October 23, 2025 • 35 mins
Tune in here to this Thursday edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Today, Breaking Brett Jensen sits down with Charlotte community leader David Longo to talk about several relevant topics in the city of Charlotte. One of those is the one-cent sales tax referendum that is included on ballot in the ongoing Mecklenburg County election. Longo states that the one-cent sales tax increase is important to the city's infrastructure, mentioning that he has yet to meet someone who doesn't believe Charlotte has a traffic congestion problem. To further define the congestion problem, he says if you sit through one light cycle on your commute, that is classified as a systemic failure that needs to be addressed.
Another topic that Longo addresses with Jensen is the ongoing issue of crime within the city limits. Jensen notes that CMPD continues to use the word "perception" when addressing crime, despite murders in the Uptown area being up two-200%. Describing the decision to hold a recent press conference to address this topic, Longo highlights that a lot of people in the community express concerns about the details of what the crime statistics were showing. He also recognizes that Charlotte center city is considered "the gathering place in the community", therefore it needs to be a place that is pristine and free of violence.
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi, Oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Go oh, Let's go News Talk eleven ten and ninety
nine three WBT Brent Jenson here with you on this
Thursday night edition of Breaking with Bretjenson as we go
up until seven o'clock tonight seven four or five, seven
eleven ten. And guys, make sure you follow me on
X at Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lettuce and
breaking news in and around.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
The Shawn area.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And I always tell you I mean that sincerely, because
if you've been following me on X, you would know
that we were the first ones to report I was
on X that there had been an officer involved shooting
outside of Pinkies at the corner of Freedom and Morehead.
You'd also know that I was the one to first
report that officers had been shot at but the officer
was fine, was not hit.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And then I also it was the.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
First to report that the suspect was hit in the leg.
There is a murderer up there on Brookshire Boulevard going
north out of the city, and that happened at a
QT parking lot and that started to chase and that
it ended right outside our building at the corner of
Freedom and morehead.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So you're up to date on that.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Anna Ericson will keep you update throughout the news throughout
the rest of the night during the newscast, and I
will tell you traffic's a disaster out there right now,
and especially this part of the town. And you've got
Pam Warner that would be giving you traffic updates throughout
the rest of the night as well.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So I told you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Guys last night that David Longo, he is the guy.
I won't say he's the heartbeat of Charlotte. He's more
like the heart surgeon of Charlotte. He keeps it pumping.
He keeps the heart going in terms of all the
stuff going on in uptown and businesses, governments, and like
he deals with the police departments and everything else.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So I thought, you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Know what, today is the first day of early voting
across twenty one sites in Mecklenburg County. I actually voted
this morning while interviewing candidates, and I went, you know
what on the ballot is the one sent sales tax
and has been gaining a lot of recognition and a
lot of notoriety, some good, some bad over the last
several months and David Longo, who is part of the
(02:27):
Charlotte Center City Partners. He's agreed to come in town
with me or come in studio with me to talk
about the one cent sales tax and also the crime
at Charlotte, especially specifically uptown where murders are up two
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
As of October fifth, and rapes.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Are up and our armed robberies are up, and everything's
up in Uptown as we know. So I wanted to
bring him in here. So first of all, David, thank
you for coming in here. And because I don't know
your official title, because you have your hands in a
lot of different pots, what is your official title, like,
what is it specifically so people know who you are.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, I run a small business in the community, but
I serve as the chair of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.
I'm also co chairing the campaign for the transportation referendum,
and as you alluded, I also serve on the executive
committee and Board of directors for Charlotte Center City Partner,
which is the MSD that manages activity and Center City
(03:25):
in South End. So a lot of crossover of those organizations.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And you deal with people in Raleigh and in DC
and everywhere else right, and government officials and like you
deal with a lot of business leaders, you deal with everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yes, okay, a lot of great people. One of the
things I love about this community is that how the
public private partnership exists, in how many people care and
on this particular referendum. This has been the work of
It's been five plus years countless numbers of people who
have been involved at all different levels to get us
(04:00):
where we are today. And now we're at a critical
point with early voting underway in the full formal election
on the fourth of November, and we're very positive about
where we're going with this, but we need to pass
this referendum to continue to move our city forward.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So that's where we'll start there with the tax situation first,
Like I said, voting open up to the entire county today,
no matter where you vote, whether it's Huntersville or Pineville
or anywhere in between. The one since sales tax referendum
will be on the ballot and I know clearly you
are in favor of it. Many leaders in the city
are show it or are in favor of it. Not all,
(04:40):
but many are. And in terms of the business leaders uptown.
I know many of them are all in favor of this,
So I will just tell you.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I'll ask you put it this.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Way, why should people vote for this?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think you could simply start with I have yet
to meet anyone in the community who does not believe
that we have a congestion problem. You experience a little
bit more of that congestion today on the way over here.
But if anyone sits through, if anyone's been driving to work,
going anywhere in the community and you sit through more
than one light cycle, that is defined in transit terms
(05:18):
as systemic failure, and we have that all over the city.
We're growing by one hundred and fifty seven people a day.
My rough estimates say that that's going to put about
thirty five thousand more cars on the street per year.
And we're blessed to be a growing region, so we
have to invest in our infrastructure to do that. What
(05:40):
I think is really important about this particular legislation and
referendum is that it was carefully crafted. And sometimes I
hear that, well, this bide or that side didn't necessarily
get their voice. The reality is that we have been
working with the community in people to gather voice and
(06:03):
inspiration and guidance to form this. Over the last five years,
we've had to work with the City of Charlotte, the
County of Mecklenburg, all the towns, and the Raleigh Legislature.
And if you follow any of that, you understand that
you have Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between. I view
this as a great example of fantastic or classic public
(06:27):
policy making, where everyone's contributing, everyone's pulling and pushing, and
therefore everyone doesn't get everything that they wanted. But if
we do not address congestion, then what I believe you'll
see is a slowing in economic growth. And when you
see economic growth slow down, you see opportunities for upward
(06:49):
mobility to slow down. It limits people's ability to get
to work, and that just worsens the situations that we
have versus us moving in a positive direction.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Okay, so what we're going to do throughout this show
tonight the two primary topics will be the one since
sales tax. I will question David about certain things about
the one since sales tax. If it's things that are
being said or things that I'm hearing, are they true?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Are they not true?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
When it comes to security and it comes to everything else,
and so we're going to talk about that, and then
we're also speaking of security, we're going to be talking
about the crime situation going on in uptown and how
the Charlotte Center City Partners just two weeks ago held
a press conference to address that situation, trying to come
up with ideas to limit the crime that has been
just rampant and the worst in the history of Charlotte
(07:39):
in uptown at least going back to as long as
they've been keeping statistics. Not exactly sure how about it
was in seventeen eighty four, but right now I can
tell you as long as the FBI has been keeping statistics,
it's the worst that Charlotte has been.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Although I will say before we get to break, I will.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Say, having grown up here and you know, having seen
all through the seventies and the eighties and the nineties
and all that, there was two things, you know, before
the Panthers came that sort of started changing things. When
they built the stadium uptown that really started changing it.
