CATHERINE PUGH RESIGNS FROM BALTIMORE MAYOR’S POST (CORRUPTION SCANDAL)

CATHERINE PUGH RESIGNS FROM BALTIMORE MAYOR’S POST (CORRUPTION SCANDAL):

BALTIMORE & ATL - DRAIN THE SWAMP.

MOST BLACK POLITICIANS USE THEIR EDUCATION & POWER AS A WEAPON AGAINST BLACK VOTERS.

HOW DOES THIS ABUSE OF POWER HELP STRENGTHEN BLACK COMMUNITIES?

BLACK VOTERS DESERVE MUCH BETTER LEADERSHIP.

YES, WHITE POLITICIANS CAN EFFECTIVELY LEAD BLACK VOTERS WITHOUT RACISM.

2020 ELECTION


Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, NY Times, Washington Post, Youtube


****** Baltimore’s Mayor, Catherine Pugh, Resigns Amid Children’s Book Scandal


After weeks of mounting pressure, Mayor Catherine Pugh of Baltimore resigned on Thursday amid a widening scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of children’s books that she wrote and sold to the University of Maryland Medical System while serving on its board of directors.

Her resignation comes days after the Baltimore City Council proposed amending the city charter to make it possible to remove her, and after the F.B.I. raided her two homes and her office at City Hall.
Ms. Pugh stepped down from the hospital network’s board, but she had resisted calls to step down as mayor.

She has been home on medical leave for weeks. Her lawyer told reporters previously that she was too ill to make decisions.

Bernard Young, president of the Baltimore City Council, has been serving as acting mayor and will complete the rest of her term.

“I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor,” Ms. Pugh said in a statement read aloud by her lawyer, Steve Silverman, at a brief news conference that she did not attend. “Baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who appoints the board of the University of Maryland Medical System, applauded Ms. Pugh’s resignation in a post on Twitter.

“This was the right decision, as it was clear the mayor could no longer lead effectively,” he wrote. “The federal and state investigations must and will continue to uncover the facts.”

Ms. Pugh has been under intense scrutiny since March, when The Baltimore Sun reported that she was one of nine members of the board of the University of Maryland Medical System who had profited personally from contracts with the hospital system.

When the scandal broke, Ms. Pugh maintained that there was nothing illegal or unethical about her deal to sell her “Healthy Holly” children’s books, which promote nutritious food and exercise, to the hospital network, whose board she has served on since 2001.

The network, in turn, was supposed to donate the books to Baltimore schools and day cares.

She apologized for failing to report the deal on disclosure forms when she was a state senator and returned the most recent payment of $100,000.

But questions continued to swirl over who authorized the contract and how many of the books actually reached children, especially after thousands of books were discovered untouched in a school warehouse.

Ms. Pugh has received $500,000 since 2011 from the medical system for the books.

Other entities, including Kaiser Permanente, reportedly paid her an additional $190,000 for the books.

“This whole entire episode has been hurtful to the city,” said Jill Carter, a state senator representing Baltimore who has been pushing to limit self-dealing on the hospital network’s board. “Those of us who are holding elected office now, it is incumbent upon us to do everything in our power to restore the public trust.”

Ms. Carter said she began investigating the hospital network’s contracts after hearing complaints from minority-owned businesses that it was impossible for them to bid on contracts, while politically connected board members received lucrative deals that did not go through normal channels of procurement.

Ms. Carter noted that other board members reaped far more from the hospital network, including Francis X. Kelly, who advocated the privatization of the hospital network as a state senator, and went on to obtain $16 million in contracts through his insurance company, Kelly & Associates Insurance Group.

“It’s been very troubling to me that so much focus has been placed on the mayor that there has been too little scrutiny and too little desire to investigate the other members,” Ms. Carter said.

The hospital network’s website lists Mr. Kelly as being “on leave” from the board, along with three other members who had business contracts.

He did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

A recent bill passed by Maryland’s General Assembly will replace the medical system’s entire board in July, and generally prohibits future board members from receiving no-bid contracts.

Michael Schwartzberg, a spokesman for the medical system’s management, said it would not be issuing a statement on the mayor’s resignation.

Ms. Pugh, who was elected mayor in 2016, has long been a fixture in the city’s politics.

She previously served as a state senator and majority leader in Maryland’s General Assembly.

Her resignation comes after a series of other corruption scandals in the city have shaken faith in Baltimore’s government.

Last year, six Baltimore police officers pleaded guilty in a wide-ranging corruption trial that included robbing a motorist of $25,000 and dumping garbage bags full of stolen prescription drugs on the market.

The city, which endured riots and unrest in the wake of the 2015 death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, has seen four police commissioners cycle through since Mr. Gray’s death.

Last year, former police commissioner Darryl De Sousa pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to file income tax returns.

In 2010, another Baltimore mayor, Sheila Ann Dixon, resigned after being found guilty of misappropriating gift cards for the poor.

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, said her group has received several calls from people expressing a loss of faith in Ms. Pugh.

But Ms. Antoine said she is heartened by recent proposals brought by Baltimore City Council members to tighten ethics disclosure rules and make it easier to remove the mayor.

“I think we’re on the verge of recovering from all of this,” she said. “We believe the City Council is taking steps to move forward.”

CATHERINE PUGH LOSES POLITICAL CAREER DUE TO CORRUPTION (WHITE MAYORS NEEDED)

CATHERINE PUGH LOSES POLITICAL CAREER DUE TO CORRUPTION (FBI RAIDS):

SHE IS NOW IN HIDING.

ATLANTA & BALTIMORE NEED TO ELECT WHITE MAYORS IMMEDIATELY.

LONG TERM BLACK LEADERSHIP IN THE ATL & BALTIMORE CREATED COMPLACENCY & ENCOURAGED CORRUPTION.

MOST BLACK LEADERS DON’T CARE ABOUT BLACK VOTERS ANYWAY, ONLY THEMSELVES.

IT’S TIME FOR REAL CHANGE.

YES, WHITE POLITICIANS CAN EFFECTIVELY LEAD BLACK VOTERS WITHOUT RACISM.

2020 ELECTION


Post Sources: New York Post, AJC, CNN, PBS, Youtube


***** Feds raid Baltimore mayor’s home amid kids book corruption scandal


FBI and IRS agents raided the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh on Thursday amid calls she resign over her shady children’s book sales.

The blitz on Pugh’s home indicated publicly for the first time that she’s being investigated by the feds, as well as by the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor.

Authorities are looking into lucrative sales of Pugh’s “Healthy Holly” series to the University of Maryland Medical System while she was on their unpaid board of directors.

