Jerry Summers: Check Air Quality Above?

The political and environmental problems in Wonderful Walden, Serene Signal Mountain, Lovely Lookout Mountain (both), and Monumental Missionary Ridge are raising questions of whether there is something in the atmosphere or water above the clouds that might be toxic and/or fatal to the health, safety, and life expectancy of the older citizens and new migrants from other parts of our unified nation.

In sharp contrast is the healthy bike lane revenue bonanza, crime free, low rent, and cheap housing paradise sitting on the 97 Superfund toxic dump building sites under non-political and environmental control at the lower elevations.

Each of the aforementioned municipalities may have the following social ills that could be caused by the air breathed and/or water consumed:

1. Walden - alleged “conflicts of interest” over the proposed grocery store development project fund;

2. Signal Mountain (Tn.) - Increase in taxpayer debt, sewage issue, and lack of enough bike lanes;

3. Lookout Mountain - Coyote epidemic and CARTA dispute over sharing of “The Incline” revenue money and;

4. Missionary Ridge - lack of speed humps from Georgia state line to Glass Street (E. Chattanooga) crime wave and pavement fixing (concrete version of potholes) of unanswered request for either Choo Choo City under its “no pothole unfilled” promise, or the National Park Service under the 1929 agreement to pave and maintain Crest Road in exchange of its abandonment of its status as a separate municipality.

Perhaps a federal grant allowing each citizen in the high altitude forums to have a free breath test (not for DUI) to determine whether any toxic chemicals, alone or in combination, have floated up from below causing a medical illness that might result in conditions that might affect the constituents at the upper levels.

(With upcoming elections in 2024, and later, the public may have a “right to know.”)