But you were not prior to the Panthers Bank of
(08:16):
American Stadium being built. Back then it was called Ericson Stadium,
but prior to that, you were not caught uptown after dark.
No one went uptown. There were certain little pockets, but
you didn't go uptown after dark. And if you wanted
a crack or hookers or both, you went to the
corner of trade and try on. That was the whole thing.
(08:36):
And if you can't trade on, try on, try on trade.
That was the joke, right So, But anyway, but it
was bad. We knew it was bad in the eighties
and in the early nineties. But since then uptown has
been a gathering spot, except for like the last five
years now it's sort of started going away, and businesses
have been struggling up there as well, in the bars
(08:57):
and the nightlife and everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So we'll get into all of them later on in
the show.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
But when we return, I'm gonna ask David some questions
about the one since sales tax, you know, specifically, does
it involve security, will it pay for security, Who's in
charge of the.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Money, how will things get passed?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
All of those things, because I have a lot of
questions about this as well, because I will be honest
with you, I did not read the entire bill passed
in Raleigh. Welcome back to breaking with Brett Jensen on
this Thursday night as we go up until seven o'clock.
Sitting in studio with me tonight is David Longo, who
(09:35):
is omnipresent with a lot of different things going on
in the city of Charlotte, specifically uptown and businesses and
the one sent sales tax and the crime going on
up there. He is, like I said, he may not
be the heartbeat of Charlotte, but he is one of
the surgeons, one of the heart surgeons of Charlotte, keeping
things active and making things, making sure things.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Go well that city leaders and police leaders listen.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay, So let's let's dive into some more of those
ones in sales text David, Okay, what is the projection
of the amount of money that this will bring in
over the thirty years?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Is it three hundred million? What is it thirty million? Like,
what's the numbers that we are hearing? So thirty billion?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
So the numbers based upon our estimates, and it was
an end up study about this would be about nineteen
point four billion dollars raised through the tax in about
six billion dollars of available federal matching funds for transit
so essentially twenty five billion dollars over thirty years. What's
(10:43):
important about that is that in our studies and you
can look at for example, blue Line et cetera, that
twenty five billion dollars of investment will translate to two
hundred and fifty billion dollars of economic development. So it's
a aime changer for the growth of our city and
(11:04):
it addresses critical needs and infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
All right, So now, so we're gonna have twenty five
billion dollars over thirty years. Very few people will trust
government officials to spend that wisely or appropriately. I mean,
they can't even handle what's going on with the city attorney,
for God's sakes and get that right, or the paths
to Johnny Jennings. They can't even get that right a
lot of times. So how can you trust a city
(11:31):
government with twenty five billion dollars or a county government?
Is the county or the city in charge of the money.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So what will happen when voters approve the transportation referendum
is that will move forward the motion to the stand
up of an independent authority, which the way the funding
will start is because of how taxes are collected funding
won't start coming into the authority until October November of
(12:00):
next year, but there's a whole bunch of groundwork that
has to be done in the interim to take all
of the assets that currently sit inside the city in
cats and transfer those to the authority and oversight of
all of the spending in that whole transit system. Bus
in rail will be under the twenty seven member authority,
(12:23):
and the way that authority is appointed is that the
governor has an appointment, the House and the Senate of
the legislature gets to one appointment each. I was appointed
under that and also Ned Kerrn, and we are doing
a lot of the kind of getting things organized. The
(12:45):
city is in the process of taking applications and reviewing
them and doing interviews, as is the county, and then
each of the towns get to appoint someone. So it's
a large number of people, but we believe the way
we'll organize it will be well organized, broken down into
a strong committee structure, and the benefit of that is
(13:06):
that you now have appointed officials who are making decisions
on how to spend that money and invest in our
future without having to deal with thinking about re election.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And I think.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Highly of a lot of our elected officials at state, local,
and federal level, and we might differ on how to
approach certain things, but there's a lot of people who
really do care, but they have to run for office
every two years. Think about Congress, it's every two years.
They're constantly running. Someone who's appointed the authority. You're not
(13:43):
running for office. You have to have qualifications. So there's
very specific qualifications in the Payact to ensure that people
who understand, who have the acumen to run a multi
billion dollar organization can properly oversee that. So we feel
good about moving this into an independent authority.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
All right, So they're going to be one in charge
of all the decision making. That's good to note that
it won't be like.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Five or six, it'll be what is it, twenty twenty seven,
twenty seven?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, So now let's go to safety, right because yesterday
was the sixty days since Serrino Zerisko was stabbed. We've
had a lot of issues on the Cat's buses in
the past. People don't necessarily feel safe on the light,
on the rail trail and all that. So with that
being said, of any of this twenty five billion, will
any of it go towards security, because there was the
(14:36):
famous quote from the Transportation Secretary saying if they can't
protect what they got, why would we help them expand
so will that be.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, And we've been able to work with Secretary Duffy
in his office and Mark Molnaro who is the administrator
of the Transportation Administration, and they are a proponent of
having this go into an independent authority. They think that's
the best practice and from a security perspective, safety and
(15:08):
security perspective, we are looking at the ability to stand
up an independent sworn police officer force. As you know,
KATZ has been investing significantly in the security side of things.
I always have to get my terminology correctly because when
you think about transit safety is really how the system runs.
(15:31):
I always say, you don't crash the bush or the train,
and security is keeping people safe in the system. So
the intent is to move forward with an independent police force.
There's a lot of benefits to that. I think that
with KATZ has taken from about six million dollars of
(15:53):
investment around safety to eighteen million dollars is definitely a
good step forward. They are are also actively enforcing fares currently,
which is a good another good step forward. So yeah,
so it's not there's not a person standing at every
train in every bus, but we are actively out there
(16:14):
enforcing fairs. People that I talk to who are riding
rail and bus are seeing them noticeably, as you also
know that they have a private contractor. Today in the
open positions there have been backfilled by off duty CMPD officers.
