Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's get right to it because join us once again
Speaker 2: is Tim Kelly. He's the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Back
Speaker 2: in our studio. Chattanooga, by the way, was among the
Speaker 2: first cities selected back in twenty fifteen to participate in
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities initiatives, and then in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, Mayor Kelly named as a member of the
Speaker 2: fifth class of Global mayors to participate in the Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Harvard City Leadership Initiative program. And this is of course
Speaker 2: done with Bloomberg Philanthropies. We just like full disclosure to
Speaker 2: put it out there. Mayor Kelly, welcome back, Thank you,
Speaker 2: great to be back. Well, it's great to have you here.
Speaker 2: It's been about a year.
Speaker 1: It has been.
Speaker 2: Yes, what's changed.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we're you know, we're back on the
Speaker 1: good foot. I think there were a game as we
Speaker 1: were talking about. There's a lot of anxiety a year
Speaker 1: ago coming out of COVID. But Chattanooga's in a good place.
Speaker 1: It's great to see Manhattan in a good place.
Speaker 2: We're getting there.
Speaker 1: We're getting there. Yes, vacancy still right, but you know,
Speaker 1: we've got again our world famous Internet's gotten even faster
Speaker 1: in Chattanooga since we last.
Speaker 2: Spoke, which was an initiative that we talked about last time,
Speaker 2: and you guys were really working on it.
Speaker 1: We did, and we're up to twenty five gigs of
Speaker 1: speed and I have a new quantum initiative we're working
Speaker 1: on there. We have the world's first commercially available quantum network.
Speaker 1: Now all the.
Speaker 2: Working from home folks or what is that?
Speaker 1: Well, the quantum network is going to be really more
Speaker 1: for research. At this point, we have yet to see
Speaker 1: where that will bear fruit. But again, the fast internet,
Speaker 1: and I should say symmetrical fast internet, has really been
Speaker 1: helpful with the work from Home group. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of folks come in during the pandemic and they
Speaker 1: are staying.
Speaker 3: To Carol's point though, on that initiative, how is it
Speaker 3: impacting the demographic of workers in the city.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really interesting because, frankly, from a mayoral perspective,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get our arms around, right, we have
Speaker 1: this long tail of talent that's there in typical economic development,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a new CEO, you come and
Speaker 1: talk to everybody. There's five hundred people. We don't have
Speaker 1: a really great way of getting our arms around you know,
Speaker 1: who's there and what talent they do have to leverage
Speaker 1: those talents. I mean, I bump into the people.
Speaker 2: Don't have a way.
Speaker 1: Well, there's not a there's not a flagg to run
Speaker 1: up the flag bol to say hey, all the new people,
Speaker 1: you know, come in and introduce yourselves. Right, but they
Speaker 1: are there, and they're they're adding to you know, as
Speaker 1: we run across them, adding them, weaving them into the
Speaker 1: civic life of the city. And it's it's making Chattanooga
Speaker 1: better place.
Speaker 2: What's the toughest part of being a mayor right now?
Speaker 2: And I'm just thinking, you just put out a.
Speaker 1: New budget, you know, I was talking to with the
Speaker 1: City Leadership Initiative, which is fantastic and we're forever grateful
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg for that. To a public health professor who said,
Speaker 1: you know, the pandemic was bad enough in its own right,
Speaker 1: but I think what people have forgotten it's a bit
Speaker 1: like somebody put their hand in the middle of a
Speaker 1: waterbed and just pushed down right. So the at the
Speaker 1: margins in particular, cities are still dealing with the wreckage
Speaker 1: of in addiction and mental health. I mean, we know
Speaker 1: where homelessness has been a terrible problem, so all of
Speaker 1: those issues. I mean, we are still in the middle
Speaker 1: of a mental health crisis nationally, I think, and I
Speaker 1: think there are a lot of cities that are coping
Speaker 1: with that well and so not so well. So we've
Speaker 1: had a good track record. We were able to reduce
Speaker 1: our point in time count with our un sheltered population
Speaker 1: by almost forty percent, so you know, we're making good
Speaker 1: progress there. But it's tough for mayors. It's tough because
Speaker 1: it's our responsibility.
