- After eight years of leadership under Mayor Andy Berke, Chattanooga has an opportunity to select a new mayor.

What are the priorities for our city and who has the experience to lead Chattanooga for the next four years?

We'll talk to candidates for Chattanooga mayor coming up next.

Support for this program is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(inspiring ambient music) Welcome to the second of our mayoral forums.

I'm your moderator, Ray Bassett.

Host of Scenic Routes on WUTC 88.1 FM.

The following organizations have partnered to create this series of forums.

United Way of Greater Chattanooga, the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

WTCI and WUTC are the media partners in this endeavor.

We appreciate the work from each of these organizations that has gone into making this series of forums a reality.

We'll be focusing on three main topic areas during these conversations.

The local economy, cradle to career education, and our civic infrastructure.

Now I'm happy to welcome our candidates for this forum and to have them introduce themselves to you.

Starting with Dr. Long.

- Thank you.

My name's Chris Long, I'm a candidate for mayor for the city of Chattanooga.

I'm a lifelong resident.

My background is I'm a general contractor developer.

I got into the architecture business, got into engineering, done my postdoctorate out in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

I've worked in the back scenes with all these different governments across the United States, consulting with mayors and city council people.

I know how the city works and they're always been missing the boat on a lot of things in my opinion, and I think that what we have to do is we've got to come up with a solution to get jobs back in Chattanooga.

But that's my background.

I had the experience and I had the passion for it, and I'm ready to get to work.

- Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Thank you, Ray, and thank you so much for hosting this forum.

So I'm a native of Chattanooga, born and raised in a community called the West Side and Ray, I always tell folks this story of me basically looking at my phone.

There are two pictures I have on this phone.

Continue to look at on a frequent basis.

One is a picture of me as a child, I was about a little less than, well, maybe one years old and I'm sitting on my dad's lap.

The second picture I looked at is me and my city attorney and my daughter is sitting on my knee, and she's about two, and I'm taking in information, I'm listening to citizens, this is at a sort of a forum, and, but my time when I'm sitting on my dad's lap, he's not an attorney.

In fact, he's actually in prison, and I share that story because I think oftentimes people see my journey and they see just a city attorney.

They see just work in that in the community but they don't know how hard it was to get from one picture to the other.

And I do know this, that my journey, my sort of work going from that child to the city attorney has been the exception and what I'm running to do is to make sure that this is the rule, that this is the expectation.

My background is that I went to public schools all my time here in Chattanooga.

I left for college, came back, and I've been practicing law for about 20 years.

Five of those years I spent as a city attorney under Mayor Burke and the city council.

Also spent some, I had some senior leadership roles at a couple of large companies here, both Volkswagen and Unum.

So I bring both the public and private sector experience to this role, understand how government works, how the private sector works, and right now, as we're going through one of the toughest times this community has ever seen, this world has ever seen, we need a leader that understands how these things work, how partnerships work, and how we can move beyond this COVID pandemic and not just to get by or survive, but to do it in a way that's stronger, that builds the kinds of partnerships and relationships to help more Chattanoogans on the other side get those good paying job.

All right, so thank you so much.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Yes, My full name is George Ryan Love.

I have a bachelor's degree in political science, I have a master's degree in education within an expansion on 14 years old.

I'm the third son of a crane operator.

I've run for Congress in 2016, county mayor in 2018.

But I've also taught Spanish for about a year, but I spent the last 10 or so years living in poverty and becoming disabled.

Now, when I ran for office, I ran and I realized to move the city forward, we need to deal with the wage and income inequality.

Now, my story is I'm disabled, but I make too much and I lost my disability.

So I'm living paycheck to paycheck and under $400 a week right now, okay.

So I believe to move everything forward, we need to have candidates that are not from the corporate sector at all.

The people close to the pain would be closer to the policy.

I believe in the 15 dollar living wage.

I believe in 20 for a skill labor and 10 plus tips for table service.

I believe every single person, from the street sweepers every man should have maternity leave and paternity leave.

My goal is policy focused.

Right now, I have a Medicare bill for five thousand dollars I can't pay.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Hello, and thank you for having me.

My name is D'Angelo Davis and I'm a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I graduated from Howard High, I attended the University of Southern New Hampshire, I graduated with a degree in public administration.

I started the only LGBQ organization for youth to get them out of the street from homeless here in Tennessee.

My reason for running is no one was speaking the issues of the people in the concerns that the people was facing with public safety, affordable housing and early, true early childhood education, I mean development.

So that is the reason why I running.

I put my name into the beat around for the next mayor of Chattanooga to have the voices for the people to be heard.

So have them a place on this stand so they'll be able to not only feel that their wanted in Chattanooga as well as to see and to build more.

That's why I run.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Now to our questions.

First on education.

