Cynthia Stanley-Cash Says District 5 Stagnating; VRI Is Not Working

  • Saturday, January 21, 2017
City Council District 5 candidate Cynthia Stanley-Cash said the district has not experienced economic and community development for many years.

She also said that the city's Violence Reduction Initiative is not working and many citizens in the district feel it should be disbanded.

Ms. Stanley-Cash said, "I was born in Chattanooga and have lived here all my life, by choice.  I graduated from Riverside High School in 1972 and attended Chattanooga State and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.  I was blessed in 1979 with a clerical job position/offer that turned into lifelong employment with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

I retired in June, 2015.  My family and I moved into the beautiful Woodmore/Dalewood community in 1981 to current.  The subdivisions' entrances greeted you with breathtaking dogwood trees, paved streets, and a few neighborhood sidewalks, yet still not enough. 


"I am available to serve in this position full-time and will pledge to host quarterly town hall meetings, I will aggressively pursue unity with all district 5 elected city, county and state representatives to respectfully commit to attend town hall meetings with us as often as their schedule will permit them.  City Council representatives and the city and county  mayors are responsible for enacting local laws, passing and/or changing zoning ordinances, planning, approving and budgeting funding for capital improvement projects and all other city projects.  I feel that state lawmakers should be consulted on some matters and provide guidance as needed.   It is vitally important that all elected representatives work together and be on one accord to ensure that our city government and council districts are adequately funded each year in an effort to provide continuous economic and community development. That's caledl progress.   That is why it is very important to hire the best qualified, credentialed and/or certified and ethical city administrators to lead their departments and provide guaranteed proven and trusted guidance on all city matters. That's called accountability, transparency and excellent job performance.  

"Regrettably, these past few years the lack of economic and community development have been devastating to most of our District 5 small businesses and shopping plazas.  Our main roads and  infrastructure have declined to a point of intentional neglect.  Sinkholes are filled with cotton dirt.  If you reside in the city limits of  Chattanooga and own a home, you are required to pay city andcounty taxes to fund our city and county schools and law enforcement. The majority of our city schools are in great decline and some should be declared an environmental health and safety hazard.  I support building one new school merging a middle and high school together.   I also support funding a technical trade school.  Due to the urgency of the need, I would encourage refurbishing an existing building to save funds.  

"VRI crime is rampant and seems to be no positive end to the violence.  A majority of our citizens feel that the task force should be disbanded.  When you specifically focus on one particular type of crime and class of people, a program is doomed to fail.  Reallocate the funds to other crime fighting initiatives that are underfunded, but serve the same purpose, crime.  Meth and prostitution is rampant and our innocent children have become exposed and immune to the lifestyle.  Due to the fact that is an  increase in homeless families living in hotels and/or their cars, I feel that   Neighborhood Services and Chattanooga Housing Authority should strongly pursue assisting these families.  Perhaps partnering with lenders and local realtors to rehab foreclosed homes and offer homeless families decent housing.  A long range goal would be to build an affordable housing community same as the homeless veteran community on Bailey Avenue."  

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