© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Does 'The Charlotte Way' Still Work? Hugh McColl And Harvey Gantt On New 'Way' Forward (Rebroadcast)

Michael Bethea / WFAE

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Hugh McColl and Harvey Gantt join Mike Collins to discuss "The Charlotte Way," and whether it should be scrapped as a means of responding to economic and societal issues. Maybe it's time for a new way of facing those problems.

Charlotte’s political and civic leaders have worked for decades under a kind of unwritten code known as “the Charlotte way.” It’s as mythical as it is ill-defined. "I actually don't know what it means," former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl told Charlotte Talks host Mike Collins.

But "the Charlotte Way" has come to represent a level of community engagement in tackling the city’s problems.

After the smoke and tear gas from the Keith Scott protests cleared, the failure of “the Charlotte way” became evident, McColl says, and “the Charlotte way” shouldn’t be the way the city responds to the economic and societal issues the Scott shooting brought to the surface.

McColl’s comments were echoed by former mayor Harvey Gantt, who appeared with McColl at the Charlotte Chamber’s annual retreat less than two weeks after the Scott shooting and protests. Gantt, the city’s first African-American mayor, says the city must address “the cancerous effects of racism.”

These two Charlotte pioneers join Mike Collins to discuss where “the Charlotte way” fell short, and how the city moves forward after one of the most turbulent years in its history – from Keith Scott to HB2.

Originally aired 12/22/2016

Stay Connected