What steps would you as mayor take on early childhood education to ensure that all of Chattanooga's children are adequately prepared to achieve success in the classroom?

Starting with Dr. Long.

- Childhood education is very important.

All the way through K to 12.

Although that the mayor of city of Chattanooga don't have the luxury and the power of coordinating with the county mayor and the county, because they're the ones that's in charge of the public schools, the only thing that we can do is provide extra services to help this get along.

We need, our schools are gone to the wayside and there's a lot of political reasons for it, but we have to get into what I'm talking about in order to be able to address this is, you know, we get into trade schools 'cause not everybody's cut out for college, okay?

So when you're talking about the youth, it comes up, they have to concentrate on that but we have to get into trade schools, okay?

And since the county has taken over our city schools, the trade schools gone the wayside.

They got it down at Howard down there, but they just mothballed it, okay.

The only place you got to go all the way out of town to get to it.

So my main focus is trade schools and that takes care of all that issue there.

- All right.

Thank you Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Well, this is an issue that's personal to me.

I'm the father of a five-year-old.

So when we talk about early learning again, that's a a major priority for our family.

I know it's a priority for a number of families across this community.

We also know that it's a workforce issue as well.

The number of women in particular that have left the workforce to address issues around childcare is something that we've really got to make sure we're prioritizing as a city, and so one of the things I'll continue to do, I was at the city when we opened the office of early learning, we'll continue to invest in this office, and we want to expand early learning in fact, by increasing the number of scholarships that we work with the United Way and other programs to make sure there are more seats available and having access to those parents that need access.

We also want to make sure that we're looking to create, again, more seats across the city with the good standard curriculum.

Those are the issues that we want to make sure we're addressing in addition to this, again, I think this is going to, it needs to fit into our overall town strategy, thinking about from cradle to career.

Know that 2.0 just released.

That's something again, we're going to make sure we're focused on as a top priority of our administration.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- During the global pandemic, we must address, you know, the COVID.

Because my brother and his family were ravaged by COVID and so you can't open school with a pandemic going.

So if that was not the case, and the horrendous way wealth inequality that has been going on and now in person.

Now we must deal with the whole family.

When it comes to the inner city, we must make sure that broadband is available because it's a more stressful environment to deal with death and killing your loved ones than being bored at home.

So we have to deal with COVID precautions when it comes to school and we have to do it with the loss of income and a lack of access to healthcare and deal with the whole family.

And the homelessness issue as well.

Make sure everyone has a home, everyone has food, everyone has shelter, and everyone is safe from the pandemic to learn.

We must address those issues and it would be my focus to fight until every single person has their vaccine, everyone has home, everyone has healthcare, and everyone has food.

- All right, thank you Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Find affordable housing.

Finding affordable and high-quality, childcare has gotten even harder as my upcoming, and we're placing a huge financial burden on single parent families, as well as the children.

Our plan is to guarantee high quality childcare and early education for every child.

Chattanooga, from Chattanooga, from birth to school age, it will be free, for many families that's affordable for everyone.

This the kind of disruptive change that we need to produce a working economy for everyone.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Our next question.

How should the city provide a comprehensive approach to support students beyond the classroom, whether through youth and family development centers or tackling problems such as mental health during COVID-19.

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- We need to come up with a comprehensive plan to address that right there, but we gotta have a revenue stream to be able to do that.

And, you know, I listened to a lot of the candidates during this whole election that we have and everything, and nobody's coming up with a comprehensive plan on how we can afford to pay this.

And what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to get everybody to work.

This stuff here will iron out with focus money where it needs to be, because there's people out here that are able to work to get the tax revenue coming into Chattanooga, but nobody's come up with a plan how to fix it.

Everybody's describing what the problem is, but there's nobody coming up with a solution how to solve it, but I have that solution.

We've got to get the workforce base out here, people work and all across the board, you know, this is front and for everybody.

There's no division here.

And we started up at that point right here.

But this is a focus that we need to do.

We got to take care of these people that can't take care of themselves.

And then the ones that wants to do something are in positions that can't do nothing, they can do it.

- All right.

Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- And thank you for lifting up this important issue around mental health aspect of COVID.

As well as we understand the impact to our kids during this time.

So one of the first things you'll hear us talk about is having a strong and trusted partnership with the school district.

Though we're not in the school operations, we must work with Dr. Johnson and Mayor Coppinger because these are our kids.

We have to make sure we're taking care of them and part of that is doing everything from providing more transportation to students for afterschool programs or to school programs and work-based learning, providing more wraparound services to help support these students and their families, but that also means it could be investing more in our communities.

The last thing I will say is when you talk about mental health, that again, looks to those partnerships that we have already with some great programs in the city to lift those up and leverage those programs and get those out to more of our communities and let them know about the access and how that could actually support them during this tough time.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Well with bus routes being constricted, I do know that the route number two has been cut off because of scheduling.

