Aired on Thursday, December 22, 2016
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.
Programming note: This show was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 21st.
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.