12-16-02, Comment
One-Way, Two-Way and
No-Way
IPS Features
Chattanooga has some pretty sharp people sitting downtown in city government. They are political veterans who carry many campaign scars to attest their experience. This makes it all the more surprising they have gotten themselves into a bitter hassle over changing functional one-way streets to two-way routes.
No one is really sure why the change was initiated.
If the city’s leadership has a reason, it has never been adequately
explained. Apparently they thought
no one would notice.
No one notice the two busiest streets in the city were
changed? Presently McCallie has
four busy lanes going west and ML King has four lanes going east.
The system reaches from the Brainerd tunnel to the downtown area. Traffic
lights are timed for orderly, safe movement.
The proposed change will limit each street to one lane going east and one
going west with a turning lane. This
will slow traffic to a crawl.
Vicious accusations have come from critics of the
change, claiming favoritism for certain business friends to personal gain by
city officials. Let us assume the
official motive is based on what they think is the best interest of the city.
Even the Tennessee Department of Transportation called
the change a mistake, citing safety concerns and slowing traffic movement.
But the city went ahead.
When the fury of opposition began to build, Mayor Bob
Corker put things on hold and offered an airing of the question.
Someone came up with the phrase that they would find a “win, win”
solution.
Sorry, but there is none. If the city drops the plan altogether, supporters will
angrily declare the administration gutless.
If they go through and change the streets, opponents will be fighting
them from here to election day, which could bring some new faces at City Hall.
If portions of the two thoroughfares are one way and part two-way, it
will challenge a Rube Goldberg cartoon for being ridiculous.
The intensity of this street proposal makes former Mayor
Jon Kinsey’s water wars look like a tea party.
The former mayor was at least to get some concessions out of the
Tennessee American Water Company to compensate for the effort.
There is no such consolation for city hall now.
It seems more like the street issue is a “lose, lose” situation.
The city may wind up with No-Way Streets.
--Pete Chaney
-30-