Shortsighted City Leaders
Thanks to Tara Servatius for saying what a lot of Charlotte residents are saying: “What’s wrong with our city leaders?” (“What’s In It For Them?,” May 21.) Pursuant to the US National Whitewater Center’s request for a financial pledge from the city for $2 million dollars over the next 7-10 years to help build a US Olympic Training Center — you would have thought they were asking for $2 billion; at first they were discouraged from even asking for any money. I could not figure out why such an ambivalent attitude came from our city leaders until I read Tara’s article. What she said made everything come to light. The two main reasons our city leaders have such a bad attitude about the project are that first, it was not their idea and second, the photo ops are not as beneficial to their political careers. Which one has more political clout — a photo taken with a rich NBA star and owner or a photo with whitewater paddlers? Unfortunately it is this kind of shortsighted thinking and planning from our city leaders that will keep Charlotte a second-tier city. This kind of attitude came to light again when I attended a city council meeting and the Mayor said, “If you have a request for money from the city, also state which currently funded program you want us to cut, for your funding.” I wonder if he made that same statement to the NBA?
— Bert Hesse, Charlotte
Wise Up, City Council
Even though I’m not a native Southerner, after reading Tara Servatius’ piece on the miscues of our City Council, I felt the urge to yell, “Hell, Yeah!”
At a sellout attendance level of 18,000, the new NBA team will bring in slightly more than 750,000 souls annually for basketball. That’s assuming sellouts all year long, by no means a guarantee. At a cost of more than $400 million, that equates to nearly $24,000 per visitor. What’s more, most of those on any given night will be from the immediate area — not from out of town.
For comparison, the whitewater park apparently will draw 310,000 per year, and many of those will very likely not be from Charlotte. Wow — that’s going to require $200 million or so, right? Uh, no. Even if the city was left on the hook for the $2 million, that works out to a whopping acquisition cost of $6.50 per head.
Think about that for a minute, and then realize that the $400 million cost of the arena is very low — probably on the order of 15 percent below the final actual cost. Even with events every single night — not likely — that’s less than 7 million visitors per year, which equates to a cost per head of more than 10 times the absolute worst case in the whitewater park.
I wonder when City Council will wise up and figure out that world class designation doesn’t involve the billion dollar dance with big business. Instead of continually dumping our future into more and more of these projects, how about exercising some fiscal sense and showing the world how it ought to be done?
— Chad Everett, Charlotte
Missing Music
I completely agree that Charlotte lacks a great music scene (“One More for the Road,” by Tim Davis, May 28). I go to Asheville every month or two to see a band that doesn’t play Charlotte. When I moved here three years ago, people invited me to see a “great band.” After attending a few shows I began answering each invite with, “Are they a cover band?” It is difficult for local club owners to book great bands when locals only want to here already overplayed music from 106.5. I will never understand why a crowd cheers because the band plays a recognizable song.
You questioned whether Charlotte’s deficiency is caused by a lack of radio variety or citizen variety. WNCW (88.7 & 100.7) and WSGE (91.7) are both great stations. Both can be heard in Charlotte. Both play the genre of music missing at Charlotte venues.
— Steve Bailey, Charlotte
Too Hip For A Rest Area
Regarding Tim Davis’ “One More for the Road,” I wouldn’t say Charlotte is a cultural desert. More like a cultural rest area/truck stop. I’ve lived here almost 25 years, and your article didn’t really state anything I haven’t already heard or read before. Creative Loafing ran an article similar to this in the late 80s/early 90s about why then up and coming acts like Soul Asylum, The LunaChicks, Fishbone, and Primus bypassed “our little burg.” The responses in that article were about the same as the ones in this article. I don’t think the blame lies with club owners or promoters. WNCW plays the whole gamut of “alternative” music, so that doesn’t seem to be an issue. Maybe the fault could be in the attitudes of the bands bypassing Charlotte, thinking they’re too “hip,” “important,” or “special” to play here, as well as those bands not giving two shits about having a fanbase here.
— Andy Boggs, Charlotte
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2003.
