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What new thing is happening in Charlotte that you are most excited about?
There are a lot of new things happening I’m excited about, but I’m particularly pleased to see the growing mix of retail services and growth in new residents in Uptown. The center city is really starting to turn into what I envisioned a long time ago, which is an active city 24 hours a day. Charlotte is growing into the mature city I hoped it would be.
What are your thoughts around light rail to the suburbs vs an Uptown/ring neighborhoods streetcar?
I want the streetcar to be built because it connects so many important places and opens lots of avenues for development. Though I am a big proponent of developing the entire light rail system, my number one priority would be the streetcar.
Looking forward to peanuts and Cracker Jacks? What is the future of a baseball park in Charlotte?
My wife and I think we can envision evenings when we get all the grandchildren together and take them to a game. There is a perception that it’s too expensive to take the entire family to a professional basketball or football game, but baseball is still at a price point where you can take the family. I suspect that we will see with the growing Uptown population and increasing diversity, and a lot of different people will find a reason to catch a game!
There's lots of talk about attracting diversity to Charlotte, but at the same time are we developing an economically diverse range of housing options?
Diversity is important for any vibrant city, and we’ve got to have opportunities for people at all economic levels. I’m pleased to see housing being designed for average working people and also efforts towards building affordable housing for low income families. We also need to focus on retail opportunities for a diverse group of people living in Uptown. As long as we continue our strong community college system, like CPCC, then we will continue to expand the opportunities to build a diverse workforce.
Arts vs. sports vs. bars/restaurants vs. Uptown shopping vs. public transportation. Where do you fall in the raging debate over what needs to be prioritized in order for Charlotte to grow into a “world class city?”
What I would say about priorities is that we have to keep building a first-rate public school system. A strong and attractive public school system linked to a solid system of higher education, from community college to university level, will attract a high quality level of people and businesses in the 21st century. Then, we still have to put in a solid public transit system that moves people to events and work, and if we build it the way it’s designed, along high-density corridors, we will have something special for the world to look at.
Charlotte considers itself forward thinking on many urban development issues. It seems the larger a U.S. city gets, it needs an expanded social services network to handle needs of a burgeoning population, but can never keep up. What is Charlotte doing to be preemptive in this area? Can we plan ahead to offer programs that effectively promote productive living? How do we avoid the pitfalls of the “build more shelters” or “reactive spending” mentality rather than provide proactive assistance for independent living?
Charlotte can learn from a lot of other cities. Right now, most of its social problems are manageable, but we have to be very careful to learn from mistakes others have made. For example, if affordable housing is a problem, let’s find the cities that are doing affordable housing rather well and emulate them. If we stay out in front of these issues, we can become an urban laboratory for the rest of the country. We need to find more opportunities to build capacity amongst our lower income families in terms of education and skills. We are not too big not too care, and we have the resources to make a difference.
Where are your favorite Charlotte spots to hang out?
I’m a big professional sports fan so my favorites are the sports venues.
From your perspective, how do you envision Charlotte's future? How would you describe it 10 years from now, 20 years from now?
I can’t talk 20 years. Ten years from now, probably double the population, and that’s a rapid amount of growth--10% a year, but not hard to fathom. Many of the things we are working on today will come to fruition. In ten years Charlotte will enjoy a more diverse population, high employment, a public transit system of light-rail and busses, more cultural facilities, better sports teams, UNCC becoming a research institution, and a first-rate public school system. Hopefully, we’ll be a city that avoided pitfalls. Also, I think we’ll see a stronger mayoral system of government. As we become a larger and more diverse city, there will be a greater demand to give the responsibility of managing the city to a mayor who is responsible to the public for executing policy. While I like the system we have, as time goes on, there
will be a greater expectation by the population that they are electing someone with the clout to enact change.
~ Celina Mincey
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