This time Anthony Foxx and Richard Vinroot sending a letter out in favor of the idea to selected community letters — and selected members of city council and the county commission. The UPoR quote from the letter says it all:
“The current climate of volatility at the state and federal level makes it more critical than ever for us to be as coordinated and cohesive as possible with your resources.”
The irony here is that in their attempt to create more “coordinated and cohesive” local government, Foxx and Vinroot explicitly chose to adopt methods that are divisive and alienating. Among the problems that opponents of consolidation have is that they don’t trust a unified Charlotte/Mecklenburg government structure to care about anything but Charlotte in general and the needs and wants of Uptown in particular. Foxx and Vinroot’s approach to overcome some opposition is simply to call upon the traditional Uptown power structure to make something happen as has often happened in the past. Now that will really help overcome apprehension to consolidation… especially as the letter hasn’t sent to most elected officials who are against consolidation. Bill James called the letter “sneaky”, which is a fair description.