I really love that because they are uniformed CMPD officers,
(16:35):
so we are fully staffed in that arena. And we
believe that the best practice is to have a independent
police force. Think UNC Charlotte or any of our other universities,
there's an independent sworn police officer force. Chief Baker at
UNC Charlotte gets up every day thinking about this, say
yeah CMS, thinking about the safety of those students and
(16:58):
everything around them. But yet they have a strong MoU
working collaboratively with CMPD, and we think that that's the
best practice.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
So I think that will be priority one.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
People want to make sure that they're going to be
safe if they're actually going to vote for this and
use this thing.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So when we come.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Back with David Longo, who again Charlotte Center City Partners
and the US.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
What's the Regional Business Regional Business Alliance?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thank you, the Regional Business Alliance, And as well.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
As like deals with officials in Raleigh and here in
Charlotte and the first responders.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Like he deals with all of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So we'll talk more about this when we return, because
I want to talk to him about Okay, Matthews, let's
talk about what are people going to get out of this?
Like what are people going to get that live in
Dilworth or live in Balatine or live anywhere? So what
are people going to get about get with this if
they decide to vote yes for this?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Hey, mom said, will you move, make swistle? Make you.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Thursday night,
David Longo.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Is in studio with me for the full hour.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
He's an expert on the one since sales tax as
well as a lot of the crime in the situation
going on in uptown because he works and deals with uptown,
you know, whether it's the Charlotte Center City Partners or
the CRBA Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. He deals with the
people up and Riley. He deals with CMPD, He deals
with the businesses and so he knows better than anyone
(18:27):
probably in the city of Charlotte what's going on in
terms of uptown and this one since sales tax, so
one said, sales tax. I'm going to put it very,
very bluntly, Matthews is the one town that's dead set
against this, although there are other people in other pockets
that are against it, especially up.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
North, but specifically Matthews. Why should Matthews.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And the residents vote for this one sent sales tax
because Mint Hills all on board right next door to them.
So why should the people of Matthews who are upset
at this, why should they vote for it?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well, first of all, I would recharacterize that and say
that it's not everyone in Matthews is against this, because
even if you look at their city, the town council,
not everyone was against it. It was actually a pretty
close vote to be able to get them to come
on board.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And so I would start with again, how this legislation
was drafted. Forty percent of the money goes to roads,
forty percent of the money goes to rails, twenty percent
to buses. And one might even say, well, why why
less to buses versus rail because you can do a
whole lot more with buses in rapid bus transit for
(19:41):
half the cost, So you get a lot done. When
I think about communities that don't have rail going to it,
you think about number one, how are we going to
alleviate congestion. So a good example is the town of
Matthews will get five point four million dollars a year
in additional road money. If you look at how much
they spend in road today or their total budget, that
(20:04):
is significant. So they get that money going towards it
the bus system, and I think one of the hidden
gems on the bus side is the micro transit component
of this. So for those people that don't know what
micro transit is, you need to think uber in a
public way. It is very costly to bring adduestional bus
(20:26):
routes in, particularly when you don't have mass riders. Thus
that's why mass transit needs to have massing to it.
But you can have a small vehicle that can pick
people up inside of their zone and get them to
a transit stop, whether it be a bus stop or
a rail stop or anywhere within that zone. So the
(20:48):
way I like to paint a picture of this is
if you think about, for example, the single mom who
has a three year old and a four year old.
It's a rainy day and they need to get to
a bus stop or a rail stop or even the
grocery store. Then get picked up at their front door,
taken to the grocery store for two dollars and ten cents.
(21:10):
Because under five years old, those children aren't paying to
be on the system, they can then get picked up
and taken back home. The micro transit system sprawls all
through our county and expands our reach and will provide
tremendous uplift. As you start to improve roads, it starts
to decrease commute times and the infrastructure and rail will
(21:36):
The silver line is planned currently to go to the
Boplex bud Yes Bojengles Colisseum and the Payack actually requires
the authority to explore ways to extend it further. That
is a requirement. It's something that's if this is approved,
(21:57):
will immediately be put into place, and if they're there's
ways for us to be able to reduce cost. There
are potentially the opportunity to extend it further. Not going
to promise that because we don't have that data. Yet,
but once you also get it to the Bojangles Arena,
Coliseum Arena area, even in the future, you have the
(22:18):
ability to extend it. I also think it's important to
think about the impact. The initial impact you'll feel u
quicker on roads because that money starts hitting quicker. Then
you'll start seeing impact on bus in micro transit, the
rail stuff. Even where we own the right away under
the city for the Red Line, you're essentially probably eight
(22:39):
years away from seeing that built out, and when you
think about the Silver Line, a little bit longer. So
we're working on a thirty year plan. We're thinking about
the future. I'm thinking about my kids and my grandkids.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Okay, so we've got like two three minutes here. If
this by chance failed and is not passed, what are
the ramifications.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Ramifications are Congestion is going to continue to increase, The
CAT system will continue to operate. I don't know that
we'll have additional funds beyond what they have to continue
to expand security. That they have done a really good
job of increasing. The one cent sales tax allows us
(23:26):
a lot of options. It allows us to improve roads.
There's also this concept of orphan roads that exist throughout
the county that would be have the money to bring
them up the standards so that the state can take
over the maintenance of them. The option failure is not
an option in my mind, and there's really not a
(23:46):
plan be we have to be successful.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And I know, like one of the things you know
that some of the candidates are running on for Starlve
City Council is that they want to make sure that
their neighborhoods, their districts get their fair share of road improvements.
And again I think that's what they're saying, thing, we
just what we need. We need to make sure that
it's not just going to one place, it's going to
everyone's getting a slice of the pie.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, So what I would say there is the city
has done Remember money is going to go to each
of the towns, and in the City of Charlotte, the
city has done an extensive survey of the needs and
you can find it online. There is a very detailed
book that takes you through location by location of what
(24:30):
will be road improvements, what will be sidewalk improvements, et cetera.
