Creative Loafing’s Tara Servatius joins the call for Speaker Jim Black to resign and points out the costs incurred by the official silence on the matter:

Some politicians say we should wait and see if the grand jury reviewing these and other unsavory activities indicts Black. The problem with that philosophy is its price. Every day without a call for Black’s resignation is another day in which we implicitly condone the questionably legal, completely unethical sleaze that oozes from his office, another day in which we send a loud and clear message to other politicians that this kind of behavior is acceptable. Things began to unravel for Black seven months ago when it was discovered that he and his political cronies – who have long claimed the state is struggling financially – set aside secret slush funds of at least $5 million apiece. They personally controlled the money, which they “donated” to projects in the districts of legislators who curried favor with them. Many of the legislators whose districts received these donations right before election time sat on the boards of the non-profits to which Black and his friends doled out the money.

Of course there is a perfectly rational, if craven, reason why official Charlotte has remained mute on Jim Black. Both the massive $150 million Uptown arts project and the pursuit of the $137 million NASCAR Hall of Fame hinge on legislative cooperation in Raleigh — higher rental car taxes and hotel-motel taxes, respectively. No one among the Uptown crowd is willing to step out and speak truth to Jim Black’s power as Black has demonstrated time and time again that if you cross him, he will stomp you dead in Raleigh.

So we are left with Charlotte’s all-time elephant in the living room.