The investigation that led to Thursday’s raids began more than a year ago, sources told The Baltimore Sun.

Pugh, 69, has been on an indefinite leave of absence since April 1, when calls for a state probe into her began.

She claimed then that she was taking time off to recover from a bout of pneumonia.

The Democrat was at home at the time of the raids. Sources told local outlet WJZ that she has since left Maryland.

As agents hauled out boxes of “Healthy Holly” books and documents from Pugh’s home, Gov. Larry Hogan called for Pugh to step down.

“Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” the Republican governor tweeted. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Hogan directed the state’s prosecutor on April 1 to begin a probe into Pugh’s “questionable dealings.”

Besides Hogan, the Baltimore City Council, Baltimore lawmakers in the House of Delegates and the Great Baltimore Committee, a business group, have also called for Pugh’s resignation.

The feds also executed search warrants at the office of Pugh’s lawyer, Steven Silverman, City Hall, the Maryland Center for Adult Training, whose job program Pugh once ran, and the home of an aide, the FBI confirmed.

Silverman said agents served a subpoena to his office for Pugh’s financial records. “We will continue to vigorously defend the mayor,” he told the Washington Post.

The health provider paid $500,000 to buy 100,000 copies of the book from Pugh’s company, Healthy Holly LLC, in a no-bid arrangement between 2011 and 2018.
Pugh apologized that she had “done something to upset the people,” returned $100,000 to the health-care system and canceled a book deal.

She has also stepped down from the board.

Another health-care provider, Kaiser Permanente, confirmed to The Baltimore Sun this month that it had paid Pugh $114,000 for 20 copies of her book between 2015 and 2018 while the company was trying to get a contract from the city.

Kaiser was awarded a $48 million contract in 2017 to provide heath benefits to city workers by a spending board on which Pugh sits.

Pugh did not comment and her spokesman said he hasn’t talked to her.

MONIQUE DESTROYS KHIA & TSMADISON’S CAREER TOO (MISERY)

MONIQUE DESTROYS KHIA & TSMADISON’S CAREER TOO:

MISERY LOVES COMPANY & IT SEEMS MONIQUE LOVES SPREADING MISERY.


Sources: Bossip, Lipstick Alley, Periscope, Youtube


After destroying her own career within the Entertainment Industry, Black comedian and actress Monique appears to be determined to destroy the careers of other Black entertainers, including KHIA and TS Madison, hosts of the smash Internet show “The Queen’s Court”.


**** Her Royal Cryness Mo’Nique Appeared On Queens Court & Things Went Terribly Wrong

Oscar-winning actress-turned-polarizing talking head Mo’Nique actually showed up for Khia & Maddie’s wildly popular (and hilariously petty) Facebook roast party/talk show The Queens Court but things went terribly wrong mostly because of technical difficulties that riled up Chatty Patty Twitter.

LISA NICOLE’S 2018 ELEVATION COLLECTION (“MARRIED TO MEDICINE”)

LISA NICOLE’S 2018 ELEVATION COLLECTION (“MARRIED TO MEDICINE”)


Sources: Lisa Nicole Cloud, YouTube


Last weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to Lisa Nicole Cloud’s ELEVATION Designer Collection Fashion extravaganza.

Lisa Nicole is married to Dr Darren Nagules (also in attendance) and is a former cast member of the Bravo network reality show “Married to Medicine”.

Lisa and Darren reside in Atlanta, Ga and are the proud parents of two lovely, intelligent Children.

Lisa Nicole’s Fashion extravaganza was hosted in my native hometown of New York City and the main sponsor was Rolls Royce.

It was a lavish event, attended by many members of the Fashion industry and Mainstream Media Press.

I sincerely thank Lisa Nicole and her gracious Staff for allowing me to witness such a beautiful collection of Designer couture.

WALTER SCOTT'S KILLER (EX-COP) GETS 20 YRS IN PRISON THANKS TO TRUMP

WALTER SCOTT'S KILLER GETS 20 YRS IN PRISON THANKS TO TRUMP:

BLACK MEN SHOULD NOT BE SHOT DEAD JUST BECAUSE THEY OWE CHILD SUPPORT.

BLACK MEN WHO OWE CHILD SUPPORT DESERVE FULL-TIME JOBS TO PAY THEIR DEBTS, NOT JAIL, NOR DEATH.

IF OBAMA WERE PRESIDENT, THAT WHITE OFFICER WOULD HAVE BEEN ACQUITTED.

IF OBAMA WERE PRESIDENT, WALTER SCOTT'S MOTHER WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A CHECK BUT NO JUSTICE.

FORGIVENESS DOES NOT ELIMINATE CONSEQUENCES.

WHITE POLITICIANS CAN REPRESENT BLACK VOTERS FAIRLY & PROPERLY REGARDLESS OF PARTY.

TAKE HEED ATLANTA (MARY NORWOOD).

TAKE HEED ATLANTA (MARY NORWOOD).


Sources: ABC News, Youtube


***** White ex-cop gets 20 years for Walter Scott slaying


One by one, relatives of the late Walter Scott urged a judge to mete out a significant punishment for Michael Slager, the white former police officer who fatally shot Scott, an unarmed black man, in the back after a 2015 traffic stop.

Through tears, Scott's family told Slager they felt sorrow for him and the loss his young children would feel in his absence. In the end, a judge sentenced Slager to 20 years in prison, giving the Scott family the justice they had sought ever since a stranger came to them with the shocking video of Scott being killed.

"I forgive Michael Slager. I forgive you," Scott's mother, Judy, said as she turned toward her son's killer. "I pray for you, that you would repent and let Jesus come in your life."

Sitting just a few feet away, Slager wiped tears from his eyes and mouthed: "I'm sorry."

The punishment wrapped up a case that became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. Slager, 36, is one of only a few police officers to go to prison for a fatal shooting, and his sentence is by far the stiffest since the shootings came under extra scrutiny in recent years.

Attorneys for the former North Charleston officer said he shot the 50-year-old Scott in self-defense after the two fought and Scott grabbed Slager's stun gun. They said race didn't play a role in the shooting and Slager never had any "racial animus" toward minorities.

Still, Slager pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Scott's civil rights. As part of a plea agreement reached in May, prosecutors dropped state murder charges.

"This is a tragedy that shouldn't have happened," U.S. District Judge David Norton said.

Slager apologized to the Scott family, calling Scott's mother and brothers by their names.

