Pink Financial institution, Tennessee, is a small metropolis of about 12,000 individuals, surrounded by Chattanooga. At round 70 years previous, Pink Financial institution is working to make its streets safer and extra walkable for everybody.
Mayor Stefanie Dalton is a 2025 America Walks Strolling Faculty fellow. Made doable by means of the beneficiant assist of the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Lively Folks, Wholesome Nation℠ initiative, the Strolling Faculty is a web-based training program that connects and helps group champions working to broaden entry to secure and welcoming locations to stroll.
Word: This interview has been edited for brevity.
Q: You’re a resident of Pink Financial institution, and also you had been not too long ago elected mayor. How does your expertise as each a resident and an elected official have an effect on your perspective on the significance of walkability, street security, and transportation planning?
A: I moved to Pink Financial institution in 2010, so I’ve been a resident for much longer than I’ve been a commissioner/mayor. In that point, I’ve lived in north Pink Financial institution the place we’ve virtually no infrastructure for anybody aside from motorcar customers. The one stretch of sidewalk we’ve is a couple of 900-foot stretch alongside Dayton Blvd in entrance of a subdivision. That sidewalk exists as a result of earlier than I acquired elected in 2020, I labored with a few different commissioners to ask the developer so as to add a sidewalk — in Tennessee, we’re preempted from requiring sidewalk set up with new developments, however we are able to ask. Sadly, it connects from nowhere to nowhere, but it surely’s a begin.
I’ve all the time lived in essentially the most uncared for a part of Pink Financial institution, so I’ve been hyperaware of the shortage of safely accessible multimodal routes that join us to the remainder of our metropolis. There is no such thing as a purpose for this lack of connectivity, since we’ve one lengthy, flat arterial (Dayton Blvd) that runs the size of our metropolis. Underinvestment is a continual situation all through the whole thing of Pink Financial institution. We now have a disconnected sidewalk community in central and south Pink Financial institution, which forces non-vehicle customers to zig-zag throughout the five-lane street that’s Dayton Blvd and use crosswalk islands that don’t really feel secure as a result of automobiles are dashing by at 40-50+ mph throughout 4 lanes of visitors. We additionally don’t have bike lanes, and a few heavily-trafficked intersections nonetheless undergo from decades-old unhealthy design.
After I consider my neighbors who don’t have automobiles, who’re unable to drive, who wish to bike to work or college, or who simply wish to stroll/roll all through their group in a secure, related means, I really feel compelled to do every thing I can to make {that a} actuality. I don’t think about myself to be even near an professional on these points, however I’m an attentive and passionate advocate for safer communities. That in all probability comes from my background as a social employee. The truth is, I think about the work I’m doing as an elected official to be group social work. I’m simply attempting to do my half to make this group safer whereas empowering my neighbors to advocate for the issues they need and want.
Q: How has taking part within the Strolling Faculty modified your method to walkability work?
A: The largest impression the Strolling Faculty has had on how I method walkability work has been by means of my connections with my cohort, my group, my mentor, and with the multitude of assets offered by the group. Particularly across the explicit points associated to my road reimagining undertaking and my Lively Folks Wholesome Nation Motion Plan, I’ve discovered about so many potential fast/tactical enhancements my metropolis could make to extend security and accessibility. For instance, we’ve a fairly harmful intersection alongside a street that connects between Pink Financial institution and Chattanooga however is located in a residential setting; my group and mentor provided up a slew of strategies to assist enhance visibility and security, like rumble strips, painted crosswalks, delineator posts, restriping for shoulder entry, a roundabout, and extra. The second largest impression has been with regard to the general public narrative piece. As an elected official, I are inclined to hyperfocus on knowledge to assist choices we make for our group, however the storytelling piece is equally, if no more, essential. The introduction to Marshall Ganz’s method to group constructing and buy-in by means of public narratives has been so informative and provoking.
Q: Pink Financial institution accomplished its first-ever complete planning effort. What was that course of like, and what had been the outcomes?