Speaker 2: It was interesting I was talking with someone from Milkin
Speaker 2: yesterday who's created a mental illness app, and one of
Speaker 2: the things that he mentioned is the shortage of therapists.
Speaker 2: That's even in an online app, that you just don't
Speaker 2: have enough therapists out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when I came into office, we established an
Speaker 1: Office of Community Health, and that is my vision for
Speaker 1: that department as we pivot out of COVID, is really
Speaker 1: to focus on mental health and emotional health. And we've
Speaker 1: got to figure out a way to get more people
Speaker 1: into the industry. Because you're right on a per capita basis.
Speaker 1: I mean, Chattanooga is way way behind the curve, and
Speaker 1: so that's the first step to solving it.
Speaker 2: I want to I want to follow on that only
Speaker 2: because also at milk and I moderated a panel in
Speaker 2: real estate and one of the things that they talked
Speaker 2: about again is that there's not enough workers in the
Speaker 2: housing industry to build homes. And the net net of
Speaker 2: that was and I'm curious how you feel about this
Speaker 2: is immigration and just saying we need to kind of
Speaker 2: open up the border to let folks in well, especially
Speaker 2: when we've got an aging demographic population here.
Speaker 1: You know, again, I'm an extremely practical person. I'm a
Speaker 1: big gug and Francis Harrez and it says it all
Speaker 1: the time the Mary Miami. But there are really three
Speaker 1: political parties in the United States, right, Republicans, Demmocrats and mayors.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have to be relentlessly practical, and you know,
Speaker 1: clearly we need meaningful integration reform. I will say, in Chattanooga,
Speaker 1: we started a career construction academy to train kids as
Speaker 1: they you know, it's something that they can go to
Speaker 1: while they're still in high school to learn the trades
Speaker 1: and try to build a pipeline of talent into that industry.
Speaker 1: And we're taking a similar approach across our educational system
Speaker 1: to try to meet, you know, the needs of industry.
Speaker 3: Can I talk to you about another issue that you
Speaker 3: mentioned earlier, which is mental health specifically related to drug use.
Speaker 3: So you know that's an issue for the entire nation,
Speaker 3: but I feel like cities are like little nations. You're
Speaker 3: the president of your city sort of. Can you talk
Speaker 3: to me a little bit about how you're thinking about
Speaker 3: opioid overdoses.
Speaker 1: And what can be done to Yeah, look, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a terrible problem and and you see it move
Speaker 1: around on the map, and again we're dealing with it
Speaker 1: in Chattanooga, and you know the all of our first
Speaker 1: responders of course are carrying narcan, and uh, it's it's tough.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been really really hard on on our
Speaker 1: police and our paramedics and first responders. We we have
Speaker 1: to we need it's you know, we're Tennessee. Unfortunately it's
Speaker 1: not a Medicare expansion state makes it more difficult, and
Speaker 1: we we are doing our best to keep up. We're
Speaker 1: fortunate Chattanooga has a lot of great philanthropic assets, one
Speaker 1: of which is uh uh, the Chattanooga Area Drug Addiction Center,
Speaker 1: a treatment center. But the beds are full, so you know,
Speaker 1: we need more beds and we and we need more help.
Speaker 2: What go ahead, man, you know, you go.
Speaker 3: I just wonder what's missing, right, Like, what help would
Speaker 3: you want from the federal level.
Speaker 1: Even funding, you know, funding for for for training in
Speaker 1: and for and for treatment. I think, uh again, our
Speaker 1: strategy around around the unsheltered population is really we bought
Speaker 1: we bought a motel. Now this is not up and running,
Speaker 1: but it will be for for what's called permanent support
Speaker 1: of housing, right, which essentially is proctered housing to get
Speaker 1: folks back on their feet and get them the help
Speaker 1: they need. Whether that's it's it's generally right, it's it's
Speaker 1: not one thing, it's many things. And there's a lot
Speaker 1: of the sort of comorbidities I suppose you'd say with
Speaker 1: addiction and mental health. Uh So that's that's the next
Speaker 1: step for us and filling out our what we can
Speaker 1: control in terms of our strategy.