That means they can't get the bus to the mental hospital over here in North Chattanooga.

So public transit starts with a card, a bus system that is pre-COVID functioning and better than that.

Okay, I do understand them not being able to help them sooner but I also understand healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.

Healthcare means nothing if you can't pay for it.

So I support the Medicare for all initiative that Mr. Sanders and everyone has fought for because you can go to the doctor, but if they ask you for money you don't have, you don't have access.

So healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.

That's the first thing.

Second, we need a public transportation pre-COVID and better than that, so people get these things.

Two, we also need, I guess, nurses that can come into people's homes with PPE and meet them where they are.

Every family's a different situation though.

But it comes to every person having a right to healthcare and for students and the community as well.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Yes.

Thank you.

It's been reported that suicide and mental health issues has increased due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The city government needs to partner with local providers, the state of Tennessee and nonprofits with faith based organizations to come up with a comprehensive plan that is available for every family.

Licensed preschool and home-schooled childcare as well as we need more of the social workers in schools so for kids to be able to discuss the issue that they have at home, that they can't discuss at home and they be able to come to school and discuss and that will eliminate most of the problem that we have within the suicide and the suicide rate in the, as well as the, I can't think now.

I forgot.

The suicide rate as well as the issue at hand.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

And now we go to Gabrie;la at UTC with a question.

- Hi, my name is Gabriella Jackson Nelson, and I'm a freshman at UTC majoring in nursing.

Given recent events across the country and in our nation's capitol, many Chattanoogans seem deeply divided over issues that students often see in our own communities, including racial divisions, policing, and economic inequality.

How do you plan to unite Chattanoogans despite so many differences when it comes to politics and policies?

- Thank you, Gabriella.

Answers to a minute, please, starting with Dr. Long.

- We're going to have to come together as community and set outside politics aside.

We're one family.

We're gonna have to get to where we're working.

If everybody's working and making a good, decent living wage, these problems go away.

We got to focus on these programs, right, there's individuals out here that needs assistance.

We need to do this, but these programs that we're talking about, all this stuff that we're needing to do, we're not going to be able to do it unless we have a sustainable economic engine first place and foremost in Chattanooga to do it.

We're wasting our time talking about these social issues here and I'm not trying to be disruptive, they are very important, and I understand every one of them, but if we don't have a substantial economic engine to support this, this stuff don't mean nothing.

And I'm trying to get this to people, we have to get a sustainable economic engine in Chattanooga as fast as possible, and the only way we can do this, I had the idea for it, the only way we can do this that nobody's talking about, we going to have to get workforce people out here working.

We got the president, Joe Biden, is going to issue out right now for Volkswagen Chattanooga 650,000 electric units that's going to be coming into Chattanooga.

We're not set up for that workspace to take care of that.

They're going to hiring that out into, they're going to be hiring it up in Collegedale.

They're not going to be here in this town.

They're going to be in Cleveland.

- Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, so growing up over in the West Side, I can tell you I know exactly what it feels like to sort of be in this place that Gabriella is describing.

This sense of not belonging, this sense of division, and not really feeling as you're a part of this community, and so one of the things I want to make sure I lift up is that we will create what's called an Office of Equity and Engagement.

That office will be focused specifically around helping not only our city departments engage residents more and Chattanoogans more to have their voices lifted up in our policy and programs, but making sure that they have a voice and those voices are lifted.

And by doing that work and also bringing our private sector partners along, that will help with addressing some of these issues.

We also know though that we have a lot of Chattanoogans that have been left behind in this economy.

They've been working hard to make sure that they have good paying jobs working to make sure they're being trained for that next generation of jobs as well.

It's going to help also address some of this divide but we've got to, as a city government, also model this.

So we're going to make sure that everyone sees us as, again, a place where it's inclusive and other organizations can see that as a model.

Thank you.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Well, first of all, when it comes to mentioning Washington I think everyone needs a pocket copy of the Constitution and read it, 'cause we're all gonna swear an oath to defend and support every aspect of it.

But I support the idea of unionizing our lines of work.

Creating new jobs when you have tens of thousands of people working low wage jobs, no one was going to leave my line of work with work that needs to be done.

So we need a strong union base for every single line of work.

And Dr. King says, billions of dollars to realign wealth to make the billionaires, to pay us a living wage.

The money is in the private sector, not the public sector.

And also that any new job that exposes you to COVID, sick, dead, and dying people can't work.

They're going to fill up the COVID unit where I work.

The sick, dead, and dying, they're gonna die alone.

So we do need the cash revenue, we need to realize people are going to die alone to get the virus.

So we have to take precaution.

The bigger entry in their class, got to pay their fair share of taxes and pay us a living wage, Reverse this trickle down economics.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Yes, thank you for asking that question.

