For decades, the so-called Charlotte Way has meant collegiality in local government, deference to leadership from the business community and a consensus that growth and development are worthy goals for a city striving to be “world-class.”
But after recent votes from a new City Council that are less business-friendly, some local leaders worry the Charlotte Way is cracking. For more, the Charlotte Ledger’s Tony Mecia joined Ely Portillo for our weekly segment BizWorthy.
Ely Portillo: Tony, you wrote this week that business leaders think the decades-long consensus that governed Charlotte's local politics might be breaking up. So what's driving this concern and what are business leaders saying?
Tony Mecia: There have been a number of decisions by the city council in the last few weeks that have kind of, sounded alarm bells in the Charlotte business community.
We certainly, you know, as everybody knows, had the I-77 toll lane expansion, that stopped. There's this move on the data centers and a moratorium on building data centers. There's been more questioning of rezonings, and so all these things are kind of adding up and some business leaders are kind of scratching their heads, saying, wait a minute, I thought this was a business-friendly Kind of place, the kind of place where, you know, decisions for decades have been made, sort of through what's known as the 'Charlotte way' in which, you know, business and political leaders often hash things out kind of behind the scenes.
What's really happened is you have some new faces on the Charlotte City Council. There's a more of an even split between sort of the progressive wing and the more traditional wing, and so you're seeing some different votes and some, maybe some different, shifting winds in the way things are, are heading.
Portillo: So, a lot of people listening to this probably feel like developers and other big business interests asking for more sympathy or feeling like they are not having enough of a voice in decision-making is a hard sell.
I think a lot of people hearing this might be saying, 'Oh, good, I'm glad the Charlotte way is getting some cracks in it. Let's have some different ways of approaching things.'
Mecia: There are advantages to doing it the way Charlotte has always done it. It's less messy, it's less openly confrontational, but the downside is, you know, a lot of these decisions are not transparent, and in many cases, it shuts out a lot of the people. in the decision-making process.
I talked with JD Mazuera Arias, a new city council member representing the east Side. He made the point that, listen, Charlotte is in a more mature phase now. Maybe this was appropriate, maybe that's the appropriate way to make decisions.
When Charlotte needed to grow quickly, but now, he said, we really need to look more closely and ask some tough questions about who's benefiting, who pays, and who's involved in, in the process and do it in a way that's more transparent.
Portillo: Onto some development, it looks like a new neighborhood is forming in Charlotte, just north of NoDa by the Sugar Creek Light Rail station. A few years ago, when the Independent Picture House opened, it was largely alone. Since then, bars, coffee shops, art venues, and apartments have sprung up nearby. Does what's forming here have a name? And since Charlotte loves to come up with new names, is there anything, such as another LoSo, in the works, maybe for this area?
Mecia: Yeah, I know some people are kind of triggered when you say LoSo because they consider that to be a very contrived name for a short name for Lower South End. Similar dynamic, as you mentioned, coming into play north of NoDa. There are surrounding neighborhoods around there, like Hidden Valley, but this is an area that was largely industrial or just not developed.
We polled readers, and the one that seemed to win was Trailhead District. Some of the other possibilities people liked were ‘No NoDa’ and ‘DaNo.’ People also suggested ‘North of North,’ ‘NoDaNo’ and ‘SugeCree.
Portillo: Well, I guess we’ll see if we’re meeting up in NoNoDa next year — and see where that goes. Finally, Legion Brewing in Charlotte was the target of derision over a social media post that appeared to ask volunteers for help canning its beer, but apparently, it was just poorly worded, right? So, what happened?
Mecia: Yeah, some people on Reddit started making fun of Legion after a social media post. It appeared as though they were looking for volunteers to help can beer. We talked to Legion and Legion said it was posted in error. They said what they had intended to do was seek volunteers from their workforce to volunteer for shifts for which they would be paid.
So it's a little bit unclear how that wound up as a social media post, you know, canning beer, while some people might think that it's kind of fun, it is a production line, it is a manufacturing facility, so there are some safety issues there.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson & Associates and Central Piedmont Community College.
