The 2007 Chattanooga Delta Bravos
I'll try to have my 2K7 'Noogans o' The Year up tomorrow.
10. Redbank
The residents of Redbank deserve pity. Redbank has become little more than a serious of stoplights standing in the way of commuters looking to travel expeditiously from North Chatt to Hixson or from 27 across Middle Valley to Hixson Pike (the exceptions being the Inside-Outside Store & Rob's for karaoke). Central issue being that the Redbank downtown has died; unless Redbank finds leadership with both the urban planning know-how and political fortitude to make some serious changes, it's only going to get worse. Video cameras are the least of their problems. Serious consideration should be given to being annexed by the City of Chattanooga.
9. Councilman Leamon Pierce
Actually, Leamon is someone I love. He makes the list because this year he didn't open a can on any crack dealers for giving him lip. As Chattanooga's own version of The Punisher, he's got a reputation to maintain. So get on it, Councilman Pierce.
8. Chattanooga's YouTube Gangstas
Hours of entertainment, only a YouTube Search away.
7. The Chattanooga Taxi Board
Another classic story of Chattanooga corruption: the various owners of local taxi cab companies control the public entity that grants them (and potential newcomers) the right to do business. They naturally vote against giving any new Taxi Cab companies the right to do business. The Fourth Estate does it's job and the public gets riled up (along with City Councilman Manny Rico), and good things happen.
6. Comcast
Their political henchmen, the "Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association", filed suit against The EPB in hopes of hindering them from moving forward with the much needed and much heralded (by pretty much every business, politician, civic org., and taxpayer in town) Fiber to the Home next-gen broadband access plan. When you can't win in the marketplace or the court of public opinion, file a lawsuit! If Comcast loses, we should declare a holiday for civic gloating.
5. Robert T. Nash
A voice for those who have one by right, but not by merit. Weekday afternoons you can find him on 102.3 boldly sounding the clarion-call of mediocrity and white-trash, unaccomplished punditry. To say his bark is worse than his bite is an understatement, though he did once chase a guy who threw some water balloons, so it's not as if he's done nothing positive for the City, if you think that sort of thing qualifies as good. Word on the street is that "Robert T" is rapidly wearing out his welcome at WGOW (never mind the plummeting ratings) and that he wont be long for the airwaves, so take heart.
4. Oscar Brock
He lost, so it worked out well in the end, yet it remains difficult to make sense out of former State Senatorial contender Oscar Brock's bizarre remarks regarding his DUI. Was he saying the cop was racist? Is he saying it's a bad idea to drive with black people? Does he not like Alton Park? The lesson to those with political aspirations: whatever mistakes you made when you were young, just remember that they were mistakes and you've learned from them. End of the story.
3. Ward "Corruption" Crutchfield
"So they gotta’ get in with money and muscles. They wanna’ play."
I ran into Ward Crutchfield in the Bluegrass Grille a few weeks back; it was a strange moment, looking at an obviously ill & elderly man who wielded so much power & influence in Chattanooga & Hamilton County, and yet squandered it for meager personal gain and meaningless gangster-posturing. I think the shame he clearly carries is punishment enough, it would be a tragedy of sorts for him to die in prison.
2. Marti Rutherford
Even now, are any of us sure where Marti Rutherford lives? Perhaps the best thing to come out of Rutherfordgate was the "Marti Lives Here" signs that started appearing all across the City. In case you were living in a box, the story goes that Marti was apparently representing a City Council District in which she did not live, and she very nearly managed to remain in office, fight a lawsuit, faux-resign, and get re-hired by the Mayor so she could receive retirement benefits through brute force of will and a domineering sense of political entitlement, and she did it all while wearing a muumuu.
1. Mayor Ron Littlefield
With the fall of Ward Crutchfield, Mayor Littlefield now reigns as the undisputed arch-douchebag of Chattanooga, and boy does he know how to fill a year with corruption & incompetence: the purchasing of a golf course to buy votes, blatant copyright violation, the attempted rehiring of Marti Rutherford, single-handedly losing the Toyota plant because he refused to meet with former Senator Brock, sending a Mayoral newsletter to voters and not all Chattanoogans, and somehow managing to tick off both City Employees and the SEI Union in one lethargic move.
Still, these mistakes don't capture the comprehensively pervasive nature in which our Mayor works against the positive growth and maturation of the City. They fail to show his nepotism or his refusal to lend support or encouragement to any entity or person who a. isn't in his immediate circle of trust or b. may not be politically aligned with him. They also don't show the extent to which he spent bundles of political capital (and real taxpayer capital) to get elected, from the City now being run by Dan Johnson and the Homebuilders Association to currying favor with big-time Republican fundraisers like Harold Coker.
For all the reasons and so many more, Mayor Ron Littlefield is our #1 pick for Chattanooga Delta Bravo of the Year.
Chattanooga News | By Josiah Roe | 1:36 AM
