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Mayor Foxx's exit no gift to city of Charlotte 

Plus, McCrory makes corporate feedings easier

Welcome to another earth-shaking, karma-clearing episode of Ask Boomer With Attitude, brought to you from Charlotte, where county officials act as if they're being stung by wasps whenever the school system wants money for improvements. As usual here, readers ask questions of critical public interest and I do my best to clarify things. Let's get started.

Dear BWA: So is Mayor Anthony Foxx stepping down a good thing or a bad thing? — Nervous Don

Dear Don: Foxx's announcement that he won't run for a third term is obviously good for the mayor; it's not every day you get to quit a job with a potential federal position waiting for you (Foxx has been mentioned for the secretary of transportation job). Overall, it's not a good thing for the city, although Foxx is to be praised for not wanting to be "a mayor for life," as he put it in a jab at his predecessor, hundred-term mayor Pat McCrory. Foxx was the first Charlotte mayor in memory who dared to try to govern the city without bowing (too much) to the Good Ol' Boy network that tries to run the city behind closed doors. His takedown of Visitors Authority wheeler-dealer/CEO Tim Newman was both overdue and welcome, as was his decision to replace ineffective airport police with CMPD officers and his call for consolidating city and county governments. The airport police decision really pulled the Good Ol' Boys' chain, resulting in the current pissing match over shifting responsibility for the airport from the city to an independent authority. Foxx's advocacy of a streetcar that would eventually link the east and west sides while bringing much-needed economic development to those areas is a great idea, although the mayor initially failed to clearly explain his economic motives. That lapse has likely doomed the project, which would be a shame. It's also a shame that he won't be working with new city manager Ron Carlee, whose reputation as a mega-competent progressive in Arlington, Va., promises better days at City Hall.

Worse news: The politicians making noises about running for mayor are, so far, nothing to get excited about, to put it mildly.

Dear BWA: Why does Gov. McCrory want to privatize the commerce department? — Skeptical

Dear Skeptical: Why do you think? It's certainly not because he thinks North Carolina has been giving away too much money to big corporations. As we keep reminding readers, McCrory's reason for living is to service corporate honchos and big business owners — and if it's at taxpayers' expense, well, tough. McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker want to make the corporate welfare feeding trough much more accessible by creating a nonprofit to handle the state's economic development efforts, i.e., bribing corporations to move to North Carolina so they can pay lower wages than they do Up Nawth. In other words, business people will be given leeway to give away taxpayer money to other business people. After all, what could possible go wrong? This is just the kind of erasure of lines between the business world and North Carolina government that we've already become accustomed to from Gov. Mayor Pat. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Dear BWA: Should the Bobcats change the team name to the Hornets? — Hopeful

Dear Hopeful: The Bobcats are by far the worst team in the NBA, so any change would be welcome. Changing the team name to Hornets could help draw more fans, but just for so long. Sooner or later, the Cats have to start winning regularly if management expects most Charlotte hoops lovers to give a rat's ass about the team. Here's something that's needed more than a name change: local sports journalists who will report on Michael Jordan's record of epic failure as an NBA team administrator, beginning with the Washington Wizards, and now with the woeful Cats.

Dear BWA: I saw that a lot of Brits celebrated former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's death. How can they be so disrespectful? — Iron Man

Dear Iron: Thatcher was not just a "celebrity" with little effect on the public other than entertainment; she was a hard-nosed politician with vast power and a shriveled heart whose brutal policies wrecked the lives of many of her countrymen. What you call instances of "disrespect" (I'd say you're putting it mildly) are signs of a functioning democracy, like it or not. Frankly, if I were British, I'd probably be shooting off firecrackers and drinking in public, too. But then again, an old friend and I often end our conversations with, "Cheer up. No matter how bad things get, Nixon is still dead."

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