On March 7, Chattanooga voters will choose between Larry Grohn, Chris Long, David Crockett, or incumbent Andy Berke as mayor. WUTC reached out to all four and requested interviews. Crime and affordable housing were the two main topics each candidate addressed.
Andy Berke is a former Tennessee State Senator. In 2013, he was elected as Chattanooga mayor, and is now running for a second term.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
MIKE MILLER: Andy Berke, thank you for speaking with us.
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: It’s my pleasure to be on the radio with you today.
MIKE MILLER: So residents have told you time and time again that addressing gun violence is Chattanooga's number one challenge. And the violence reduction initiative was supposed to do that, but many are saying it hasn't worked as well as they were hoping. So if you're re-elected what would you do about gangs and gun violence? For example, the real time intelligence center that Chattanooga police just unveiled?
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: Well what we've seen in our community over the last few years is that violent crime overall is down more than 10 percent and property crime is down. But obviously gun violence continues to be a challenge. Last year we took a thousand guns off the street. That's 2.7 a day. And it continues to be a struggle for us to deal with the number of guns in the hands of people who want to do harm.
And so what we've done is to make new investments in technology like a real time intelligence center that will help bring people to justice. Not just that, but reorganized our police department so that we keep are in the right positions. When I came in office we didn't have an intelligence unit. We now have an intelligence unit, we're starting a gun unit, and a rapid response unit, gang unit. All these different ways to combat violence as well as increasing the number of officers. We added more than 40 officers right when I came into office. Now we're adding 14 more, and again trying to address this problem. But in the long run we also have to make sure that people aren't on the wrong track. By the time they're wanting to commit gun crime they're significantly off base and it's hard for us to stop them. And so we have to invest in workforce development and youth programs that get people into the position to succeed.
MIKE MILLER: Chattanooga's among the nation's top 10 cities with the fastest growing rents and your administration has made affordable housing a priority. But some say there have been too few advancements in regard to that. Your own housing task force has recommended establishing a land bank authority in the city, creating an affordable housing trust, and creating a rental registry. What's the status of all that?
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: Well we have created a land bank and we're working through that. Over the last few years we have built or assisted in the building or retention of about eleven hundred affordable units in our city. And that is an issue.
One of the reasons that rent is going up is because people are making more money. We had the third highest wage growth in the country for a mid-sized city and as people make more money than they spend more and that raises rent. In the long run we have a lot of affordable housing, but it's not the quality that we want and it's not in places that are connected to job centers. So part of what people want is not just affordable housing but affordable housing in neighborhoods that they want to live in with access to quality schools and nearby jobs.
And so, what you're hearing us talk about is not just the incentives to build affordable housing- which more have been announced over the course of the last couple of months. But also how do we get into the neighborhoods to build that workforce and job centers that we want? So that in each neighborhood you can feel good about where you live and the affordable housing that's offered there.
MIKE MILLER: So we've talked about housing and crime, what would you say is another major issue facing Chattanooga, and what would you do about it if you're re-elected?
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: Obviously one of the major issues is education. The city doesn't have the school system, but we do have a lot of influence over early learning. And so over the last couple of years we've been part of Chattanooga 2.0 steering committee. And figuring out how we make major advancements.
If a child isn't ready to learn when they enter kindergarten it's very hard for him or her to catch up. We want to make sure that we build out a system through things like Baby University, the early learning scholarships that we put together, and expanded Head Start slots. So that more kids are ready to learn by the time they enter kindergarten. This has been a major focus over the last few years and it's going to continue to be one of the big issues. That's really how the city can help the school system build stronger schools.
MIKE MILLER: During election season many politicians like to talk about their accomplishments and that's certainly important, but I think one thing that really reveals character is when somebody can admit they were wrong and say what they did about it. What would you say is one significant mistake you've made as mayor and what did you do to correct it?
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: We often are listening to people and trying to figure out how we do our job better. That's something that I pay a lot of attention to. I'll give you a great example of how we do it in real time. When we started the Innovation District the goal was to have the government own the Innovation Center which is now at the Edney building. I was very adamant about that. We heard from private sector and others that that wasn't the best way to do things. And in the long run decided that we could put out a request, ask developers to do it instead, tell them exactly what we wanted, give them specifications, and then partner with them to do it. I think that turned out to be the right thing in the long run. And so sometimes you have to listen to people and hear when your ideas aren't exactly in the right direction.
MIKE MILLER: We've got about 30 seconds left. In the time we've got left what would you say is the number one thing you want voters to know about you? The number one reason you would say people should re-elect you?
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: Well I think we've had a tremendous amount of growth in our city over the last four years. I am more confident than ever that when we work together we can make real progress. I also know that progress can be lost if we are not doing the things that help drive our city forward. And so what I look forward to is working alongside others in our city to make Chattanooga the city that we all dream of.
MIKE MILLER: Thank you very much for speaking with us today.
MAYOR ANDY BERKE: Thank you.