Chattanooga’s renewal, natural amenities and even its all-day pancake eatery Aretha Frankenstein’s have earned the Scenic City second place in Outside magazine’s list of 20 Best Towns in America.

Its tremendous news, said Philip Grymes, executive director of Outdoor Chattanooga, an office that markets the region’s outdoor amenities.

To have our city represented, especially as the second-best place to live if you are an outdoor enthusiast, is certainly showing that the efforts not only of this office but (of) the city and different organizations within the city is really paying off, he said.

In 2001, the magazine named Chattanooga one of the nation’s top 10 towns in which to live, work and play the outdoor type of life. This year, the magazine divided the Top 20 list into two lists with 10 cities each, Senior Editor Jeremy Spencer said.

This year we chose our main 10 towns that best exemplified turning things around for themselves, working towards progressive change, he said.

Washington, D.C., took first place, followed by Chattanooga and Ogden, Utah.

For the second part of its list, the magazine put together 10 Bright Ideas, or towns that are almost like the runners-up, that are doing one thing in particular very well ... and that other places would do well to take their example, Mr. Spencer said.

In choosing the 10 best towns, magazine employees looked at factors such as: Has the city reinvented itself? Does it have ample natural beauty around it ... and is it a culturally rich town that is taking its own best assets and actually reinvesting in them? He said.

Minya James, a 27-year-old who works at Outdoor Chattanooga, moved from Maui, Hawaii, a year ago. She said Chattanooga is a very easy and accessible place to live if you’re an outdoor lover.

This proves to be a pretty happy medium, said Ms. James, who’s originally from Maine. It’s very accessible, you don’t have to go far to find trails and wooded areas. You can hop in a kayak downtown and paddle for an hour and be in what feels like a very remote area. That’s not easy to do in a lot of places.

The story mentions Chattanooga’s investment in the downtown waterfront, the Tennessee Aquarium and, most recently, the Greenspaces program ”a three-year, $2 million green building initiative” as projects that have remade downtown into a live/work/play crossroads with half a dozen parks, new organic grocer, and the annual Riverbend music festival.

Chattanooga resident Jeff Brakebill, who owns Aretha Frankenstein’s on Tremont Street, which is mentioned in the story as Chattanooga’s best carbo load for its pancakes, said the cleanliness, the people, the personality and the beauty of the city are what makes it a great place to live.

Back when I was in high school it wasn’t the super-cool place it is now. It didn’t hold a lot of artistic, thinking folks, said Mr. Brakebill, 42.  When I came back from college, it was this underground resurgence (that) just kept growing and growing.

You didn’t hang out downtown before. Now I find myself walking around and riding my bike four, five times a week, marveling how beautiful our city is, he said.

Source: Outside Magazine – 20 Best Towns in America List