So it's all out there available on the city website
to see exactly where they're planning to spend that the
money again that goes to roads in their purview, which
for the City of Charlotte, I believe that's about one
hundred and two million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All right, so when we return, now, let's talk about
crime and uptown, because it was just two weeks ago
that David Longo was part of a press conference with
the Shelttle Center City Partners about I'm in Uptown and
things that they're trying to do to alleviate the crime
in uptown because murders are up two hundred percent. Crime
is up across the board in Uptown. So we'll talk
about that when we return. Welcome back to Breaking with
(25:33):
Brad Jenson with David Longo.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
We're going up. Got about ten more minutes to go
here on the show.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Before we send you on over to TJ Ritchie. Okay,
so now let's get into crime. Unless there's one or
two other things real quick that you want to talk
about concerning the ones that sales tax if we haven't
covered it.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Otherwise, let's dive into crime.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You dive into crime, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
A couple of weeks ago, you were part of a
press conference with the Charlottle Center City Partners talking about
the crime at Uptown even though CMPD keeps keeps saying
the term perception perception, and I'm like, okay, so that's
where our last week I called them out about using
the word perception in the middle of their press conference.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I said, clearly, someone's telling you to use that. That's
your new buzzword. I said, But reality is, murders are
up two hundred percent in Uptown, and crime across the
board isn't up in Uptown. Now is crime down in
all the other precincts in Charlotte one hundred percent? It
is down except for Uptown, where ed has exploded. And
Uptown is the face of Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
That's where the sporting events happen, That's where the concerts happened,
the street festivals happen.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Up there.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You have restaurants that are still trying to make it
up there, tons of hotels, a lot of activity in Uptown.
When they show a Carolina Panthers game on National TV
on ESPN, they're not showing neighborhoods in Providence, They're showing Uptown.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
That is the face of Charlotte. It is Uptown the skyline.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
So crime is clearly a problem in uptown this year
compared to last year. So you and the Charlotte Center
City partners and the people part of that business leaders
got together and decided to hold a press conference.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
What was the what was.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
The emphasis or the push that decided to make you
guys have a press conference?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, well it actually back up. I think that a
lot of people had concerns about what the crime statistics
were showing. And you know, you can talk perception, reality,
et cetera. I would argue that if you I can
make numbers look in a lot of different ways, depending
up on how far back I want to go, et cetera.
(27:45):
But clearly you're right. Charlotte Center City is the face.
It's where people come to work together, it's where people
come to all of our events. It's the gathering place,
and we see that as a place that needs to
be our whole community needs to be safe. But we
can't have the numbers going through. You laid out the
(28:06):
numbers clearly what they are about. On Actually it was
July twenty third we convened a public safety task force.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
So a month before the arenas, there was good.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Murder, a month before the murder and if you want
to mark that date. It was actually the Tuesday after
the Bar Alley shooting, which was considered a mass shooting
because we had one homicide and we had five people shot.
And what that group is consistent of is it is
the manager of the city, the mayor has participated, the
(28:41):
manager of the county, the chair of the county Council
or other council members, business leaders, the district attorney, Justice Wigins,
And it was an attempt to bring a bunch of
people together to try to figure out how we hold
ittically solve this issue. This is not a simple issue
(29:03):
to solve. It's big and its complex. If you study crime,
it goes beyond just police officers on the street. So
that was the purpose of convening at work. We're about
twelve thirteen weeks into it, and we have been moving,
i think, very quickly to and put in place different initiatives. So,
for example, one of the things that was changed very
(29:24):
quickly in Center City was bringing together a group of
not only CMPD but the ABC folks, et cetera, to
focus on what's happening at these bars and making sure
that we're controlling the situation. Afterwards, they have now instituted
(29:45):
what a call the Crown Program. I'm not going to
be able to tell you exactly the acronym, but it
stands for something Charlotte da da da. But the focus
is to make sure that we are one hundred percent
enforcing in our laws on the books. Now, I know
that you might be looking at me saying, well, that's
a novel idea, but that is what is beginning to happen,
(30:06):
and you're going to see some reaction to it, because
sometimes when you're doing some of this stuff, some people
aren't going to like it. But it's essentially taking a
nope tolerance policy. It's increasing the number of officers. So
coming out of the last class out of the academy,
there was an increased proportion of officers put on the
street in Center City or Central Division. We have all
(30:31):
of our recruits, for example, have to go through training
for walking controls, so they're putting all of those recruits
so we get higher visibility in center City. They've increased
this about like what I would call a third shift
that takes or fourth shift that takes place when sort
of the peak bar hours to make sure that we
have a higher degree of coverage Center City Partners through
(30:55):
a partnership called the INITIATI called the Uptown Vibrancy Initiative.
Working with business leaders has doubled the amount of ambassadors
on the street. Again, people do not only guide people,
but create higher amount of visibility. We are working with
the public, with the public sector on for example, linking
(31:15):
their camera system into the CMPD PUSIS program so we
can get higher visibility and better coverage. There is an
initiative called own your Own Block where these businesses are
taking safety security all the way to the curb to
make sure that we're engaging and also activating. Activating is
(31:36):
a key part of making a place to feel safe
and be safe. So there are a number of issues.
We have to continue to deal with the homeless issue
on our streets and we have to do that. We
also have to think about what are the shelters that
we have to put in place or expand. And there
are some things that are happening very quickly to create
(31:56):
more and some will take a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So but now let's talk about the situation at the
bars and at night. I know that you told me
off air, and I'll let you explain a little bit
further detail about street vendors, lights, stuff like that, cleaning
the streets. Can you just tell people about that and
(32:21):
go in a little bit of a detail about that.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, so, and to tie that into the press conferences
as we felt like we can start to roll out initiatives.
The first press conference was around cats in talking about
investing in the bikes in the urban terrain vehicles, increase
people on transit. Second press conference was to talk about
(32:45):
other initiatives starting in Uptown. Today there was a press
conference to talk about environmental so things that are done
to increase lighting and cleanse the clean more cleanliness to
the city. So when the bars are closed down, one
of the challenges is that you have illegal street vendors
out there. I'm not going to sit here and tell
(33:06):
you that these are nefarious, bad people out here. It
might be someone running a food truck trying to make
a living, but the reality is they have permits for
certain periods of time. When you have people coming out
of a bar at two in the morning after they've
been maybe consuming alcohol, and now they're not in a
secure environment because the bars are relatively secure with their security,
(33:26):
I kind of say, well, what can go wrong, and
so the concept is to eliminate those illegal street vendors
to disperse people to come in and clean the streets,
which also moves people away and starts to disperse, and
so you eliminate future problems and that combined with the
(33:47):
increased law enforcement presence. So a good example of this
work is if you followed that the it's called the
Brooklyn lounge license was revoked because of this type of
work working with ABC and CMPD, and that's eliminating a problem.
