Mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling.
The Charlotte city council has moved into an entirely new class of incompetence with its vote to spend $7.3 million in public dollars on the Carolina Theatre. Atlanta developer Camden Management Partners gets the sweetheart deal, which includes redirecting property taxes on the condos on the site back into the project. This means the deal will be a net loss to taxpayers for years into the future, especially when the alternatives to this fiasco are considered.
The city could elect to sell the property, the last surviving link to the Cityfair disaster, and pocket $2.8 million. Then, after the site is developed — as it will surely be — the city can begin pocketing property taxes to help pay for roads, police, etc. This is how local government is supposed to function.
Except in Charlotte.
Update: I should stress that councilman Don Lochman has labored like Hercules to keep the city from throwing money at this thing — and the $150 million arts plan — and if not a demigod, he is certainly an excellent public servant.
