For the generation that preceded the Baby Boomers, retirement was simple: people stopped working and started resting. Fishing and golfing were acceptable, but anything that smacked of productivity was off limits. Retirees had made their contribution; it was time to relish the fruits of their labor.
Things certainly have changed.
Today, as retirees navigate the final bend in the river of life, many are finding a lengthy stretch of smooth, sparkling water ahead of them. People are living longer and enjoying more healthy years, and as they exit the work force, they’re refusing to sit in a rocking chair and watch the sun set. Instead, they want to use their skills to do something meaningful.
Linda Bennett, executive director of Choose Chattanooga, an initiative to market the city to people deciding where to relocate, says retirement today looks different than it did in previous generations.
“People these days think of their retirement as the time when they can give back.”
J.Ed. Marston, vice president of marketing and communications at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, agrees with Bennett and believes the new perspective benefits the Scenic City.
“Many people are taking on a full-time volunteer activity or a job. And because Chattanooga has experienced tremendous economic acceleration over the last few years, we’re able to offer a lot of different opportunities. We have a diverse industry base as well as a variety of nonprofits, so there are all sorts of things a retiree can do.”
This is good news for the Scenic City, which has cast itself as an ideal place to retire, now that its transformation from a smog-covered metropolis with a nearly abandoned downtown to one of the most picturesque and vibrant regions in the Southeast is complete.
Through the efforts of Choose Chattanooga, Retire Tennessee and other organizations and programs, the best-kept secret in the South is on the lips of more and more older people around the country. And as retirees research their potential new home, they’re discovering a place that will enable them to be industrious members of the community, Bennett says.
“This is the most educated and prosperous generation this country has ever known. And the demographics across the nation are changing as we move toward an aging populace. So the challenge for Chattanooga was figuring out how to take advantage of this change.
Part of that effort was re-
defining volunteerism. Retirees want to do more than stuff envelopes; they want to give back in meaningful ways.”
Marston says Chattanooga’s history of changing itself through community engagement, as it did with its decades-long renovation, is attractive to retirees.
“When a person retires at around 65, [he or she] can look forward to 15 to 20 years of productive, independent living, so being able to make a difference is appealing. The generation that’s retiring right now is the Baby Boomer generation; this is the generation that in the ‘60s wanted to change the world. So we see Chattanooga as a place where they can be a part of a community with a track record of changing itself through active engagement.”
Such has been the experience of Tom and Carol Prevost, retirees who have lived in Chattanooga’s Cowart Place neighborhood since 2008. A retired Baptist minister and a former middle school teacher, respectively, they’d spent their lives helping and nurturing others. For them, retirement was not a time to kick up their heels, but to have a role in a dynamic population.
“We’d enjoyed the privacy of suburbia for most of our adult lives, but we felt we needed to make a change, so when we saw that the Southside was mixed use and mixed income, we knew we’d found a place that fits what’s important to us in terms of being a part of a community,” Tom says.
While grandchildren drew the Prevosts to Chattanooga, Tom says their ability to live purposeful lives apart from their family has been a source of great satisfaction. The two of them helped to form the Cowart Place neighborhood association, he’s served as president of their homeowners association, and they’re active members of First Baptist Church on Gateway Avenue, where he teaches Sunday School, she plays piano, and they sing in the choir.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here for people who want to grow in their later years,” Tom says.
A great place to retire
Retirement is not all work and no play for the Prevosts. Rather, they’re taking advantage of the amenities Chattanooga offers its residents. As inhabitants of the downtown area, the couple walks from their home on the Southside to the Market Street Bridge almost daily, and enjoys traveling by foot to the library, their bank, Lookouts games and the Majestic 12 movie theater.
Marston says Chattanooga’s cosmopolitan environment is alluring to retirees, who want to experience an active lifestyle without the hassles that come with living in a big city.
“We have the things you’d expect in a metropolitan environment, but at the same time, we’re small enough that you won’t feel the overwhelming intensity of a large city. So you can quickly go from hanging out in a coffee shop and taking advantage of the Wi-Fi to being on a trail hiking or on the water kayaking.”
While it’d be easy for the Prevosts to stay secluded within their small community, they’ve ventured outside their enclave into the broader Chattanooga community. An avid sailor who spent 15 years cruising the Chesapeake Bay, Tom has joined the Privateer Yacht Club, where he’s made friends and taken his abilities to the next level.
