Despite pouring tens of millions of dollars of public money into uptown to help fuel growth in the private sector, the wildly optimistic dreams and schemes that boosters touted for Center City have fallen woefully short of predictions. When the uptown lunch bunch was huddling over linen napkins and pewter goblets during the boom of […]
The recent release from the Urban Ministry Center of a survey of the homeless in Charlotte yielded a dizzying array of numbers, some of which contracted themselves, some of which were based on best estimates, and all of which, by the Center’s own acknowledgement, were impossible to judge for accuracy. That said, out of Charlotte’s […]
Either as publisher of the uptown paper of record, or as co-chair of Charlotte Center City Partner’s 2020 Vision Plan. It’s bad enough that Caulkins is a member of the uptown lunch bunch’s board of directors; it is patently egregious that she’s co-chair of the Center City 2020 Vision Plan. Why? For starters, the county […]
It might not be an exact apples-to-apples comparison, but Mecklenburg Commissioner Bill James raises the interesting question of how it is that the governor of New York comes under fire for violating state ethics laws by snagging five free tickets to last year’s World Series opener, “but the Democrats on the Mecklenburg County Commission get […]
It was equal parts amazing and amusing watching Commissioner Vilma Leake in action Tuesday night, but mostly it was flat-out scary. At issue was a vote by the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners to approve a change in the structure of the Fire Commission and receive an update on the county’s fire service assessment. The […]
A controversial set of development guidelines on schedule to become law later this year, along with some equally controversial regulations and ordinances already being enforced, drew heat at Monday night’s city council meeting. And it wasn’t the stereotypical, much-maligned, money-grubbing, big, bad developer who was breathing fire. It was advocates for affordable housing, or more […]
In Iran, they shoot you in the street. In China, they confiscate your computer and toss you in prison. In Charlotte, it’s less extreme but no less insidious. As part of a push to marginalize public dissent during meetings, the city council is apparently tweaking the rules for, ironically, its Citizens’ Forum. At least it […]
Or at least that’s part of the rationale offered by the city’s top spokesperson for the skyrocketing number of, well, spokespersons on the city’s payroll. About half of her time on the job, Kim McMillan explains, is “spent coordinating public records requests from the media,” and she singles out nontraditional media for much of the […]
It’s only fitting that after years of rampant and wildly misguided spending, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners got its first look at budget projections for the coming fiscal year during a meeting that was held last month on Fat Tuesday. That’s when commissioners learned the county faces a financial shortfall of at least $15.9 […]
Facing a potential $9 million shortfall in the city budget, Mayor Anthony Foxx has pounced into action – and hired a newly minted, personal mouthpiece that’s costing taxpayers $70,000 a year. No cheap talk there, folks. The money quote from Foxx: “We’re in such a challenging time, and it’s more important than ever that I […]