"With my actions that day, Walter Scott is no longer with his family, and I am responsible for that," Slager said. Of their forgiveness, he added: "I am very grateful for that."

Slager's emotions stood in stark contrast to his stoic demeanor during his state murder trial when jurors deadlocked over a verdict. He has several weeks to appeal his sentence and will be housed at the Charleston County jail until he's assigned to a federal prison.

After the sentencing, Judy Scott and Walter's two brothers told reporters that, while they had made peace with the case, they remained adamant the officer should pay for his crime.

"Who are we not to forgive?" Rodney Scott said.

A bystander recorded the shooting on a cellphone, and it was shared around the world, setting off protests across the U.S. as demonstrators said it was another egregious example of police officers mistreating African-Americans.

Slager fired at Scott's back from 17 feet (5 meters) away. Five of eight bullets hit him.

The video was seized on by many as vivid proof of what they had been arguing for years: that white officers too often use deadly force unnecessarily against black people.

When the jury failed to reach a verdict in the state murder case, many black people and others were shocked and distressed, because the video seemed to some to be an open-and-shut case. Some despaired of ever seeing justice.

The shooting angered local African-Americans who complained for years that North Charleston police harassed blacks, pulling them over or questioning them unnecessarily as they cracked down on crime. But after the shooting, the Scott family successfully pleaded for calm, asking everyone to let the justice system run its course.

Two months after the shooting, a young white man killed nine black church members in a racially motivated massacre during a Bible study in Charleston. The family members of those victims struck a similar forgiveness tone after that attack.

Before Slager's sentence was handed down, the judge had to decide whether the shooting amounted to second-degree murder or manslaughter. Norton found that it was murder.

"No matter what sentence I give, neither the Scott family nor the Slager family is going to think that it's right," the judge said.

After the shooting, Slager picked up his stun gun and placed it next to Scott. Slager contended he was securing the weapon. Prosecutors think he put it there to bolster his self-defense story.

The judge also found that Slager obstructed justice when he made statements to state police after the shooting.

A pre-sentencing report for Slager found that he committed manslaughter and recommended 10 to nearly 13 years in prison. But the judge was not bound by that review.

If Slager had faced another state trial and been convicted of murder, he could have been sentenced to anywhere from 30 years to life in prison.

Convictions in police officer shootings are uncommon in the U.S. and prison time is even rarer.

South Carolina has been aggressive in charging white officers who shoot unarmed black people. Four have pleaded guilty in state or federal court in the past six years. But only Slager and former state trooper Sean Groubert, who shot a man as he tried to get his wallet during a seat belt violation check, will have been sent to prison. Groubert was sentenced to five years behind bars.

CNN SUED BY BLACK EMPLOYEES IN CLASS ACTION SUIT (TURNER & COMCAST vs BLACK PEOPLE)

CNN SUED BY BLACK EMPLOYEES IN CLASS ACTION SUIT:

I THOUGHT CNN (TED TURNER) WAS DOWN WITH BLACK PEOPLE, NOT TRYING TO KEEP BLACK PEOPLE DOWN??


Sources: AJC, NY Post


***** Black employees file racial discrimination class-action lawsuit against CNN, Turner

Former and current black employees on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against Atlanta-based CNN, Turner Broadcasting and New York based parent company Time Warner for racial discrimination.

“As a result of the current discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of DeWayne Walker vs. CNN, Time Warner & Turner, we have uncovered stories involving abuse of power, nepotism, revenge, retaliation and discrimination,” said Daniel Meachum in a press release.

The press release provided a photo of DeWayne Walker, a CNN producer who sued CNN individually in January for $50 million for racial discrimination and retaliation for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

He accused CNN of not promoting him over 13 years because he is black, skipped over frequently for promotions in favor of white employees.

According to his LinkedIn page, Walker is an integrated marketing manager at CNN.

Walker is not actually a plaintiff in this particular case but is a client of Meachum’s and his individual lawsuit is still active. Celeslie Henley, a former executive administrative assistant at CNN, and Ernest Colbert Jr., a senior manager at TBS, are the only named plaintiffs though Meachum said 20 to 30 other unnamed current and former Turner employees helped him out with information about their experiences.

“This discrimination represents a company-wide pattern and practice,” the lawsuit asserts, “rather than a series of isolated incidents.” He said the company has been discriminating against blacks for more than 20 years.
The 40-page lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Georgiasaid blacks – especially black males – are discriminated against in evaluations, compensation and promotions.

Blacks receive “disproportionately lower scores on evaluations,” the lawsuit alleges.

It says based on data provided by Turner, blacks are terminated at a higher rate than whites and promoted at a significantly slower rate. And the lawsuit said written and unwritten policies and practices for performing evaluations and promotions discriminate against blacks. Those policies “allow supervisors to essentially handpick candidates through word of mouth for available positions and make promotion decisions on the basis of subjective criteria,” the lawsuit said. “This system prevents qualified African-Americans from competing equally for positions or even knowing that they are available.”

Meachum said at a press conference Wednesday morning at his downtown Atlanta office that he has been collecting information about CNN and Turner for three years before filing the class-action suit.

“Upon information and belief,” the suit says, “African-American employees have had to endure racial slurs and prejudicial biases from superiors such as, ‘it’s hard to manage black people’ and ‘who would be worth more: black slaves from times past or new slaves.’ ”

Meachum said he is “outraged as an African American lawyer to have to sit down and go through the facts with people telling what I’ve been told these past three years.”
While blacks make up 30 to 35 percent of CNN’s mid-level managerial and staffing positions, the lawsuit said, “they are drastically under-represented at higher pay grades and senior positions, while still being required to generally labor three times as long as Caucasians [for promotions.].”

And even blacks in the highest positions are not in the more crucial departments, the lawsuit said. In the Media Group Division, the Legal Division and Strategy Division, for instance, not a single black person is represented at the top levels, it said.

Henley, 44 of Fairburn, worked at CNN for seven years as an executive administrative assistant. She alleged that she was mistreated in the workforce based on race, sex and pregnancy. She said she worked far longer hours than her white counterparts.

And she said she was treated significantly worse after coming back from maternity leave. She said she was fired as retaliation for complaining to HR in early 2014.

Colbert, 44, of Ellenwood, has worked at TBS for almost 20 years. He claimed in the lawsuit that he was consistently paid below grade level compared to comparable white employees.

He also said he failed to receive a proper job description for nine years and was given senior-level managerial work without being properly compensated.

