Sad: Chattanooga hasn’t changed

Not so different from the Opaque South I remember, Franklin McCallie of the Accountability for Taxpayer Money (re: “Public prods council on PILOTS, sale of city buildings,” TFP Aug. 8, page B8).

Since my return to the South, I note obstructed public right-of-ways for the benefit of development; sidewalks worse or as poorly maintained as streets; price inflation on necessities in the most inner part of Chattanooga; administrative self-interest and corruption; sputtering citizen educational attainment; stodgy social life for young and old; weak Democrat mayor and strong conservative, neoliberal Republican controls; shrinking public sector and public sector rights with increasing pricing structures that satisfy only market competition hard players versus soft players; debauched legal system that favors market hard players; and institutions that inculcate/construct consent for more of the same, creating an elite social class, another social class suffering from severe impecunity.

No, nothing has changed in the South. All that remains of Chattanooga, that humans haven’t yet destroyed, is a little natural geography that is “scenic,” and compared to real cities, Chattanooga hasn’t yet attracted overdensification, although the “powers-that-be” are progressing, unheeded to make this happen as soon as possible.

A. Wayne Ramsey