Mayor Anthony Foxx finds a style to suit a changing city 

The mayor of Charlotte is friends with Wynton Marsalis. And although you won't find Anthony Foxx headlining a concert at Lincoln Center, he has been known to pick up one of the Grammy winner's trumpets when the two are visiting in New York. Marsalis will tell amateur musician Foxx to "put it down" pretty quickly, Foxx said. But there are no hard feelings. Behind the desk the new mayor is making his own on the 15th floor of the government building sits a picture of Foxx with the man he met through a New Orleans friend.

While I'm no expert on former Mayor Pat McCrory's musical tastes (his Facebook page lists The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Guess Who), I don't quite see him jamming with a jazzman.

A different style has come to the mayor's office. But does style equal substance when it comes to policies to alleviate the disparities and lack of trust that -- despite progress -- still exist between races and communities in Charlotte?

From 1983 through 1987, Harvey Gantt served as Charlotte's mayor. Gradually and consistently since then, the city has seen African-Americans rise to leadership positions. (That's not to ignore the history of those -- such as Fred Alexander on city council -- who came before.) In 2010, it's hard not to notice diversity at the top. In the 2009 election Foxx won, Patrick Cannon and David Howard were elected to at-large seats on the city council. An incomplete list also includes: Police Chief Rodney Monroe; Carolyn Flowers, chief executive officer of Charlotte Area Transit System (as well as her predecessor Keith Parker); Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones; Ronnie Bryant, president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership; Debra Campbell, Charlotte-Mecklenburg planning director, and Charles Brown, director, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. City council member Michael Barnes has announced plans to run for Mecklenburg County District Attorney.

Foxx said, "I think what's happening is individual talent and capabilities are being recognized on a scale that may be different than in the past." He acknowledged the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others who helped remove the barriers that thwarted even modest ambitions of many citizens. "I grew up expecting to be successful, expecting to be able to walk through doors that had been closed for generations," said Foxx. "You've always had talented people who were African-American, but they couldn't thrive because of the glass ceiling."

Bill McCoy, retired director of UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, attended the victory party for Harvey Gantt's first mayoral win in the '80s. Said McCoy, 71, "It was one of the most enjoyable, wonderful things I ever participated in. That's when I decided to stay in Charlotte." He said, "Both Harvey and Anthony have the quality of being versed in the issues that affect the entire community."

"Charlotte is a town that embraces its diversity and is doing more and more by the day."

Jeff Michael, current director of the Urban Institute, agreed. "It's rather remarkable," particularly when compared to peer cities. It's especially impressive, he said, in a Southern city with its history of segregation and oppression.

Is the milestone important in other ways?

When Foxx was campaigning for the job he won in November, sometimes -- if you closed your eyes -- it was impossible to distinguish his stump speech from opponent John Lassiter's. Both candidates talked about the need for economic development and aiding small business. Both emphasized how they would make public safety a priority and improve cooperation with Raleigh. Both pledged -- with compassion and passion -- to help the homeless.

But when they spoke about the neighborhoods that never quite shared in the region's economic boom and how they would reverse that dynamic in troubled times, you could sense a divide. Anthony Foxx grew up in the area along Beatties Ford Road. He left to attend Davidson College and New York University School of Law. But he never forgot walking to West Charlotte High School. And he noticed "only a few cosmetic differences between the walk I took 20 years ago to high school and what Beatties Ford Road looks like today," he told me during the campaign.

"A lot of the problems we confront today require attention to a growing diverse community," Mayor Foxx said recently. "You can't ignore certain issues," he said, pointing, as an example, to the achievement gap in public schools.

Michael said, "I have been impressed with Mayor Foxx's desire to reach out and play some role in public education." It's ironic, he said, because in Charlotte the mayor has little to do with the schools. It is a critical public policy issue, and an area where the mayor can leave an important legacy. "School issues are charged with the issue of race," he said. And Foxx is someone Michael thinks has earned the trust of both blacks and whites.

Foxx believes that his personal experience can matter. "I grew up in a very unique time in our city," with his grandparents and his mother, Foxx said. "The schools I went to were very diverse, economically diverse, racially diverse ... I gained a great appreciation for the ability of this community to find commonality and work across differences to solve problems."

"We've got to confront rather than avoid problems we're facing in this community," Foxx said. "There's a greater understanding that we've got to do that for the city to move forward."

"It doesn't mean that someone who is a white American couldn't lead," he said. A good leader has to listen to all the voices in the room. He acknowledged that while all Charlotteans want the same thing -- a home in a safe neighborhood, good schools and transportation, and "above all things" a job -- we get into "muddier waters" when we talk about the tactics used to achieve those goals.

