Findings of the Peirce Report

[Charlotte.com]

Has Charlotte's leadership revolution happened, with scarcely a shot fired?This region is a place where people perennially assume a powerful bunch of bank presidents and other men (always men) call the shots. As the big oaks of business and civic leadership have fallen across America, Charlotte has seemed a case of arrested development. The mysterious group of business folks called ``The Vault'' (they met at a bank) has long faded in Boston. The once-powerful Citizens Council has turned warm, fuzzy and conciliatory in Dallas. The immodestly named ``Phoenix Forty'' has retreated from dominant leadership. But change in Charlotte? Never, it seemed. The legend has been constantly renewed by the activism of the bank chieftains - remarkable financial buccaneers, ranging America in search of banks, capturing one big fiscal house after another and dragging the prize back uptown - much like the hunters of old returning home with the bounty.The triumphs of Ed Crutchfield, Hugh McColl Jr. and their colleagues have made a huge difference: Look at all those new bank jobs in the region, at Charlotte's soaring reputation.Even so, a leadership revolution is under way in the Charlotte region. The leadership clique, led by the bank CEOs and other corporate chieftains, has not disappeared. But it is less cohesive, and rebellions against it more serious. Residents of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and neighboring counties, from York to Cabarrus, Gaston to Union, err when they glance up at those soaring bank towers and assume power is as centralized as it was.Consider the rebellions:* Populist conservatives, saying government power is at the root of much evil and highly suspicious of ``uptown power,'' have swept to power themselves in recent local elections. Yellow dog Democrats are cowering in confusion. (''We were the party of the people; what's this revolt from the right all about?'')Tom Bush, a Mecklenburg County commissioner elected last fall, told us, ``Elected officials used to operate at the beck and call of the big banks and corporations. The business leaders had a close relationship with a powerful Chamber of Commerce that could both help local government and dictate to local government. Now many of us have been elected whom the economic powers in Mecklenburg didn't know or weren't interested in. Obviously there's nervousness on the part of the chamber, the major banks, that they may be losing some of the control they previously had. My attitude's not to do just uptown's will, but also what University Park, southeast Charlotte and all the other areas need.''* Years of harmonious approval of major school bonds came to a surprising, discordant end last spring, as Mecklenburg voters defeated a mega-bond issue, more than $300 million, despite its strong support in the corporate community.* A gaggle of organizations has emerged across the multicounty, bi-state Charlotte citistate. The object of each: regional consensus or cooperation. Why? It's becoming obvious no jurisdiction or power group has the power to carry the day by itself.Examples: The Carolinas Partnership tries to catalyze economic development on a regional basis, consciously including development interests from the counties. Such groups as the Carolinas Transportation Compact and the Committee of 100 have looked at issues from highways to rails. After years of being trounced by rural and small-town politicos from other N.C regions, a Southern Piedmont Legislative Caucus organized to get a better deal in Raleigh.A whole array of programs are training potentially more independent future leaders, including the three-year-old Carolinas Leadership Program.New citizen groups are emerging. One, in its infancy, is the Queen City Congress, under which a group of neighborhoods, both affluent and poor, recently signed a ``Declaration of Interdependence.''There's a plausible argument that with a rough brush of the arm, big business leadership could neutralize any of those groups. Some of them, the leadership training groups, for example, are largely establishment-financed anyway.But as more groups and people begin to exercise leadership, commands sent down from executive suites are (1) less likely to get sent, and (2) more likely to be circumvented or ignored.What's more, leadership naturally disperses when problems get tougher. The big guys can hardly snap their fingers and provide answers to today's pressing problems:* How to prepare a work force that can sustain the region's stunning record of almost full employment?* How to avoid choking on the congestion of the thousands of cars - in other words, how not to become a Houston or Los Angeles?* How to build a society that works for all, across races, neighborhoods, counties?* How to make sure the region has functioning schools, ample parks and that people feel safe from crime?