Mayor Andy Berke, in his final State of the City Address, said he had no apologies for putting the public's health foremost.
He noted that he had received criticism for continuing a Shelter in Place order as Governor Bill Lee was beginning to reopen the state.
Mayor Berke gave his final address electronically due to the health concerns of the coronavirus.
Here are Mayor Berke's remarks:
For three decades, Chattanooga’s mayors have come to you each year to report on the State of our City, a tradition that has become one of our community’s most important civic gatherings.
Hundreds of people who care deeply about our great city attend every year. We celebrate our past, we take stock of our present, and we look forward to our future. I’ve attended many of those events and, for the past seven years, I’ve had the tremendous honor to deliver this address to you.
I’ve given it because it’s important, and I’ve given it because it’s true.
Chattanooga has made progress like no other mid-sized city in the country these past seven years, and the world has noticed.
One of the best small cities in America.
One of the best cities in America to start a business. One of the best cities to visit in America.
One of the top places to live in America.
Just two months ago, Forbes magazine wrote that Chattanooga would be the number one place for new jobs in 2020.
All things true, then and now. When I say the state of our city is strong, I say it because I know it’s a fact. I grew up here, and I have spent my entire adult life here. There has never been a better time to live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
But tonight, as you know and can plainly see, this speech is unlike any other a mayor of this city has given.
The COVID-19 epidemic plaguing our nation with a million infections has not missed Chattanooga.
195 Tennesseans, here with us just two months ago, are now dead. Thirteen of those lived in our county. Many more are in our hospitals now. And while I applaud the Hamilton County Health Department and their partners for expanding testing, we still have not yet tested even 2 percent of Tennesseans.
We have paused large gatherings, like the kind we’ve traditionally had for this speech, in part because I have ordered them to stop under the emergency powers of this office, but mostly because Chattanoogans knew we should. No one in this city has been cited for violating any order of this office, or that of the governor.
Chattanoogans know what is right. You always have.
Yet, the question of what is right seems more debated than ever. You hear one thing from Governor Lee, another from me. On the nightly briefings, the President and his advisors contradict each other from minute to minute.
In the balance hangs our city and the 180,000 people who call it home. Both our health and our pocketbooks depend on what happens next. Chattanoogans are watching the news, trying to make sense of it, worried that touching a door handle could lead to an infection -- but also knowing that keeping a small business closed will cause tremendous financial hardship.
So we sit in our homes, trying to figure out what comes next.
There is a story in my faith tradition that may be familiar to many of you as well. The story is of the prophet Elijah. Like a lot of prophets, he has worn out his welcome, and he has fled to a cave on the side of a mountain to hide from his enemies.
God asks Elijah, what are you doing here? And Elijah says: I’m hiding.
That’s when God says to Elijah: come out here, and you will find me. Elijah moves to the edge of the cave and witnesses a tremendous wind, then an earthquake, and
then a great fire. But the story teaches that God wasn’t in any of those things. Instead, he was in what came next—a quiet so still that Elijah knew: That is where God is.
Then God asks again: What are you doing here, Elijah?
Elijah answers by leaving the cave and continuing his work. Every year at Passover, we set a place for Elijah at our seder table. It reminds us of his faithfulness, and of ours.
These last few weeks I have been reminded, over and over again, of the great faithfulness of this community. We have experienced our own form of fire and earthquake. We have certainly experienced the wind.
And yet, we have found, Chattanooga is not in the storm. Chattanooga, our true character, is in the still, small voice that sends us to work when the storm is passed.
I think of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, a community of faith in East Brainerd. Five church families lost their homes and all their possessions in the tornado that raged through our city 17 days ago. But they didn’t lose their community, or their faith. Some stayed overnight in the church. Others found shelter, food, and warmth, in the comfort of neighbors.
And then, last Sunday, pastor Clair Sauer used the internet, as I am tonight, to talk to her congregation about fear, and having the courage to come out from behind locked doors to love one another.
This is not always easy. The last few years have taught us what endurance really looks like: A domestic terrorism attack. A tragic school bus crash. A water outage in ninety-seven-degree heat. And now, a global pandemic.