Speaker 2: Why is it happening still? Why is there such addictions?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not a you know mental health expert. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm a mayor. We have to be a little good
Speaker 1: at everything. But I think it's hard for people who
Speaker 1: are doing well and not in a state of crisis
Speaker 1: and not on the margins to relate. But of course,
Speaker 1: at any given time, there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: struggling for whatever reason. And again, I think the COVID
Speaker 1: crisis was hugely disruptive and it just really flipped a
Speaker 1: lot of people over the edge.
Speaker 2: So you think that's what it is.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: Do you think we still over subscribe or prescribe?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't. I don't. I don't think I
Speaker 1: have a prescription. I'm not a you know.
Speaker 2: But we've been talking about this for a while and
Speaker 2: I agree like more treatment centers and you know, training
Speaker 2: so that people can deal with it. But I always
Speaker 2: think about how do we get to the core of
Speaker 2: what creates the problem?
Speaker 1: Well, I noticed recently that the state of Wyoming, a
Speaker 1: very republican state, has it's a really interesting article in
Speaker 1: the Casper Star Tribune taken a different approach to mental health,
Speaker 1: where again not something you would expect to see, and
Speaker 1: I have a republican state is really focusing on the
Speaker 1: social determinant of health. And that was great news to
Speaker 1: me because ultimately it's practical and common sensical and I'm
Speaker 1: hopeful we can take a similar approach across the country.
Speaker 3: And we're going to come back and talk a little
Speaker 3: bit more. But I feel like it all must go
Speaker 3: down to prioritizing and budgeting. So when you're looking at
Speaker 3: your sort of balance sheet for the city, what is
Speaker 3: your thinking on how you're going to allocate your resources
Speaker 3: and where you're going to take from to give from,
Speaker 3: given that the issues are always changing.
Speaker 2: Because you have to have a balanced budgeting of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we just had a budget and unfortunately it
Speaker 1: included some staffing cuts and it's tough, so always always tough.
Speaker 1: But so again Office of Community Health and I established
Speaker 1: coming in will be We have also of Community Development Department,
Speaker 1: and again my focus is to get them focused on
Speaker 1: mental health in the neighborhoods, right, I mean establishing those
Speaker 1: sort of things that bring people together. The Surgeon General
Speaker 1: is talked a lot about this epidemic of loneliness, right,
Speaker 1: bringing people back together and again focusing on those social
Speaker 1: determinants of health. It's interesting as part of the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Philanthropies program. We had an innovation cohort looking at the
Speaker 1: causes of youth gun violence, which is a terrible epidemic,
Speaker 1: particularly in the sow And guess what they found that
Speaker 1: it's young men in crisis right, that need mentorship, that
Speaker 1: need people to talk to. And so that's the strategy
Speaker 1: we're going to take, and that is the focus that
Speaker 1: will take from a budgetary purge.
Speaker 2: I feel like we hear that a lot. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: young men in crisis, and so they're ending up going
Speaker 2: into some really tough paths. Let's get back to our guest,
Speaker 2: Tim Kelly, mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, here in our Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Interactive Brokers studio. As we said, he participated in the
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative program on his city has
Speaker 2: also been singled out before that, and this is all
Speaker 2: part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies programs. Mayor Kelly, a lot
Speaker 2: of different issues. I was just coming back from Milkin.
Speaker 2: We talked about regional banking, we talked about concerns about
Speaker 2: real estate, particularly office. There's a lot of focus on
Speaker 2: green technology. I want to go through a couple of things.
Speaker 2: If we may First of all, regional banking. Is it
Speaker 2: impacting you guys at all?