* How to cultivate big-city opportunities and small-town civility in the same region?Those who doubt the power transfer in the Charlotte region should ask the man himself, NationsBank Chairman Hugh McColl Jr. We did. ``Maybe the baton's already passed,'' McColl said. ``The so-called group that people think controls everything downtown cratered about four or five years ago.''McColl and First Union Chairman Ed Crutchfield acknowledge there was a strong partnership seeking to guide Charlotte, among themselves and such leaders as former Duke Power Co. Chairman Bill Lee, developer Johnny Harris, retail leader and former mayor John Belk, Observer Publisher Rolfe Neill and the Dickson family, whose Ruddick Corp. owns Harris Teeter supermarkets and other companies.But today, they say, the group mainly coalesces on charity issues. Business figures such as Crutchfield disclaim almost any contact with the local political structure.The regional counterparts to Charlotte's power brokers are well-known - the Cannon family in Cabarrus County, the Close family of York and Lancaster counties, the Broyhills in Catawba and Caldwell, and the Stowes, Carstarphens and other textile titans in Gaston.This Carolinas culture is wrapped in strong country-city ties. Crutchfield noted many Charlotteans (like McColl and himself) were born in small towns within 100 miles of the city, ``sort of one-horse towns where some old rich guy controls the land and the buildings, and they think that's what's happening in Charlotte.'' Result: The symbolism of power remains, reinforced by Charlotte's soaring bank towers, even if it's less often exercised.Whether or not McColl and Crutchfield protest too much about their modest power, no one can gainsay the achievements of Charlotte's recent leaders. By their imagination and will power, they played a catalytic role in catapulting Charlotte from the third tier of cities - the category of a Norfolk, Birmingham or Jacksonville - to a firm place in the constellation of major U.S. regional centers.A generation ago it would have seemed absurd to list Charlotte with Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Dallas, Seattle. No longer. The big banks, the audacious skyline, the NBA and NFL franchises, the thriving airport, the city's dynamism have all seen to that. Charlotte is the Carolinas' undisputed economic capital. Savvy leadership is the obvious reason. As Belk is fond of saying, ``Charlotte is a man-made town.''But will Charlotte emerge as a trend city, with a fast-moving, urban, cosmopolitan life? We doubt it.Here's a city and region that seems to care more for trim, green lawns than urban spice. It holds some excellent shopping centers, but you can look long and hard for an eccentric coffeehouse or used bookstore. Uptown rolls up its sidewalks at 5 p.m. SouthPark is thriving, but urbane it isn't.Even among residents, the joke is: ``Charlotte's a nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there.'' Or the perhaps apocryphal comment we heard, attributed to a Hornets player: ``You can't do nothing in Charlotte except live.''Yet with its quieter style, Charlotte has an immense asset - its culture of cooperation and participation. More than in most cities, citizens are expected to take part in civic projects, volunteer on civic boards and committees, even run for office. Not by accident does Charlotte have more Habitat for Humanity houses - nearly 250 - than any other city in America.In the same spirit, this city is quite open to outsiders. ``If people come in and want to work for the community, Charlotte lets them,'' said Belk. ``Some cities are jealous of people coming in and won't let them help. But we're different.''An outsider looks across the Charlotte region and sees a high quotient of what political scientists call ``civic capital.'' Community-based organizations proliferate, as do an extraordinary number of churches, at least some of which support important social work. Charlotte boasts a stronger tradition of racial amity than most other Southern cities, including strong early efforts to make school desegregation work, and election of a black mayor ahead of many Southern towns.The effort to excel continues. The city government is making a heroic try to ``reinvent'' itself, to become more responsive to neighborhoods and citizens. Whether or not full city-county merger is approved, the consolidation of multiple Charlotte and Mecklenburg County services stands out as a beacon of common sense among America's quarrelsome metropolitan regions.Indeed, here's a region where it's at least possible to discuss the idea of merged regional government services. For example, the successful police merger in Charlotte-Mecklenburg could be tried in surrounding counties, where the elected sheriff is becoming an anomaly in an increasingly urban age. Think further: Wouldn't regional fire and emergency medical services make sense, too?And consider Rock Hill's strategic planning process, begun in the early '80s, which has transformed it from a depressed, unemployment-plagued mill town to one of the nation's most economically vibrant, highly attractive suburban centers. The transformation was accomplished in part, leaders told us, by convincing firms ``that if they were in Rock Hill, they were really in Charlotte.'' Yet Rock Hill, with its public art, quality industrial parks, restored downtown and emphasis on neighborhood revival, is anxious not to bleed into Charlotte proper.Perils exist, and they start with the region's success. Does Charlotte aspire to be more than a boom town? When an Observer columnist recently asked, ``Would you challenge a bulldozer for anything in Charlotte?'' only a tiny proportion of readers offered any examples of physical places to which they felt real attachment.Can thousands of newcomers be integrated successfully into the region's civic life? Newcomers are arriving in such numbers that thousands are in danger of being mere ``residents,'' not true ``citizens.'' A number of newcomers, interviewed in shopping malls by our colleague Alex Marshall, talked of the Charlotte region as if it were a disposable commodity, not a community to which they have reciprocal obligation.More challenges relate to development. For example: Since the 1960s, the dominant form of construction has been self-contained, single-income-group subdivisions, each with one entrance onto an arterial road and a country-club-type sign proclaiming a Quail Hollow or whatever, hinting strongly of