A: We labored onerous to make this occur from the day I acquired elected in 2020, but it surely took some time to get all of the items in place. I’m so proud that we had been lastly in a position to undertake this plan early in 2025!
The plan ended up being an virtually 18-month lengthy course of, as a result of we had been dedicated to group engagement being the driving power behind the plan. From our first group engagement alternative on December 1, 2023, to adoption on June 17, 2025, town hosted seven group engagement alternatives at festivals, open homes, and workshops. Every occasion was interactive, with story boards, maps, post-it notes, worksheets, remark varieties, and open dialogue. This was along with on-line and paper surveys we put out to the general public in each English and Spanish, in addition to stakeholder interviews and an inside steering committee. Our planning advisor was in lockstep with town and took every day suggestions on the best way to higher current visible components, inform tales, and foster dialog.
Over all the course of the group engagement interval, we had hundreds of individuals and sometimes exceeded common response numbers in relation to the scale and inhabitants of our metropolis (one other proud second!). The completed product is a community-informed plan for our future that identifies our priorities, objectives, and an implementation matrix with related prices, funding alternatives, and timelines. The implementation matrix is considered one of my favourite elements of the plan as a result of it’s totally clear and creates accountability for these of us chargeable for follow-through. Not like what you see typically in different governmental organizations, Pink Financial institution isn’t right here to “verify a field” after which stick these plans in a drawer; we’re right here to do the work of our group for our group.
The Group Improvement web page on our metropolis’s web site consists of hyperlinks to the Pink Financial institution Complete Plan 2045, in addition to a StoryMap that particulars the planning course of
Q: How has group engagement impacted walkability planning in Pink Financial institution?
A: Curiously, Pink Financial institution accomplished a “strategic agenda” report in 2003, which included a small variety of group members’ suggestions. Even again then, our neighbors had been asking for extra sidewalks, bike lanes, and improved connectivity. Sadly, there was virtually zero follow-through on these wishes.
Extra not too long ago, group engagement has impacted walkability planning in Pink Financial institution. After I knocked on my neighbors’ doorways in 2020, and once more in 2024, I heard again and again the sturdy need of our group to have further safely-accessible related routes all through our metropolis. Our demographics have modified fairly a bit prior to now 20 years, so it’s very validating to listen to throughout generations how our neighbors wish to safely transfer by means of our metropolis utilizing all modes of transportation.
With this suggestions, we’ve been in a position to extra deliberately focus our planning efforts round multimodal routes. The truth is, Pink Financial institution has handed resolutions committing to Belief for Public Land’s 10-minute Stroll to a Park initiative, in addition to the CDC’s Lively Folks, Wholesome Nation method to enhancing group well being outcomes. Moreover, our Full Streets coverage is presently in growth.
If we didn’t have the assist of our group for most of these initiatives and approaches to planning, we’d not be the place we’re at this time — on the heels of the adoption of our first-ever complete plan and on the cusp of tangible change!
For instance, we’ve had a resurfacing/restriping undertaking in north Pink Financial institution within the queue for over 5 years. There are sometimes sluggish timelines when you find yourself dependent in your state DOT for grants, however this has really been a blessing as a result of we now have elected management and employees who’re aware of the wishes of the group. This engagement allows us to vary the restriping plan to right-size this part of Dayton Blvd, which can open up shoulder entry for non-vehicle customers the place none presently exists. It can additionally permit us to plan for future sidewalk and bike lane installations.
Q: What are a few of the boundaries you’ve come in opposition to in doing this work?
A: We’ve encountered an assortment of boundaries, starting from minor to majorly difficult. One instance of a extra minor barrier has been a few of the extra technical and/or nuanced language used to explain walkability and accessibility enhancements, comparable to multimodal, visitors calming, need paths, right-sizing, main pedestrian intervals, and many others. So, we’ve needed to make some additional efforts to outline and educate our neighbors on what these imply and seem like in real-life situations. The saying “an image is price a thousand phrases” actually rang true when our group planner created a video and visible mapping components to assist educate the general public on an upcoming right-sizing/resurfacing/restriping undertaking. We talked all day and night time about this undertaking, but it surely didn’t actually resonate with our neighbors or give them a useful understanding till they may see it and listen to it defined by means of these visible aids.
