Charlotte citizens are struggling, hurting and trying to survive one of the worst Winters in 20 years.
Due to the current Recession and high Regional Unemployment, many Charlotteans are now Homeless or without Heat and Electricity.
Why?
North Carolina's Energy and Gas Monopoly companies have no heart.
Gov. Bev Perdue allows Duke Energy and Piedmont Gas Execs to do as they please, even if it means cutting off Customers' Electricity and Gas in Freezing temperatures.
However....
Since Charlotte is now Mayor Anthony Foxx's city and since he made such BIG promises to help his hurting Charlotte Constituents, including Homeless citizens...
Why has Foxx been so quiet during this crisis?
Didn't he and the City of Charlotte receive almost $3M in Stimulus Funds to help with Heating Bills and Homelessness Prevention?
I'll ask again, why has Mayor Foxx been so quiet during this crisis?
Anthony Foxx doesn't care.
Why?
He thinks Pres. Barack Obama has his back no matter what.
Foxx really believes in his heart of hearts Pres. Obama is going to continue overlooking anything WRONG or Corrupt he does without consequences.
This includes wasting Stimulus Funds Federally allocated only for certain purposes. i.e., Homelessness Prevention, Energy Bill Assistance, etc.,
If you can recall while on the campaign trail Anthony Foxx blasted the Republicans for "not doing enough to help Charlotte's Homeless".
If you can also recall there's ONLY three things Anthony Foxx has done since he's been elected Charlotte Mayor:
1) Sign the Climate Agreement (for Partisan Political Brownie Points),
2) Get a full time Job as Attorney with a company that manufactures Buses for the City of Charlotte.
3) Establish a program to help Unemployed Bankers obtain No Interest Loans to start Small Businesses. (more Political Brownie Points)
That's It!!
Don't forget he also earns an additional $40,000. a year as Mayor.
What has Foxx actually done for his "Regular", Loyal Voters or Constituents??
You know the ones who went to the Polls for him and voted Straight Ticket.
Such as the Middle Class, Low Income, Senior Citizens, Recently Unemployed, etc.,
You know the same Voters who are now sitting in the Cold and Dark...
That's right NOTHING!
I didn't vote for Foxx because I knew he was a Self-absorbed man who ONLY appears to care about himself, NOT his Constituents!
Now by his latest actions (refusing to help Charlotte's Unemployed, Underemployed and Homeless citizens in Freezing Weather) he's proving me to be correct.
Any man regardless of his Ethnicity or Political Affiliation, who chooses to intentionally ignore hurting people in this Recession and Freezing Weather, doesn't deserve to serve in Public Office.
Its Politicians like Anthony Foxx who give Democrats a bad name because they LIE and don't care if you know that their lying.
No Politician can humanly possible keep every promise they make while running for office but it wouldn't hurt if they darn near tried!
Here's a few words of Political Wisdom for Charlotte Voters:
When candidates are running for Public Office don't get caught up in the hype of their speeches. Instead closely review their Public Service Records.
Prior to being elected President Barack Obama had a proven record of helping the less Fortunate, Anthony Foxx did not.
And...
STOP allowing the Charlotte Observer (community nickname: "Charlotte Disturber") to tell you how to vote at the Polls.
Last but certainly not least, next time you visit the Polls (2011) forget about that foolish, Partisan Straight Ticket Voting mess and vote Responsibly.
Anthony Foxx I'm praying for you.
Charlotte's Homeless Families Hit By Recession Struggle To Stay Warm In Brutal Weather
One of the worst cold spells in 30 years has become the latest reminder that Charlotte has a new definition of needy.
From families evicted to the streets for lack of a job, to low-income homeowners trying to pay utility bills, thousands of Carolinians have been struggling to stay warm.
Among them are people like Lesia Weeks, 37, a mother of four, who dodged the cold by sitting for hours in an 18-by-20-foot waiting room at the Salvation Army Center of Hope.
Retha Carriker, 42, another homeless mother, has spent her days sitting in the shelter's parking lot, huddled in the Mercury Villager that had served as her home until October.