He was promoted in August, 2016 to senior manager but said he is still underpaid compared to his white counterparts with comparable jobs. “Additionally, years of Mr. Colbert’s positive performance evaluations have been nullified due to TBS’s failure to maintain Mr. Colbert’s personnel file,” the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuit, Colbert said he repeatedly requested to be promoted to a higher pay grade. A white person who had held his position previously was promoted to a job grade several levels above Colbert’s while performing the same job duties, he said.

The class action covers all blacks employed in salaried and mid-level managerial positions in the United States at any time between April, 1997 to the present.

“I’ve seen people at Turner that have worked there for 14, 15 years with a total raise over that time of $5,000 to $6,000. That’s horrible,” Meachum said. “That is not the face that I think Turner and CNN wants to put on. That’s the reality of the people who work there.”

At least three others have filed individual lawsuits against CNN over the past three years.

In October, 2014, a field producer in Los Angeles Stanley Wilson filed a $5 million wrongful termination suit against CNN.
Former CNN writer/producer Ricky Blalock filed a lawsuit in December 2015 over racial discrimination.

He left the company soon after.
In October, 2016, former producer and writer Omar Butcher sued CNN for racial and religious discrimination.

When I asked CNN president Jeff Zucker about the lawsuits last month, he declined to comment. A CNN spokeswoman today declined to comment about the latest lawsuit.

Meachum, who represents Walker, showed up on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” to help out Cynthia Bailey this season with her divorce to Peter Thomas. (She has yet to file. He said they are trying to put the entire divorce together and have it all agreed upon before filing anything.) Meachum also represented actor Wesley Snipesfor many years.

MEXICAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS 4 CHILDREN & HUSBAND IN GEORGIA (MARIA MARTINEZ)

MEXICAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS 4 CHILDREN & HUSBAND IN GEORGIA (MARIA ISABEL MARTINEZ):

THIS IS WHY CONGRESS MUST SUPPORT TRUMP'S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AGENDA.


Sources: CBS News, NBC News, YouTube


***** Georgia Mom Charged With Killing Family Smiles in Court


LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A woman charged with killing four of her young children and her husband smiled and flashed a double thumbs up to news cameras during her first court appearance Friday in metro Atlanta before telling a judge she doesn’t want an attorney.

Also, an immigration official said the woman, who is from Mexico, entered the U.S. illegally.

Isabel Martinez, 33, appeared before Gwinnett County Magistrate Court Judge Michael Thorpe a day after police said she stabbed the five to death and seriously injured another child at her home outside Atlanta. The injured child, a 9-year-old girl, survived but remained hospitalized with injuries police described as serious.

Before the hearing began, Martinez sat with other inmates and struck poses for cameras — smiling, giving the thumbs up, putting her hands in a prayer position and spreading her arms out wide.

As Thorpe listed the charges against her — five counts of malice murder, five counts of murder and six counts of aggravated assault — Martinez smiled, shook her head “no” and wagged her finger at him. The judge advised her sharply not to perform for the cameras.

“Ma’am, I’m going to caution you to cut out the display for the cameras,” he said. “It’s really not a good idea, probably not to your benefit.”

When Thorpe informed her of her right to have an attorney, she said through a Spanish-language interpreter that she doesn’t want one. She later added that her attorney will always be the people “that we’re fighting for” and her faith.

“You are the hope of the world, each one of you,” she said in Spanish, appearing to address the news cameras. “It doesn’t matter what color you are because God loves us all.”

Thorpe advised Martinez to hire a lawyer or to allow one to be appointed for her.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox said in an email Friday that Martinez — whom he identified as Maria Isabel Garduno-Martinez — is from Mexico and entered the country illegally. This is her first encounter with immigration authorities, and it’s not clear how long she has been in the U.S., Cox said.

Local officials called the killings “horrendous.”

“What prompts a person to take the life of such innocent children and her spouse is something we may never understand,” Gwinnett County police said in a statement. “This is a horrendous crime not only for the victims but for the extended family, neighborhood and community.”

Psychologists and others who study cases of mothers accused of killing their children say it’s not as uncommon as people might believe. But media coverage often focuses on dramatic cases, such as Andrea Yates who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2001 drowning deaths of her five children in her suburban Houston home.

Other cases get less attention, as when a woman kills a newborn or in children’s deaths blamed on neglect, said Cheryl Meyer, co-author of two books on mothers who have killed children based on about 1,000 cases during the 1990s.

That amounts to roughly one death every three days. If anything, the total based on media reports at the time underestimates the reality, said Meyer, a psychology professor at Wright State University in Ohio.

In cases when mothers kill intentionally, Meyer said there is often another influence, such as mental health issues, postpartum depression or the loss of a close loved one.

“We like to classify these women as pariahs, that they aren’t at all like us,” Meyer said. “I found that was not the case.”

Some neighbors in the small, largely Hispanic neighborhood in Loganville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Atlanta, said they had no clue anything was amiss in the home until police mobbed the scene Thursday morning. The neighbors said the Spanish-speaking family had moved to the community recently, and their children seemed happy playing with other neighborhood kids.

Victoria Nievs said Martinez had recently suffered the death of her father.

Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Michele Pihera confirmed that the 911 call came from a woman who was inside the home at 4:47 a.m. Thursday to report a stabbing. Police believe Martinez made that call.

Pihera said the caller was speaking Spanish, which initially made it difficult for 911 operators to communicate with her. The county sheriff’s office said Martinez is on a hold for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The hospitalized girl, Diana Romero, was in serious but stable condition Thursday evening, police said.

The four children killed were identified as Isabela Martinez, 10; Dacota Romero, 7; Dillan Romero, 4; and Axel Romero, 2. Their slain father was Martin Romero, 33, Pihera said. Police said Romero and Isabel Martinez were married.

Early indications are that a knife was used to attack the five, though a medical examiner will make the final determination about the cause of death, she said.

ATLANTA LOSES 4 YOUNG BLACK MALES TO DRIVERS RUNNING RED LIGHTS (RACIAL CONSPIRACY?)

ATLANTA LOSES 4 YOUNG BLACK MALES TO DRIVERS RUNNING RED LIGHTS (RACIAL CONSPIRACY?):

BLACK TEENS & YOUNG ADULT BLACK MEN TARGETED BY DRIVERS INTENTIONALLY RUNNING RED LIGHTS.

IS THIS ANOTHER CONSPIRACY TO KILL MORE BLACK MALES IN THE USA?

Sources: Atlanta Journal Constitution, WSB-TV, Youtube


**** 4 teens killed in south Fulton crash ID’d

Officials have identified four teenagers killed Monday in a crash between an SUV and tractor-trailer in south Fulton County.

