There was a time when Superman was defined by three superpowers. He was, as the booming baritone declared during the opening of the iconic 1950s television series “The Adventures of Superman,” “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”
Over time, that list expanded into an assortment of abilities, each deployed as the situation demanded. Yet one power ultimately came to define Superman more than any other: his ability to fly. While his other gifts were formidable, flight was the one that most often allowed him to escape danger, reach those in need and save the day.
Like the comic book heroes of yesteryear, Chattanooga has its own superpowers.
As the city strides confidently into a year of new possibilities, the days of being labeled the “dirtiest city in America” are little more than an anecdote. Through sustained public and private efforts across the community, Chattanooga has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.
There’s the gleaming jewel of the Tennessee Aquarium. There are abundant opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, led by the city’s signature waterfront amenity: the winding, elegant Tennessee Riverwalk.
Add to those a thriving business ecosystem, a robust network of nonprofits working to expand opportunity for all and world-class educational institutions – all forming the foundation of a city anchored by people proud to call themselves Chattanoogans.
But which of Chattanooga’s superpowers stands above the rest? What is the defining ability that has elevated it beyond the everyday and helped make it one of the South’s most compelling midsize cities – a place where people can live, work and play with equal facility?
And, perhaps more importantly, how can Chattanooga’s people and institutions leverage that superpower to its fullest potential in the year ahead?
Ask a dozen people who are shaping this city’s future and you’ll get a dozen unique answers. In this special feature, local leaders, artists, executives, advocates and educators reflect on what sets Chattanooga apart and how those strengths can be harnessed in the year ahead, offering a composite portrait of a city whose greatest asset might be its belief in collaboration, curiosity and possibility.
Brenda Brickhouse
Vice chair of green | spaces
Senior technical executive, Electric Power Research Institute
Since I hail from an energy utility background, I think our superpower is EPB.
Their performance in “keeping the lights on” is truly extraordinary but often overlooked. Even short outages can disrupt our lives and impact economic and social activity, yet their absence is largely invisible. And EPB’s reliability is not easy to achieve – it’s the product of really smart system planning and modernization along with dedicated operations and maintenance folks working hard every day. EPR is at the top of their class.
Next to boring relatable electricity, the big and bright shiny thing they do is provide super-fast and powerful broadband internet access to homes and businesses across the region. This enables learning, transactions, communications and enjoyment as well as drives significant economic development. To top it off, they have amazing technical service experts who can trouble shoot and fix anything from stabilizing a fluky Wi-Fi to helping me select and set up a new TV.
Looking to the future, quantum computing will literally enable super powers such as clean and distributed energy integration, smoother and more secure transactions, greater information access and analysis and better faster solutions across education, medicine and commerce. To quote Timbuk 3, “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”
Tasia Malakasis
CEO, The Company Lab
Chattanooga’s superpower is its relentless curiosity – the collective drive to learn, tinker and build better. It’s what turned a sleepy river town into a gigabit city and a national leader in innovation. That hunger to figure things out, paired with a willingness to roll up our sleeves, sets us apart.
In 2026, we can leverage this by doubling down on collaboration across sectors and generations. When we bring diverse minds together – from startups to city leaders to students – those sparks fly. The challenge and opportunity is making sure everyone has access to the tools and networks they need to contribute. If we keep feeding that curiosity and breaking down barriers, Chattanooga can punch well above its weight.
Melody Shekari
Executive director, the Women’s Fund of Greater Chattanooga
Chattanooga’s superpower is its ability to see a challenge and respond with bold, collaborative solutions. Our history is full of examples of turning obstacles into opportunities, particularly at tough times.
From a city that emptied on nights and weekends, Chattanooga has come a long way by collaborating and investing in recreation, arts, job growth and community that has brought growth from new residents that no longer have family or job ties driving them here.
Despite our improvements, there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure that everyone has a good quality of life here.
Some of our challenges are obvious – our transportation limitations, lack of affordable housing and safety in streets and neighborhoods. Others are harder to see – working families that can’t make ends meet, lack of diversification in businesses and communities and lagging advancement in management and pay equity for women and people of color.
These issues are even more complex to address and lack the initial excitement and energy that tech jobs or redoing the waterfront generate in planning. But these challenges hold us back from being the best city that we could be and a great place to live for everyone. The people and resources that we need to address these challenges are here; we need energy to move in the same direction with bold solutions.
We don’t need a hero. When we work together in collaboration, we’re unstoppable.
Fallon Clark
Founder and executive director, Noogavision Theatre and Performing Arts
Chattanooga’s superpower is its heart, seen in the way this city’s people choose to show up for one another. Our heart is not abstract sentiment; it’s an active force. It’s the pulse that moves creative communities, advocacy networks and healing spaces to rise when someone is hurting, to gather when someone is overlooked and to rally when someone needs to know they are seen.
