ISP defies government-backed players, seeks to serve small outfits
EPB trucks install fiber-optic cable in the Chattanooga area as the government utility installs a taxpayer-subsidized high-speed Internet system for which little demand is expected. Government is thinking always of the consumer. How can our services be expanded to benefit members of the public? Is there any dysfunction in the marketplace that we can step […]
Unkempt houses tell people we’d rather not be bothered with visitors
Serenity marks a well-kept home, whereas disorder makes inviting guests difficult. By David Tulis My son’s room is a mess. A clothes basket sits in the middle of the floor, piled high (these are clean), with other clothes nearby (reeking, presumably). A bookshelf under the window is piled with miscellany — used drinking glasses, a […]
Why the Internet won’t make my local newspaper go extinct
In the cool honeysuckle-laced air of the morning, a Times Free Press awaits its subscriber to retrieve it. By David Tulis The crisis in the newspaper industry in recent years, particularly since the economic meltdown in September 2008, should prompt people who love their hometown paper to look into underlying realities they perhaps have not […]
Fields says 40-year Thrive 2055 plan does not limit people’s rights
A bulldozer stands near Erlanger North as a road is widened in Red Bank. County government is bringing in a Cincinnati company to help devise land use regulations. By David Tulis Your interest in local economy and free markets has made you wonder about Hamilton County’s creation of a committee to draft a 40-year plan […]
As for health reform, shoemaker puts his foot down
A shoe gets a polish at Buddy’s shoe repair in Hixson. The federal health care statute debated before the federal Supreme Court will be met by skepticism among Chattanooga residents if it takes effect — and resistance by others. We checked with the cobbler who resoles our shoes and repairs our handbags to see what […]
Education on a human scale: Homeschool son set to enter world
By David Tulis Andreas Shedrick, 18, will be leaving his parents’ home in Red Bank at summer’s end to pursue university studies and start life on his own. Mr. Shedrick is youngest of three sons of a homeschooling entrepreneur mom and an ordained minister dad who works with learning disabled children. 1204 Andreas Shedrick, 18, […]
Feds push everyone to use electronic transactions
Mitch McGrath, owner of Mitchell Robert Studio Salon in Red Bank, says more people are starting to consider the effect of credit card costs on local economy players. Some ask him how he’d like to be paid. Anything but credit, he says. “Cash is king. You don’t want to have to pay interest that you […]
Lee Anderson vs. the avatars
Lee Anderson greets visitors who are part of the reception crowd Thursday in the Chattanooga Times Free Press newsroom. By David Tulis The passing from the Chattanooga newspaper scene of Lee Anderson leaves a big gap in a vigorous defense of the concept of local economy.It is unlikely that the Times Free Press will account […]
Right use of good works in local economy
East Ridge resident Larry Setliffe, a former homeless man who graduated from the Bible study program at Union Gospel Mission (two buildings in background) has grown in grace as a result of Christian works of charity and friendship. One tenet of local economy is private capital and private action. This notion is surly, demanding and […]
Small businesses create favorable context for rosy health
Kathryn Foster, overseer of the city’s business incubator, visits Ann Dickerson and her husband, Bill Zack, of Chattanooga Cookie. Despotism, which is of a very timorous nature, is never more secure of continuance than when it can keep men asunder. *** [A] despot easily forgives his subjects for not loving him, provided they do not […]