We had two homicides outside of that this year.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, like I said, there's a lot going on, and
we could probably talk for about another thirty forty five
minutes at least. But I do appreciate you coming in
tonight because there are some misconceptions, including from me, in
misunderstandings about the ones that sales tax I have a
pretty good finger on the pulse of what's happening in
uptown in the crime and stuff like that, but all
the extra things that are being done, I appreciate you
(34:33):
explaining it to us and especially to the listeners. So
I know there's a lot going on, there's a lot
of things that you have to deal with, but so
I do appreciate.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You coming in here tonight for the full hour.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, well, thank you, thanks for having me. I care
passionately about our city and look at your voice is
important because we need to make sure that we're all
voicing our concerns so we can make sure they're addressed.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That is David Longo, shall it Center City Partners, Business Owners,
There's Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, and many many other things
that he's got the pots that he's got his hands
involved in. All right, So that's going to do it
for us tonight. I appreciate everyone listening. My name is
Brett Jensen, coming up next to the TJ. Richie Show,
and you have been listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen
Hi, Oh, Let's go oh, Let's go oh, Let's.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Go oh, Let's go News Talk eleven ten and ninety
nine three WBT Brent Jenson here with you on this
Thursday night edition of Breaking with Bretjenson as we go
up until seven o'clock tonight seven four or five, seven
eleven ten. And guys, make sure you follow me on
X at Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lettuce and
breaking news in and around.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
The Shawn area.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
And I always tell you I mean that sincerely, because
if you've been following me on X, you would know
that we were the first ones to report I was
on X that there had been an officer involved shooting
outside of Pinkies at the corner of Freedom and Morehead.
You'd also know that I was the one to first
report that officers had been shot at but the officer
was fine, was not hit.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And then I also it was the.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
First to report that the suspect was hit in the leg.
There is a murderer up there on Brookshire Boulevard going
north out of the city, and that happened at a
QT parking lot and that started to chase and that
it ended right outside our building at the corner of
Freedom and morehead.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So you're up to date on that.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Anna Ericson will keep you update throughout the news throughout
the rest of the night during the newscast, and I
will tell you traffic's a disaster out there right now,
and especially this part of the town. And you've got
Pam Warner that would be giving you traffic updates throughout
the rest of the night as well.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So I told you.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Guys last night that David Longo, he is the guy.
I won't say he's the heartbeat of Charlotte. He's more
like the heart surgeon of Charlotte. He keeps it pumping.
He keeps the heart going in terms of all the
stuff going on in uptown and businesses, governments, and like
he deals with the police departments and everything else.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So I thought, you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Know what, today is the first day of early voting
across twenty one sites in Mecklenburg County. I actually voted
this morning while interviewing candidates, and I went, you know
what on the ballot is the one sent sales tax
and has been gaining a lot of recognition and a
lot of notoriety, some good, some bad over the last
several months and David Longo, who is part of the
(02:27):
Charlotte Center City Partners. He's agreed to come in town
with me or come in studio with me to talk
about the one cent sales tax and also the crime
at Charlotte, especially specifically uptown where murders are up two
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
As of October fifth, and rapes.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Are up and our armed robberies are up, and everything's
up in Uptown as we know. So I wanted to
bring him in here. So first of all, David, thank
you for coming in here. And because I don't know
your official title, because you have your hands in a
lot of different pots, what is your official title, like,
what is it specifically so people know who you are.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, I run a small business in the community, but
I serve as the chair of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.
I'm also co chairing the campaign for the transportation referendum,
and as you alluded, I also serve on the executive
committee and Board of directors for Charlotte Center City Partner,
which is the MSD that manages activity and Center City
(03:25):
in South End. So a lot of crossover of those organizations.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And you deal with people in Raleigh and in DC
and everywhere else right, and government officials and like you
deal with a lot of business leaders, you deal with everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yes, okay, a lot of great people. One of the
things I love about this community is that how the
public private partnership exists, in how many people care and
on this particular referendum. This has been the work of
It's been five plus years countless numbers of people who
have been involved at all different levels to get us
(04:00):
where we are today. And now we're at a critical
point with early voting underway in the full formal election
on the fourth of November, and we're very positive about
where we're going with this, but we need to pass
this referendum to continue to move our city forward.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So that's where we'll start there with the tax situation first,
Like I said, voting open up to the entire county today,
no matter where you vote, whether it's Huntersville or Pineville
or anywhere in between. The one since sales tax referendum
will be on the ballot and I know clearly you
are in favor of it. Many leaders in the city
are show it or are in favor of it. Not all,
(04:40):
but many are. And in terms of the business leaders uptown.
I know many of them are all in favor of this,
So I will just tell you.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I'll ask you put it this.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Way, why should people vote for this?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think you could simply start with I have yet
to meet anyone in the community who does not believe
that we have a congestion problem. You experience a little
bit more of that congestion today on the way over here.
But if anyone sits through, if anyone's been driving to work,
going anywhere in the community and you sit through more
than one light cycle, that is defined in transit terms
(05:18):
as systemic failure, and we have that all over the city.
We're growing by one hundred and fifty seven people a day.
My rough estimates say that that's going to put about
thirty five thousand more cars on the street per year.
And we're blessed to be a growing region, so we
have to invest in our infrastructure to do that. What
(05:40):
I think is really important about this particular legislation and
referendum is that it was carefully crafted. And sometimes I
hear that, well, this bide or that side didn't necessarily
get their voice. The reality is that we have been
working with the community in people to gather voice and
(06:03):
inspiration and guidance to form this. Over the last five years,
we've had to work with the City of Charlotte, the
County of Mecklenburg, all the towns, and the Raleigh Legislature.
And if you follow any of that, you understand that
you have Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between. I view
this as a great example of fantastic or classic public
(06:27):
policy making, where everyone's contributing, everyone's pulling and pushing, and
therefore everyone doesn't get everything that they wanted. But if
we do not address congestion, then what I believe you'll
see is a slowing in economic growth. And when you
see economic growth slow down, you see opportunities for upward
(06:49):
mobility to slow down. It limits people's ability to get
to work, and that just worsens the situations that we
have versus us moving in a positive direction.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Okay, so what we're going to do throughout this show
tonight the two primary topics will be the one since
sales tax. I will question David about certain things about
the one since sales tax. If it's things that are
being said or things that I'm hearing, are they true?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Are they not true?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
When it comes to security and it comes to everything else,
and so we're going to talk about that, and then
we're also speaking of security, we're going to be talking
about the crime situation going on in uptown and how
the Charlotte Center City Partners just two weeks ago held
a press conference to address that situation, trying to come
up with ideas to limit the crime that has been
just rampant and the worst in the history of Charlotte
(07:39):
in uptown at least going back to as long as
they've been keeping statistics. Not exactly sure how about it
was in seventeen eighty four, but right now I can
tell you as long as the FBI has been keeping statistics,
it's the worst that Charlotte has been.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Although I will say before we get to break, I will.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Say, having grown up here and you know, having seen
all through the seventies and the eighties and the nineties
and all that, there was two things, you know, before
the Panthers came that sort of started changing things. When
they built the stadium uptown that really started changing it.
