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Pace |
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| From April Reveille
Two-way streets bungled Chattanooga is a
nice place to live. It is
an excellent location for business.
It has been blessed with scenic mountains lakeside recreation and
a stable, progressive government—until now. Former Mayor Gene Roberts and former County Executive Dalton
Roberts put the city and county on the path to development of resources
downtown and throughout Hamilton County.
Industrial parks, revitalization of the city’s infrastructure
and a buoyant enthusiasm were put on the fast lane by them. Following them were former Mayor Jon Kinsey and current
County Executive Claude Ramsey who continued with the upward movement. The city government
now has people of business and political experience.
Mayor Bob Corker is a successful businessman, has run for
statewide office and served in a state office. Yusuf Hakeem and Leamon Pierce and John Lively are political
veterans. They know how an
issue can make or sink a candidate. That makes it all the harder to understand how a two-way
street change is being forced on a reluctant public.
It’s like benefiting the few at the cost of many. Selection of a city judge was put before a committee for
advice. No one even
questioned the change of Bailey and McCallie from one-way to two-way
streets. A businessman recently called Chattanooga a beautiful city,
but one that’s hard to get around in.
Wait until he sees the two-way street mess. Every time a man is late going down town through bottlenecked
traffic on McCallie, he will curse the city fathers who dreamed up this
scheme. Every time someone
misses a plan because he couldn’t move on Bailey-M.L. King, he will
wonder who had this nightmare. There will be a political toll a price to be paid.
The vehemence will show at the polls. Some future administration will have more common sense ,
funding another million dollars to pay for the blunder. Social engineers have the idea they know better than the
people what is good for them. They
made a costly mistake on street changes. There will be suspicions of favoritism and political payoffs.
More importantly is how it translates to the ballot box. Pete Chaney, Exec. Dir. Veterans for Good Government
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