At Noogavision, we experience this superpower every day, but never more profoundly than through Nooga Has Heart, our new storytelling initiative and benefit event. In one afternoon, this city proved that empathy can be organized, compassion can be structured and care can be mobilized as a collective act. The heart of Chattanooga is a living system – one that beats strongest when aligned toward purpose.
In 2026, we can utilize this superpower by continuing to create intentional spaces where compassion is not just expressed but activated. Whether through the arts, community health, civic leadership or neighborhood collaboration, our greatest strength lies in our ability to transform empathy into action.
Chattanooga doesn’t just have heart. Chattanooga is heart – and that is the superpower that will carry us forward.
Robin Derryberry
President, Derryberry PR
There’s never been another time in Chattanooga’s history when opportunity has been so available to us. Positioned within two hours of Oak Ridge National Lab and Huntsville, Alabama – dubbed the new “Space City” and the new home to the U.S. Space Force – Chattanooga’s opportunities and use of EPB’s quantum technology will make our city the hub for the nation’s first quantum network.
This network will benefit business, research and universities to develop applications for everything from educational opportunities to better grid management and ultra-secure cybersecurity.
Tapping into the opportunity provided by Quantum technology, UT’s “kid sister” – as our own University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was once known – is now reaching the highest levels of excellence in education. And now, Vanderbilt has also tapped into the opportunity. As an R-1 university, their commitment and investment will provide resources and opportunities at the quantum institute launched through a partnership with EPB.
The bottom line is that we have two universities that will be providing opportunities to our students at multiple levels, making them ready-for-work in highly competitive fields and providing a much-needed boost to our regional economy. These efforts will draw national attention and a return on investment that will enrich our community for generations to come.
As we look to the new year, it’s up to all of us to tap into this and other opportunities by sharing them with others. Chattanooga learned many years ago the strength of the “Chattanooga Way,” which encouraged public-private partnerships. Today’s efforts draw us to opportunities that will not only strengthen our community but also our shared future.
None of this happens solely because of political winds, large companies or industries that establish their foothold in our city. It happens because as Chattanoogans, we know a good opportunity when we experience it. That’s our secret sauce and one that should be applied to everything we do in 2026. Let’s go!
Kerry Hayes
Senior adviser, Coeo Strategies
Many people will point to Chattanooga’s invaluable natural assets, its dynamic economy or its dedicated philanthropies among its beloved superpowers. I’d offer that without a healthy and vibrant media ecosystem, many of these aspects of our community would not be as well understood, supported and embraced as they currently are. As we look to next year, I believe Chattanooga’s superpower is its local media sector.
The Hamilton County Herald provides an important and distinct service, not only through its reporting about local businesses and institutions but with its essential public notice function. The Chattanooga Times Free Press remains the largest daily circulation paper in the state not owned by Gannett, which is evident in the continuing depth and quality of its newsroom.
Every week, WUTC-FM and WTCI-TV produce a staggering number of thoughtful, handcrafted stories about what’s happening in the Tennessee Valley and why it matters. New players like Food As A Verb and the Chattanooga Civics podcast do a marvelous job of bringing useful context and nuance to topics that are too frequently overlooked or misunderstood.
Are these organizations perfect? Of course not – nor do I necessarily believe that the local media sector won’t be subject to further disruption and innovation in the year ahead. Nonetheless, the folks who bring us the news help Chattanooga understand itself – and when necessary, hold power to account – in ways that surpass many much larger communities.
Arline Mann
Artist, Elder Mountain resident
Chattanooga has many superpowers! But for my husband and me – hopping as we do between Chattanooga and Manhattan – its greatest strength might be the rare combination of country and city.
We love that we can live in the country, in our home on one of Chattanooga’s surrounding mountains, seeing nothing but trees, flowers, foxes and hawks. And yet, in less than 15 minutes, we can be in the heart of the city, enjoying Chattanooga’s excellent restaurants and cultural offerings: terrific food with an abundance of choices, a strong regional art museum, great local music and a wide range of engaging activities.
In a single afternoon, we can have it either way – a city full of energy or the quiet of nature, with nothing going on at all.
Todd Morgan
Executive director, Preserve Chattanooga
Chattanooga’s superpower is the ability to create a strong and achievable vision for its future. This city is no stranger to visionary, community-driven planning. It most famously transformed itself from the “dirtiest city in America” into a model for urban renewal. A much earlier vision drove Chattanoogans to compete with their northern neighbors as an economic peer following the Civil War.
Philanthropic vision has flourished and there is a well-established tradition of people from different roles and backgrounds coming together to solve problems while planning for a better future.
Today’s vision for Chattanooga includes important issues such as economic development, investing in underserved neighborhoods, expanding affordable housing and leading in sustainability. However, preserving our historic assets is rarely mentioned as a priority even though decades of professional studies have proven that preservation can help achieve those goals among many others.
