Meck Deck blogger Jeff Taylor‘s journalistic background came in handy as he broke a story this week about a change in the downtown Charlotte skyline. As this blog entry notes, other media outlets (including the Charlotte Observer and Charlotte Business Journal) jumped on board later with news about Duke Energy’s move to the building originally slated to be the Wachovia Tower. In other Charlotte-related news, the Observer recently quoted John Locke Foundation adjunct scholar David Hartgen in a report about declining ridership on the LYNX light-rail line. ([T]he half-cent sales tax is generating far less money than projected as Mecklenburg residents cut back on spending. That half-cent tax comprises about 65 percent of the CATS budget. “It’s the perfect storm in the negative direction,” said David Hartgen, professor emeritus of transportation at UNC-Charlotte who now runs his own consulting firm. Hartgen said he thinks ridership will drop further because uptown layoffs are only starting, and that the drop in ridership should spur CATS to consider halting its ambitious plans to build more rapid transit. “We should be saving for our operating budget,” Hartgen said.) Speaking of the Observer, a letter writer recently cited the John Locke Foundation when discussing costs associated with illegal immigration. (Franco Ordonez writes that a study done by the Kenan Institute reports that Hispanics “pour” more than $9 billion a year into the N.C. economy. The John Locke Foundation, however, reports the whole picture: “The Kenan Institute found that Hispanics contribute $9.2 billion to the economy, but cost all levels of government more in services than they provide in tax dollars, even though 75 percent pay taxes.”)
