Political Digression Thread -- Save UP! Move the politically focused stuff here

[videtur quam contuor]

She lived here for many years. She was one of the Morrison sisters from Mariposa NC, NW of Charlotte. I visited that site and house many years ago though the house may no longer exist. I could not find it a few years ago though I believe it was there when I visited in the 1970's. She had a home in downtown Charlotte and attended 1st Presbyterian Church until her death in 1915.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anna_Jackson

I am not aware of her  involvement with the naming or renaming though this was before my time, hard as that may be for some to understand ; )

[cltbwimob]

Thanks to a primary upset by Vi Lyles, Charlotte is in line to have its 4th different mayor in as many years.  I am so glad Roberts days in the office are numbered. She has been a political train wreck.

[Windsurfer]

On 9/7/2017 at 5:39 PM, tarhoosier said:

She lived here for many years. She was one of the Morrison sisters from Mariposa NC, NW of Charlotte. I visited that site and house many years ago though the house may no longer exist. I could not find it a few years ago though I believe it was there when I visited in the 1970's. She had a home in downtown Charlotte and attended 1st Presbyterian Church until her death in 1915.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anna_Jackson

I am not aware of her  involvement with the naming or renaming though this was before my time, hard as that may be for some to understand ; )

I saw the house too. It was near Lowesville.  It's now a Duke Energy substation. Not a whimper from anyone when Duke just bulldozed it.  I was in college at the time and wasn't aware of what was happening. Unbelievable the callousness of Duke sometimes. There's now a historical marker there. 

[tozmervo]

9 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

Thanks to a primary upset by Vi Lyles, Charlotte is in line to have its 4th different mayor in as many years.  I am so glad Roberts days in the office are numbered. She has been a political train wreck.

I'm seeing an interesting debate about whether or not this is an upset. Though conventional wisdom is that an incumbent has the advantage, from where I sat Roberts was faaar from a lock on the primary win. Vi winning was completely unsurprising to me. 

[SgtCampsalot]

The four at-large Dem primary winners are: James Mitchell, Braxton Winston, Julie Eiselt, Dimple Ajmera

Incumbent Claire Fallon's signature irreverent 'tude couldn't stand up to the grassroots passion of Braxton Winston and the polished veneer of Dimple Ajmera (read into those descriptions how you like). I would have been surprised if James Mitchell had gotten anything but the top percentage. And Julie Eiselt, to my measure, has played a a capable role in her first  cycle.

The question is who, if any, will lose out to the two (viable/competitive) Republican at-large candidates: Parker Cains, John K. Powell Jr

Also just found this nifty 'pedia page with all this info called Ballotpedia.org

[caterpillar2]

On 8/22/2017 at 7:38 AM, Neo said:

You have been warned for the final time. See you in a week. If you continue then you can find somewhere else to promote hate.

And you showed this publically why?  You should have been specific about exactly where I "promoted" hate. I have had opinions and justifications. I hate nobody for what they are. People have no choice in their ethnicity.  I only hate mean people of all races and don't feel that whites have the monopoly on that although that seems to be the case today.  I "fought for the freedom of speech for Americans.  Unfortunately,  that seems to be conditional on what one has to say.  I disagreed with many people about HB2, riots, tearing down historic monuments, and even the Panthers. If one disagrees with me, they should show maturity, and tolerance by explaining why I am wrong, if I am. Again, I often am alarmed by intolerant responses.  If you wish, I will avoid commenting  on the coffee house, political, or other  discussions, I will be O.K. Just send me a message in private.  I just ask that you don't throw stones at me if I have an opinion different from yours. I am familiar with rules and I apologize for sometimes veering away from thetopic. Best wishes, and thank you for just al banning me for a week. 

