Remember that ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court over the summer that said universities can no longer use race as a factor in admissions? That decision is now making some employers wonder about the use of race in hiring and promotions.
For more, we turn now to Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So Tony, there’s been a big push in corporations to increase diversity and equity. You put these questions to a group of Charlotte employment attorneys: what does that Supreme Court decision mean for companies and what are the rules for hiring a diverse workforce? Let’s start with that first question.
Tony Mecia: Sure, as far as what that Supreme Court decision means for companies, you know, this was a decision that was focused on higher education and the Supreme Court came out and said, 'You can't use race as a factor in college admissions.' It doesn't apply directly to companies and the employment scene.
But a lot of companies that I've talked with and employment lawyers that I've talked with have said they have a lot of questions about it. The companies are asking, what is the application of this to the workforce? So, for a lot of companies, that really highlighted the issue of 'How do you use race?' Whether it's college admissions, whether it's hiring, whether it's promotion, so it has a lot of people thinking about that issue.
Terry: And what about that second question I mentioned, what are the rules right now for hiring a diverse workforce? Because, again, as you said, this Supreme Court decision only applies to college admissions.
Mecia: Right. The employment attorneys that I talked with said that while it doesn't apply directly to hiring and promotions, that, you know, it's a good reminder of sort of what the law is. And they said in the employment context when you're hiring and trying to build a diverse workforce, you're not allowed to have quotas, you're not allowed to use race as a plus factor.
They said the best advice for employers is to focus on the skills of someone that you're hiring and to try to increase the pool of applicants that you have for a job rather than making race a factor in the hiring or promotion decision.
They said, if you don't do that you run the risk, as a company, of a lawsuit, a reverse discrimination lawsuit. There was one in Charlotte a few years ago, Novant Health was sued by a white former executive who said he was discriminated against and that was a $10 million verdict. So, they said it is important for companies to understand the law and how to follow up.
Terry: Let's move on now to an update on Brooklyn Village. That's the long-planned uptown project that finally started moving forward earlier this year. One of the developers addressed the Rotary Club of Charlotte this week. What did he say?
Mecia: And this is a project, Marshall, (there's) a lot of interest in it. It's on the site of the old Brooklyn neighborhood uptown in Second Ward, that's the formerly Black neighborhood that was demolished in the 1960s and '70s because of urban renewal policies.
Developers have a plan for a mixed-use development; there's a part of it on Marshall Park, part of it on Brooklyn Village Avenue. And he said he acknowledges that it's been slow going. The county is selling the land, and first agreed to sell it to this development group in 2016. But he said it's a complicated project. There are a lot of moving pieces.
It's also challenging right now to build some of the pieces of the project — they've committed to 1.5 million square feet of office space and so that could be challenging given the current office market, though he's hopeful that they're going to be able to pick up some medical office from the nearby rural innovation district with the medical school going in. But he said it's going to take a number of years before it can be completed. He envisions the second phase, in which they're buying land, maybe five to seven years from now and then the final phase, not buying land for 10 to 12 years, so it's going to play out over a number of years.
Terry: Staying in uptown for a moment. A couple of big Charlotte banks have announced major upcoming layoffs this week. What do we know about cost-cutting plans at Truist and Wells Fargo?
Mecia: Truist said on Monday that it is envisioning sizeable job cuts over the next few months. Truist stock is down about 30% this year, and executives want to save some money (and) try to please investors by lowering their headcount. And then Wells Fargo came out this week and said that it also anticipates continuing to have its number of employees decline.
Since 2020, Wells (Fargo) executives said they have reduced their headcount and number of employees every quarter and that they anticipate that will continue. Both companies also said they anticipate shrinking their real estate footprint. So that's something that I know is also on the minds of a lot of people, but certainly, we're going to continue to see fewer employees at these banks with a huge Charlotte presence.
Terry: OK, back to development for our final topic this week. One developer has used a surprising inspiration for two apartment complexes in Charlotte: "Seinfeld." Now, do folks have to come up with $5,000 to snag a place like Elaine did for the apartment above Jerry?
Mecia: Well, that's a good question. I think the apartments we're talking about here are not quite as expensive as Manhattan. We're talking about two apartment complexes, one in NoDa and one in Ballantyne, that were developed by Gateway Communities NC, and the developer had a little bit of fun in naming the apartment complexes and the streets that they're on.
The one in NoDa that opened a couple of years ago is called The Cosmo, named after Cosmo Kramer, who's a character on "Seinfeld." And the street that The Cosmo is on is Festivus Court, a reference to a famous episode of "Seinfeld" in which "Festivus" is an alternate Christmas celebration, it's a completely different made-up holiday. The one in Ballantyne, incidentally, is called The Vandy and it is on Vandelay Court, Art Vandelay (is) the alter ego of the "Seinfeld" character George Costanza.
Terry: Now, do people who live in these complexes even know "Seinfeld?" I mean, it has been 25 years since it ended.
Mecia: Well, that's a good question. Our intrepid reporter Cristina Bolling went out to one of these complexes and she talked to a 26-year-old who was on his third-floor balcony, (who) was only (a) 1-year-old when "Seinfeld" went off the air, and he said he had watched some of the episodes on Netflix, (but) wasn't really familiar with "Festivus." You know, its legacy has lived on but some of the younger generation haven't quite plugged in yet.
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