Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced that as one of 25 cities selected for its American Sustainable Cities Program, Chattanooga will receive a three-person innovation team for three years to help the city execute sustainability and equity initiatives funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“The idea of One Chattanooga is that by addressing our historic issues of inequality we can make our city happier, healthier, safer, and more prosperous for all Chattanoogans. We need all the help we can get to make investments that address historical issues while creating jobs, improving our quality of life, and upgrading our infrastructure,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly.
“We know these are difficult problems to solve, or they would’ve been solved long ago. This expert support from Bloomberg Philanthropies will help us to make key investments–without overburdening Chattanooga taxpayers. I want to thank Bloomberg Philanthropies for selecting Chattanooga for this opportunity, and for their vision and generosity.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have made over $400 billion in funding available to local governments to invest in sustainable communities. An example of just one of the funding sources still available is the Inflation Reduction Act’s $2 billion community change grants program. It will award up to $20 million for projects that address challenges like flooding, access to low-emission transportation, lack of community disaster response hubs, access to job training for green economy jobs, and legacy pollution in former industrial sites.
Chattanooga will look to build on significant investments already received from these federal funding sources, including $56 million in lead remediation efforts, $500,000 for passenger rail development, a $25 million RAISE grant for Wilcox Bridge, a $6 million urban forestry grant, and $5 million for the recently completed Chattanooga Airport expansion.
The innovation team will support Chattanooga for up to three years. Chattanooga will also receive multi-year, in-depth, customized policy and technical assistance in collaboration with community-based organizations and local stakeholders to mobilize public, private, and philanthropic investments to achieve their goals.
Read more about the program from Bloomberg here.