Give Us Your Young
For the past few years, there’s been a lot of hue and cry in certain circles over convincing young people to move to Charlotte. Of course, it doesn’t take a survey number-cruncher to know that a bunch of them already have. Just look around.
For the past few years, there’s been a lot of hue and cry in certain circles over convincing young people to move to Charlotte. Of course, it doesn’t take a survey number-cruncher to know that a bunch of them already have. Just look around.
But, since there are survey number-crunchers, we know that from 1990 to 2000, only one city in the country increased its population of people in the twenty-five to thirty-four age bracket more than Charlotte. That city was Las Vegas, which started with very few young people. That’s thanks to a study commissioned by the Atlanta chamber.
But enough about the numbers. They support what any Charlottean already knows—young people are moving here, and how. But that fact has not stopped two local organizations—the Charlotte Chamber and the Knight Foundation—from pouring tons of cash into initiatives designed to find ways to, yes, attract more young people. Jarvis Holliday’s story “Keeping Our Cool” tells that tale starting on page 87.
It’s easy to poke fun at these groups. Remember the City Committee? It was a group of well-connected young professionals who got together and decided they were going to have an impact on the city. They raised some money, hired some consultants, and launched the Cool Communities initiative. Lots of people made fun of that. You mean you hired consultants to tell us how to make our city cool? How uncool is that? It was an easy target. (The City Committee has apparently fizzled into Engage Charlotte, a chamber council. That’s in Jarvis’s story.)
I admit it. I was one of those people that poked a little fun. In fact, I went to the City Committee meeting at which someone first announced the plans for the cool communities thing. It was a great bunch of people—I’m friends with several of them—but I didn’t go back to another meeting.
But you know what? At least they were doing something. And sure, it’s obvious lots of young people are moving here—lots of people are moving here, period. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to keep that momentum going, and maybe even kick it up a notch. Charlotte is growing all right, but we’re not as dynamic as we need to be. And really, it’s oversimplifying it to say that the two new initiatives aim to attract young people. Actually, they aim to make Charlotte such an exciting place that young people—who these days pick a place to live, then find a job—feel compelled to move here. And that’s not such a bad idea.
This issue also contains the second part of our four-part series, Charlotte’s Crime Problem. It’s turned into a large undertaking, and I hope you’ll read Melissa Hankins’s story “Cops and Robbers,” which starts on page 106. Last month, Melissa looked at the issue of crime here from a 10,000-foot view. This month, she narrows in on the police force. And she uncovers a troubling situation—CMPD’s chief, Darrel Stephens, is a pioneer in a particular brand of community policing. But he may not be implementing it properly, which means that a lot of local cops are disenchanted. By nature, cops aren’t usually a happy bunch. Dealing with the dregs of society day in and day out can get a person down. But Charlotte cops aren’t just dissatisfied. They seem to be disconnected. If the cops we interviewed are any indication, CMPD officers are practicing a brand of policing in which they don’t believe. That spells trouble. —Richard Thurmond, editor@charlottemagazine.com
Coming in August: Our annual look at local schools