The teens, identified late Tuesday by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office, were Isaiah Gregory, 15, Cameron Jones, 16, Ke’Ariy Lopez 14, and Octavious Rhodes, 16.

Isaiah, Ke’Ariy and Octavious were freshmen at Langston Hughes High School, Fulton County Schools spokeswoman Susan Hale said Wednesday morning. Cameron, she said, was new to the school, having transferred from another district about two months ago. He withdrew from Langston Hughes less than two weeks ago, Hale said.

A family member released the name and photo of the student who survived the crash.
Sophomore Lexus Todd was in the back of the Lincoln Navigator involved in Monday’s deadly collision, Lexus’ grandmother told Channel 2 Action News.

Her legs were crushed, and she suffered bleeding of the brain, the television station reported.
Fulton police said the preliminary investigation revealed that the driver of the SUV ran a red light, causing the collision.
The accident happened about 1:17 p.m. at Ga. 92 and Butner Road, Fulton police Cpl. Maureen Smith said.
Three of the teens were trapped inside the SUV and had to be extricated, Fulton fire Deputy Chief Charles Stubb said. The driver was ejected.
Lexus was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. She was still there Wednesday morning, Hale said.
“Lexus is expected to recover from her injuries,” Hale said.
The tractor-trailer driver was also taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The school system has a counseling team at Langston Hughes to help students and staff, Hale said.
Channel 2 spoke to parent Anissa Williams about the mood inside the school.
“It’s very quiet,” she said. “I've never gone into any school where there's hundreds of children and heard the silence I heard today. And I can truly say it was birthed out of pain.”


****** Questions persist in wreck that killed four Fulton County students

As hundreds of students returned to Langston Hughes High School in South Fulton County on Tuesday in the wake of four classmates killed Monday in a vehicle collision, questions surrounded the circumstances that led to the teens being off campus.

Fulton County Schools spokeswoman Susan Hale said she cannot confirm whether the students were supposed to be on campus during the crash until all are positively identified.

Fulton County Schools officials said Tuesday they could not answer many questions related to the students until all were identified by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The Langston Hughes High students killed in the crash were identified late Tuesday by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office as Isaiah Gregory, 15, Cameron Jones, 16, Ke’Ariy Lopez 14, and Octavious Rhodes, 16.
"As you can imagine it's so sorrowful," said Shannon Flounnory, the district's executive director for safety and security. "Essentially, our students have lost members of their family."
Grief counselors were on hand as students returned to school the day after the fatal accident.
Isabel Ramirez, who said her daughter knew one of the teens who apparently died in the crash, said something must be done to avoid administrators and school police from turning a blind eye as students freely enter and exit the campus, tucked away from Hwy 92 on Hall Road in Fairburn.
"They let the students come and go ... as if it's WalMart," she said.
***** 4 Langston Hughes High students killed in tractor-trailer crash
Four teenagers were killed and another was injured Monday in a crash involving a tractor-trailer and a Lincoln Navigator, Fulton County police said.
The teens were confirmed to be students at Langston Hughes High School, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The school system will have a counseling team at Langston Hughes on Tuesday to help students and staff, Fulton County Schools spokeswoman Susan Hale said.
It was also a bad day for Cobb County schools as two Lassiter High teenagers died in an afternoon crash.
The crash happened around 1:17 p.m. at Campbellton Fairburn and Butner roads in south Fulton, police said.
Five teens, four boys and a girl, were inside the SUV when the crash happened, Fulton police Cpl. Maureen Smith said. Three of the teens were trapped inside the car and had to be extricated, Fulton fire Deputy Chief Charles Stubb said. The driver was ejected.
The girl, who was pulled from the back seat, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with injuries. Her condition was not released.
The tractor-trailer driver was also taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Fulton police said the preliminary investigation revealed that the driver of the SUV ran a red light, causing the collision.
Police did not release the identities of the teens pending notification of next of kin.
No other details were released.

GLADYS KNIGHT'S RESTAURANT SHUT DOWN; ATLANTA NEEDS A WHITE MAYOR

GLADYS KNIGHT'S RESTAURANT SHUT DOWN; ATLANTA NEEDS A WHITE MAYOR

GLADYS KNIGHT'S FAMOUS ATLANTA BASED CHICKEN & WAFFLES FRANCHISE OWES MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN TAXES.

Sources: AJC,  Page Six, NY Daily News, 

The Root, YouTube

Another BLACK-owned Atlanta business bites the dust due to substandard business practices.

This time it's the famous Gladys Knight Chicken & Waffles restaurant, which has long been a staple for Tourists.

Apparently the family-owned franchise was recently shut down because it owes the state of GEORGIA more than $1 Million dollars in back TAXES.

As I mentioned in previous videos about Atlanta, it's high time for this Hub of the Southeast to elect a WHITE Mayor and to attract more WHITE residents.

****** Gladys Knight’s restaurants shut down amid tax evasion allegations

Georgia authorities raided chicken-and-waffle restaurants owned by Gladys Knight‘s son, who is accused of tax evasion.

State Department of Revenue agents served search warrants on Tuesday on the three Atlanta-area locations of Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles, in an unsuccessful bid to arrest Shanga Hankerson.

State agents said Hankerson stole more than $650,000 in sales and withholding taxes for his own use. With penalties and interest, the total would be more than $1 million, officials said.

By lunchtime on Wednesday, all three restaurants were closed.

“It is never The Department of Revenue’s primary goal to shut down a business,” said Josh Waites, investigations chief for the Department of Revenue. “We are working with Mr. Hankerson’s attorney to have the business up and running again as soon as possible.”

State officials hope to strike a deal with Hankerson to put the restaurants into receivership so it can open again.

Gladys Knight — best known for her hit “Midnight Train to Georgia” – is not suspected of any wrongdoing.

UBER & ERIC HOLDER versus KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS (JOBS)

UBER & ERIC HOLDER vs KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS

WHY IS KASIM REED (BLACK MAN) FIGHTING SO HARD TO STOP UBER FROM HIRING BLACK DRIVERS?

ERIC HOLDER PARTNERS WITH TRANSPORTATION GIANT UBER TO HELP EMPLOY QUALIFIED DRIVERS.

Sources: AJC, Sacbee, YouTube

***** Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder backs Uber in letter to Atlanta mayor

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has written a letter to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in support of Uber, as the city considers regulations of Uber pickups at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The Atlanta airport earlier this year proposed to legalize airport ride-share pickups and require fingerprint-based background checks for Uber X and Lyft drivers to pick up at Hartsfield-Jackson. Taxi and limo drivers who have long been fingerprinted say they want a level playing field.

