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.
Chris Long is an architectural consultant, small business owner and former builder. WUTC's Michael Edward Miller interviewed Long.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Chris Long, thank you for being with us today.
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. I just want to give everybody in the city of Chattanooga an opportunity, not just a select few downtown. I want an opportunity for everyone, an even playing field. And my biggest thing in Chattanooga, the number one thing I want to achieve, is crime—I want to take care of that. I know I can do that. And I want to create jobs. Economics and crime is my main focus. And we get rid of a lot of these regulations that we have that's unnecessary. Then the whole city prospers. We’ll go up at one time. It's like a marina. All the boats come up, at one time, when the tide comes in.
On the issue of inequality. So that's one thing that you would do, is reduce regulations, if you were elected. What else would you do to address economic inequality?
Well the main thing is our rain water runoff. Just like the City Council just the other day just passed a new thing where they’re spending $380,000 to do a study about raising our storm water fees up again. So everybody's taxes are fixing to go up. I know it was coming. But see I'm going to come up with a new revenue stream. That's new development. That's how we pull ourselves up.
We don't need to be taxing the folks right here. And you know these outlying communities and stuff, we don't need to be taxing them. If you're elderly, don't worry about your taxes ever going up with me. Because I'll have it set up to where you have it on abatement where elderly people don’t have taxes going up, even though the community might be getting nicer and thriving in their area, that they don’t have to worry about until they sell their house. And then of course it all bets are off with the taxes and then everybody is used to it then.
On the issue of crime, you've said that the Violence Reduction Initiative is basically a failure. That was the initiative that was supposed to reduce gang violence by aggressively prosecuting gang members for even misdemeanors. So, what would you do? Why do you think that's a failure? And what would you do to address the problem of gangs and crime and gun violence?
I'm routinely down into the inner city, just like we're doing our interview today. But the VRI is a failed program because it's geared for gangs. Okay? But I talk to the gang members and the community here, the GDs, that’s the Gangster Disciples. Southside Gs, Northside Gs. And they all come to a conclusion, and what they're telling me, we only have about 250 legitimate gangbangers in town. But we get 5,000 wannabes and the wannabes are the ones causing all the problems.
And these young kids, about 17- 18 years old, they’re carrying guns around. Now, I'm not a proponent of taking guns. I’ll get all the guns I can off, but I don't want to go down that path. Because, I believe in everybody's constitutional rights. But a gun does not kill people, people do. So you have a closet full of guns but that doesn't mean that they're going to go out and kill somebody. But you got to change minds.
And we've got to get back to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is there's no jobs. There's none. And nobody wants to come and bring jobs here because of our storm water regulations. We don't have no workforce development. I've been talking about trade schools for four years with this administration- deaf ears. And now since I've been running as candidate it's all that's been on the forefront. Because they understand now what I'm talking about when I was talking about trade school. Because we've got to take care of the root of the problem. And then we got to change minds. Because gangs are not going to be popular with me at all.
I’m going to come out- if I'm elected I'm going to come out and make a press conference. And get it on all the news outlets, radio, and everything. Because how I am going to immediately addresses is- if you get caught with a gun in a violent situation. We're going to hammer you like you ain't never been hammered. And it won't be none of this like going on here with this administration, 11-29 suspended sentences. I'm going to give you five years. And I'm going to you up front that I'm going to do this. That way there won't be no misunderstanding. And I'm going to pan that out for about six months and then I'm going to turn it loose. That's how you deal with it.
But I'm going to create jobs at the same time. We've got to get companies to want to come in here. And companies come in here they look to see what kind of workforce, the crime, they want to see our school systems- we've got failing schools. So why would a company want to come here? We've got to clean up our own house. Just put it in simple terms, you don't invite people into your house if it's a mess. So this is what we've got to work on. We got to use a little bit of common sense, and give people a little dignity, and let's get this thing rolling. Not just a select few downtown. They call it Emerald City downtown. Everybody is looking for Toto and Dorothy but they can't find them. It's beautiful, I don't want to take nothing away from it at all. But not on the backs of everybody in this city. Because downtown they're exempt from these storm water regulations. That's the reason why it's growing so well.
We've got just about a minute left. What is the number one thing you would want voters to know about you regarding your qualifications to be mayor?
Well, I am a working man’s mayor. I'm a people's mayor. I don't tote no party line. I don't tote no Democrat line. I don't tote no Republican line. But I don't mind working with them because everybody's got something to bring to the table. But all my decisions are going to be based on what's for the city.
I'm going to be routinely out in the community talking to folks, and getting the pulse of what's going on in the city. You don't have to fill out a bunch of paperwork, like you do with this administration, to come in and see me. And then I'll decide if I want to see you.
I'm going to demand that people come out see me at these neighborhood meetings associations on a routine basis. I'll be at Herman's over here on Brown road every Thursday at 12:00 o' clock. If you want to sit down and break bread with me, and talk to me, you've got something to say- I am ready to listen. But I'm going to routinely do that because that's important. That's the only way you can govern in the city.
Chris Long, thank you so much for speaking with us.
Thank you. I appreciate it, thank you very much.