A few the tougher boundaries have been navigating the logistics of retrofitting a car-centric developed group with accessible multimodal infrastructure (and the related prices), in addition to pushback from some residents over talks of “decreasing a lane right here” or “including a motorcycle lane there.” Understandably, change can create a really emotional response in of us, particularly once they presume that that change goes to inconvenience them. However now that I’ve gotten a very good introduction to Marshall Ganz, I’m hoping to have the ability to use that public narrative piece to have interaction with and have productive conversations round points like this!
Regardless of the problem, the protection and well-being of each single considered one of our neighbors is on the forefront of every thing I do in my elected function. On the finish of the day, I’ll all the time make choices that mirror these values.
Q: What have been a few of the successes?
A: Oh, so many! We now have sort of had a humiliation of riches these previous few years since I’ve been in workplace, for which we’re so grateful. We’ve gained tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in grants for issues like a group mobility examine, a right-sizing examine of Dayton Blvd (finally proving to be possible in step with TDOT and visitors engineering pointers), sidewalk additions, and ADA enhancements, on prime of the budgeted enhancements we’ve been in a position to make towards visitors calming, safer crosswalks, and upgraded college zone design to boost visibility and security for our kids.
Not solely have we adopted our first-ever complete plan, we’ve additionally adopted our first-ever Parks & Recreation Grasp Plan; created a Division of Group Improvement to deal with complete planning, zoning, and land use; accomplished our first-ever sidewalk stock; accomplished a connector path that ties right into a a lot bigger path system into Chattanooga; acquired a $400,000+ non-matching grant for a brand new multi-use path system that may even cowl new sidewalks, crosswalks, and ADA upgrades; applied new right-sizing restriping/resurfacing plans with present queued tasks on each the north and south ends of Dayton Blvd; and a lot extra.
None of those accomplishments would have been doable with out the engagement and assist of our neighbors. Actually, our successes are depending on of us exhibiting up, partaking, volunteering, and main the way in which in direction of our shared future — and my Pink Financial institution neighbors hold doing simply that.
Q: Your planning undertaking for the Strolling Faculty centered on Appian Manner. What’s the significance of Appian Approach to the group, and what adjustments are you working to implement?
A: For me personally, Appian Manner is a street I journey every day. It connects Dayton Boulevard to Chattanooga and runs by means of an virtually completely residential space in Pink Financial institution. One of many residential roads off of Appian Manner connects to a dead-end road the place the one elementary college in Pink Financial institution metropolis limits and a church are situated. One significantly harmful part alongside Appian Manner is a four-way cease that includes a non-linear crossover road and restricted visibility as a result of curvature and slope of the street, in addition to a retaining wall on one nook. This part of the street is in a college zone.
There are not any sidewalks or crosswalks on Appian Manner. There isn’t even a shoulder for non-vehicle customers to make use of. I personally have witnessed individuals dashing on Appian Manner, each up- and downhill, and sometimes flying by means of the four-way cease with out a lot as a passing look. These risks make this street really unsafe for anybody, not to mention youngsters, to journey on it. Even being in a automobile feels harmful when different drivers commonly pace and blow by means of the cease indicators. I’ve had many conversations with our employees about this street, and one of many first issues we’re going to work on is enhancing the four-way cease, which can embody relocating and repainting cease bars, putting in rumble strips, and including flashing LED lights to the cease indicators.
We are also creating a Full Streets coverage, which I’ve requested to incorporate insurance policies round secure routes to highschool. To paraphrase Gil Penalosa, if we’re not making our streets secure for 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, then nobody’s secure. And everybody deserves to be secure nonetheless they want or wish to entry our streets.
This publication was made doable by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) (Contract #47QRAA20D003W). Its contents are solely the duty of the authors and don’t essentially symbolize the official views of CDC. These efforts are a part of the CDC’s Lively Folks, Wholesome NationSM Initiative that’s working to assist 27 million Individuals turn into extra bodily lively by 2027.
