Jeez!

What is wrong with you people? Charlotte city officials told you not to use Uptown streets because of Speed Week activities, yet you tried to come to work anyway. What part of destination location don’t you understand? Charlotte Department of Transportation expected better:

Dave Christopher, CDOT’s special events coordinator, described himself as “apoplectic” Thursday afternoon. He said the extent of the traffic problems surprised him.

“All we can really do is monitor the situation,” Christopher said. “The bed’s pretty much made right now.”

But city officials laid the bulk of the blame on commuters’ habits. Despite advance media advisories, Christopher said, workers didn’t adjust their routes to the new festival site.

“Actually, I think our communications plan was solid,” he said. “It’s tough to reach large segments of the population.”

Ah, yes. Another communication problem in Charlotte. No, it is not that people had no other way to get to work, it is that they did not listen and “adjust their routes” to make room for the big Uptown shindig. What a wonderful window on the thinking of the Uptown crowd and city bureaucrats. And yet another firm vote in the “visit” column on the enduring question of Charlotte’s over-arching public policy goal: Great place to live or great place to visit?

The traffic snafu along with evidence that not all local businesses see an economic boom from race week prompt a heretical question graver than any Da Vinci Code: What if race week is not a net gain to Charlotte proper’s over all economic balance sheet?

Scary.