"I think there are already differences of opinion out there in the community about things like student assignment and resource disparities." What people are in agreement on is that job creation is a priority. The day we spoke, Foxx had just met with Sen. Kay Hagan to talk about enabling job growth.

"People expect me to be practical, decisive and ultimately right," he said, about "moving this community to a place where there is as much consensus as we can build," while speaking honestly and authentically about the issues.

When he was campaigning, the question he repeatedly heard from African-Americans, he said, was, "Why should I vote for you?" That it wasn't about skin color, but his positions on the issues, was, he said, a positive development, evidence of an evolution. Many whites, he said, asked "a lot of questions about what I was going to do on taxes." He didn't take it as "mean-spirited," and he eventually convinced many of them. A vote along racial lines would not have elected Foxx. (In Charlotte, whites are 57 percent of voters; black voters are 35 percent.) "It's not like I was running in a city like Atlanta or Detroit," he said, where black voters make up a much larger percentage of the electorate.

Patrick Graham, president and CEO of Urban League of the Central Carolinas, is looking at other numbers. "The State of Ethnic Charlotte," a project of the Urban League, the Urban Institute and partner agencies, examines progress and disparities in five Equality Index areas -- economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice -- and throws a light on disparities among European-Americans, African-Americans, Latino-Americans and Asian-Americas. (On Feb. 23, a public meeting will be the first step in addressing the report's findings.)

The results show that the average median income for an African-American family was "$37,000 and change," said Graham, "and the average median income for a white family was $66,000, almost double." The national average is actually a little better than Charlotte's.

"It's difficult sometimes for black elected officials to call those kind of issues out on the carpet without feeling they will alienate the white base support that got them there," said Graham.

"Black folks in leadership are always held to a higher standard," he said. "The black tax is just a fact of life for us. I don't think there will be too many folks, at least privately, who will deny that. Look at the criticism Obama is receiving now even though he inherited a lot of things," said Graham. "I can't remember anyone who could stand up in a congressional meeting, call the president a liar, that would actually now be able to raise more money. A lot of black leadership who have now become the city's and county's leadership will always be held to those higher standards."

McCoy agreed: "Obviously, there's more pressure on black officeholders than white officeholders. There are questions about whether they are capable. We should be at the point that we don't think about that anymore -- but we do."

"Anthony will have a difficult task of having to navigate through that," Graham said. "But he won't have to walk it alone. A lot of us will support him, not because he's African-American but because I do believe he sees the larger picture for the community."

Graham is optimistic that this group of leaders can benefit the city, with help. "Leadership is not just the elected officials but people who are working in our neighborhoods for the benefit of them every day, and who are willing to be candid about how they feel."

He doesn't think the road ahead will be smooth. "Since the downturn, everyone's gotten sensitized to the problems of unemployment because it's happened to people who look like them," he said. "The moment things get better for that population, then everyone disappears and we're left with the same folks who are always struggling." Add in the fact that "a lot of the money that still comes through this town is not controlled by us."

Dianne English, executive director of the Community Building Initiative, noticed that when the new Bank of America chief announced his leadership team, there were several women but not much ethnic diversity. While there's been racial progress in the governmental and nonprofit sectors, English said, "I don't know [that] we have it in our business sector."

"It's comforting to think we're capable of electing black leaders," she said. "I don't dismiss that as a small thing." But the challenge is making that connection "to shared concern and commitment."

"We're a diverse city," she said. "Are we going to be a diverse community? Those things are different." That's the hard work of CBI, whose vision is to achieve inclusion and equity. Other groups -- including Mecklenburg Ministries, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, the Women's Inter-Cultural Exchange and many like it -- share similar visions, and that gives English hope. But the critical mass of diverse leadership is important, she said. "If you're out there by yourself it's a hard road."

Some might say that race shouldn't even be part of the conversation, though few are promoting the post-racial line these days. But the Charlotte region -- high on levels of volunteering and contributing to charity -- still scores low on social and interracial trust.

"As neighborhoods have become more diverse," said Michael, "people can look and say 'I have friends who are different than me.' But that hasn't translated into changes of opinion about race and races as a whole."

Mayor Foxx thinks the people of Charlotte "don't care what color your skin is if you can get done what you need to get done."

"I feel strongly that we were able to build a strong coalition, across racial and economic lines, of people who want Charlotte to be its best."

The substance of Anthony Foxx's style? "A mayor can paint a very clear word picture for the community that is galvanizing and gets people to see where we can go together."

Mary C. Curtis, a Charlotte-based writer, editor and multimedia journalist, is a contributor to PoliticsDaily.com, NPR and TheRoot.com. Her "Keeping It Positive" commentary airs every Wednesday at 7:10 a.m. on Fox News Rising Charlotte.