Uber and Lyft have objected to the proposed requirement, saying they do their own background checks, which do not require fingerprints. The city of Atlanta is revising the airport proposal but has not said how it will change.

Holder, who was the nation’s first black attorney general, argues in the letter to Reed: “Requiring fingerprint-based background checks for non-law enforcement purposes can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color.”

Holder’s reasoning, also voiced by Uber: FBI records may lack information about the final outcome of some cases, and may not indicate if someone arrested was charged or convicted, so a fingerprint-based check “can prevent people from getting a job even if they were never found guilty of a crime.” That “disproportionately disadvantages people who have been arrested,” which “can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color,” Holder wrote.

Reed’s office and the airport acknowledged receiving the letter but declined to comment on it.

Holder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 and left office in April 2015, works for law firm Covington & Burling LLP. The firm has a relationship with Uber that is also connected to Holder. Holder’s former chief of staff Margaret Richardson also now works at Covington & Burling and is a member of Uber’s U.S. Safety Advisory Board, providing “critical recommendations and counsel” to Uber.

Holder has written recent similar letters to officials in New Jersey and Chicago amid ride-share debates there.

And former U.S. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan also wrote a letter in support of Uber to Reed. Sullivan is also on Uber’s safety advisory board.

“In my opinion the City’s proposal to require a fingerprint-based background check for drivers doing pick-ups with Uber and Lyft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlatna International Airport will neither increase nor improve airport security,” Sullivan wrote in his letter. He also wrote: “

Because there is a significant lack of information about the final outcome of cases, an individual may be prevented from a work opportunity even if he or she was never convicted or even charged with a crime.”

However, the state’s requirements for a “for-hire endorsement” on a driver license specify that in order to be eligible, applicants shall not have been convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude.

“The standards for the state level are a conviction,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation director of privacy and compliance Dawn Diedrich. A plea of nolo contendere is also considered a conviction.

Diedrich said if there is an arrest on record without information about whether there was a conviction, “you can ask the applicant” if the charges were dismissed.

GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION TALKS RESURFACE AFTER ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING

GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION TALKS RESURFACE AFTER ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING:

ATLANTA, CHICAGO & ORLANDO NEED GUN CONTROL  & ARMED WEAPON LOCKDOWN IMMEDIATELY.

Sources:  CBS News, France24 English, YouTube

Cries for Federal Gun Control legislation have quickly resurfaced after the recent mass shooting event in Orlando, Florida at a Gay nightclub.

Of course whenever there is talk of Federal Gun Control legislation being enacted, many people go crazy about protecting their 2nd amendment rights.

If Congress and Pres Obama are successful in passing Gun Control legislation only Law Enforcement Authorities, Members of the US Military, and perhaps very Wealthy citizens will be legally allowed to possess and fire Armed Weapons.

Guns don't kill people.

People kill people.

However there is no guarantee that even if someone does in fact pass a Criminal and Mental Health Background Check, they will use an Armed Weapon RESPONSIBLY.

Thus the passage of Federal Gun Control legislation should be discussed more intensely.

Especially in wake of the recent Orlando Mass Shooting event.

I don't know where I currently stand on the issue of enacting Federal Gun Control legislation but it is imperative that Gun Control/ Armed Weapon Lockdown be enforced immediately in the cities of Atlanta, Chicago and Orlando.

I'm just saying. 

****** Jeh Johnson: Gun control is now a matter of homeland security

Just days after the massacre in an Orlando nightclub left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Tuesday said that gun control is now a critical element of protecting the U.S. homeland and keeping Americans safe. 

"We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security," Johnson said in an interview on "CBS This Morning." "We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country." 

On the issue of people on the no-fly list and various other lists being able to purchase a weapon in the U.S., Johnson said, "I believe that that's something that has to be addressed."

Johnson said that President Obama is "frustrated" with the lack of action on preventing gun violence, but he's still "determined."

"I thought frankly after Sandy Hook where you have schoolchildren murdered in a classroom that maybe finally this will be the tipping point and we were not able to move the needle in Congress, unfortunately," Johnson said. 

Efforts to make gun laws stricter have failed in Congress over the last decade. The assault weapons ban, for example, expired in 2004 and lawmakers have not renewed that legislation. Democrats on Capitol Hill have grown increasingly frustrated and on Monday evening, shouted down Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, after a moment of silence, demanding to know why the House isn't considering gun control legislation. 

"At this stage in the investigation, we know of no accomplices," said Johnson, who reiterated that the U.S. intelligence community believes it was not a terrorist-directed attack, but rather terrorist-inspired. 

In order to prevent homegrown terrorist attacks in the future, Johnson said it will require the government and the public to deepen their ties to U.S.-Muslim communities. 

"We're going to continue to build bridges to American-Muslim communities, not vilify them and drive them into the corners and shadows," Johnson said.

FBI Director James Comey said Monday that the agency had interviewed the shooter three times between 2013 and 2014 and he was "thoroughly investigated," but the inquiries were eventually closed. The attack is now raising questions about whether the FBI made any mistakes or did anything wrong in their investigations. 

"I have a lot of confidence in the FBI," Johnson said on CBS.

CHARLOTTE vs ATLANTA: SMART SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

CHARLOTTE vs ATLANTA: SMART SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

CHARLOTTE RECEIVES HIGH MARKS FOR SMART SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND URBAN PLANNING.

Sources: DOT.gov, Bloomberg News, Charlotte Center City.org, Youtube

Ten years ago the city of Atlanta, Georgia bypassed the city of Charlotte, North Carolina in population growth and quality of life.

As it relates to business opportunities for Black people, ten years ago Atlanta was deemed to be a "Black Mecca".

Fast forward to the year 2016.

Charlotte is now the place to be!

While Charlotte's population remains right at one million residents versus Atlanta's six million residents, Charlotte receives much higher ratings than Atlanta for Smart Sustainable Growth and Quality of Life.

In the video above I give kudos to Charlotte's leaders for their excellent Development and Urban Planning 

As I mentioned in a previous video, Charlotte is the best venue to host the 2017 NBA All Star games.

***** Appendix: Case Study Profiles

~ Charlotte, North Carolina - Integrated Land Use and Transit Planning

Funding Sources and Amounts: South Corridor received $463 million (47% Federal, 25% State, 28% local sales tax).

South Corridor Infrastructure Program (SCIP) provided $50 million, funded through government-issued bonds. The Smart Growth Fund (for South Corridor) provided $5 million revolving fund to purchase and assemble land around transit stations. General funds.