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything in chattanoog along that along those lines. No,
Speaker 1: thank goodness, I think again. I saw the news on
Speaker 1: TD and First Horizon. But to my knowledge, you know,
Speaker 1: the wheels are still moving along nicely in our part
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 2: World, and the economy is moving along in banks are
Speaker 2: lending and it is I mean on mortgages and being
Speaker 2: able to.
Speaker 1: Yes, unemployment rate and Chattanooga is a tenth of a
Speaker 1: point away from its lowest ever rate. So I mean
Speaker 1: the economy is chugging along nicely in.
Speaker 2: Chattanooga, and I know, lower than the national rate.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Let's also talk about so the outlook in terms of
Speaker 2: when we talk about recession inflationary pressures, you guys are
Speaker 2: doing okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think so. I mean, again, we've obviously
Speaker 1: seen inflationary pressure there. I mean, our budget was when
Speaker 1: I came into office, I had to give twenty four
Speaker 1: percent raises across the board to our police and fire
Speaker 1: and public works employees. And it was tough because again,
Speaker 1: costs kept going up. And so we just did a
Speaker 1: budget that includes not only a step plan, but a
Speaker 1: but a but a cola. But it's tough. It's not catastrophically,
Speaker 1: it's tough. I hear tougher stories around other cities from
Speaker 1: other mayors, but uh, we're managing affordable housing. Big issue
Speaker 1: for you guys. That is a big issue. And again
Speaker 1: last year's budget I set aside again not a huge
Speaker 1: number for a city like Chattanooga. It is, however, one
Speaker 1: hundred million dollar fund to subsidize that, and managed to
Speaker 1: recruit a really great Chief Housing officer out of the
Speaker 1: City of New Orleans named Nicole Hammond, who is creating
Speaker 1: a toolbox for us to create in subsidize affordable housing.
Speaker 1: And we've been able to create about uh let's see
Speaker 1: that last year and initiear's budget about a thousand units.
Speaker 1: And we'll continue on that role.
Speaker 2: Sonship both.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're looking at some shared equity models for ownership
Speaker 1: because one of our goals is obviously to close wealth
Speaker 1: gaps in our community, and so I don't see how
Speaker 1: we do that without finding ways to, you know, have
Speaker 1: the historically disadvantaged populations participate in in in the equity
Speaker 1: of home.
Speaker 3: Ownership paper, we did a Business Week story about Austin, Texas,
Speaker 3: which we're just talking about and how a lot of
Speaker 3: the new housing there happens to be for very high
Speaker 3: income individuals because of you're a developer, why would you
Speaker 3: not right market to the highest bidder?
Speaker 1: Well, that's right. I mean, if you're gonna, you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna, you've got five hundred square feet, why would
Speaker 1: you not sell it to the ice builder? So I
Speaker 1: think that's where wise thoughtful you know, government can can
Speaker 1: intervene and essentially work with We're in the process of
Speaker 1: rewriting our zoning code. Uh. And again, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: not a I'm a market guy. We're going to work
Speaker 1: with the market, but I think we can create thoughtful
Speaker 1: incentives and I think probably the easiest way to do
Speaker 1: that is to deep risk investment or work with a
Speaker 1: capital stack to to to make sure that you know
Speaker 1: either you're guaranteeing a certain return or or doing loan
Speaker 1: loss funds to make sure that investments are safer.
Speaker 3: So, if you're a market skuy, how do you not
Speaker 3: prioritize grow, grow, grow, which would turn you into the
Speaker 3: eventual Austin.
Speaker 1: Well, again, my parks and Outdoors manager Scott Martin says
Speaker 1: this all the time, Like Bigger is not better. Better
Speaker 1: is better? Right? We have Nashville to our northwest, we
Speaker 1: have Atlanta to our southeast. We're not going to be
Speaker 1: those cities. We don't want to be those cities. Chattoo
Speaker 1: is a very green city. It's a beautiful city. I'd
Speaker 1: like to think we have, you know, the crown and
Speaker 1: our the jewel in our crown rather really our quality
Speaker 1: of life. And so it is somewhat of a Goldilocks problem, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, we want to make sure that we don't
Speaker 1: endanger that. We're already dealing with more congestion and we
Speaker 1: have had a lot of folks move in. But you
Speaker 1: know that's my job to manage that.
