I am writing about gentrification in Chattanooga, more specifically in Hill City. As a resident of Hill City, I am seeing my neighborhood swarmed with developers and monstrosity-sized housing erected in a primarily bungalow community. The increased housing would be great if it were affordable, but at $500,000, no one currently living in this neighborhood could afford it.
While some tell me I should be glad my property value is rising, I am disheartened watching my neighbors be uprooted from multi-generational homes because our property tax is ever rising and we cannot keep up financially.
In five years, my property tax has skyrocketed, and many in my community have been forced to sell and move. Gentrification is forcing segregation back into Chattanooga, and the lack of affordable housing is uprooting families. We don’t need more 3,000 square-foot, half-million-dollar homes in Chattanooga. What we need is the option for this and future generations to actually be able to afford to buy a home in a safe neighborhood.
C. Wilde
Good news! Easter Sunday is coming
We all know what Black Friday is. Sales are offered in the stores and we pay the special price so they can reach a black bottom line in their bookkeeping. Consumers rush to the sales and pay the price offered.
But do we know what Good Friday is? Why is it good? It is the day Jesus, our savior and lord was crucified. He paid the price for all of our sins on the cross. Then he said, “It is finished.” Isn’t that good!
Then we celebrate what should be called “Good Sunday.” Resurrection Day. After three days, Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. All who receive and believe in him will follow. Isn’t that good!
Black Friday is over for now, but Good Friday is forever! Happy Resurrection Day!
Marge McNutt
Signal Mountain
Disabled vet wants cannabis option
I’m a disabled veteran. I’ve had two back fusions, multiple injections, nerve ablations, years of physical therapy, and I’ve had a spinal cord stimulator implanted in my back for the past nine years. Yet, still I’m taking five opioid-based painkillers a day.
I’ve been on opioids since 2006 when my first spinal fusion broke and had to be “re-done” with titanium implants. Because of the opioids, I’ve had complications with my liver, bowels, and I’ve developed sleep apnea. I’ve had to switch types and doses so often I can’t count. I want to be out of this pain management hell. I deserve the option to choose medical cannabis as a treatment for my chronic pain.
Millions of others deserve the right to treat their PTSD, seizures, migraines, MS, lupus, etc., with medical cannabis, too. Please call your state representative and state senator and ask them to support HB 1011 and SB 0572.
Sen. Bo Watson sits on a committee that could block this. His Nashville number is (615) 741-3227. It’s imperative he hears from proponents of this because at this time he is a no vote and could block the legislation from moving forward.
Mike Toews
Signal Mountain
Ask U.N. to adopt USA standards
Granted, man has been affecting the environment of this world since he climbed out of a cave and started to herd cattle. But the Mini-Ice Age that lasted hundreds of years, including the 1770s (when Washington crossed a frozen Delaware River), was caused by man as much as the carbon pollution of today. It was climate change. The demands of liberal social democrats for carbon taxes is just another means to grow the federal government, attack businesses and not solve the problem.
A majority of the world’s environmental pollution comes from Africa and Asia. It seems logical that the United Nations should make world environmental pollution a primary goal, not the United States, which has environmental standards among the highest in the world.
Demand that the United Nations require the standards of the United States within 10 years; after all, we have the technology available for the world.
C.S. Beck
Gun deaths pale next to abortions
In all due respect to a recent letter writer, her letter stated that 103 deaths occur every day in the USA due to gun violence, which is no small number. However, it pales in comparison to, according to the Guttmacher Institute data for 2017, the 2,408 babies who are murdered in their mother’s womb every day in the USA. In addition, according to World Health Organization, approximately 125,000 abortions occur daily worldwide.
Now, this is truly tragic!
Tom Francescon
Signal Mountain
He’ll stick with real scientists
I won’t be getting any more weather forecasts from Paul Barys because he doesn’t rely on science for his predictions. He doesn’t believe in the findings of 97% of climate scientists (NASA estimate) that human burning of fossil fuels is exacerbating global warming. No, Paul has his own “theory” based on natural cycles. Never mind the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change’s (IPCC) finding that our current rate of generating greenhouse gases will devastate the planet.
Keep in mind IPCC is made up of 2,500 scientists from 150 countries who have updated and made changes to their reports as new data comes in. So-called climate-denier scientists are welcome to critique scientific findings about human-caused global warming. It’s the nature of science. But they are not entitled to their own facts.
I would like to propose what Thomas Friedman recommended years ago: Since the odds are good humans are increasing global warming, doesn’t it make sense to at least take precautionary measures like using more (all?) renewable energy? Acting like the ostrich that Trump is, packing his Commission on Climate Security with known climate-change deniers is a dangerous response to a very threatening global challenge.
Roger Davis
Signal Mountain
Washington’s words resonate today
I am submitting a portion of George Washington’s “Circular to the States,” written in 1783 to state executives as he retired from his military command. I think his words would be useful today:
“I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose examples in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
“I have the honor to be, with much esteem and respect, sir, your excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant.”
JoAnn Follis
Hixson