More than many American cities, we know all too well the fear, and the power, of the unknown. It can be a family locked together in their basement, or a grandmother locked alone in her nursing home room, fearful that the next angel of mercy might prove to be an angel of death. Or it can be the business owner, wondering: if I unlock the doors, will anyone come?
But I know this. Chattanooga isn’t in the storm, and it isn’t in the locked doors. Chattanooga is in the still, small voices—and actions—of our community, embracing one another as we’re able and as we’re called.
You should know Mackenzie. She works at a senior living facility. Every night, she launders her uniform, every morning she takes her temperature. She knows that one mistake can cause unimaginable harm to the very people she’s meant to take care of. But last Friday, there was a parade of families in the parking lot. Those who had loved ones inside did what they could to show their love and appreciation, driving by with posters and signs. Mackenzie really felt the value of her work.
It’s relationships—that’s the foundation of Chattanooga. No matter what the magazines say, our City’s core has never been aquariums or bridges or mountains. Yes, those are important. But the strength of this community has always come when we forge a vision for the future and build understanding and commonality with our neighbors as a result.
That should not—it cannot—change just because we wear masks when we are out. A mask changes how we look, but we can’t let it change how we see each other.
For we will NOT be remembered for the time we stayed in our homes, as necessary as that has been—and still is. I am convinced we will be remembered for what we did next. Did our city take these twin challenges and rebuild upon them something new?
Because—and if I didn’t know this before I became Mayor, I sure know it now—time is short. Not just political time, but our time. What we make of this moment we are given, as well as what we leave behind, determines not only our legacy but the future of our children.
At the beginning of this crisis, city council and I set aside $2.5 million to help our local, small businesses get through the economic stoppage. Within twenty-four hours, more than a hundred businesses applied.
And still more was needed.
This week, our Economic and Community Development Department found an innovative way to repurpose $600,000 and make it available to Chattanoogans who are living on the edge and cannot pay their rent. City Council immediately authorized it, as every member is hearing from constituents desperate for aid.
And still more is needed.
So, we must do more. There is more on our agenda than flattening the curve; we must get ahead of it. We have a responsibility to prepare for the recovery at the same time we are helping people get through the current fallout. That is what our city has done for decades, and what we are called to do today.
As our federal government is preparing its relief packages, let’s put forward a few ideas about where we start.
First, we need to get Chattanooga in front of a crowd. Our city has the fastest, cheapest, most pervasive internet in the world, a municipally owned ten gigabit network that goes to every home and every business in a 600-square mile area. It has been powering our economy for a decade. Today in the era of physical distancing, we use it to teach our kids, work from home, communicate with our doctors, and even learn how to give ourselves a haircut. It is vitally important, now more than ever.
Next, in this time of shrinking local budgets, we need the federal government to assist us in starting new infrastructure projects. Chattanooga has done its part, but that will be made more difficult with our shrinking sales and hotel/motel taxes.
Now is the moment to ask our Senators and Representatives to fund the rebuilding of our valuable roads and bridges, while employing millions of Americans in living wage jobs.
Speaking of which, we need to “future-proof” our workforce. As we aspire to improve, Chattanoogans will be looking to enhance their resumes for good middle class jobs. In every economic downturn, Americans return to universities, community colleges, and trade schools so they can enter new industries. We have set aside dollars for a tech training fund, but it is hard for people struggling to pay their bills to take advantage of it. By pushing coding initiatives, health care paths, and robotics training, we can help under-unemployed residents move into growing, critical industries that have existing needs and middle-class pay.
Finally, over the last few years, we have built and preserved housing, yet there is great unmet need. Most American cities, including Chattanooga, face a shortage of homes and apartments within people’s budgets. Last decade, with our rising wages, most developers erected market-rate housing, as affordable units were simply not as profitable. We can change that, especially with help from the state and federal governments. More housing brings people closer to schools and jobs, while keeping home prices within reach of middle-class earners.
Across our country, and in our city, Americans are suffering. As we build back, let’s set our aspirations to our noblest purpose.
After all, I hear it asked all the time: When can we get back to normal? But, can you imagine thinking this way in the 1970s and 80s, when our city was empty and polluted? No, the city we love today was made because Chattanooga asks the different question.
How can we do it better? How can our city be more fair, more open, more prosperous, and yes, more safe?
