Like many Chattanoogans, I have a “go-to” restaurant. With a “go-to” sandwich.
Mine was the Flatiron Deli and my sandwich was the Italian Torpedo. A culinary masterpiece.
Honestly, I have never practiced law in a location where the Flatiron Deli was not within a 100 yards from my office door.
For over 31 years, a month, no, not even a week passed where I did not indulge in a sandwich from the Flatiron.
That will change. The Flatiron has announced its closing, another casualty of COVID, or more specifically, another casualty of our poor representation in Washington.
Flatiron served thousands of lunches before COVID. They would have served thousands more if Congress would have passed additional COVID relief. Jobs would have been saved. Rent would have been paid, including property taxes.
But instead of passing COVID relief for small businesses such as the Flatiron, Chuck Fleischmann is campaigning in North Georgia (?) and Marsha Marsha Marsha Blackburn is worried about the Chinese infiltrating Chattanooga using the Sister City program.
How about spending all that energy focusing on helping small businesses gutted because of COVID? For months, both Chuckie and Marsha Marsha Marsha have done anything but serve their constituents.
How many more small businesses will shut their doors because our elected officials put personal pettiness before the interests of the people they are elected to serve?
Flatiron Deli.
RIP.
C. Mark Warren
* * *
Hey Mark,
Any time a business closes it causes pain and no one is happy about it. Let me suggest Senator Blackburn and Rep Fleischmann are not the problem.
As of Nov. 30, over a quarter of a billion dollars has been spent on the Georgia senate elections and more is on the way. Vote Smart indicates John Ossoff raised $32,311,481. Among his contributors are the University of California ($200,600), Emory University ($115, 581), Amazon ($90, 241), Facebook ($89,000) and Harvard (almost $71,000).
None of them are closing as some received stimulus money in this year. This was money delayed by Nancy Pelosi hoping to force bailouts for progressive states plagued by hyper-spending, mismanagement and overtaxing now fleeing residents.
The excessive and wasteful spending by Ossoff and Warnock is no different. Where else could the money being spent in their rush to Marxism be used for good? Is their election more important than helping small businesses during this pandemic? Although they would tell you their election will help, any aid would come from someone else’s hard earned money.
Had not the Obama administration dumped nearly a trillion dollars on a so-called shovel ready boondoggle after getting elected, that money could have been used to help delis and salons feeling the brunt of the plague now.
Maybe some politicians like Stacy Abrams, Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Gillium, Cal Cunningham of North Carolina and Jaime Harrison of South Carolina could donate leftover money from their campaigns to a bailout fund. Hundreds of millions of dollars was spent by them in losing causes. And what happened to the half billion dollars wasted by Mike Bloomberg on his election related hobbies? Why wasn’t some of that money shared with people progressives claim to champion?
Again, as in each case they would tell you electing them would help those folks, but the hitch is with someone else’s money. You know, like his has in the past. And Marsha, Chuck and many of the rest of us know that.
Ralph Miller
* * *
Mr. Warren,
I’m going to miss the Flatiron Deli too. It was a little longer walk, but a nice respite from the usual restaurants I visited for lunch when I was working downtown before the pandemic. A very friendly place with good sandwiches and a daily special.
I agree it would be nice if our congressional representatives voted for additional financial relief which our local businesses and citizens could take advantage of, but I appreciate Mr. Fleischmann and Ms. Blackburn’s efforts to limit liability for COVID-19 related lawsuits which will help other business remain afloat and ease the rate of insurance increases for the rest of us.
In fact, Flatiron Deli, along with almost every other business, even our public school district, hospitals, and our local governments would be better off if our insurance rates weren’t held hostage to ridiculous tort awards from frivolous lawsuits initiated by lawyers who put up bill boards on the side of the highway and advertise on daytime television promising lottery like rewards to smiling plaintiffs as if they’ve just won the daily lotto.
Bob Linehart
* * *
Thank you Ralph Miller and Bob Linehart for your very fine responses to C. Mark Warren’s tribute to the Flatiron Deli – a tribute turned mockingly into a political hit on Congressman Fleischmann and Senator Blackburn.
Mr. Warren’s comments about the Flatiron Deli were well said. His gratuitous assault blaming the lack of Federal support for businesses on Fleischmann and Blackburn simply reveal a deeply partisan, if not bitter and distasteful, political point-of-view. Mr. Warren’s reference to Congressman Fleischmann as “Chuckie” was terribly unbecoming of the professional Mr. Warren advertises he is and will serve to alienate him from the 70 percent of voters in District 3 that supported Fleischmann.
What Mr. Warren served up was two slices of stale bread with nothing in between. All that said, many of us will miss the Flatiron Deli.
Tom Decosimo