The men and women who live in historically and predominantly African American neighborhoods are not the problem.
They’re the solution.
Please hire me to be our Independent Municipal Financial Advisor.
I represented taxpayers as an independent municipal financial advisor when Milwaukee financed and built Miller Park for the Milwaukee Brewers.
It’s time to invest men and women in previously redlined neighborhoods the way we invest in pro sports. Neighbors aren’t the problem. They’re the solution.
If NFL fans could build the Panthers stadium, Charlotteans can rebuild this city from within. It takes teamwork.
It’s time to Put up, Shut up, and Listen (“PSL.”)
Leslie Dwyer, proud fan of the Carolina Panthers
Public testimony…
Founder, BuyingItBack.com (formerly Jobs4CLT)
Proposal to Mayor Lyles and Charlotte City Council to Address Charlotte’s Sep 2016 Protests (June 2018)
Presented to the Mayor and City Council at the June 25, 2018 City Council Public Forum. The City’s alternative to address Upward Mobility can be found at LeadingOnOpportunity.org.
Request to Mecklenburg County Commissioners to present economic development alternative to its economic development committee. (Dec 2019)
Economic development subsidies are causing the income gap. Harvard/UC-Berkeley data used as the foundation of the City and County budgets illustrates that the gap is greater for our African American community due to the legacy of redlining. Request to present this to the BOCC’s Economic Development Committee remains unacknowledged by the Board Chair Cmr. Dunlap. (BOCC Meeting Public Comments Dec 17, 2019)
City Council Public Forum Comments
25-Jun-18 Proposed project is the only way to target investment needed to address the 2016 Protests and begin closing the redlining gap. 0:59:30
16-Jul-18 The RNC is another project that makes the redlining gap worse. Our proposed nonprofit project outperforms the modeled outcomes. It's not about Us. 0:23:15
22-Jul-18 Special taxes create a system based on the assumption that we have the same problems now that we had when they were established 25 years ago. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. No one is negotiating for us. 1:36:00
22-Oct-18 I accept responsibility. This is a lack of Economics of the Public Sector. This system is making our problems worse. Using the task force report as the basis for the budget after if missed the cause of systemic racism is a problem for the City. It’s not staff it’s the lack of leadership from the Mayor 1:10:00
14-Jan-19 The Upward Mobility Report was the verdict that the economic development being pursued by the City is causing income disparity. It is captures the long term use of that data. This was not Mr. McColl's intention. I was there. 1:38:30
22-Apr-19 Since the Council members have been too busy to discuss the role of economic development causing systemic racism, I offered to explain this to constituents. Having served as a municipal financial advisor to the taxing jurisdiction that financed Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park, I was hired by the MLB’s bank, then-NationsBank/now-Bank of America to join the other side of the Table. I challenged the 1,696 NFL players to support the project. 1:31:00
Testimony related to Economic Development
December 2019 Letter to the editor, Charlotte Observer. The following page was a full-page, color ad for MLS fans to make deposits on 2021 tickets for the expansion team.
July 2017 Opposition to depleting the Tourism tax dollars for MLS Stadium and risk to the General Fund. I questioned the lack of leadership in economic development since the retirement of Mr. Hugh McColl, Jr. Covered by Charlotte Magazine’s Greg Lacour.