I grew up in the West Side of myself as well as Mr. Hinton.

And I really see the disadvantage today most African-Americans face within the system.

In public safety for us to have true and real reform, We have to examine every step of the system from how we choose to criminalize to how we law enforcement and prosecute engagement within the community and the accused.

I mean, how long do we keep behind, how long till we keep the people behind bars and how we treat them when they're out?

I mean, we have to raise them the whole asset of it to come together to unite.

Bring everyone at the forefront to the table and let them have a voice instead of the people speaking for the voiceless that's not representing the people.

As well as we need to also to continue to support small businesses.

I mean, it's a critical situation at hand and no one's really focused on what's building the economy the best.

So yes, thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Now to our next question on policing.

How would your approach to policing be effective in fighting crime while reassuring Chattanoogans with longstanding concerns about policing in the city whether those concerns are rooted in today or in Chattanooga's past.

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- Our crime has gotten way out of hand.

It's just, understand what's going on with the reason why this happened, okay.

I've worked in inner city for past 20 years.

I've worked with a lot of agencies down there and then I had my own mentoring group.

And what we have out here, when I've talked to them, we only have about 250 legitimate gang-bangers, but we've got 5,000 wannabes and the wannabes are causing all the problems.

This is where we get all these kinds of shootings and little penalty things going on here, but it has to be stopped and their rights cannot be violated in the process.

They got to be treated fairly.

You got to treat them with respect, okay.

But we cannot do this.

We got a lot of people down here in jail that's non-violent offenders.

We need to turn them out and put them in the workforce and this is what the program I'm talking about, we're going to put those non offenders in here and get them to work, and then when they come out, well, I'm a believer when you're done paying your debt to society, you're a free man.

Your record's clean, okay?

So this is what I'm talking about, but we got to get these violent offenders in our jails in here and we can't cut them no slack.

It has to be done.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Yeah Ray, so, you know, I've had friends who have lost loved ones at the hands of the police.

I also have been a victim of a crime and nothing gave me more comfort than to have an officer show up at the scene and what I would say is that you're right, we have to do both.

And what I would say is first, we have to reimagine public safety.

One is addressing the fact that our officers can't be all things to all people.

They can't be mental health workers and social workers.

We need to make sure we have partners in place that go alongside with them to help address the issues that are at bay here.

That also means looking at the root causes of crime, whether that means that someone's been locked out economically or their mental health issues, again, bringing those partnerships that we have in place and leveraging those.

But that also means having true conversations and hard conversations with our community.

I'm looking forward to bringing more folks around the table to have those conversations about how do we move forward as a community?

Including by the way, training for our officers when it comes to implicit bias.

So they know that as they're engaging the Chattanoogans that this is really about something about, you know, again, representing all folks.

Thank you.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Okay.

Several things.

One, you can't address violent crime in Chattanooga when you can apply for gun license online and thus greater access to guns.

What we need to teach is the Constitution how it's written, how we would want it to be taught, okay.

You know, so our education system, okay, now real leadership, we have to put our guns down, okay.

When it comes to policing, my platform is we need new police chief, preferably a female of color.

When we select a city attorney, it must be a civil rights attorney.

And I believe in the first amendment, the right to petition your government for disagreements a hundred years old or a few years old.

So we're going to write a whole new policy that any aspect of civil rights violations will be directed to the mayor doc or the new city attorney's office, because when I looked at different forums, I promised justice, because most on the list, on the rosters who have killed black individuals, so respecting the right to petition your government in order to take an active interest in cold cases and new cases.

Thank you very much.

- Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Yes.

Officer safety is very critical and important as well but we don't build trust with the officers in community when the officers militarize themselves with military style weapons.

I mean, under my administration, we will place a moratorium on transfers of military grade weapons and lethal equipment to the city of Chattanooga police, and the city police would, stop the selling of police from bad military equipment with Chattanooga government's funding.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Next question on the economy.

What should the city do to foster a more inclusive economy for all Chattanoogans during this pandemic and beyond?

And what would you do to ensure that companies receiving tax incentives are benefiting Chattanooga residents?

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- The city is going to have to do a initial upfront costs.

We're going to get into this trade schools that we're talking about on a scale that's never been done before.

I mean, it's going to be on steroids.

And this program that I'm talking about is going to be revenue neutral.

We're not going to give companies tax incentives here, okay.

We're going to cover some, we're going to open up the doors for them to come in and we're going to encourage them to, but we're going to attract them because we're going to have a good workforce base.

This is what the companies want anyway, okay.

This is what they're looking for.

This is reason why Volkswagen is hiring out in Bradley County and Monteagle, Tennessee and up in Dayton, because they don't have any work skills.

I'm going to teach people how to work with their hands.

And we're going to do it on a big scale.