[Neo]

1 hour ago, caterpillar2 said:

And you showed this publically why?  You should have been specific about exactly where I "promoted" hate. I have had opinions and justifications. I hate nobody for what they are. People have no choice in their ethnicity.  I only hate mean people of all races and don't feel that whites have the monopoly on that although that seems to be the case today.  I "fought for the freedom of speech for Americans.  Unfortunately,  that seems to be conditional on what one has to say.  I disagreed with many people about HB2, riots, tearing down historic monuments, and even the Panthers. If one disagrees with me, they should show maturity, and tolerance by explaining why I am wrong, if I am. Again, I often am alarmed by intolerant responses.  If you wish, I will avoid commenting  on the coffee house, political, or other  discussions, I will be O.K. Just send me a message in private.  I just ask that you don't throw stones at me if I have an opinion different from yours. I am familiar with rules and I apologize for sometimes veering away from thetopic. Best wishes, and thank you for just al banning me for a week. 

Yes, if you can't avoid showing white supremacy then I absolutely do not want you on this site. I've made myself pretty clear on that. You are entitled to whatever beliefs and views you deem appropriate for yourself, but that is not the environment I want promoted or discussed here on UrbanPlanet.org. If you don't like that then yes, please do not post.

 

[caterpillar2]

28 minutes ago, Neo said:

Yes, if you can't avoid showing white supremacy then I absolutely do not want you on this site. I've made myself pretty clear on that. You are entitled to whatever beliefs and views you deem appropriate for yourself, but that is not the environment I want promoted or discussed here on UrbanPlanet.org. If you don't like that then yes, please do not post.

 

In the future, I will run my postings through you to insure they are political correct and sugar coated. 

[15895]

1 hour ago, caterpillar2 said:

In the future, I will run my postings through you to insure they are political correct and sugar coated. 

 

Dude. Forget political correcting things on issues we wont agree on. Lets argue about development and econonmic news instead!!

[caterpillar2]

1 hour ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

 

Dude. Forget political correcting things on issues we wont agree on. Lets argue about development and econonmic news instead!!

Sounds good to me. As long as I see plenty of cranes  uptown and hear plenty of construction vehicles, I'm happy.   The economy is looking pretty good, so I suppose that I will keep my political chatter limited to friends and family.  Can I nominate you as candidate as new moderator? 

[SgtCampsalot]

And none of y'all even talking about the "political" election I posted about. Whatever it's cool.

Edited September 13, 2017 by SgtCampsalot

[caterpillar2]

I will be nice and say that it seems great that a person called "smuggy" is winning. That is inspiring.  I am keeping it positive. I bet he is great leader. 

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by caterpillar2

[kermit]

1 hour ago, SgtCampsalot said:

And none of y'all even talking about the "political" election I posted about. Whatever it's cool.

I for one am very glad to see Fallon go, she struck me as one of the more anti-urban council folks out here (her mostly kneejerk opposition to the streetcar really bugged me).

Was it Kinsey who made all those no votes on upzoning in Elizabeth? If so thanks for your service but good riddance.

(there is actually a separate Charlotte politics thread somewhere, local election discussions got more attention before we reached the end times)

[JRNYP2C]

What I still find puzzling (or interesting depending on my mood), is that the turnout for a city that has several hundred thousand inhabitants can only generate an 8% turnout for the primaries.  Even though it may "only" be a city election, EVERY election has far reaching impacts.  I have always looked at the election process as something that everyone should be involved in.  If I didn't vote in any local, state or national election, then I had NO reason to complain about who eventually made it into office.  I am struggling to figure out where all the apathy during the initial process falls into.  And why, when people are unhappy at the end result they yell and scream about the person elected to said position.

My 8% was from WBT AM this morning on the way to work - BTW.

[ah59396]

53 minutes ago, JRNYP2C said:

What I still find puzzling (or interesting depending on my mood), is that the turnout for a city that has several hundred thousand inhabitants can only generate an 8% turnout for the primaries.  Even though it may "only" be a city election, EVERY election has far reaching impacts.  I have always looked at the election process as something that everyone should be involved in.  If I didn't vote in any local, state or national election, then I had NO reason to complain about who eventually made it into office.  I am struggling to figure out where all the apathy during the initial process falls into.  And why, when people are unhappy at the end result they yell and scream about the person elected to said position.

My 8% was from WBT AM this morning on the way to work - BTW.

Well, good news/bad news there.