The work has never been easy. But it’s the work Chattanooga embraces—to keep our values at the fore. To be focused on each business, every non-profit, and neighborhoods from Lookout Valley to Shepherd, from Alton Park to Hixson, and everything in between, so that ALL have the tools to be successful both in clear skies and in the storm.
In part, that means having a government that works for you. One thing you learn as Mayor is the quality of the people who serve our city. We always think of first responders first, and we should. But Chief Roddy and Chief Hyman would rush to tell you it doesn’t end there. Our public works employees, the people who plan for our city’s future, our parks, YFD, ECD, and Transportation staffs, all of them come to work every day to discover new ways to protect and serve this great city. They have always had my deep respect, and it has only grown during this pandemic.
This crisis has taught us how to adapt to circumstances while never changing our values. A few years ago, we were certified as ending veterans homelessness in our community, so we expanded our outreach to house more people sleeping in camps and in parking lots. It would have been easy, in the world of coronavirus, to pause, but that simply wasn’t possible. Chad, for example, had been working at a local restaurant but he was also homeless. Our teams never stopped pushing, and now Chad lives within walking distance of his employer. His story is not uncommon. In fact, we have housed 72 individuals since closing City Hall on March 14.
If we listen, in the quiet, we will hear the call.
March 14th was also the day our library closed, but our employees did not rest. They used the Sewing Lab to make face masks for Hospice of Chattanooga and the Kidney Center, 3D printers to construct face shields, and computers to produce videos for families.
Our city employees know, we all know, Chattanooga is not meant for the locked door.
The Enterprise Center saw that Chattanoogans could suffer if their spiritual needs were not met. So when Pastor Calvin White of Christ Hope in Avondale called up and said he was thinking of closing unless he could figure out how to worship safely, Sammy Lowdermilk and Geoff Millener brought him the tools he needed to livestream. Now, they don’t just have their devoted members; 90 new people are watching as well. And Pastor White, who admits he isn’t the savviest person on the computer, says he’s going to keep using the web to meet the needs of our community when this is all done.
We are all building this airplane as we fly it. That means taking extraordinary action for these extraordinary circumstances.
And for that, this office has come under some criticism. That’s well and good, but I tell you this: No mayor of any city, and certainly no mayor of this city, should ever apologize for doing what is right by the people of his city.
I welcome everyone, elected or otherwise, Republican or Democrat, who wants to help bind up our wounds. But I will not wait, I will not equivocate, and I will not stop fighting for the people of Chattanooga.
The office of the Mayor exists to protect the health and safety of our city, and the only way I know to discharge my duties faithfully is to put the health and safety of our citizens first. I have done so to the best of my abilities, and I will do so without reservation for as long as our charter grants me that sacred obligation.
But for all of that, I know, and so do you, that those doing the real work are the people of Chattanooga. You have continually found new ways to come out from behind the locked door, to wait out the storm, and then embrace one another as brothers and sisters.
I’ve noticed it all around. We’re checking in on each other more. A call, a text, an onscreen family reunion. Neighbors calling to one another from their front porches. Families walking down the street, searching for teddy bears in picture windows.
Overwhelmingly, Chattanoogans know that our city isn’t in the storm or behind the locked door, but in the still, small ways we are embracing one another.
But embracing one another right now means keeping our physical distance and putting health first. That is what is best for Chattanoogans; it is also what is best for business. Workers must feel confident that going back to their jobs will not threaten theirs or their families’ health. Consumers will only return to restaurants, shops, and other establishments if they know it is safe to do so.
I know many of us feel like the doors may remain locked forever.
So let us remember Elijah. How natural it must have felt for Elijah to run away and hide. How, in the midst of a great trial, the temptation must have been powerful to say, I just want to live out my life here, on a mountain, by myself.
But that is not what I promised to do when I took that oath to be faithful to this great city. And that is not what you do, each and every day, when you unlock the doors of your heart, when you come out from under the passing storm, and embrace the moment you are given.
Our future is not in the storm. It is not in the locked door. Our future, if we are brave enough to listen, is in the still small voice that asks us:
What are we doing here?
And then, the voice that answers within us: I am doing the next thing, whatever that is before me, to help my neighbor, my street, and my community to be the best Chattanooga yet.
Good night, be safe, and God bless you.
Watch the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eEmI7JJ2XZc