Our Legacy: Race.
“love and justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.
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NOTE: This page has not been updated since 2019. “Race Reckoning” information since George Floyd was killed will to added.
A summary of Charlotte’s disparity can be found in the Tale of Two Cities.
It was never a level playing field.
Mortgages, especially with the GI Bill in the 1940s, helped people in the working class accumulate wealth so they could take care of themselves, their families and be self-sufficient in their retirement. Entire neighborhoods were denied those mortgages for generations. “Redlining” was accepted lending policy in cities across the country for generations. In economic terms it was a market failure or lack of access to capital.
During the 1970s economic development through urban renewal was seen as a way to spur investment. The tax subsidies were not given to existing neighbors so they could close the gap themselves. The nonprofit sector focused on services to meet basic needs. The middle class and ownership classes outside those neighborhoods had a head start accumulating family wealth.
The assumption was that the only way to bring opportunities to people in those communities was through private sector investment and job opportunities. By 1990 private sector subsidies in the name of economic development grew to attract investment and jobs in cities in industrial decline especially after the recession in 1989. When cities began subsidizing businesses (those with access to capital), they took a scale that was tipped and, in an attempt to right it, tipped it more.
Redlining was based on race.
Those neighborhoods were redlined because they were traditionally African-American. “Mapping Inequality,” a featured project of the Digital Scholarship Lab of the University of Richmond, has compiled maps of the practice nationally. The Harvard Opportunity Insights data proves that the growth in Charlotte went overwhelmingly to white people while native-born African American people became increasingly sensitive to recession. Charlotte’s Opportunity Task Force addresses segregation, briefly covers redlining, and recommends programs and advocacy.
Charlotte’s Opportunity Task Force (based on the data from OpportunityInsights at Harvard) and subsequently the strategy adopted in the FY2019 and FY2020 City of Charlotte Adopted Budgets, the most in need are predominately in our previously redlined neighborhoods. The City’s strategy has been to create Opportunity Zones to make federal tax incentives available to private sector investors. These are subsidies to those who have already accumulated wealth.
We’re paying to make gentrification worse.
City of Charlotte Opportunity Zones (9/1/2019)
Economic Development Incentives are benefiting the Charlotte region making the redlining gap worse.
The Solution:
Close the Redlining Gap
Access to Capital and Absorb Market Risk
For the People who were shut out.
“Resources in good condition have users with long term interests, who invest in monitoring and building trust.”
Challenge to Mayor Lyles to use economic development incentives with a Public - Nonprofit partnership to close the redlining gap. This economic development approach intended to illustrate the underlying flaw in current economic development strategy was made public one month prior to choosing to host the 2020 Republican National Convention. It illustrates the advantage given to those who benefit from special taxes. A link to my public comments to the Council and Mayor are linked under “About.”
City of Charlotte contracts to Black American-owned businesses:
$52 Million of $1.8 Billion (2.9%) over five years.
Charlotte’s History with Race
Protests, promises, and Programs.
“Listen.”
Sep. 14, 2013
Jan. 2014
Harvard/UC-Berkeley Upward Mobility Report - "However, because inequality has risen, the consequences of the “birth lottery” – the parents to whom a child is born – are larger today than in the past."
It’s the Death of the American Dream for all of us.
Aug. 21, 2015
Hung jury, mistrial and protests in Charlotte related to the death of Johnathan Ferrell.
Sep. 20, 2015
Keith Lamont Scott killed. Protests Sept. 20 - 21, 2016
Oct. 3, 2016
Charlotte Community Letter - Programs, inclusion, jobs and workforce development recommended. No mention of business investment, small business advancement or economic development. “Heard” is not “listening.”
Mar. 1, 2017
Charlotte's Opportunity Task Force Report - Charlotte makes the case for systemic racism in the lack of upward mobility for children born in poverty. (See Report Ch. 7 for Recommendations.) Recommendations include asking current care-givers and nonprofits to work together and expanding current economic development by the County.
Oct. 2, 2017
Charlotte Community Letter - One-Year Report. Highlights programs.
Jul. 1, 2018
City of Charlotte Budget - Budget uses Opportunity Task Force Recommendations in creating the FY2019 Adopted Budget. County adopts the Pre-K programs recommended and expands the use of human services money for private sector subsidies.
Nov. 2019
Pledge to Liquidate social and political capital to invest in The New Charlotte that listens to the most in need and their direct care-givers. It’s not about us. Launch of BuyingItBack.com.