Any person so inclined to support such a thing is probably scratching their head this morning after the first two profiles of Charlotte city council at-large candidates effectively flipped the standard partisan identifiers upside down. It is Republican John Lassiter who sounds like the government-can-do-anything candidate while Democrat Susan Burgess emphasizes basics like roads, roads, and roads.
Lassiter continues to beat the tired economic development drum heedless of the fact that it is simply is not government’s job to develop the economy. Such attempts inevitably devolve into central planners trying to pick winners and losers, with the winners getting public tax dollars as a reward. Hooray!
And being the point-man for the $140 million public-dollar spending spree on the arts might be popular among the narrow slice of Charlotteans who expect to control and enjoy the new buildings, but it does not address the city’s long-term needs for adequate public safety and transportation. Lassiter, along with fellow Republican at-large councilman Pat Mumford, also seems to be on board some sort of proto-affordable housing kick that could lead the city who knows where in the future.
Lassiter’s preference for robust government involvement in the economy and the arts is particularly odd given his stated goal of making Charlotte a place for families. Government micro-managing development in tandem with big subsidies for “destination attractions” run absolutely counter to that goal. Charlotte can either be a great place to live or a great place to visit. Pick one. The hyper-regulated, top-down “smart growth” model already has an iconic city: Portland. That’s the city families with kids are fleeing. John Lassiter either does not know that or doesn’t care. Pick one.
Burgess on the other hand, seems much more rooted to the actual wants and desires of most city residents. She correctly notes that without attention to basics like roads, Charlotte stands on the precipice of becoming just another “very large second-rate city.” This is blunt language not often heard from the Uptown rah-rah crowd.
She is also opposed to, and actually voted against, the wacky economic incentive plans the city has tossed at the feet of developers and insiders. And although Burgess also supports the lavish arts funding package, she at least makes explicit what many in Charlotte try to dance around — that the $140 million is intended to balance out, in some sort of iron law of subsidies, the $265 million spent on the Uptown arena. She has even explored using the hotel-motel tax intended to fund the NASCAR Hall of Fame for arts projects should the Hall end up elsewhere. This is a bad idea, but at least a straight-forward one.
As anyone can see, neither candidate is exactly trying to roll back an already over-extended local government apparatus.
Maybe Charlotte really is destined to become another second-rate city after all