And then these companies out here, 3D printing companies is going to come in that does large scale 3D printing.

Ultrasonic welding, high tech.

You know, with my contacts out there with NORAD out there in Colorado spring, we can get, we can have this position set up out here in Chattanooga, 'cause we got the perfect geological location for it, we got three points here, we got water and everything and hookup and coordinate with Redstone Arsenal and have the space command set up headquarters here.

And we can bring a lot of, we can bring a lot of jobs and answers all the questions that we're having a problem with.

Yes.

- Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Thanks, Ray.

First, let me just say, going back to the last question around how we would address policing, I would still have the Focus the Terrance program.

We would still focused on those who are committing the most crimes in our community.

So let me talk about the economy, because we say that Chattanooga is the best town ever.

but that that's not felt by everyone and so we've got to make sure we're bringing more folks along.

And that includes doing a true investment in developing our pipelines, that means investing in our small businesses especially those in our neighborhoods that are really creating the jobs that we need to get this economy going, but also to your point around the pilot incentives, we've got to provide more incentives for those small businesses, not just for the larger companies that are coming here to provide a transparency for those larger ones would be something that we're going to be focused on.

That includes looking at what, we just can't give it to any kind of job, this needs to be good paying jobs that also can again allow for Chattanoogans to participate in all of the growth that's happening.

I think it addresses issues ranging from affordable housing to that access to childcare.

And again, the wages are increased.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Again, unionizing all lines of work, okay.

Raising the wages of the $10 plus tip table server wage, the $15 minimum wage, $20 skilled labor wage, a full paid maternity leave, okay.

Full-paid paternity leave, but you got to elevate the standard of living for 182,000 Chattanoogans, protect our wages because they're going to be, they're being cut during COVID.

So we had to take the businesses on head on.

The economy must be considering how we're doing and not the business owners are doing.

The economy must be on how I'm gonna pay my rent.

The economy must be considered.

How many people work for a living and still are on section eight food stamps, WIC, and during the COVID pandemic, I guarantee you, you're gonna kill yourself or someone else.

We've got to take the virus seriously.

We're adding new jobs, or you're like a frontline worker like me, where you're probably getting sick and some have died.

You have family members getting sick.

It's a real thing.

So the pandemic has changed the rules but it made a catastrophic situation much worse.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- When we used to deal with small business including women and minorities and all small business, access to support that they need to build and grow and hire, our plan will work to boost the small business and easing worry to stay and grow in the Chattanooga market.

And this work will provide true 21st century workforce incubators, mentoring, and training to entrepreneurs and small business owners on the serving communities across the city of Chattanooga.

We just stop the (indistinct) big corporations and put a two year moratorium on them and make them pay their fair cut and put that money towards the people for small business.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Next question.

Sticking with the economy, how we retain the talent that's already here in Chattanooga and recruit the talent the city needs to meet demands from our local businesses today and in the future.

Answers to a minute please.

Starting with Dr. Long.

- We're going to have to cut regulations.

I deal with a lot of small business owners.

They have so many roadblocks that goes in there, especially if you're dealing with the building inspection department, the DRC Chattanooga.

I mean, if you go down through there, you've got one roadblock after another.

They need to have a can-do attitude down there.

That whole thing needs to be structured.

Those are actually people that work down there, they're very knowledgeable, but the administration has got them set up to where they're sitting behind the desk telling you what you can't do.

People are not wanting to get around anything, they just need to know how to do it.

So you need to come around the desk and show people how to do it.

I got a project down there.

I got a $30 million project that's going right there on Market and 13th street, okay.

It's been down there for plans review trying to get a permit on it for a year and a half.

It only should take five weeks at the most, okay.

We're doing everything that we're supposed to be doing with it.

The owners have explicit, they have big pockets, they can do it, but you just cannot get through the red tape and if somebody don't have any money to get a business started, they can't afford to go down there.

Your cards are stacked against you, you can't work it.

- Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Ray, when I finished high school here, I left thinking I would not return to Chattanooga just because I didn't think there was opportunity for me here, and I came back and I've been giving back and I certainly have a sense of belonging now.

We've got to figure out how do we change that narrative especially for our young people here, that they have a place here in Chattanooga.

So couple of things I would say.

First, we need a comprehensive talent strategy.

We need to make sure we're training folks for the jobs of the future and that we're getting those innovative roles and we're investing, especially in those communities like the one I grew up one that had been overlooked at times.

Second, I think we've got a really began to, again, how do we begin to connect more folks to the community?

We have a number of students up at UTC, they don't feel like they belong here.

We've got to get them connected.

I think when we do that, not only do we keep that talent, we also get a reputation that we're a place where talent can thrive and that's gonna attract folks as well.

Lastly, we got to make sure that we are packaging ourselves with a smart city, with a gig city, let's be the inclusive city.

