60 homeowners work to create property defense group amid East Ridge threat
Attorney Milad Emam talks to a group of East Ridge residents about how to organize a property-defense association to keep an eye on caring officials and their plans for the city. (Photo David Tulis) An activist attorney says the city’s redevelopment authority wields a power “that should never be used against anyone” and Wednesday urged […]
Residents take a lot of abuse from government; just don’t try to boot them from houses
Residents applaud a statement made by a city council member at a raucous East Ridge city council meeting consumed with objections to an expansive “redevelopment” plan. (Photos David Tulis) Meredith Moore, 30, a renter in East Ridge who works at a Christian nonprofit organization, is scandalized at the seeming low qualifications of members of East […]
Airbnb ordinance open to legal challenge, violates constitution on 3 counts
Many owners of houses like this one in East Ridge are being told they may not use the Internet to bring paying visitors to their dwellings. (Photo Zillow) Another Southeast Tennessee municipality is making war on the Internet, trying to raise a Beijing wall to keep out wealth that flows into town via short-term vacation […]
Berke would make enemies if takes tough action over roadside abuses
Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga celebrates residents’ creativity in his state of the city speech April 19. (Photo Andy Berke) Ending police abuse of the traveling public in Chattanooga and beyond is an exciting prospect that will increase freedom and liberty in the area, draw more people to live and prosper here, and become an […]
City to criminalize begging, directs cops to do social work among poor
Landon Howard is shushed by Phil Noblett, city attorney, because critics of the panhandling rule have already had their turn to be heard and will not be heard from further. With him are protesters Beth Foster and Jeannie Hacker-Cerulean. Police chief David Roddy, center, is empowered under a proposed ordinance to arrest beggars. Worried about […]
State obliterates landmark, rips poor via ‘driver licensing’ regime
Most users of the road are private, but Tennessee imposes a fiction upon them: That no one may use the roadway unless they are common carriers for hire, subject to licensure and taxation, like the trailer truck hauling Target goods. (Photo WikiCommons) The Bible on which governors swear to uphold the constitution forbids the moving […]
Sharp raps TIF subsidy for local developer
Helen Burns Sharp Helen Burns Sharp is a model for other concerned localists in knocking commercial government in Chattanooga and Hamilton County. She offers list of criticisms for a F$5 million tax subsidy for Evergreen Real Estate to extend West M.L. King Boulevard to the Blue Goose Landing Trailhead on the Tennessee Riverwalk. Note artist’s depiction […]
Authorities see policing limits as harassment of homeless adds to jail woes
Homeless man Henry Knotts talks about city government’s evisceration of a homeless camp under a bridge in Jauary 2016. (Photo TV 12 WDEF.com) Chattanooga appears to be more blessed compared to other cities as regards its homeless people as city government is nowhere near as punitive as other cities in police treatment of homeless people. […]
AirBnB ordinance takes effect, illegal on yet new grounds
Donna Williams is charged with enforcing city council’s AirBnB ordinance, an illegal intrusion upon the city’s thriving “Gig City” Internet economy. (Photo LinkedIn) Taking effect this week in Chattanooga is city government’s so-called short-term vacation rental ordinance, one that is illegal on several grounds — including a new one that comes into view on a […]
Berke cops reject constitutional rule to Mirandize all arrestees
David Roddy gives one of many interviews as Chattanooga’s chief of police. (Photo Newschannel9.com) Chattanooga police department in its policy for traffic stops omits a significant element of public protection against arbitrary state power and poisons relations between the Mayor Andy Berke administration and members of the public, especially those traveling on the public right-of-way. […]