in the first place

One way we’re doing this is through our Styles L. Hutchins Diverse Talent and Recruitment Fellowship. We launched the Styles L. Hutchins Fellowship last year, which focuses on helping students build a plan to make Chattanooga a city where talented young people of color can create prosperous futures after college.

We’ve had two cohorts of incredibly talented young Black men and women from UTC looking to help the City and our partners do more to level the playing field and retain and recruit Black talent in our community—and now we’re recruiting our next cohort.

Applications are now open to join the Styles L. Hutchins Fellows. Potential candidates for the Fellowship are Black undergraduate students in the second semester of their junior year, any semester of their senior year, or first-year graduate students.

Applications will be open until midnight next Monday, September 21. To learn more and to apply visit cha.city/styles.

We know that Chattanooga is a city of creators full of diverse business owners and

entrepreneurs. The City of Chattanooga strives to work with as many of these vendors as possible, but we also understand that navigating the government procurement process can be difficult -- especially for small businesses.

The City’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and the Purchasing Department will host a Virtual Purchasing Fair on Friday, September 18.

The event gives businesses the opportunity to learn how to work with the City and hear directly from department and division leaders looking for vendors.

The Fair is free to attend and completely virtual. To learn more and register, please visit cha.city/purchasingfair.

Thank you and please stay safe.