Years: Mid-1990s–present

Agencies/Organizations Involved: City of Charlotte (Planning, Department of Transportation, Economic Development, Charlotte Area Transit System); towns of Davidson, Huntersville, Cornelius, and Matthews.

Geographic Area: Mecklenburg County of North Carolina; southern Iredell County (for the North Corridor Transit Line).

Problem to Be Addressed

Between the 1970s and 1990s, Charlotte, NC, experienced tremendous population growth as it slowly rose to become a top banking and financial center. Charlotte knew it needed a strategy to ensure the growth was controlled in a way that enhanced the livability of the city and the metro region.

Objectives of Project

The Centers, Corridors, and Wedges visioning effort was undertaken to map out how Charlotte should grow over time and understand what infrastructure investments are needed to support this growth. The integrated land use and transit planning and implementation projects that followed were a direct response to this regional vision.

Summary of Project

Charlotte's successful transit planning and implementation are direct results of a forward-thinking regional growth strategy, coupled with targeted land use and infrastructure investments and a coordinated transit-supportive land use policy and regulatory framework. The multicorridor transit systems plan has begun to be implemented with the highly successful (both from ridership and transit-oriented development (TOD) standpoints) South Corridor LRT (Blue Line).

Type of Funding Used for Project / Plan

• South Corridor: $463 million (47% Federal, 25% State, 28% local sales tax).
• SCIP: $50 million funded through government-issued bonds.
• Smart Growth Fund (for South Corridor): $5 million revolving fund to purchase and assemble land around transit station.
• General funds.

Population Served and Modes Served

Metro Charlotte region residents; all modes.

Project Details

Integrated Land Use and Transit Planning Key Events and Activities

Charlotte is recognized as a national model for integrating land use and transit planning. Its success story starts with a comprehensive regional vision for growth, a deliberate and aggressive policy and infrastructure response to this vision, and a city organizational structure that encourages a broad-based livability focus. The following are the key events and activities related to Charlotte's integrated land use and transit planning:

Centers, Corridors, Wedges Vision Plan.Originally developed in 1994, Charlotte's regional vision provided the development framework that called for focusing most future growth in centers and along five radial corridors. The plan's main goals were to establish long-term growth management strategies for the region and provide guidance to better link transportation and land use. Central to this strategy are proactive and aggressive investment of accompanying transportation and transit infrastructure that supports the targeted growth areas.

2025 Integrated Land Use and Transit Plan.In 1998 the city advanced the regional vision through a 25-year transportation plan. The goals of the plan were to support the "Centers and Corridors" land use vision, expand choices in mode of travel, develop a regional transit system, and support economic growth and sustainable development. Over an intensive 9-month period, a series of transit/land use alternatives was tested for each of the five corridors called out in the regional vision. An extensive public outreach effort fostered community understanding and consensus around the recommended plan, which called for phased implementation of various transit technologies along the five corridors. This and the prior visioning effort galvanized the community around a common vision of sustainable growth supported by thoughtful land use planning and transit investments. Consequently, a half-cent sales tax was passed through a referendum providing a dedicated revenue source projected at $1 billion over 20 years.

Multicorridor Transit Planning, Station Area Plans, and Regulatory Changes. Detailed planning for the transit corridors started immediately after the sales tax referendum passed. The Major Investment Studies (MIS) for all five corridors were conducted in 1999 and 2000, and these recommended a combination of light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcar, commuter rail, and extensive bus systems serving more than 200,000 riders by 2025.

South Corridor (now called the Blue Line) was the first to be advanced among the five corridors, and it received a "highly recommended" rating from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in 2002. It is important to note that even prior to receiving the full funding grant agreement from FTA and while necessary environmental and engineering studies were being conducted, the city was aggressively crafting land use policies and regulations that would support the land use vision set out in "Centers and Corridors" and were necessary to support the transit system's success. The city developed transit station area planning principles, detailed station area planning efforts, and adopted regulatory changes to enable and encourage TOD to occur.

Station Area Joint Development Principles and Policy. Together with the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), the city of Charlotte and towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, and Matthews adopted a set of Transit StationArea Joint Development Principles in 2003. The principles provided the framework for developing around station areas, in a manner that would maximize the benefits to a community. The principles address co-location of public facilities around stations, emphasize the necessity of public infrastructure to serve TOD, support development of affordable housing and public/private partnerships, provide private sector incentives for18 Livability in Transportation Guidebook - Appendix TOD, and encourage location and retention of a mix of transit-supportive businesses. Together with the Station Area Plans, the joint development principles provided the guidance for the city's TOD zoning and SCIP.

South Corridor Infrastructure Plan. The city set aside $25 million investments in streets, sidewalks, and intersection improvements to support the South Corridor LRT, before and during its construction. This targeted investment aimed at "building community," enabled the corridor to be transit-ready, and optimized the TOD potential around each transit station.

By 2008, SCIP had funded the following projects:

• 14 miles of sidewalks
• 1.5 miles of multi-use trails
• 10 miles of bicycle lanes
• 8 miles of street widening
• 7 streetscape improvement projects
• 27 intersection improvements

Other Related Initiatives

Smart Growth Funds. Charlotte set aside $5 million to purchase property around proposed Blue Line stations and prepare the properties for development. For the proposed Scaleybark station area, the city used part of the money to purchase 9 acres of underutilized properties. This property was combined with a parcel that the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) already owned (a former drive-in theater) to form a 17-acre property ready for TOD. Part of the money used to purchase this site was from the city's Housing Trust Fund, which required development to meet a minimum affordable housing threshold.

TOD Development Response Activities.Throughout the transit corridor and station area planning process, the city held several "development response" sessions. These sessions, developed on an on-call basis, were collaborative workshops held with property owners who wanted to develop around station areas. The intent of these sessions was to collaborate with the developers at the early stages of a project to arrive at solutions that were mutually agreeable and would support TOD. The city rallied key staff together to provide in-house and consultant technical expertise. Several successful development response sessions reshaped projects to become more supportive of community goals and transit ridership prior to implementation of transit projects. Examples of development response activities include modifying the design and site plan of a Wal-Mart and an Ikea, developing a lower impact and less costly solution to the "weave" at the US 29/NC 49 interchange, and refining 3030 South Development, a successful TOD built along the Blue Line.