According to this study, pretty much every city sucks in voter turnout for Mayoral elections (not primaries).    Out of the 50 cities studied, only Portland, Bradenton, Palm Beach County Zone 4 (interestingly Zone 6 was one of the worst), Louisville, Seattle and Lexington had higher than 40% of their registered voters turnout (kind surprised to see the Kentucky cities here. Way to go Kentucky!).   Dallas and Fort Worth are the worst with an abysmal 6%.  Unreal.

Charlotte, by comparison, lands in the middle bottom at 16%, landing in between the likes of Phoenix and Houston.

Of note:

1.  Old people vote waaaay more than young people (nothing new there)

2.  Cities that did the best had younger "average" voting ages, which I suspect means they have a more politically engaged young voter base, i.e. more young people voted, dragging down the voter average age

3.  Sunbelt/New South cities are well represented in the bottom half - possibly due to transient populations?

 

Do cities with more local populations have greater voter turnout?  Bradenton and Palm Beach County Zone 4 would certainly buck that trend.

Do more well educated cities have better voter turnout?   According to studies from WalletHub and ValuePenguin, plenty of the "most educated" cities fall well down this list.  (Charlotte posts as the 63rd most educated metro according to ValuePenguin and 65th according to WalletHub.  San Joe and Ann Arbor led the two, respectively).  While the lists don't matchup perfectly, there is certainly some correlation.  Most cities in the top 20 for education, posted above 25% turnout, of the cities that shared in these.

https://www.valuepenguin.com/2016/most-educated-cities

https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-educated-cities/6656/

 

So the question I suppose is; are we dumb?  Too Transient?  Too young?  Too unengaged?  Or are we a wicked combo that a lot of sunbelt cities appear to grapple with?

 

The Charlotte map certainly shows a correlation between money and voter turnout.  http://www.whovotesformayor.org/cities/56ed99bd8c7d8d60f430fa57

I feel like you could copy and past a "Average Household Income Map" over that map and it wouldn't change.  Still doesn't explain why we lag behind other cities.

 

 

TL;DR - Charlotte voter turnout is bad, but not the worst.  Sunbelt cities in general suck.  I'm not sure why, but I've got a bunch of thoughts on it.

[go_vertical]

I think the concept of "local" in regards to a city and its government has become a non-starter to many people today. I'm approaching 40 and a lot of people younger than me that I dared trying to discuss it with didn't even know there was a local election going on. Hell, a surprising number of people I'm my age range (+/- five or so years) had trouble naming even one candidate. 

In my opinion much of the city's population is still too new. For many it takes a few years of settling in before any focus turns to local politics. This isn't so much the case for families with children moving here as they have much more of a reason to be involved; taxes, schools, etc., but Charlotte has a high percentage of millenials coming here. Their main concerns are finding an apartment they can afford, not pissing off their new boss, and finding the most "lit" bar. And let's not forget that the younger crowd is increasingly less engaged since fewer of them listen to local radio ( they prefer satellite radio/podcasts), none of them read the local papers, and almost nobody under the age of 30 watches local broadcast, if they even have it since many of the streaming tv services don't offer them.

[teeg]

Good point, go_vertical.  I have always thought of myself as a very reliable voter, but looking back at my voting history I can see that I did not vote in a single Charlotte odd-year primary (like the one we just had) until I was 36.  I would have been here for 8 years by then, and while it is possible that there were 4 straight elections where none of the people I could have voted for in a primary were opposed, I don't think that is likely.  Instead, that is about the time I started to notice how various zoning decisions, etc, by the city council affected me personally.  

EDIT: 150 posts in just under 10 years!

Edited September 14, 2017 by teeg

[ah59396]

7 minutes ago, teeg said:

Good point, go_vertical.  I have always thought of myself as a very reliable voter, but looking back at my voting history I can see that I did not vote in a single Charlotte odd-year primary (like the one we just had) until I was 36.  I would have been here for 8 years by then, and while it is possible that there were 4 straight elections where none of the people I could have voted for in a primary were opposed, I don't think that is likely.  Instead, that is about the time I started to notice how various zoning decisions, etc, by the city council affected me personally.  

