How’s this for synergy in action: this week the city rolls out a tax-hike budget; next week the city rolls out a new fleet of electric cars and charging stations. Shocking, right – but not to worry. The electric cars venture is being funded with support from a grant through the Department of Energy; so […]
City Manager Curt Walton this week pitched a $1 billion budget plan that calls for a 4-cent property tax hike, a 9-percent increase that would surely help Charlotte remain a contender in its apparent bid to have its citizens continue shouldering the highest total tax burden in the state. Walton and city staff said the […]
Local talk radio station WBT has landed smack in the middle of a national controversy swirling around Rush Limbaugh, the polemical midday talker who has come under fire for calling Georgetown law student and free contraception-on demand advocate Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.” But despite receiving hundreds of emails and calls from people […]
Let’s start with agreement that Tim Newman was grossly overpaid during his tenure at the helm of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. Just gross, no other word for it, to the tune of more than $300,000 a year combined salary and benefits. But there are boatloads of chieftains who oversee taxpayer-supported money pits and rake […]
The death of two children, ages 1 and 5, who were hit by a truck this week along West Tyvola Road has neighbors and family rightfully asking if the tragedy could have been averted. The area has a dire need of sidewalks, they say, for which they’ve long petitioned the city. City officials acknowledge the […]
Great news: the next time you swerve across three lanes of traffic and fail to yield to oncoming cars and cause an accident and the cop’s getting ready to write you a ticket, tell him that CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe says it’s not necessary. Investigative blogger and professional agitator Cedar Posts broke this story and […]
Local rail-transit cheerleaders have for years been shaking their pom-poms trying to gin up support for the half-billion dollar Red Line, a 25-mile commuter rail project slated to run from uptown Charlotte to Mooresville. They’ve cooked-up multiple studies to show the purported economic and social benefits the Red Line would produce; held public forums stacked […]
In case you missed it, the Charlotte City Council held its annual planning retreat last week and in a move of fiscal responsibility and general sanity, councilmembers elected to hold forth in the basement of the Government Center. Wait, what? That can’t be right. And of course, it isn’t. Councilmembers shacked up for the three-day […]
After briefly mulling the prospect of a run for governor, Mayor Anthony Foxx says he’s staying put in Charlotte. The announcement from his (choose one) spokesperson/office/secretary/mouthpiece/PRmachine: “Over the past few days I have given serious consideration to a run for Governor of North Carolina. Given the unusual circumstances and short time, such a run would […]
A ticket to hop on board Charlotte Area Transit System’s half-billion-dollar train will likely cost riders more this summer. Ditto for bus rides. CATS wants to hike transit fares and passes on all of its services starting July 1. Prices for one-way local routes for buses and trains would bump to $2, up from $1.75, […]
