Tuesday marked the start of a three-day charrette in Charlotte’s West Boulevard neighborhood. The forum allows residents to voice their concerns and outline a community-led vision for the corridor.
People were welcomed and directed toward multiple rows of chairs inside a room at Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church in west Charlotte.
The West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition and Congress for the New Urbanism partnered with design consultants to help develop a walkable, affordable, aesthetically pleasing corridor based on community feedback.
Sharika Comfort is the executive director of the coalition comprised of 19 neighborhoods. She said it’s integral that community voices are part of the discussion when addressing gentrification and urban renewal in a corridor.
“We wanted to hold a charrette to bring those who are going to be most impacted, our residents, our businesses, our families, our neighbors, into the conversation and actually have a voice in the development and redesign of the revitalization of West Boulevard,” Comfort said.
Devonne Moise was in the room. She’s been living on the west side of Charlotte for over 30 years. She was concerned about the future of several issues relating to seniors and teens along the corridor.
“The displacement of our seniors, just activities that our teens need to get involved in,” Moise said. “We really need to start something for them because if not, our legacy and everything that we're doing on the west side, it won't exist.”
An opportunity for Moise and other community members to voice their concerns came through a colorful exercise. People were asked to gather around three tables, each containing a map outlining the West Boulevard corridor. Residents were then informed about pinpointing their concerns and aspirations for the corridor using specific colored sticky tabs.
A green dot on the map meant it was an area of strength. Red was an area of weakness, blue meant opportunity and yellow was a threat or concern. The dots were later turned into a list of written points.
Moise was pleased to see various community members share their thoughts on paper, but she said more is needed to change the corridor.
“I really want some of our concerns to leave the paper and just out of the room of us talking about it,” Moise said. “But we actually have action and make it happen because it's very vital to our community.”
Some of the vital needs were jotted down and hung on the wall; they included a need for a grocery store with compatible prices, health care services and retail stores that generates jobs.
Margaret Gattis is the executive director of Congress for the New Urbanism, which works on projects that involve bringing consultants to assess areas and help residents outline a strategy to quickly revitalize a community.
“Short term is like six, nine, 12 months, not five, 10, 15 years,” Gattis said. “Many neighborhoods like West Boulevard have a lot of opportunities from, you know, city planning agencies and other folks to come in and do longer-term plans and longer-term visions.”
The event wrapped up with residents returning to the hall’s rows of seats and sharing their points. Clanton Park residents Willbert Brown and Maggie Brown were some of the first to arrive for the event. Willbert said he left the church optimistic about the corridor's future.
“A lot of good, important points were brought out,” Brown said. “The only thing we have to do is get behind it because if we don’t get behind it, it’s not going to go nowhere.”
Wednesday night’s event will include another public input session. Thursday morning, from 9 a.m. to noon, community members can drop in and continue to share their feedback.
A final presentation will be held Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church, located at 1243 West Blvd.
The presentation will capture residents’ concerns and provide possible options that residents hope to see implemented to revitalize the West Boulevard corridor.