Suffering along with them is a new strata of working- and middle-class people hit hard by the recession: those who can't afford their utility bills or repairs to their heating units.
"I heat my house with a wood stove because the HVAC has been broken since the recession started two years ago," says one small-business woman, who declined to give her name. "It's 52 degrees inside in the morning when I wake up, and at best it gets up to 60 degrees before bed."
The impact of the cold was nowhere more apparent than at Crisis Assistance Ministry, which offers help with utility bills. On Friday, a typically slow day, 74 people showed up hoping to get help to keep their utilities from being turned off, says Carol Hardison, executive director of the agency.
"There's a group of people who were making it without water, without electricity," she says. "But this prolonged cold has worn out their resources. ... When they get to a week like this, they have to figure out a way to get help."
Ruby Adams, 57, of west Charlotte says she is an example, having lasted without electricity since November.
She's raising her late daughter's three children, but sent them to live with neighbors weeks ago. She spends days at a friend's house. At night, she returns to her frigid home and sleeps next to a kerosene space heater.
When she shuts it off, she burrows beneath five comforters.
"I've never in my life experienced something like this," says Adams, who is unemployed. "I've just been devastated."
Yet to come: a weekend with some of the coldest temperatures this winter.
Shelters at capacity
No deaths in Charlotte have been blamed on the cold. But at least nine people have died in other parts of the country, including Kenneth Hammett, 55, of Gaffney, S.C., whose body was found in a tent behind a gas station.
He was homeless, a group most at risk during extreme weather.
For nearly a week now, Charlotte shelters have reported capacity crowds, including 500 at the men's shelter, and nearly 300 women and children at the Salvation Army Center of Hope.
Lesia Weeks says she has tried her best not to set foot outside the center all week, because the cold worsens complications from her chest surgery. Her best option is to sit in the shelter's cramped waiting room, where at any given time, you'll find two dozen women in winter garb, fending off gusts of cold muscling in through the front door.
Weeks and her children were locked out of their apartment for overdue rent in September, and they came to the shelter with only the clothes on their backs.
"If the shelter hadn't taken me in, I had a plan to give up my three children to Social Services," says Weeks, whose health problems cost her a job as a bus driver. "They were mad at me. But there's no way we could have lived on the streets in weather like this."
Retha Carriker says she moved to the shelter in the fall only because she had gotten custody of her 8-year-old daughter. Frigid nights spent living in her van were not a problem, she says, but this is a different kind of cold.
"For as long as this has lasted, I'd be dead by now or in the emergency room," says Carriker. "When it starts getting into the teens, you don't sleep. You just sit up all night and shiver."
She still prefers the van, for the peace and quiet.
But she says it's not where she wants to die.
Expensive heating repair costs
Anne Gannon, general manager of the Morris-Jenkins heating and air firm, says employees have been working overtime this week to handle hundreds of daily service calls, two or three times the level they usually see in January.
Often, when the technicians tell customers the cost of repairs, they'll say they can't afford them because they've lost their jobs or fear they're about to.
"We run into this more than 10 times a day," she says. "It's heartrending."
The cold snap comes as the region and country struggle to pull out of the worst recession in a generation. Mecklenburg had more than 10,000 home-foreclosure filings in the first 10 months of 2009. The Charlotte metropolitan region still suffers double-digit unemployment, and the professional and business services sector has shed nearly 5,000 jobs in the past year.
Winter's icy fingers have reached working- or middle-class people who once thought themselves immune. When the Observer asked for insights from people struggling to stay warm, a Department of Social Services worker, a small-business woman and a cook for a large local church were among those who responded.
The DSS employee e-mailed that his family has been heating its 2,000-square-foot home with a space heater since October. He added that his spouse lost her job due to a life-threatening illness, and the family hasn't been able to make ends meet.
He says he hears similar stories from other working people who come to DSS. Many, he says, are newly unemployed, whose income hasn't fallen low enough for them to get the full range of assistance available. (Hardison says the cutoff at Crisis Assistance Ministry is roughly $55,000 for a family of four.)
The church cook, a grandmother who didn't want to identify herself further, says that's been the case with her. She heats her Charlotte home with several space heaters because she can't afford to fix her furnace, which went out about two months ago.