But you were not prior to the Panthers Bank of
(08:16):
American Stadium being built. Back then it was called Ericson Stadium,
but prior to that, you were not caught uptown after dark.
No one went uptown. There were certain little pockets, but
you didn't go uptown after dark. And if you wanted
a crack or hookers or both, you went to the
corner of trade and try on. That was the whole thing.
(08:36):
And if you can't trade on, try on, try on trade.
That was the joke, right So, But anyway, but it
was bad. We knew it was bad in the eighties
and in the early nineties. But since then uptown has
been a gathering spot, except for like the last five
years now it's sort of started going away, and businesses
have been struggling up there as well, in the bars
(08:57):
and the nightlife and everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
So we'll get into all of them later on in
the show.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
But when we return, I'm gonna ask David some questions
about the one since sales tax, you know, specifically, does
it involve security, will it pay for security, Who's in
charge of the.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Money, how will things get passed?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
All of those things, because I have a lot of
questions about this as well, because I will be honest
with you, I did not read the entire bill passed
in Raleigh. Welcome back to breaking with Brett Jensen on
this Thursday night as we go up until seven o'clock.
Sitting in studio with me tonight is David Longo, who
(09:35):
is omnipresent with a lot of different things going on
in the city of Charlotte, specifically uptown and businesses and
the one sent sales tax and the crime going on
up there. He is, like I said, he may not
be the heartbeat of Charlotte, but he is one of
the surgeons, one of the heart surgeons of Charlotte, keeping
things active and making things, making sure things.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Go well that city leaders and police leaders listen.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Okay, So let's let's dive into some more of those
ones in sales text David, Okay, what is the projection
of the amount of money that this will bring in
over the thirty years?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Is it three hundred million? What is it thirty million? Like,
what's the numbers that we are hearing? So thirty billion?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
So the numbers based upon our estimates, and it was
an end up study about this would be about nineteen
point four billion dollars raised through the tax in about
six billion dollars of available federal matching funds for transit
so essentially twenty five billion dollars over thirty years. What's
(10:43):
important about that is that in our studies and you
can look at for example, blue Line et cetera, that
twenty five billion dollars of investment will translate to two
hundred and fifty billion dollars of economic development. So it's
a aime changer for the growth of our city and
(11:04):
it addresses critical needs and infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
All right, So now, so we're gonna have twenty five
billion dollars over thirty years. Very few people will trust
government officials to spend that wisely or appropriately. I mean,
they can't even handle what's going on with the city attorney,
for God's sakes and get that right, or the paths
to Johnny Jennings. They can't even get that right a
lot of times. So how can you trust a city
(11:31):
government with twenty five billion dollars or a county government?
Is the county or the city in charge of the money.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So what will happen when voters approve the transportation referendum
is that will move forward the motion to the stand
up of an independent authority, which the way the funding
will start is because of how taxes are collected funding
won't start coming into the authority until October November of
(12:00):
next year, but there's a whole bunch of groundwork that
has to be done in the interim to take all
of the assets that currently sit inside the city in
cats and transfer those to the authority and oversight of
all of the spending in that whole transit system. Bus
in rail will be under the twenty seven member authority,
(12:23):
and the way that authority is appointed is that the
governor has an appointment, the House and the Senate of
the legislature gets to one appointment each. I was appointed
under that and also Ned Kerrn, and we are doing
a lot of the kind of getting things organized. The
(12:45):
city is in the process of taking applications and reviewing
them and doing interviews, as is the county, and then
each of the towns get to appoint someone. So it's
a large number of people, but we believe the way
we'll organize it will be well organized, broken down into
a strong committee structure, and the benefit of that is
(13:06):
that you now have appointed officials who are making decisions
on how to spend that money and invest in our
future without having to deal with thinking about re election.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And I think.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Highly of a lot of our elected officials at state, local,
and federal level, and we might differ on how to
approach certain things, but there's a lot of people who
really do care, but they have to run for office
every two years. Think about Congress, it's every two years.
They're constantly running. Someone who's appointed the authority. You're not
(13:43):
running for office. You have to have qualifications. So there's
very specific qualifications in the Payact to ensure that people
who understand, who have the acumen to run a multi
billion dollar organization can properly oversee that. So we feel
good about moving this into an independent authority.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
All right, So they're going to be one in charge
of all the decision making. That's good to note that
it won't be like.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Five or six, it'll be what is it, twenty twenty seven,
twenty seven?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, So now let's go to safety, right because yesterday
was the sixty days since Serrino Zerisko was stabbed. We've
had a lot of issues on the Cat's buses in
the past. People don't necessarily feel safe on the light,
on the rail trail and all that. So with that
being said, of any of this twenty five billion, will
any of it go towards security, because there was the
(14:36):
famous quote from the Transportation Secretary saying if they can't
protect what they got, why would we help them expand
so will that be.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, And we've been able to work with Secretary Duffy
in his office and Mark Molnaro who is the administrator
of the Transportation Administration, and they are a proponent of
having this go into an independent authority. They think that's
the best practice and from a security perspective, safety and
(15:08):
security perspective, we are looking at the ability to stand
up an independent sworn police officer force. As you know,
KATZ has been investing significantly in the security side of things.
I always have to get my terminology correctly because when
you think about transit safety is really how the system runs.
(15:31):
I always say, you don't crash the bush or the train,
and security is keeping people safe in the system. So
the intent is to move forward with an independent police force.
There's a lot of benefits to that. I think that
with KATZ has taken from about six million dollars of
(15:53):
investment around safety to eighteen million dollars is definitely a
good step forward. They are are also actively enforcing fares currently,
which is a good another good step forward. So yeah,
so it's not there's not a person standing at every
train in every bus, but we are actively out there
(16:14):
enforcing fairs. People that I talk to who are riding
rail and bus are seeing them noticeably, as you also
know that they have a private contractor. Today in the
open positions there have been backfilled by off duty CMPD officers.
I really love that because they are uniformed CMPD officers,
(16:35):
so we are fully staffed in that arena. And we
believe that the best practice is to have a independent
police force. Think UNC Charlotte or any of our other universities,
there's an independent sworn police officer force. Chief Baker at
UNC Charlotte gets up every day thinking about this, say
yeah CMS, thinking about the safety of those students and
(16:58):
everything around them. But yet they have a strong MoU
working collaboratively with CMPD, and we think that that's the
best practice.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
So I think that will be priority one.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
People want to make sure that they're going to be
safe if they're actually going to vote for this and
use this thing.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So when we come.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Back with David Longo, who again Charlotte Center City Partners
and the US.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
What's the Regional Business Regional Business Alliance?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thank you, the Regional Business Alliance, And as well.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
As like deals with officials in Raleigh and here in
Charlotte and the first responders.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Like he deals with all of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So we'll talk more about this when we return, because
I want to talk to him about Okay, Matthews, let's
talk about what are people going to get out of this?