“I need to improve significantly to keep up with these inland lake boys. I might be old, but I’m hardly an old salt compared to some of our guys. But the big attraction for me is the camaraderie. It’s incredible,” Tom says.
The Prevosts have also established meaningful relationships through other social venues, including the symphony and the book clubs of which they are a part. While they came to Chattanooga to be with family, Tom says their ability to establish friendships has made the city feel like home.
“For a growing city, Chattanooga is incredibly neighborly and friendly. Maybe it’s a vestige of old Southern cordiality, but there’s a concern among the people here not just for themselves but also for the community as a whole. Even the people who have positions of power in the city share what they have for the larger good.”
Marston also believes that while the Scenic City is cosmopolitan in terms of its amenities, its warmth and friendliness give it the feel of a small town, making it appealing to retirees.
“Even though we’ve experienced rapid growth, Chatta-nooga still has a strong sense of community, and that sense of community has broadened to include newcomers. Our retirees might not have been born here, and they might not have worked here, but they still feel like Chattanoogans. People can come here and take ownership of the community.”
More on the amenities
In addition to donating their time and skills, retirees in Chattanooga can also take advantage of the city’s scenic beauty and wealth of leisure activities.
Marston says the four seasons and the mountains are major factors in luring older people to the region.
“People who worked in New York City or Chicago and retired to Florida are realizing they’re too far away from their grandchildren, and while the beach is nice, they miss the color changes.
“In many cases, those people are moving halfway back home, which happens to be Chattanooga. Their number one choice was to live on a beach, but we have the mountains, which are the number two choice for a lot of people.”
Marston says the city’s many cultural events are also tempting to retirees. From the 4 Bridges Art Festival to Riverbend, Nightfall and the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival, residents can enjoy a virtually endless selection of easily accessible, quality entertainment.
While retirees want to live an active lifestyle and contribute to their community, many also face challenges that are unique to their age group, including living on a fixed income, dealing with end-of-life health issues and being acutely aware of their level of safety. Marston says Chattanooga is equipped to address each of these concerns, beginning with budgetary matters.
“Even though Chattanooga has experienced strong growth, this is an extremely affordable place to live. The fact that we
have no state income tax is attractive, especially to high earners.
Also, our housing costs are below the national average and far below the boomtowns. And our job market is better than the rest of the country, so we’re able to absorb retirees who want to work full- or part-time in a variety of industries.”
Marston also speaks highly of the city’s health care system, which includes three hospitals, each with its own world-class specialties and national rankings. “We offer a health care environment with dozens of physicians in all sorts of rarefied specialties. We also have the medical infrastructure to have the latest equipment.”
The one pebble in Chatta-nooga’s shoe when it comes to attracting retirees might be its crime rate, which in 2008 was more than twice as high as the national average, according to Chamber of Commerce statistics. But Marston says the numbers do not paint an accurate picture of the level of criminal activity in every part of the city.
“There are places in Chatta-nooga with a high crime rate, but there are also areas in which the crime rate is lower than or on par with anywhere else in the U.S. People have to understand we’re not Disneyland; we’re a real community with real problems. But our crime rate is manageable because it’s restricted to certain parts of town, and the local police have done a great job of managing it in recent years.”
Chattanooga needs retirees
Marston says retirees are desirable to a community for several reasons. As a group, they’re generally wealthier than the younger residents of a city, which allows them to bring prosperity to a community as they bank and shop. What’s more, they typically pay their taxes and obey the laws, even as they utilize little of the local infrastructure.
“They don’t have children to put in school, and because they’re law abiding, they don’t spend time in jail, so they bring money into the community without making any demands on its resources,” Marston says.
This is more good news for Chattanooga, because an increasing number of retirees are looking to the Scenic City as they search for a place to call home for the rest of their lives.
While Bennett is unable to track the number of people who actually make the move, she does know interest is growing, given the high number of first-time visitors to www.choosechattanooga.com each month (over 5,000 in December 2010 and more than 6,000 in January 2011) and the phone calls she receives daily from older people thinking about moving to the city.
“Chattanooga is becoming a magnet for talented people, and when people are new to a community, they’re motivated and enthusiastic about meeting others and becoming civically engaged. That’s exciting,” she says.
If the Prevosts are an indication, the exhilaration that comes with entering a new stage of life and living in a new city only grows stronger as time passes and retirees become part of a community that’s pulsating with energy.
“This is an ambitious city. There’s a vibrancy and intentionality to what’s going on here, and it’s contagious,” Tom says.
Things certainly have changed.