Check out the blast former Charlotte city councilman and mayor pro-tem Patrick Cannon hits the Uptown crowd with in his letter to the Observer today:
The Charlotte Chamber’s pro-transit-tax entity led by Pat Mumford and Pat McCrory should reconsider calling itself “grassroots.” There’s a huge difference between a business leader and a community leader.
Diversity is also lacking. That’s not a good look, given that the highest percentage of petition signers came from African Americans in west and northwest Charlotte.
The real grass-roots community says repeal of the transit tax is about more than just transit.
It would behoove the pro-tax group to reshape itself if it is to have a half-ounce of success against anti-tax voters in west, northwest, east and south Charlotte who are angry about what they’re getting and not getting.
Patrick D. Cannon
It is also worth noting that the current half-cent tax is regressive, meaning the annual $60 per person burden is a larger chunk of income for someone making $30,000 a year than it is for someone making $100,000.
Stack all these facts together and the Uptown crowd has no clue what is going on in this city. East side residents are hopping mad that they were told that they are not a CATS priority despite high levels of current transit use. And the West side is realizing that the biggest long-term threat to a robust, needed bus system is not the half-cent repeal but an out-sized train building plan that will grow to claim more and more CATS resources.
Plus, I continue to believe that once Northern tax payers understand that CATS and the Uptown crowd plan to take future property tax dollars in order to build trains instead of schools, they’ll hit the roof as well.
Meanwhile, Dilworth is figuring out that the South line means transit oriented development, ie, 20 to 35 units per acre smack up against their arts-and-crafts bungalows.
Reshape? The pro-tax crowd may need to retire.
