Former mayor Harvey B. Gantt on what’s holding Charlotte back from being a world class city, the affordable housing crisis and the potential of a bright future ahead.
The CharlotteFive Podcast team decided to try to take a look at the future of the city, its recent transformative events, the education system and the role race plays in Charlotte, so we brought on Harvey B. Gantt, a former two-term Charlotte mayor and the first African American to hold that position.
Please click and listen to the full interview with Gantt right below, along with some audio of Gantt’s recent appearance on a panel looking at education in the city. Farther down are some small excerpts of what was talked about on the podcast.
On the issues facing the education of lower income children and the need for balanced responsibility, at home and with the schools …
“We [Charlotte] are a city with a little bit of a complex. We really want to be recognized as a world class city, and I’ve been saying this for 25 years, you’ll be a world class city when you can show the world how you educate poor children. There is no excuse some of the stumbles that the public school system has made. But folks, they’re not going to be able to do this by themselves, the responsibility lies with the parent [or parents]. These children born into this world are precious products and they are molded and shaped by their surroundings. If we want to be a world class city, why not be the one that becomes the first to educate poor children in the public schools and see them doing well.”
How would you define the relationship between the African American community and the city of Charlotte since the Keith Lamont Scott shooting and ensuing protests?
“I actually think things are getting better. From a political standpoint, you certainly have to say that. I’ve seen the religious community and others be a little bit more aggressive in some of the things I’ve seen the churches try to do. I don’t see it getting worse. I think folks I have talked to understand that if we perpetuated the silos that sometimes get created around us, if we perpetuate the fear that people have that they are not as secure as they need to be, if we perpetuate this notion that people who don’t look like us are our enemies – I don’t see that happening much in Charlotte. My sense is that we are hopefully not the old Charlotte that used to say the demonstrations occurred 50 years ago and Charlotte never had anything major that caused problems other than five civil rights leaders’ homes being bombed. I’m hoping this relative calm really is a period by which we are building up some opportunity to do something.”
What’s an issue you faced as mayor in the mid-1980s that still has yet to be addressed in this town today?
“Affordable housing is always going to be an issue in Charlotte. Why do I say that? Because as we become an even more populous city, that attracts more and more businesses and people and jobs, more people are going to come here. Some who may not be as prepared as others. So issues of what to do with the folks at the bottom of the ladder are always going to be issues that a growing city will face. We faced it in the 80s, we were trying things like scattered site public housing and all the other techniques to keep people in their homes, to not do urban redevelopment, to rehabbing houses. Today, I think we are falling even further behind because of the rapid population growth and the gentrification of neighborhoods and the removal of affordable housing from the housing stock. That’s making that issue, which I faced 30 years ago still an issue today, still an issue today. It’s one that I don’t think we can be benign about now, we’ve got to do more. We are going to require more than just public housing authorities fill that gap of affordable housing.”
What are ways Charlotte can address gentrification?
“First of all, you have to make sure that people who are living in neighborhoods where they are finding affordable rents are going to have alternative places to go. I’m not sure if you can ever interfere with the marketplace. If the supply of housing goes up a hundred units per acre in this city – to do that on land that we’re not manufacturing anymore, you have to remove houses that don’t bring you enough money, somebody has got to be aggressive enough to make sure that those people find affordable housing. That’s a combination of business and government and they both have to make some sacrifices. Government has to put more money up, developers have to recognize that they’ve got a responsibility.”
On race and achieving the American dream …
“What can we do to encourage an environment where everybody believes in the promise that America is all about can be real? It’s not necessarily a zero sum game. A lot of folks, on both sides of the racial aisle, sometimes believe that if in fact African Americans advance in society, and I’ll use that word in with quotations around it, that that simply means that white Americans are going to back up, they’re not going to able to achieve or do what they want because to give away some of what they’ve got to allow these black folks to move forward. That’s really not the way it is. It’s really not consistent with what the American dream is all about. There is plenty for all, there is enough creativity and innovation in this country, we can all have a better life and we don’t have to do it at the expense of another group. We’ve been doing it at the expense of minorities in America and it’s time for that end.”
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The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you Charlotte Smart, Fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s co-hosted by Sean Clark-Weis and Sallie Funderburk and is a production of the Charlotte Observer and 2WAVES Media.
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Photos: Sallie Funderburk, Charlotte Observer file
This story was originally published February 6, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Former mayor Harvey B. Gantt on what’s holding Charlotte back from being a world class city, the affordable housing crisis and the potential of a bright future ahead.."