Urban Street Design Guidelines (USDG). The city developed and adopted a set of planning and design standards that call for "complete" streets - streets that provide mobility for motorists while also providing safe and comfortable pedestrian and bicycle travel. With these guidelines, the city of Charlotte is using street design to shape its development patterns and provide residents and visitors with viable choices for how they move about the city. The guidelines include innovative policies, implementation processes, and a context-driven set of standards. Some of the policies include recommending block lengths for new development that create a well-connected street network, wide planting strips, and improved crossings and traffic signal timing to better accommodate pedestrians.

The USDG received the 2009 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Smart Growth Award and is a model for expanding conventional thinking to context-based street design that considers multimodal travel, infrastructure, green space, and neighborhood and business impacts. The city has since applied the guidelines to more than 20 streets and 10 intersections, including seven "road diets." The guidelines have facilitated the increase in the bike lane network from 1 mile in 2000 to more than 55 miles in 2009. The City Council adopted the USDG in October 2007, and city staff are working on adopting it as ordinance.

Interdepartmental Coordination. Charlotte has a strong tradition of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary coordination, from the City Council to the staff level. The partnership and coordination is a result of the organizational structure of the city as well as strong policies that encourage this to occur. Each year the City Council establishes five focus areas for targeting community resources, including housing and neighborhood development, community safety, transportation and planning, economic development, and environmental issues. The goals for these focus areas are the basis for budget decisions and operational programs, and directly translate to specific strategies that are overseen by interdepartmental subcommittees. In fact, these focus area goals are also incorporated in staff allocation and staff professional development and review.

Because of this strong institutionalized structure for interdepartmental cooperation, and because planning, economic development, transportation, and transit are all under the city's purview, the programs and resources of the various departments are more easily and closely aligned toward the same "community building" goals. The multicorridor transit effort was not just a transit project for CATS but a community-building project that must address economic development and land use goals for all of Charlotte.

Neighborhood Quality of Life Report. The city of Charlotte's Neighborhood Services Division, in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, conducts a bi-annual study that gauges the quality of life of various neighborhoods around the city. The study evaluates social, crime, physical, and economic conditions, and includes variables such as population characteristics, crime rate, homeownership and value, projected infrastructure improvement costs, access to transit, access to retail, and walkability. The city uses the results of the study to gauge the effectiveness of programs and evaluate changes needed to improve neighborhood conditions. Although not directly related to the transit initiative, this study is an excellent example of the city's holistic approach to performance measurement that includes land use, transportation, and socioeconomic indicators.

Livability Principles Promoted by Project

Promotion	Livability Principles
F	Increase transportation choices
P	Promote affordable housing
F	Enhance economic competitiveness
F	Support existing communities
P	Coordinate Federal policies and leverage investment
F	Value communities and neighborhoods

P: Partly Supports
F: Fully Supports

Challenges

• How to approach station area and TOD planning differently for urban and suburban areas? We push the envelope even more for urban locations to require higher standards related to livability.
• How do we best coordinate station area planning and TOD efforts with the county Parks Department? The Parks Department is under county jurisdiction and the planning, implementation, and maintenance of parks and open spaces around station areas may not always be the department's priority.
• Funding and maintenance of structured parking and shared parking (shared between the transit station and private development) can be quite challenging.

Successes

• Successful implementation of the Blue Line from both ridership and economic development aspects. The Blue Line opened in November 2007 with 15 stations serving Uptown and neighborhoods on the south side of the city. In 2008, a year after its opening, ridership was already totaling 14,000. This far exceeded the 1999 projected average ridership of 9,100 and almost 80% of the projected ridership for 2025. The city estimates that more than $400 million in private sector development was realized prior to the line's groundbreaking, bringing a projected $1.8 billion in new tax revenue between 2005 and 2011.
• The city proactively developed policies, guidance, and regulations that have helped shape land uses along the future transit routes.
• The city successfully influenced a number of development projects that are occurring along future transit lines to become more transit-supportive, and more importantly, align with community goals through the station area planning development response process.
• The city worked through the issues of development densities and scale, and implemented regulations that will protect residential neighborhoods from impacts of proposed new TOD.

Perspectives on Implementing the Project and Its Impacts

Project Status

As of early 2010, the status of the project is as follows:

• Draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the rest of the five corridors has been completed.
• Preliminary engineering for the Northeast Corridor is underway and scheduled to be completed in 2010.
• The city is awaiting MTC's decision whether to advance the Northeast Corridor and/or the North Corridor for applying to FTA for funding.

Applicability of Lessons Learned to Other Projects or Challenges

• Transit Project and Community Building. The joint authorship and ownership of the transit project across various city departments (transit agency, planning, economic development, and transportation) provided a learning opportunity for everyone, broadening the perspective of each department's focus so that transportation is taken as a consideration but not the only driver of community goals. In the end, the transit project became a community-building project and not simply a mobility project.
• Integrated Transit and Land Use Planning. The project is a great example of a regional land use vision that called for phased transit investment to support sustainable growth. The decision to build transit was coupled with complementary land use planning, strategic infrastructure investment, and transit-supportive policies and regulations to ensure the success of the transit project (from a ridership standpoint) and realize the community vision.

Roles of MPOs / DOTs and Policy / Plan Outcomes

The city has a healthy partnership with the local MPO, the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO). The city holds the unique role of maintaining the region's travel demand model for the MPO. The city's understanding of the community's development pattern ensures that a better calibrated model that reflects the multimodal travel demand conditions of an urban setting is used to forecast future conditions. With the Blue Line now built, the Charlotte DOT and CATS are looking at even more accurate data for transit ridership forecasts to plan for the other four transit corridors.

The North Carolina DOT is looking at the city of Charlotte as a case study for how transportation solutions can better respond to the needs and intricacies of urban places. Through the USDG and projects such as the US 29/NC 49 conversion from a grade-separated interchange to a more community and transit-supportive network solution, the city is helping to re-shape thinking toward more context-sensitive transportation solutions at the State level. The city was closely involved in drafting the State's "Complete Streets" policy.

For More Information

Sources and Other Resources:

• http://www.charmeck.org/
• http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/2009-national-award-smart-growth-achievement#policies_reg
• Danny Pleasant, Director, Charlotte Department of Transportation
• Laura Harmon, Assistant Director – Planning Services, Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Department
• Tina Votaw, TOD Specialist, Charlotte Area Transit System 
• Tom Warshauer, Community and Commerce Manager, Charlotte Neighborhood & Business Services

• Top
 
• <<
 
• < Prev
 
• Contents
 
• 4
 
• 5
 
• 6
 
• 7
 
• 8
 
• 9
 
• 10
 
• 11
 
• 12
 
• 13
 
• Next >
 
• >>