Like what are people going to get that live in
Dilworth or live in Balatine or live anywhere? So what
are people going to get about get with this if
they decide to vote yes for this?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Hey, mom said, will you move, make swistle? Make you.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Thursday night,
David Longo.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Is in studio with me for the full hour.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
He's an expert on the one since sales tax as
well as a lot of the crime in the situation
going on in uptown because he works and deals with uptown,
you know, whether it's the Charlotte Center City Partners or
the CRBA Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. He deals with the
people up and Riley. He deals with CMPD, He deals
with the businesses and so he knows better than anyone
(18:27):
probably in the city of Charlotte what's going on in
terms of uptown and this one since sales tax, so
one said, sales tax. I'm going to put it very,
very bluntly, Matthews is the one town that's dead set
against this, although there are other people in other pockets
that are against it, especially up.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
North, but specifically Matthews. Why should Matthews.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And the residents vote for this one sent sales tax
because Mint Hills all on board right next door to them.
So why should the people of Matthews who are upset
at this, why should they vote for it?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Well, first of all, I would recharacterize that and say
that it's not everyone in Matthews is against this, because
even if you look at their city, the town council,
not everyone was against it. It was actually a pretty
close vote to be able to get them to come
on board.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And so I would start with again, how this legislation
was drafted. Forty percent of the money goes to roads,
forty percent of the money goes to rails, twenty percent
to buses. And one might even say, well, why why
less to buses versus rail because you can do a
whole lot more with buses in rapid bus transit for
(19:41):
half the cost, So you get a lot done. When
I think about communities that don't have rail going to it,
you think about number one, how are we going to
alleviate congestion. So a good example is the town of
Matthews will get five point four million dollars a year
in additional road money. If you look at how much
they spend in road today or their total budget, that
(20:04):
is significant. So they get that money going towards it
the bus system, and I think one of the hidden
gems on the bus side is the micro transit component
of this. So for those people that don't know what
micro transit is, you need to think uber in a
public way. It is very costly to bring adduestional bus
(20:26):
routes in, particularly when you don't have mass riders. Thus
that's why mass transit needs to have massing to it.
But you can have a small vehicle that can pick
people up inside of their zone and get them to
a transit stop, whether it be a bus stop or
a rail stop or anywhere within that zone. So the
(20:48):
way I like to paint a picture of this is
if you think about, for example, the single mom who
has a three year old and a four year old.
It's a rainy day and they need to get to
a bus stop or a rail stop or even the
grocery store. Then get picked up at their front door,
taken to the grocery store for two dollars and ten cents.
(21:10):
Because under five years old, those children aren't paying to
be on the system, they can then get picked up
and taken back home. The micro transit system sprawls all
through our county and expands our reach and will provide
tremendous uplift. As you start to improve roads, it starts
to decrease commute times and the infrastructure and rail will
(21:36):
The silver line is planned currently to go to the
Boplex bud Yes Bojengles Colisseum and the Payack actually requires
the authority to explore ways to extend it further. That
is a requirement. It's something that's if this is approved,
(21:57):
will immediately be put into place, and if they're there's
ways for us to be able to reduce cost. There
are potentially the opportunity to extend it further. Not going
to promise that because we don't have that data. Yet,
but once you also get it to the Bojangles Arena,
Coliseum Arena area, even in the future, you have the
(22:18):
ability to extend it. I also think it's important to
think about the impact. The initial impact you'll feel u
quicker on roads because that money starts hitting quicker. Then
you'll start seeing impact on bus in micro transit, the
rail stuff. Even where we own the right away under
the city for the Red Line, you're essentially probably eight
(22:39):
years away from seeing that built out, and when you
think about the Silver Line, a little bit longer. So
we're working on a thirty year plan. We're thinking about
the future. I'm thinking about my kids and my grandkids.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Okay, so we've got like two three minutes here. If
this by chance failed and is not passed, what are
the ramifications.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Ramifications are Congestion is going to continue to increase, The
CAT system will continue to operate. I don't know that
we'll have additional funds beyond what they have to continue
to expand security. That they have done a really good
job of increasing. The one cent sales tax allows us
(23:26):
a lot of options. It allows us to improve roads.
There's also this concept of orphan roads that exist throughout
the county that would be have the money to bring
them up the standards so that the state can take
over the maintenance of them. The option failure is not
an option in my mind, and there's really not a
(23:46):
plan be we have to be successful.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And I know, like one of the things you know
that some of the candidates are running on for Starlve
City Council is that they want to make sure that
their neighborhoods, their districts get their fair share of road improvements.
And again I think that's what they're saying, thing, we
just what we need. We need to make sure that
it's not just going to one place, it's going to
everyone's getting a slice of the pie.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, So what I would say there is the city
has done Remember money is going to go to each
of the towns, and in the City of Charlotte, the
city has done an extensive survey of the needs and
you can find it online. There is a very detailed
book that takes you through location by location of what
(24:30):
will be road improvements, what will be sidewalk improvements, et cetera.
So it's all out there available on the city website
to see exactly where they're planning to spend that the
money again that goes to roads in their purview, which
for the City of Charlotte, I believe that's about one
hundred and two million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All right, so when we return, now, let's talk about
crime and uptown, because it was just two weeks ago
that David Longo was part of a press conference with
the Shelttle Center City Partners about I'm in Uptown and
things that they're trying to do to alleviate the crime
in uptown because murders are up two hundred percent. Crime
is up across the board in Uptown. So we'll talk
about that when we return. Welcome back to Breaking with
(25:33):
Brad Jenson with David Longo.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
We're going up. Got about ten more minutes to go
here on the show.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Before we send you on over to TJ Ritchie. Okay,
so now let's get into crime. Unless there's one or
two other things real quick that you want to talk
about concerning the ones that sales tax if we haven't
covered it.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Otherwise, let's dive into crime.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You dive into crime, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
A couple of weeks ago, you were part of a
press conference with the Charlottle Center City Partners talking about
the crime at Uptown even though CMPD keeps keeps saying
the term perception perception, and I'm like, okay, so that's
where our last week I called them out about using
the word perception in the middle of their press conference.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I said, clearly, someone's telling you to use that. That's
your new buzzword. I said, But reality is, murders are
up two hundred percent in Uptown, and crime across the
board isn't up in Uptown. Now is crime down in
all the other precincts in Charlotte one hundred percent? It
is down except for Uptown, where ed has exploded. And
Uptown is the face of Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
That's where the sporting events happen, That's where the concerts happened,
the street festivals happen.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Up there.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You have restaurants that are still trying to make it
up there, tons of hotels, a lot of activity in Uptown.
