Congratulations, Queen City taxpayer, you’re the brand new owner of 81 acres of blight, courtesy of the Charlotte City Council and its unanimous vote to shell out $13.2 million to purchase the dilapidated and decaying remnants of Eastland Mall. But not to worry; the council has a reason for jumping into the speculative real estate […]
Former New Mexico Governor and current Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson spent July 21 campaigning in Mecklenburg County. The day began with a 5k run in Huntersville and then proceeded uptown for a fundraising lunch and a speech at the “Conservatives Against Unconstitutional Undeclared Wars” rally at midtown park. The day finished with another fundraiser […]
In the breathless hype and hyperbole leading up to his arrival as new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent, Heath “Pete Repeat” Morrison promised to regain public trust through honest and open communication. So naturally, one of his first so-called community meetings was held behind closed doors with ranking members of the local NAACP and the Black Political […]
One-stop early voting is underway for the July 17 slate of runoff elections, including the hotly contested GOP tilt between Sarah Cherne and Matthew Ridenhour for the District 5 seat on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Ridenhour and Cherne were the top vote-getters in the May 8 primary, but neither managed to crack the […]
Leave it to Mecklenburg County’s own Becky Carney to showcase how by sheer ineptitude even an aggressively liberal Democrat can sometimes stumble onto the correct side of an important vote. In Carney’s case it came when she hit the wrong button to override Gov Bev’s veto of the state’s fracking bill, which clears the way […]
During his seven-term stint as Charlotte’s mayor, Pat McCrory did little to win favor with the lean-right conservative base of the Republican Party. Indeed, from his cheerleading for light rail to his cozy ties with the uptown lunch bunch, McCrory in many cases actively ostracized the same, leaving small-government, liberty-minded voters with a stale taste […]
Mecklenburg Commissioner Neil Cooksey has put up a champion’s battle against pancreatic cancer since early 2010; this week we learn that after complications from surgery last month, Neil has decided to discontinue treatment and enter hospice. “It has been my honor and privilege to serve the people of Mecklenburg County these past few years,” he […]
Organizers for the Democratic National Convention have announced that their big Labor Day shindig is relocating from Charlotte Motor Speedway to uptown Charlotte. The local host committee, along with the usual uptown lunch bunch crowd, is desperately trying to spin the move as a way to provide both easier logistics and also create “an experience that […]
Mayor Anthony Foxx this afternoon vetoed the budget floated by six councilmembers that would have included a 2.44-cent tax increase to fund a $657 million capital plan without $119 million for Foxx’s coveted Streetcar to Nowhere. The council approved that budget with a 6-4 vote (James Mitchell, absent) and Foxx promptly whipped out the veto […]
That was Mayor Anthony Foxx before he became Mayor Anthony Foxx, back in 2009 when he was running around the campaign trail promising everything to everybody. Here’s the money quote in context, via a clip* from the uptown paper that was reposted at the time on the Black Political Buzz blog: Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony […]
