posted May 7, 2008
Why does the city of Chattanooga forget about Woodland Heights? There has not been a road crew by to clean up the side of the road in probably a year. There is broken glass, cans, bottles, you name it, as you come into the community.
We pay taxes too so where is our money going? The city also needs to mow the grass beside the road. When the new homes were built up on White Hall I thought, oh boy, now we are going to have a clean up, not so.
Help city of Chattanooga.
Joan Smith
joans1123@cs.com
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Should taxpayer dollars be wasted on cleaning up a spot the Woodland Heights community does not even bother to keep clean?
Michael Rhudy
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Mr. Rhudy, why should we taxpaying property owners not expect the same basic services as the Forrest Avenue community, or the good folks up on Lookout? Oh, yeah, I get it, there appears to be a little of the old looking down the nose at the people in a modest community going on here. I can just picture you suggesting the folks in Mountain Shadows keep their area dumping site clean themselves, so as not to waste taxpayer dollars, good one.
The place Joan Smith spoke of is right at the entrance to Moccasin Bend. It's the preferred spot of people who are driving home from a night of drinking beer to hit the pylons under the overpass with their bottles, or stop and spray graffiti on same, or urinate. You can clean it up one Friday and the next Friday it's a mess again. Joan Smith is absolutely accurate in her description. Right now there is a pile of broken auto glass, looks like someone had a windshield broken out, and the day after I noticed it it was further shattered into 200 pieces.
This is also an extremely dangerous place as a lot of people entering are talking on their stupid cells, involved in unimportant conversation, and not concentrating on what they're supposed to be doing: responsibly maneuvering down a slope with a sharp turn. I think it's safe to say that one-third of the people entering are in the lane of those leaving, and much of that involves cell phone yacking. Why can't we have about 10 of those cement dome-shaped obstacles here? I'd love to see a few igmos hit one of those, go tumbling side-over-side in a scene that would make Dreamworks proud. Or at least tear out the radiator, transmission and transaxle.
For several years now the property owners who face the railroad tracks have been keeping the grass and weeds down between the street and the tracks. I don't know if that's railroad or municipal property, but I doubt they own it. That doesn't qualify as wasting taxpayer money, does it?
John R. Smickle
Chattanooga
jsbottomfeeder@juno.com
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Mr. Smickle,
I would make the same suggestion to anybody, regardless of where he or she lives. I myself live in the most modest community of Rossville, Ga. When I see trash accumulating around our beloved duck pond or the John Ross House, I take no issue with picking it up myself and not waiting for the city to do it.
A few weeks ago, myself and other volunteers took to task the cleaning the slopes of Stringer's Ridge. Why did we do this? We are proud of the Ridge's history, beauty and what it has to offer the Chattanooga area.
The closing paragraph of your letter has me scratching my head. The property owners who face the railroad must have the same view as me regarding keeping the area maintained and looking nice. Why would their responsible actions equate to wasting taxpayer money?
Michael Rhudy
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