When they show a Carolina Panthers game on National TV
on ESPN, they're not showing neighborhoods in Providence, They're showing Uptown.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
That is the face of Charlotte. It is Uptown the skyline.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
So crime is clearly a problem in uptown this year
compared to last year. So you and the Charlotte Center
City partners and the people part of that business leaders
got together and decided to hold a press conference.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
What was the what was.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
The emphasis or the push that decided to make you
guys have a press conference?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, well it actually back up. I think that a
lot of people had concerns about what the crime statistics
were showing. And you know, you can talk perception, reality,
et cetera. I would argue that if you I can
make numbers look in a lot of different ways, depending
up on how far back I want to go, et cetera.
(27:45):
But clearly you're right. Charlotte Center City is the face.
It's where people come to work together, it's where people
come to all of our events. It's the gathering place,
and we see that as a place that needs to
be our whole community needs to be safe. But we
can't have the numbers going through. You laid out the
(28:06):
numbers clearly what they are about. On Actually it was
July twenty third we convened a public safety task force.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
So a month before the arenas, there was good.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Murder, a month before the murder and if you want
to mark that date. It was actually the Tuesday after
the Bar Alley shooting, which was considered a mass shooting
because we had one homicide and we had five people shot.
And what that group is consistent of is it is
the manager of the city, the mayor has participated, the
(28:41):
manager of the county, the chair of the county Council
or other council members, business leaders, the district attorney, Justice Wigins,
And it was an attempt to bring a bunch of
people together to try to figure out how we hold
ittically solve this issue. This is not a simple issue
(29:03):
to solve. It's big and its complex. If you study crime,
it goes beyond just police officers on the street. So
that was the purpose of convening at work. We're about
twelve thirteen weeks into it, and we have been moving,
i think, very quickly to and put in place different initiatives. So,
for example, one of the things that was changed very
(29:24):
quickly in Center City was bringing together a group of
not only CMPD but the ABC folks, et cetera, to
focus on what's happening at these bars and making sure
that we're controlling the situation. Afterwards, they have now instituted
(29:45):
what a call the Crown Program. I'm not going to
be able to tell you exactly the acronym, but it
stands for something Charlotte da da da. But the focus
is to make sure that we are one hundred percent
enforcing in our laws on the books. Now, I know
that you might be looking at me saying, well, that's
a novel idea, but that is what is beginning to happen,
(30:06):
and you're going to see some reaction to it, because
sometimes when you're doing some of this stuff, some people
aren't going to like it. But it's essentially taking a
nope tolerance policy. It's increasing the number of officers. So
coming out of the last class out of the academy,
there was an increased proportion of officers put on the
street in Center City or Central Division. We have all
(30:31):
of our recruits, for example, have to go through training
for walking controls, so they're putting all of those recruits
so we get higher visibility in center City. They've increased
this about like what I would call a third shift
that takes or fourth shift that takes place when sort
of the peak bar hours to make sure that we
have a higher degree of coverage Center City Partners through
(30:55):
a partnership called the INITIATI called the Uptown Vibrancy Initiative.
Working with business leaders has doubled the amount of ambassadors
on the street. Again, people do not only guide people,
but create higher amount of visibility. We are working with
the public, with the public sector on for example, linking
(31:15):
their camera system into the CMPD PUSIS program so we
can get higher visibility and better coverage. There is an
initiative called own your Own Block where these businesses are
taking safety security all the way to the curb to
make sure that we're engaging and also activating. Activating is
(31:36):
a key part of making a place to feel safe
and be safe. So there are a number of issues.
We have to continue to deal with the homeless issue
on our streets and we have to do that. We
also have to think about what are the shelters that
we have to put in place or expand. And there
are some things that are happening very quickly to create
(31:56):
more and some will take a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So but now let's talk about the situation at the
bars and at night. I know that you told me
off air, and I'll let you explain a little bit
further detail about street vendors, lights, stuff like that, cleaning
the streets. Can you just tell people about that and
(32:21):
go in a little bit of a detail about that.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, so, and to tie that into the press conferences
as we felt like we can start to roll out initiatives.
The first press conference was around cats in talking about
investing in the bikes in the urban terrain vehicles, increase
people on transit. Second press conference was to talk about
(32:45):
other initiatives starting in Uptown. Today there was a press
conference to talk about environmental so things that are done
to increase lighting and cleanse the clean more cleanliness to
the city. So when the bars are closed down, one
of the challenges is that you have illegal street vendors
out there. I'm not going to sit here and tell
(33:06):
you that these are nefarious, bad people out here. It
might be someone running a food truck trying to make
a living, but the reality is they have permits for
certain periods of time. When you have people coming out
of a bar at two in the morning after they've
been maybe consuming alcohol, and now they're not in a
secure environment because the bars are relatively secure with their security,
(33:26):
I kind of say, well, what can go wrong, and
so the concept is to eliminate those illegal street vendors
to disperse people to come in and clean the streets,
which also moves people away and starts to disperse, and
so you eliminate future problems and that combined with the
(33:47):
increased law enforcement presence. So a good example of this
work is if you followed that the it's called the
Brooklyn lounge license was revoked because of this type of
work working with ABC and CMPD, and that's eliminating a problem.
We had two homicides outside of that this year.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, like I said, there's a lot going on, and
we could probably talk for about another thirty forty five
minutes at least. But I do appreciate you coming in
tonight because there are some misconceptions, including from me, in
misunderstandings about the ones that sales tax I have a
pretty good finger on the pulse of what's happening in
uptown in the crime and stuff like that, but all
the extra things that are being done, I appreciate you
(34:33):
explaining it to us and especially to the listeners. So
I know there's a lot going on, there's a lot
of things that you have to deal with, but so
I do appreciate.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You coming in here tonight for the full hour.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, well, thank you, thanks for having me. I care
passionately about our city and look at your voice is
important because we need to make sure that we're all
voicing our concerns so we can make sure they're addressed.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That is David Longo, shall it Center City Partners, Business Owners,
There's Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, and many many other things
that he's got the pots that he's got his hands
involved in. All right, So that's going to do it
for us tonight. I appreciate everyone listening. My name is
Brett Jensen, coming up next to the TJ. Richie Show,
and you have been listening to Breaking with Brett Jensen
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