Vacation over. No more outerbelt opinions — at least for a while. Onward to other things.
Is the Saturday Observer so slightly read that a huge package on the future of Charlotte — one suggesting that the city’s “business leaders” weren’t the leaders anymore — got only two comments? Maybe everyone was busy dying Easter eggs or playing in the sunshine. Even a column from UNC Charlotte’s Jeff Michael attracted little reader attention online. He writes that based on planning textbook factors, Charlotte shouldn’t have been an urban success at all.
So take a look. Do you agree that the local oligarchy of business leaders is gone? If so, who should take their place, and how should that process happen?
I wrote, “I keep hearing people asking who Charlotte’s next leaders will be – as though some king-maker somewhere gets out the royal staff and taps a few CEOs, who become The New Leaders. I think Charlotte is too big and too diverse for that old pattern of oligarchy to work, even if we wanted it to.”
Put your comments here, or on the article, if you care to comment. Reactions (those that are civil and have some thought informing them) will help shape comments at a series of forums around the region next week, with 2008 Citistates Report writers Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson and local elected officials, business leaders, environmentalists and others.
The forums are free and open to all. To Register: www.ui.uncc.edu.
They’ll be:
Tuesday, April 21, Gaston County: 2-4:30 p.m. at Gaston Citizen’s Resource Center, U.S. 321 North, Dallas.
Wednesday, April 22, York County: 1-3:30 p.m. at Rock Hill City Hall, 155 Johnston St., Rock Hill.
Thursday, April 23, Cabarrus County: 1-3:30 p.m., Cabarrus Arena and Events Center, 4751 N.C. 49 North, Concord.
I’m moderating the panels on Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope I’ll see some of you there.