The Camp House

Our special election series features interviews with the many men and women seeking your vote to be Chattanooga's next Mayor.  Today's episode features a conversation with candidate Monty Bruell.

Early voting begins February 10, 2021 and election day is Tuesday, March 2nd.  In 2017, only 19% of Chattanooga voters turned out to select our city's leader... Our hope is that this year will be different and that through these interviews you will be more engaged and informed to make Chattanooga a better community for everyone.

Learn more about Monty's campaign: https://montybruell.com/

Hamilton County Election Commission: https://elect.hamiltontn.gov/

Our annual re-release of one of our favorite interviews with Christian Rushing who passed away two years ago on February 1, 2017. Christian is a radiant person whose joy is infectious and whose wisdom should not be forgotten.

Original episode description:

Ask Christian Rushing how he is doing and I can promise you he will say "Living the dream!".

Seventeen months ago Christian was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Despite that, Christian is one of the most radiant people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. And so far Christian has defied the odds. The doctors gave him a year to live and up to this point Christian has pushed the limits and is a statistical outlier.

This conversation gets deeply personal. It is a conversation about life, death, prayer, and family.

Thank you again to Christian for sitting down for this conversation, it is one that I will be forever grateful for and will always remember.

Learn more about Christian's story and follow his journey on his blog: http://christianrushing.blogspot.com/

It has been a long time since we have published an episode of the Podcast.  But with the turning of the calendar it is time for a new season for The Camp House and the podcast.  This spring The Camp House will reopen in our new location. We can't wait to be able to share with you all that we have planned for Camp House 3.0!

Beginning next week we will release interviews with many of the men & women running for Mayor of Chattanooga, right here on the podcast. Remember that our local elections are held on March 2nd and early voting begins February 10th!

The only way to understand this moment is to understand 400 years of systemic injustice.  Today's podcast aspires to that goal but is simply the tip of the iceberg.   This episode is based on a post Matt Busby created and is largely an audio version of that post on Facebook, cataloguing the thesis of Ibram X. Kendi's book "Stamped From The Beginning" that every moment of racial progress in the United States is met but an equal racist backlash that limits or abolishes that progress.   Systemic racism is not about the hatred of one individual toward another but the ways in which our very systems reinforce racist outcomes, divisions, and ideas.

Link to the original Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/mattb25/posts/10222389687080436

An Anti-Racist Resource Guide that Camp House podcast alum Teal Thibaud shared on FB: https://bit.ly/3gJItIV

Video seminar featuring Ibram X. Kendi and centered on his book I reference in the episode, "Stamped From The Beginning": https://bit.ly/2ACpNKv

Our annual re-release of one of our favorite interviews with Christian Rushing who passed away two years ago on February 1, 2017. Christian is a radiant person whose joy is infectious and whose wisdom should not be forgotten.

Original episode description:

Ask Christian Rushing how he is doing and I can promise you he will say "Living the dream!".

Seventeen months ago Christian was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Despite that, Christian is one of the most radiant people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. And so far Christian has defied the odds. The doctors gave him a year to live and up to this point Christian has pushed the limits and is a statistical outlier.

This conversation gets deeply personal. It is a conversation about life, death, prayer, and family.

Thank you again to Christian for sitting down for this conversation, it is one that I will be forever grateful for and will always remember.

Learn more about Christian's story and follow his journey on his blog: http://christianrushing.blogspot.com/

Over the past few years hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in Chattanooga. But how do we ensure that money is actually benefitting our neighbors, employing our local construction workers, improving our community, and not simply contributing to unjust outcomes in the years to come? Community Benefit Agreements, or CBAs, are one tool that communities are utilizing to make sure development has large scale community improvement outcomes. To walk us through CBAs and how they can improve life in Chattanooga I have two guests, Austing Sauerbrei of the Chattanooga Area Labor Council and Sean Paul Kimball of the local Iron Workers Union.

Like our previous discussion on Area Plans, CBAs are another tool for our community to build a more sustainable and resilient future. But like Area Plans, CBAs require our engagement in order to improve our community, they require you to get involved. Hopefully this conversation will inspire just that.

Referenced in this episode:

How do we begin to shape the future of our communities? Roads, zoning, growth, natural resources... There are so many issues that must be taken into account as we begin to plan for the future of our community. So many in fact it can feel overwhelming and make people feel that they don't have a voice in the future of the place they love. That is where the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA) hopes to help.

The RPA is currently creating Area Plans for every section of our county. Area Plans guide how, when, and where new growth, redevelopment and preservation should occur in a particular area. By leveraging community engagement and asset assessments, each Area Plan is tailored to the values and needs of the different parts of our county.

In the episode we discuss the need and importance of these Area Plans and the process by which the RPA engages the community to give residents voice in the future of their beloved neighborhoods.

Referenced in this episode:

What is "affordable" housing? How do we calculate what is affordable for the average family or household in Chattanooga? Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise is an organization committed to creating economically diverse neighborhoods filled with financially empowered neighbors and house for all. This past spring CNE released their Housing At A Glance report to give a snapshot of the state of housing in Chattanooga. The report digs into numbers and definitions to help us understand many of the questions and terms associated with the housing challenges that our community is facing.

Referenced in this episode:

To begin our series exploring housing & development in Chattanooga we wanted to lay a foundation defining what good development looks like. Anytime we are discussing development we are really talking about growth. So is all growth a good thing for our city? How can we steward the growth of our city to be a place that is sustainable and resilient over time? Join us as we begin this conversation exploring such an a critical topic impacting our community.

Featuring Eric Myers of the Chattanooga Design Studio, Jim Johnson of Chattanoogans for Responsible Development, and Justin Tirsun, a city planner who has worked in both the public and private sector.

Referenced in this episode:

The Camp House Podcast is back with a new sound and new focus! This summer we are switching to a season based format with a focused theme.

Our theme for Season 4 is Housing & Development in Chattanooga. Drive down any street and you are sure to see it: new apartment buildings, renovated warehouses (working on ours now!), and new homes. Our city is changing, fast. Season 4 will focus on the development of Chattanooga and introduce you to many of the organizations who are working on these issues. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the pace of change. Our hope is that each of these episodes will help inform you on how our city is growing and even be able to equip you to take part in this important conversation.