Let's make sure we're welcoming folks here.

Not only can they get plugged in, but they can participate and really be a part of the change and growth that's happening in Chattanooga.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Yes, sir.

Okay.

We must deal with the wealth inequality in the city because again, tens of thousands of families in this low wage economy, and we have to deal with it.

Now, yes, we can do both.

Chew bubble gum at the same time.

Create new good paying jobs, union jobs, but we must have strong labor protections, okay.

We're lacking that.

Guaranteeing a living wage.

Guaranteeing full paid, you know, worker's comp insurance.

Guaranteed full pay for COVID quarantine.

So the labor protections is what's making people leave.

Other countries do much better than we do protecting our workforce from predatory capitalism, from healthcare we can't afford to use, so they are graduating with student debt and their families and friends are working for wages that are hold to a living standard.

So a strong living wage, a strong union, a guaranteed living wage and employee benefits and rights for everyone.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Love Mr. Davis.

- Yes.

Creating (indistinct) is better tailored to the 21st century job increasing access for small business startup with a focus on minority and women and young entrepreneurs.

I mean, we need to not only keep our best and brightest forward but attract them so that top talent from Chattanooga, and the city of Chattanooga and the world, we need to create a true diverse and inclusion that is lacking (cuts out) our plans to create is a science and technology research development, the development which will main purpose will be to ensure Chattanoogans are moving to a 21st century with 21st century jobs in the global workforce.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Our next question is about the arts in Chattanooga.

What role do you think local government should play when it comes to the arts and culture and how would you integrate the arts in the pandemic recovery?

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- Thank you.

Arts play a vital role in Chattanooga.

I went to school in Hunter and learned my art, and then I got into the trade schools, I went to Kurtman and I ended up going to Tyner High School.

They had a state of the art vocational about the trades.

It's the reason I'm pushing trades because I feel like is important.

The trades play a vital role in arts also.

You gotta have people that can work with their hands.

They understand how to build things, okay.

The arts create close to $125 million of revenue a year for Chattanooga.

Why not support them?

It would be foolish not to and give them the money and the resources they need to do it.

And we need to focus that more into other programs in Chattanooga, but we got to spread out.

It can't just be downtown.

It's got to be an East Brainerd.

You know, I'm out here in East Brainerd, that's where I live at.

There's not too many as much art out here.

We all have it at the Heritage House, okay.

But there's not that much art out here and it's appreciated all, it has to go city wide.

And then we can get more value to our buck.

- Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Listen Ray, arts are really fundamental to our city, our identity as a city.

This is something as a kid.

I had exposure to very early on and really played a major role in the trajectory of my life.

And so for Chattanooga, not only is it something that we've seen folks rally around when it comes to public art, but we know that we've benefited from it from an economic perspective.

And so from the city's perspective, I am going to open what's called an Office of Arts and Culture.

That office will be charged with not only addressing issues of public arts, but also looking at festivals and other things we can do to really make sure that we're touching more of the community.

The arts can feel somewhat exclusive, and we've got to get beyond that to make sure we're touching more neighborhoods.

And so we'll do some different funding opportunities to make sure we're providing those resources and opportunities for Chattanoogans to engage in a different way, including on a neighborhood level.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- I've actually done some work with some art members and heard them speaking because the pandemic has really hit hard on on the people that work in the art industry.

So we need to make sure we have a city resource to make them home housing, food, and insecurity.

I think arts is also, as a foreign language teacher in the past.

it's a great way to engage all the cultural and ethnic diversity of our city, okay.

So, and keeping with other other candidates' ideas, we need to really cultivate the cultural and linguistic diversity of our city and we must make sure the arts are financially whole and so arts benefit people of all walks of life, not just the wealthy.

And arts can be any expression from writing to singing to painting so we need to have opportunities for schools and for the community to express all forms of art throughout for their own financial saliency and to bring this together.

- Thank you Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- I agree so much with my fellow candidates.

Arts is still important.

Myself, music and dance was my way out growing up in here in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

But Chattanooga has so much to offer the world.

We must strengthen our partnership, I mean, we must strengthen the partnership with our national and international sister cities.

So continue to grow our economy and prepare for those who have, those who have answered the workforce, all the things necessarily needed to grow Chattanooga economy from the middle of out so that we all benefit, not just those at the top.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Our next question is about transportation.

How would you prioritize meeting the city's transportation needs from completing overdue repairs to long-term goals that would make the city more livable and welcoming for all Chattanoogans?

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- We're going to have to do a comprehensive study on our traffic flows.

Our parking has gotten way out of hand.

We've set ourselves up for urban living but yet we don't have any place for parking.

But what we're gonna have to do is we're going to have to look out of the box and see what's coming down the road.

We got new innovative type things like skyTran, for example.

SkyTran is an innovation that's coming.

