Westside neighbors tally the cost of transit tax initiative

CHARLOTTE AREA TRANSIT SYSTEM

The CityLynx Gold Line, which debuted in 2015, connects east and west Charlotte via rail. West Charlotte community activists acknowledge the need for new mass transit initiatives to keep pace with growth but fear the added threat of displacement among lower-income property owners.

West Charlotte residents are skeptical about the efficacy of a proposed sales tax increase to fund transit improvements. 

The November referendum proposing to use 1 cent of retail sales to pay for bus, road, and rail improvements over the next 30 years. Rickey Hall, chair of the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition, contends Charlotte Area Transit System’s ambitious plan lacks anti-displacement measures. Without them, “we’ll re-create the mistakes of the past” in an area that includes historically Black neighborhoods and significant multi-modal transit needs.

“We have been languishing for decades without a grocery store and other types of amenities,” Hall said. “I would want for the residents who have historically invested in this area to stay in place and be able to enjoy the types of amenities that are sure to come with the rail line, if that comes. Long story short, I’m not anti-transit, I’m anti-displacement.”

A cornerstone of Charlotte’s public transit initiatives is the CityLynx Gold Line, a 10-mile streetcar project that connects east and west Charlotte. When completed, its 37-stop route includes cultural destinations and major employers in the city’s urban core; Novant Health Presbyterian and Central Piedmont Community College in the east and Johnson & Wales and Johnson C. Smith universities westward. 

The Gold Line’s first two phases – from Elizabeth Avenue in the east to the Charlotte Transportation Center and French Street in the west – are complete. Phase 3 ends at the Rosa Parks Place Community Transit Center. Service to the east extends to Eastland Community Transportation Center. 

Public transportation has always had an intimate relationship with the Black Charlotte. In the early 20th century, a streetcar serviced Washington Heights and Biddleville and later bus lines connected working class residents and students along the Beatties Ford Road corridor to the city at large. 

A concern among Historic West End residents is gentrification, which has gained momentum over the last two decades. Longtime residents who are elderly or low-income multigenerational homeowners are wary that the economic boom that impacted neighborhoods in the north and south along the Blue Line will raise property values ultimately displace them. 

Property taxes in communities east and west of Charlotte light rail have risen about 126%, but income levels have not kept pace, Hall said. Neighborhoods with high percentages of people of color have been significantly impacted, and Hall, an advocate of anti-displacement measures, said construction of the proposed Silver Line would be another impact. 

“I don’t want to see people taxed out,” he said. “I want to see a strong economic development component and a focus on jobs – not just job training.” 

Without higher wages or opportunities where people can earn a living wage while learning a trade, displacement is bound to happen, Hall said. 

Colette Forrest, co-founder of the Black Voter Project, agrees.  

“We don’t need more buses, we need more opportunities for our communities,” she said. 

More glaring than transit needs, neighborhood advocates say, are the need for amenities like a supermarket and jobs that pay living wages. Black voters, who historically support tax referendums like the half-cent sales tariff that paid for light rail in 1998, are taking a harder look this time – if they’re looking at all. Municipal and mid-term elections historically result in lower turnout compared to presidential cycles – often barely reaching double-digit voter turnout in Mecklenburg County. 

“They want the Black vote, but I don’t know what they’re guaranteeing or assuring that the Black community is going to get as a result of voting for this transit, except for a bunch of more broken promises,” said Forrest, who lives in Wesley Heights. “Beatties Ford Road looks the same as it did in 1997.”

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