Speaker 2: So much freight goes through you tons man. I saw
Speaker 2: a statistic roughly eighty percent of the nation's freight passing
Speaker 2: through your city en route to its final destination.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a big issue.
Speaker 2: It's a big issue. So how do you manage that?
Speaker 2: How do you benefit but also protect? As you say,
Speaker 2: what is wonderful about the city.
Speaker 1: Well, we are working with an organization called Thrive Regional
Speaker 1: Partnership to look at ways that we can make again.
Speaker 1: It would take many, many years to build a bypass
Speaker 1: around Chattanooga. But the Governor Bill Lee uh As in
Speaker 1: this year's budget put forth a plan for choice lanes,
Speaker 1: which which the state of Texas already has, you know,
Speaker 1: uh cleverly named right they're not they're they're they're toll
Speaker 1: lanes by choice. That will certainly help. And I think
Speaker 1: I think Chattanooga is going to get some priority in
Speaker 1: that regard, and and and and that will certainly help. Uh. Again,
Speaker 1: our our Chattanoog is a really you know, mountainous place
Speaker 1: with a lot of curvy roads going through, so it's
Speaker 1: a it's a pain point for us.
Speaker 2: So I love what you said earlier about three parties Republicans, Democrats,
Speaker 2: and mayor. Yes you are an independent.
Speaker 1: I am, you know again, well, because again I was
Speaker 1: very much taken with this book that Bruce Catz wrote
Speaker 1: called The New Localism, and it was right after Trump
Speaker 1: got elected. Not to go there, but let's just say
Speaker 1: that I was kind of mortified by the by the
Speaker 1: the leadership of nothing else, the style and the and
Speaker 1: the you know, the thesis of that book really is
Speaker 1: that cities have more power than they've ever had. And again,
Speaker 1: this is a very bloomberg thought as well, because of
Speaker 1: revolutions and technology and finance to improve the lives of
Speaker 1: their citizens. And look, what percent of the GDP in
Speaker 1: the world is produced in cities, The vast majority of
Speaker 1: innovation is produced in cities, and that we're at a
Speaker 1: time when democracy is under threat. I mean, it's this
Speaker 1: is the time where cities need to shine. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I was very taken by that, and it was a
Speaker 1: way for me to very frankly duck out of the
Speaker 1: partisan mess and focus on what was in front of me,
Speaker 1: which was making my city the best city it could be.
Speaker 2: Sounds like you could take that on the campaign trail.
Speaker 2: What are your aspirations longer term?
Speaker 1: You're two years in, right, Yes, I mean my aspirations
Speaker 1: are to make chat and you'll get the best city
Speaker 1: in America and then I'll worry about the rest of it.
Speaker 2: And one of the parties close you up and says,
Speaker 2: hate Tim.
Speaker 1: You know, I just can't see it, honestly, Carolina. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I first have to get permission from my wife, which
Speaker 1: would be incredibly difficult. But I mean I would never
Speaker 1: say never. I would never say that, you know. But again,
Speaker 1: I've also learned not to take my off the ball,
Speaker 1: and I am one hundred percent focused on my city.
Speaker 1: That's what I love and so that's where my attention is.
Speaker 2: Well, this is really fun. Thank you for always finding
Speaker 2: time to stop by and talk to us, because I
Speaker 2: agree that I think talking to our mayors tells us
Speaker 2: so much about what's really going on on the ground.
Speaker 1: It's where it's at. I agree, and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 2: But you're still like New York Sushia here.
Speaker 1: Love it. Jim Kelly be well, Thank you man, Safe travels.
Speaker 2: Great to see you, Mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Back here
Speaker 2: in our Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio, you're listening and watching
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business Week on radio on YouTube on Bloomberg Originals
Speaker 2: Carol Masser along with Madison Mills and this is Bloomberg