"You work," she says, "but you have just enough to get by because you're living paycheck to paycheck."
After the bitter cold of the weekend, meteorologists are predicting a moderate warming trend next week. But that's little comfort for Ruby Adams.
Her heat pump died months ago, and she couldn't afford to fix it. She says the power company cut off her electricity in mid-November after the unit crashed.
With the rest of the house so cold she can see her breath, Adams confines herself to one dark bedroom, where she cooks meals in a frying pan atop the space heater.
She says Crisis Assistance Ministry agreed to pay about $600 of the $900 she owes on her power bill but told her she would have to raise the rest. She got commitments from her church and the Good Fellows, a charitable group that helps the needy.
Still, days passed and nothing happened.
Finally, she says, she called Friday and a Crisis Assistance worker told her the agency had paid its share. The Good Fellows paid as well, leaving only her church's contribution to get her lights on. She's hoping that can happen sometime this weekend.
Then, she says, she's hoping an assistance program will fix her heat pump. She'll need it. The National Weather Service's meteorologists are predicting an unusually cold and wet winter in the Southeast.
"I'm so grateful," she says, referring to the assistance she's received. "I've been through hell and high waters."
Anthony Foxx Takes Hand-off From McCrory
A crowd of hundreds watched as Anthony Foxx was sworn in as Charlotte’s new Mayor Monday night, after which Foxx gave a solemn speech noting the city’s tough economic climate and the need to create jobs.
Foxx mentioned some of the city’s struggles, such as the region’s 12 percent unemployment and “even higher levels of unemployment.” He talked about the region’s declining home values and high rate of foreclosures.
Foxx listed a number of proposals he wants the Charlotte City Council to enact, such as changing a small business loan program to target new businesses in fields such as finance and green energy.
He also issued a call to help the city’s Homeless population.
“Charlotte has always had a conscience,” Foxx said during a speech after he took the oath of office. “We have to address housing … in particular, homelessness. We live in a city in which, in any given night, 3,000 young people wake up not knowing where they will go to sleep at night.”
Foxx is the city’s first Democratic mayor in 22 years. He takes office with a council dominated by Democrats, who hold an 8-3 majority – the biggest advantage one party has had on the council since the late 1970s.
Democrats Patrick Cannon and David Howard also became new at-large council members Monday night.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center was flooded with an estimated 700 onlookers, who not only filled the council’s chambers, but the lobby and at least three conference rooms, where they watched the ceremony on television.
Much of the night was introspective – as former Mayor Pat McCrory and council member John Lassiter were honored for their service.
McCrory served as mayor for 14 years, and was first elected to the council in 1989. Lassiter, who lost the mayoral election to Foxx, served six years on the council. He also served on the Board of Education.
Democrat Susan Burgess, who was unanimously chosen by her colleagues as Mayor Pro Tem, thanked McCrory for his service, and then gave him a collection of DVDs from the television show “24″ – a joke about McCrory noting during Monday night council meetings that he was missing the show.
McCrory, who occasionally choked up, told a story about President George W. Bush visiting the city earlier this decade.
McCrory said the Secret Service had mistakenly taken him for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, and asked if he needed a ride to the airport. Not wanting to turn down a ride in the presidential limo, McCrory said yes.
When they arrived at the airport, McCrory remembers the president walking up the stairs to Air Force One and Burr leaving in another car to his plane.
“I get out, and the stairs pull away and the limo drives off,” McCrory said. “I’m stranded on the runway by myself. You are in the arena, you are in the car … and then you are out of the car.”
McCrory later said he’s proud that Charlotte isn’t confused any more with Charleston and that people don’t have to refer to it as Charlotte, North Carolina.
“We’re known as Charlotte throughout the world,” McCrory said.
Lassiter, a fellow Republican who has known McCrory for more than two decades, said:
“He has a knack for complicated issues and long-term issues. His legacy will be in transportation and hospitality and tourism.”
McCrory presented Lassiter with an award named for former Mayor Richard Vinroot, which honors people who have given years of public service to the city.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WCNC, Daily Kos, Youtube, Google Maps
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