[bbarn]

Funny, as a cyclist - Chatanooga was a really exciting prospect for a trip. There's beautiful mountains to ride on, great looking roads, etc... but the locals were awful to deal with when we went. I have had less altercations and negative experiences with people in Chicago than there. Boulder on the other hand was always great for that.

Chatanooga proper seems to have done it's best to be welcoming, but it's the mountains nearby that are the draw, and the folks up there, well.. let's just say I rode by some places with signs that made it very clear non-whites weren't welcome.

[joshmarlow]

I'm not a cyclist but I've heard similar complaints from cyclists about the area. The downtown is getting more bike-friendly with dedicated lanes here and there, but - as you said - the mountains are the real appeal there.

It's something we need to work on.

Sorry you didn't have a great experience!

[stray]

Hey Josh!

It's funny -- I was reading that in your voice even before I saw that it actually was you.

[archon]

> let's just say I rode by some places with signs that made it very clear non-whites weren't welcome.

I'm extremely curious to know where you saw that. I live in Chattanooga, and I've never seen such a thing.

I am sorry you had such a bad experience with the cycling and can sympathize. I stopped riding on public streets here a couple years back. Not worth my life.

[stray]

Very clear non-whites weren't welcome?

I'm going to have to ask for proof because it hasn't been 1961 for a very long time now. And Chatty is a very very long way from Vidor, Texas.

[bbarn]

I'm specifically referencing confederate flags and signs that said "Trespassers will be shot, niggers will be shot twice", when riding up in the mountains, on rural but modern paved roads. I could probably dig up specific garmin files from the rides but it was more than one place.

This was 2014, not 1961.

[heminasti]

+1

When you live in the South and see yourself as a good person and surround yourself primarily with liberal types, I think it can be easy to miss how pervasive the behavior you associate with "the hicks and rednecks" really is.

Especially if you are a little bit redneck yourself. When you're white and haven't lived anywhere different it's hard to imagine how it would feel to live in the South under other circumstances.

It hurts a little if you love your friends and family and hometown. But the South is a racist place; so is the US, but there's a particular character to and acceptance of it in the South that I think one might accurately describe as "worse."