County residents lay out their concerns

As part of HCDP’s participation at the Bethlehem’s Center’s Southside Juneteenth Jubilee earlier this month, our volunteers asked people to complete a short survey on issues of concern to them in our Hamilton County community. While this was an exploratory and non-statistically accurate survey, it was an opportunity for HCDP to get an idea about some of the issues on the minds of Hamilton County residents.

The survey respondents were mostly from south and east Chattanooga and east Hamilton County — Alton Park, East Lake, East Brainerd, East Ridge; others were from Ooltewah, Red Bank, and Signal Mountain.Civic and governmental concerns that participants noted, in order of frequency of response, were:
•    education and schools, especially the lack of equitable resources in some schools;
•    the shortage of affordable housing in general and housing for the elderly, and concerns about the homeless population;
•    a living wage
•    gun safety
•    crime (guns and drug-related); “over-policing” was cited three times as an issue in their neighborhood;
•    racism; and
•    the GOP’s slate of laws. Meanwhile, other issues mentioned included restoration of rights of ex-felons (after completion of sentencing and sometimes after payment of restitution); LGBTQ+ civil rights; public health; public transportation; women’s rights; and voter suppression.

HCDP’s mission to engage and inform Hamilton County residents is motivated by the concerns voiced by this sample of citizens. If you agree with these concerns – or have your own — and want to help, you can do so by going to hamcodems.com to sign up to volunteer or to donate what you can to support HCDP’s efforts tp recruit Democratic candidates and to get out the vote for these candidates in 2024 and beyond.— Compiled by HCDP Secretary Terry Tuley