It's being supported by big, big joint ventures.

I've talked to my contacts out in Washington, DC.

It's lightweight rail that runs up and down the urban sidewalks.

It has like bus stations.

You can have like one, like Broad Street can have six terminals right down through there.

It's easier to stop.

It's nonstop wherever you want to go to in Chattanooga and it's way less expensive than traditional rail systems, all right, and we have a group that's in here at Chattanooga that's constantly working out there, have been working on one is called personal solutions.

If you want to look it up, these guys were cutting edge on that where we can run traffic from Volkswagen side out here to downtown for public transportation and the airport, okay.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Ray, so as a former city attorney, I can tell you I sat next to our claims department and the number of calls we got about potholes is not funny.

It was a number of them and so I know exactly one of the issues, I mean, the issues that we're facing.

And so one of the things you'll see from our administration is an increase in our paving budget.

We were going to have to, you know, obviously we have some challenges with that budget, but you will see overall an increase in our paving, but more importantly, you're going to see residents come around the table and help us make some of those decisions about which projects we ought to prioritize.

Again, part of our overall approach as an administration, we want more voices at the table to help us make some of these hard decisions.

When it comes to overall access to transportation, we've heard a number of candidates talk about free fare, what I'm only to be focused on though are the routes and making sure that our Chattanoogans can get to the places to actually get those good paying jobs.

And I was at BW, have 2000 jobs out there, in Amazon, but no bus routes.

So we've gotta be smarter in terms of how we actually connect our Chattanoogans to those jobs, and, you know, public transportation is one of those ways.

We've got to look at those routes.

A free fare or something we certainly wish we could, we'll consider as well.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Well, as a bus rider, I know that fares are already free.

As a bus rider, I know that the bus before were catastrophic.

So therefore we need to return to the previous schedule because we have already cut out the routes and centered it in the schedule all week.

So that's what we would do is basically easily go back to the schedule was before, fares are already free, but there's only 10% capacity.

So we have to increased that.

We do need a skyTran, transitioning there, but for now we need a car to bus up downtown.

My idea would the city sells that every land and developers they could find like Carta, and have a space downtown where they can transit, waiting waiting with a coat, I freeze up in 30 degree weather waiting on a bus.

Been there, done that.

So definitely, and then create a parking area where you can get free parking if you (indistinct) inside.

So we need a powered bus up downtown.

As a bus rider, we need to go back to pre COVID, you know, driving schedules.

- Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Transportation has really been bearing on many people, especially elderly due to getting medicine and getting to doctor's appointments.

So reduce, we need to open up some of these railroad tracks that people are using to have meals on and just wine and dine.

We could use excess transportation for some and they can eliminate some traffic here in Chattanooga as well as bring many partners together, as Carta and many other partners with the bus capability to be able to transport people, citizens from Chattanooga faster to their location instead of taking 30 minutes to get from one location to the next.

So we need to partner up and bring better people to the table to have better voices.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Our next question comes from Mary Ellen from the interagency council on homelessness.

- Good afternoon.

I'm Mary Ellen Galloway, the Director of Homeless Services at Signal Centers and the lead staff person for the Chattanooga interagency council on homelessness.

Homelessness is expensive we know from research and best practices that housing and supportive services will reduce and end homelessness.

As a new mayor, how will you increase housing for homeless individuals and families in Chattanooga?

- Thank you, Mary Ellen.

Answers to a minute please, starting with Dr. Long.

- Well, my approach is to set up a focal point to where the city services, police department, whatever, and have this information out.

But this program that I'm talking about, well, I only have to be conclusive for just people that live in Hamilton County because we can't take on people from Hackensack, New Jersey or Seattle, Washington, or from Florida that matter.

But I've already worked with the people in the homeless, I was in the homeless camps just the other day, and they're really entertained with this idea that I'm talking about.

But what you do is you have a transitional place, when somebody comes in and is homeless, that don't have no place, we have a campsite set up for them with caseworkers that evaluate their situation, has wifi, water, has utilities, everything that they need to set up there and then the transition to the micro housing, okay, (cuts out) - Thank you Dr. Long.

Mr. Hinton.

- Ray, this is an issue that, you know, we were confronting on a regular basis here and a number of conversations I have with folks about not only a homeless situation, but also what about housing?

And one of the things that we're going to focus on is bringing folks like Mary Ellen and so many others around the table.

Talk about how do we address this in a way that there's a central point of contact of addressing some of these issues and questions that come up, right?

Right now we know we have a lot of great partners.

We want to really bring them together to address this issue in a way that's collaborative.

One of the things I know we'll address is making sure we have more housing units available as part of our overall housing strategy.

We have set a goal of having 2000 more affordable units for Chattanoogans.

