PHOTO | DAVID FLOWER

Charlotte City Council member Malcolm Graham, right, who represents Beatties Ford Road, was among the Charlotte officials to canvas the area Wednesday during the launch of the $24.5 million Communities of Opportunity initiative.

The city of Charlotte has unveiled a plan to address safety concerns and economically challenged communities.

Corridors of Opportunity focuses on six corridors – starting with Beatties Ford Road – to address gaps in infrastructure, workforce, transportation, housing and code enforcement, business development, public safety and urban design. The remaining five focal points are Central Avenue-Albemarle Road, Freedom Drive-Wilkinson Boulevard, Graham Street-North Tryon Street, Sugar Creek Road-Interstate 85 and West Boulevard. The city invested $24.5 million in the program.

City and county representatives canvassed the Beatties Ford Road neighborhood, including City Council member Malcolm Graham and Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake, both of whom represent the area.

“[My role] as a county commissioner is human services and the city is infrastructure, and I’m not sure we’re doing our jobs in either place,” said Leake, who asked for accountability from local officials and residents of the community. “You got more Black people in office with the city than we’ve ever had before. So, what are they doing to make it better?”

Said City Manager Marcus Jones: “It’s easy for us to come out today with pictures and with videos and with plans and promises. Those of you who have been in the community for more than a day or two will say, ‘what’s different? We’ve seen pictures. We’ve seen plans. We’ve heard speeches. We’ve heard messages.’”

Jones said council tasked his staff at its annual strategy meeting to take a different approach to helping economically challenged communities. Their goal is to bring on change that’s easily recognized. 

“We changed every way that we do business,” he said. “Every tool that is available on any stretch of earth in Charlotte-Mecklenburg should be available in our Corridors of Opportunity. What’s great about what’s happening now is because you’ve worked so hard for so long, you’re ahead of the game. You are shovel ready. You have projects that just need a little bit to get over the goal line.”

Graham outlined projects he said will be completed or breaking ground by the end of the year in the corridor. First is Five Points, where Beatties Ford Road, Fifth, West Trade and State streets as well as Rozzelles Ferry Road meet near Johnson C. Smith University. The pedestrian-friendly area, which include a water feature and amphitheater, will be completed by the end of the year. The West Trade Street and Interstate 77 underpass, which leads from Uptown to Historic West End, will feature wide sidewalk and pedestrian friendly access. It too is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The Gold Line streetcar project is another element of the Corridors of Opportunity.

“The streetcar project that has been the bane of my life, as well as my colleague’s life for years, the streets on Beatties Ford Road will be opening in October,” Graham said. “We’ll be able to go down Beatties Ford Road uninterrupted. Trains will be on the tracks doing practice runs by the end of the year. Those are projects that are done, and we will celebrate.”

Another project along the corridor includes a second Mosaic Village. The first, a $25 million partnership between the Griffin family and JCSU, includes 80 apartment-style suites for student housing. Mike Griffin is working with architect firms Shook Kelley and Neighboring Concepts.

“He is dedicated to this corridor,” Graham said. “I worked with him on Mosaic Village I. Mike is anticipating breaking ground by the end of the year.”

Said JCSU President Clarence Armbrister: “It’s very important that the university as a major anchor tenant in the corridor be involved with the city. The city has worked very closely with us. Our district representative Malcolm Graham has been wonderful. We want to be part of the change as well. we want to make sure that the development that’s done is conducive not only to our students, but to the community as well.”

Other focal points include where Lasalle Street and Beatties Ford Road intersect, retail space behind Mechanics & Farmers Bank across from JCSU, CGE Venture Group’s mixed-use building for dining and retail at 1101 Beatties Ford Road.

The historic Excelsior Club in Washington Heights is also undergoing revitalization. Charlotte architect Darrel Williams and founder of Neighboring Concepts is serving as a consultant to owner Darius Anderson, CEO of Sonoma, California-based Kenwood Investments on the project. A boutique hotel is also planned for the project. Graham also alluded to an announcement from Chris Dennis about an investment on the corner of Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle but would not share particulars.

“We’re not going to steal his thunder, because his announcement deserves its own day,” Graham said.

Beatties Ford Road, like most Black communities, has long struggled with divestment. Community advocates like Mattie Marshall, J’Tanya Adams and Ricky Signh have pushed for change. Signh and Adams were instrumental in the creation of a series of murals called “Beatties Ford Strong” to honor the lives of four people — Jamaa Cassell, Christopher Gleaton, Kelly Miller and Dairyon Stevenson – killed in a June shooting.

Cassell’s father, Charles Billings, attended today’s announcement and questions the city’s declaration of a commitment to make the corridor safe.
“The police department is two or three blocks down,” Billings said. “You want to make it safe? It should be safe just like Myers Park and everywhere else. People over here pay taxes.”

Billings pointed out that the area has one grocery store, a Food Lion on Beatties Ford Road, while other neighborhoods have several across the street from each other.

“[There’s] no Starbucks, none of this kind of stuff over here,” he said. “Now you want to do it? Why now?”

Gemini Boyd, founder of Project BOLT (Building Outstanding Lives Together), a youth intervention foundation was also in attendance. He and Billings are connected through Cassell. Boyd directed medics to Cassell after he was shot.

“[Boyd] is the only one who ever came up to me and said, ‘I was right there when your son got killed,’” Billings said. “He had to go and get the paramedics to help him. Where were the police?”

Boyd said he never expected to see what went on that night. More than two months later, he has little faith in the city’s initiative.

“When they speak about community being part of something that is going on [with Corridors of Opportunity], did they reach out to somebody like me, and say, ‘this is what you can inform the community [about] what we want to do.’ They already had their own agenda, their own initiative. Community wasn’t a part of this because if it was, this whole lot would have been full. That’s a bunch of B.S. that they said out here and told us.”

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