Safeguarding our historic buildings and neighborhoods is important to the long-term success of Chattanooga. Such places tell a story that’s unique in the world while connecting us to our collective past, educating future generations, fostering community pride, driving economic growth through tourism and promoting environmental sustainability by reusing existing structures. Our most beautiful buildings and neighborhoods are almost always a century old or older, irreplaceable gifts from generations past.
In 2026, Preserve Chattanooga will launch the first county-wide preservation planning process since 1977. Funding from the Lyndhurst Foundation and the Tennessee Historical Commission will help shape Chattanooga’s future regarding its historic assets. It will be comprehensive, inclusive and thoughtfully done. The result will be a powerful blueprint for addressing preservation best practices in order to fully benefit from the historic resources that remain.
Chattanoogans know how to do this well because they have proven they have vision.
Adam Stone
Founder, Chattanooga Jazz Festival
One of Chattanooga’s many superpowers is its size and location. Sitting just two to four hours from countless major Southeastern cities, it functions as a natural travel hub. That constant movement brings a steady stream of new perspectives through town. It feels like Chattanooga keeps its creative gateways open, with people always coming and going, ideas always circulating.
On a more personal note, its music scene is unbeatable. It’s deeply rooted in Southern sound and tradition, yet remarkably diverse in genre, representation and lived experience. I’ve never seen a music community so inclusive, so connected and so driven by genuine support for one another. It’s the strongest music scene I’ve experienced anywhere.
Michael Dzik
President and CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga
Chattanooga is fortunate to have many superpowers, but the one that strikes me the most is philanthropy. Sure, we’re a generous community that gives financially to many causes and nonprofits. But I’m also seeing more people participate in philanthropy through their time and efforts.
Through the Jewish Federation, we’re taking a more focused approach on engaging our Jewish community in Chattanooga opportunities to “give back.” We have individuals and groups that pack boxes and deliver for the Brainerd Food Pantry. Most recently we had a dozen community members volunteer, some as young as 6 years old, with a snack pack program at an East Brainerd Church. Seeing families walk the walk and teach their children on how to be good citizens is the epitome of the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world and making our society a better place than we found it.
On a more personal note, my wife and I started volunteering at the Chatt Foundation serving food to our homeless population. A humbling experience and yet a positive way to share happiness and love with a struggling community. All those whom we met were extremely grateful.
I’m thankful for Chattanooga’s passion to uplift and help others. I feel this is one of many unique characteristics that makes it such a special city, and I look forward for more and more Chattanoogans “being there” for our community in 2026!
Claudia Williamson Kramer
Scott L. Probasco, Jr., Distinguished Chair of Free Enterprise
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga’s superpower? Our shamelessly irresistible food and drink scene. We have a glorious parade of inventive eats, craft cocktails, rooftop sips with sweeping river and mountain views and those speakeasy hideaways that make you feel like you’ve cracked a delicious secret code.
This year Michelin finally noticed what we already knew. Our kitchens blend Southern soul with global flair, Appalachian foraged goodies like wild mushrooms and ramps and fresh bounty straight from nearby farms and the Tennessee River Valley. Chefs here turn seasonal local ingredients into unforgettable plates.
Visitors come for weekend feasts. Remote workers decide they could live here because dinner tastes so good. Locals feel like they are on vacation every day. This scene brings tourism dollars that flow like a well-shaken martini.
In 2026, let’s lean all the way in. Eat like tomorrow’s resolutions don’t exist, drink merrily through food festivals and bar crawls, and be downright joyful about it. Let’s share these unique, flavor-packed experiences with visitors and new residents. Who’s ready to toast to another year of good eating and great company?
Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson
I’ve resided in and around cities and counties with populations that range from approximately 16,000 to literally millions. Seeing this wide variety of regional assets and challenges makes Chattanooga’s superpower clear to me.
Our greatest strength could be described as a cliché that, in our case, actually happens to be true. The cliché remains based upon two factors: 1) our medium-sized population; and 2) a large percentage of citizens with a sincere interest in improving our community.
All massive cities deal with unsolvable problems. Chattanooga has challenges, but all can be significantly improved. In terms of crime, pollution, infrastructure, access to education and more, leaders in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and others would love to trade places with us. In medium-sized cities like ours, sincere efforts applied with persistence will (not “could” or “might” but will) move the needle.
Even better news: we have a disproportionately large number of individuals, businesses and foundations with the sincere ambition to make our community better. The relatively smaller size of our city allows fewer altruists to make a bigger difference. Thus, we possess everything we need to expand what’s working well in Chattanooga and change what’s not. On every metric.
Which brings us to the cliche that happens to be 100% true in our corner of God’s country: We can truly accomplish anything we work together to achieve.