That's going to be one aspect of this, but also making sure that we're providing that connection for, again, those individuals who need that permanent housing or that transitional housing to get to those affordable units.

The other side of this is making sure we're using already tools that we have in place like the land bank authority and other incentives to have that are we're making sure we're building more affordable housing as well.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Affordable means zero if you don't deal with the fact that so many people are unemployed, underemployed, losing wages, losing jobs, affordable means nothing.

I make 10.50 an hour.

Affordable means zero to me if I can't afford the paycheck that I'm getting and it's getting worse.

So we must, must, must, must deal with the wage income inequality.

Two, especially if it's available, you can't wait a year for a house to be built if you're on the street now.

Now we must use every available space that we can find to house every homeless person tonight.

That's what, affordable means, I get aggravated when I hear the word affordable housing until you deal with the fact that people are living on 275 unemployment plus better plus up or no money at all, they live on disability or they live on $200 a week income because it was reduced.

Affordable means zero.

You can't, what are you doing?

Running $400 a month?

Okay.

Affordable for me is $400 a month and utility included.

Is that what we're going to charge?

With no credit check.

With no background.

- Thank you, Mr. Love Mr. Davis.

- Yes, our housing plan will help by investing $30 million over the next four years to build preservative and rehab affordable housing, creating a multitude of new housing units and bringing down rental costs by 10%.

It will also help families, especially families of color, buy homes and start to build wealth.

Substantially approving housing affordable isn't just good for the working families.

It will also reduce homicide crimes.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Our next question touches on a lot of this and we go to Reginald from the Bethlehem Center.

- My name is Reginald Floyd Smith II and I'm the Executive Director of the Bethlehem Center here in South Chattanooga.

I have a two-part question to the mayoral candidates running for mayor of Chattanooga.

Part one would say simply state how you address and provide access to affordable housing for Chattanooga citizens and the second part of that is how will you balance that with new development all around the city of Chattanooga without displacing current low income residents?

- Thank you, Reginald.

We have lost connection with Dr. Long.

In the meantime for this last question, we will go to the other candidates.

Each of you answers to a minute, starting with Mr. Hinton.

- Thanks Ray.

So as a former city attorney, during my time there, I worked in a number of issues related to affordable housing, a number of projects pledged to affordable housing, including drafting legislation that created the land-make authority now, not only can Chattanooga, but cities across the state can have it and that land bank authority is a powerful tool that can allow us to put vacant and abandoned properties back onto the tax rolls and again, use that as a way to not only build, but to sell as well affordable housing.

And the other side of this is creating incentives for our developers that will allow them to go ahead and focus on particular neighborhoods and areas where we want to see more of a diversification of housing and community.

So it also, the last thing I will say is our zoning and codes could be something that we could address as well to create, again, this opportunity for a more affordable housing.

We'll have more transparency because we'll create an affordable housing tracker that will be on our city site and people will know exactly where we are.

And by the way, we're going to focus on revitalizing neighborhoods, not gentrifying.

And that means we can work with groups like Calip and others who were looking at a community land trust to make sure we're preserving those, the culture and character of our communities.

- Thank you, Mr. Hinton.

Mr. Love.

- Again with the word affordable.

Until you deal with the with the loss and lack of income.

Now, Dr. King, AOC said this.

You don't make a billion, you take a billion.

I watch a lot of the Young Turks.

That $9.8 billion they're holding back, that needs to go into our pockets by the way.

So therefore until you stare in your donor's face, until you stare into the defendant's face, you will pay a living wage.

You can tell our government to give us more unemployment benefits.

We need more moratorium and rent forgiveness.

We're going to tackle all the landlords and all the boards company.

If you get government assistance, why are you hounding me for rent?

Accountability is the word and a living wage for every single Chattanoogan.

Affordable means nothing if you're making 275 a week or $300 a week, okay?

If you have a credit check blocking you, if you have a deposit blocking you for utility costs, healthcare, there are a million things going on in the American family today, and if we deal with a whole family issue, nothing is affordable.

- Thank you, Mr. Love.

Mr. Davis.

- Yes, we need to push for $15 an hour number one, also, I was thinking back to some of my previous asks, so we need to invest $30 million over the next four years to build, preserve, and rebuild affordable housing and create a multitude of new housing units to bring down rental costs and bring down rental costs by 10%.

It will also help families, especially families of color, to buy home and start to build with the wealth substantially improving housing affordability isn't just good for the economy and working family, but it also reduces the homelessness and crime.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Davis.

Again, our apologies.

We lost our connection to Dr. Long for this last question, but we want to thank him, we want to thank all of the candidates so much for participating in this conversation about Chattanooga's future.

We want to thank our candidates for their willingness to participate in this forum.

And we want to thank all of our partner organizations that made this series possible.

I'm Ray Bassett.

Thank you for watching.

Support for this program is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.