safety, seclusion, exclusivity. Missing, as a rule, are connecting roads to the next development.Such problems are typical. It's no accident the Charlotte region's greatest pockets of congestion turn up in areas most recently developed - exactly the opposite of what one would expect.The developers' land-use decisions will increasingly leave the public to suffer serious inconvenience, from long driving times and congestion to worse air quality and a palpable loss of community.Is it too heretical to suggest, in this land of free enterprise and ferocious distrust of government, that abdicating so much public decision-making, and letting private developers determine a lot of the region's shape and form, may have been a very bad idea?The region's cities and counties should return to the practice, common until the 1940s, of laying out and mapping streets. On a big wall at city hall or the county government office should be a map of how the city will grow over the next half-century. It might take 40 years before a developer paves that street and puts in lots, but when that happens, it will fit into a whole.People will predictably reiterate that such planning smacks of socialism. Again and again, we heard that this is a region of prickly, independent, ``Don't Tread on Me'' folks. The Scotch-Irish pioneers who settled the banks of the Catawba River brought their deep resentment of aristocrats, government and the authorities, and those sentiments endure.But even if government is viewed with a jaundiced eye, does it make sense to assume a mill owner, a banker or a subdivision builder knows best?We believe there's a third route - broader citizen participation, not just in elections but thousands of forums.The region's citizens need to take charge. The native intelligence of the people of this region needs a workout. The citizens of the Charlotte citistate must address the most critical challenges of the times, personally, intensively, in all kinds of formats.Take one problem: the poverty, crime and social chaos that plague some of Charlotte's older neighborhoods. Rural areas have parallel pockets of deprivation. These problems already besmirch the region's reputation. Unattended, they could prove deeply injurious in the future. A number of constructive, neighborhood-based recovery strategies have been proposed, based on self-help, accountability and strategic public investment. But is the whole society - businesses, nonprofits, universities and affluent citizens - ready to provide the political and financial support to get progress rolling and sustain it?If a growing proportion of the region's crime problem is rooted in youth crime, for example, are youth being called on to help analyze the problem, work with peers, suggest solutions? Are young people in general being drawn into discussions of the Charlotte citistate's choices and future?Is UNC Charlotte, with its huge repository of brainpower, being tapped sufficiently? UNCC and the community colleges are making an effort to contribute to the region's public dialogue. UNCC has many students engaged in some form of community service. Regardless of the discipline, UNCC officials told us, the university does not hire department heads without being clear that relating to the community will be part of the job.But the community shouldn't wait for outreach from the academics. They need to be sought out, challenged, drawn into critical public debates.One example: North Carolinians are debating subsidies to draw industries. UNCC should be ready, perhaps working with the local press, to do cost analyses on subsidy deals as they're proposed.Finally, consider government itself. In the new international economy, regions must be keenly competitive. That means not just wages, but a technically skilled work force, a clean environment, quality health care, arts and professional sports, parks and open space, and, especially, efficient government.Good or bad, government makes up roughly a fifth of a local economy. If government is inefficient, so is the citistate.Only informed citizens can hold government accountable. Services must be merged, bureaucracies thinned, performance benchmarks set. Public-private partnerships for more economical and effective local government must be devised across the region's neighborhood, county and state lines. If not, the discordant cacophony of competing governments will start driving new businesses away.It won't do any more just to say, ``No - I don't like taxes, I don't like government, I distrust city people or minorities or whoever, so get government off my back, let free enterprise reign and everything will be fine.''Some of the Charlotte region's radical populists seem to go that far. We believe these new conservatives should be welcomed into the political debate, since they bring insights and challenge many of government's encrusted and outmoded ways of operating. But they should not go unchallenged. Because at the end of the day, real solutions to shared problems must be found, or the region will falter.Thousands of citizens of the ``can-do'' Charlotte region, operating across the barriers of political persuasion, class and color, need to think through their problems and challenges and design their own collaborative answers.The region's newspapers can enrich the process immeasurably. So can the broadcast media, broadening the debate to thousands of people who might otherwise not be engaged. Churches, Rotaries, chambers of commerce, schools - all should be facilitators and leaders.Gather these forces and, we believe, there will be no stopping the Charlotte citistate, advancing confidently into the 21st century.

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