Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx stopped by the Observer this afternoon to talk with the editorial board about the streetcar and his capital improvement plans. Foxx is clearly frustrated with a City Council that he says has 11 members who know with great certainty what they don't want but includes almost no one who knows what he or she does want. Foxx says he's worried that Charlotte is following "a recipe to become Atlanta" if it doesn't pull off a robust long-term transit plan.
Check back here later tonight for the editorial board's full take on the plan and the debate surrounding it.
In the meantime, a couple other Foxx nuggets:
- He looks forward to people coming uptown to watch "the Charlotte Hornets." The NBA's Bobcats are considering taking back the name that flew to New Orleans with former owner George Shinn.
- Asked to describe his relationship with Gov.-elect, and former Charlotte mayor, Pat McCrory, Foxx said: "Well, I'll send him a Christmas card." Foxx later allowed that he was perhaps not the best envoy to bring Charlotte's biggest concerns to McCrory, but that other leaders in Charlotte are equipped to do that. Will McCrory send Foxx a Christmas card back? "That's a good question," Foxx said.
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9 comments:
Foxx...
Open your eyes. We're headed to Detroit status.
We do not need a streetcar!
Wiley -- Can you possibly be a little more melodramatic? I've yet to meet a tbgr who isn't a drama queen.
It wouldnt hurt to study Detroit, or St Louis, or Baltimore, or Cleveland once great cities that have fallen into ultra decay.
Might also study Birmingham, and see how crazy wild spending and te good old boy system killed a once thriving aerospace industry and sent the middle class fleeing.
We know Charlotte is in trouble, we just can't put our finger on the reason as to why.
One thing is for sure name calling and divisive politics won't fix anything.
Many things led to Detroit's decay, a diversification of transit modes was not one of them. The city became entire based and dependent on auto transit, not the best way to adjust for future energy and planning needs.
dimocrats and liberals like those on the county commission, city council, and this editorial board are the reason for this towns moral and ethical decline....
At least he wants to Bring Back The Buzz!
I've explained these things on just about every other CO blog, so why not this one...
STREETCAR: The reason we DO NOT NEED the streetcar is that it does nothing to relieve congestion. In fact, it will make congestion worse. Look at the 4 blocks of Elizabeth Ave that already have the tracks down. Now imagine rush-hour traffic, stuck behind a 15 mph streetcar that stops every block to load and unload passengers. The only way streetcars work is if you build a separate travel lane for it, like they did in Tampa. Which side of Trade St, Central Ave and Beatties Ford Rd do you wish to vaporize to make that happen? Now, if you want to raise my property tax rate 4 or 5 cents to speed up the building of real mass transit options and the pedestrian safety components of Foxx's budget, I can probably live with that, since the county rate just went down 2 cents.
HORNETS NAME: Here's a story for you. A city was given a pro sports team. Every game is sold out. Although the team is very good some years, it never wins a championship. The owner complains the facility is obsolete, and needs taxpayer funds for a new one. The citizens tell the owner to kick rocks. The owner threatens to move the team. The citizens stop going to games. The owner moves the team. Once in the new city, the team name changes. The league gives the old city a new team, with a new name.
Who am I describing? Yes, I'm describing the Charlotte Hornets. It's also the identical story of the Houston Oilers. Is anyone in Houston screaming for the Texans to be renamed the Oilers? No. They have moved on. Charlotte should do the same.
And before anyone else starts that "Bob Johnson named the team after himself" nonsense, let me remind you that "bobcat" is not an imaginary creature. Bobcats actually exist. So drop that nonsense already.
Even if you wish to believe that Johnson did not name the team after himself, you must admit the NBA's return to Charlotte has been anything but glorious.
Three years after the Hornets left, Stern announced we would get an expanision franchise to try and cash in on a market that was supposedly still ripe for the NBA.
The team has been horrible. The brand is horrible. More people sport Charlotte Hornets gear than Bobcats and NOLA Hornets gear combined...nationwide.
Trying to pull in some of those old fans is not a bad thing. Houston and every sports town has a right to protest their team's name, but it's obvious the majority of Charlotteans like the idea(online polls).
Give the people what they want. The NBA still owns the rights to brand, and New Orleans is leaving the name behind.
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