EDIT: 150 posts in just under 10 years!

It's crazy to me, tbh.  Local elections have a substantial impact on your day-to-day life.  Frankly, far more than Presidential elections.  But whatever, that won't change anytime soon.

[JRNYP2C]

9 hours ago, go_vertical said:

I think the concept of "local" in regards to a city and its government has become a non-starter to many people today. I'm approaching 40 and a lot of people younger than me that I dared trying to discuss it with didn't even know there was a local election going on. Hell, a surprising number of people I'm my age range (+/- five or so years) had trouble naming even one candidate. 

In my opinion much of the city's population is still too new. For many it takes a few years of settling in before any focus turns to local politics. This isn't so much the case for families with children moving here as they have much more of a reason to be involved; taxes, schools, etc., but Charlotte has a high percentage of millenials coming here. Their main concerns are finding an apartment they can afford, not pissing off their new boss, and finding the most "lit" bar. And let's not forget that the younger crowd is increasingly less engaged since fewer of them listen to local radio ( they prefer satellite radio/podcasts), none of them read the local papers, and almost nobody under the age of 30 watches local broadcast, if they even have it since many of the streaming tv services don't offer them.

Thanks for the insight!  I guess I'm considered over the hill since I'm in the 40+ category.  And one of those people that mixes reading the newspaper and looks at stuff online.  I hope the mindset changes, because I believe that everyone (like ah59396 mentioned) has a vested interest in elections - local or national.

[go_vertical]

Hey, I'm right there with ya. If you would have told my 22 year old self that he would eventually listen to NPR on a regular basis he would have laughed you out of the room. I would go out on a limb and say that every single member on these forums are informed and knowledgeable when it comes to what goes on in their respective city, and not just about commercial and residential development. Sadly, for every one of us there is 10 (hell probably 20) that have no clue.

This is why a solid education from K through to the end is extremely important. I doubt anyone can argue that it almost primarily the uneducated that don't take part in the political process, and that is the biggest detriment to democracy. The dumber the masses are the easier it is to take advantage of them.

I don't have children yet, but candidates that stress better access to better education services have my attention. Maybe I'm a little too jaded here, but I genuinely fear that the younger generation today is becoming increasingly dumb and dangerously self absorbed. Two things that make for a volatile mix. I think that is why we see many of the things we are seeing today. Nobody is wrong about anything and very few of them know what they are talking about.

Edited September 15, 2017 by go_vertical
Additional thoughts

[Dale]

I consider abstinence an indication of education.

[jednc]

On 9/15/2017 at 10:14 AM, Dale said:

I consider abstinence an indication of education.

or of homeliness...

[kermit]

Merry Christmas and Happy Nazi Punching: An 'anti-communist march' will be held at Marshall Park and the rest of uptown on December 28th per the Observer. 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article174952226.html

[deleted]

12 hours ago, kermit said:

Merry Christmas and Happy Nazi Punching: An 'anti-communist march' will be held at Marshall Park and the rest of uptown on December 28th per the Observer. 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article174952226.html

Presents a real dilemma.  Show up in opposition and possibly give them more of the media attention they crave or ignore, possibly giving impression that Charlotte residents are sympathetic to their cause.  Perhaps best option would be to line the route with people with cameras with a promise to expose and shame the participants.  These people are pure evil.  

[SgtCampsalot]

13 minutes ago, JBS said:

Presents a real dilemma.  Show up in opposition and possibly give them more of the media attention they crave or ignore, possibly giving impression that Charlotte residents are sympathetic to their cause.  Perhaps best option would be to line the route with people with cameras with a promise to expose and shame the participants.  These people are pure evil.  

This is interesting, because it brings the narrative into a gray area (as far as your average American goes). Even though Communism has a bad history (being co-opted by brutal authoritarian dictators), many of the most fervent anti-nazi, anti-racist groups consider themselves sympathetic to Communism. 

So your average American says "Communists? Hell no!" but if you weren't bringing up the C-word at all, they'd say, "Nazis? Hell no!"

We'll probably see many red bandanna-wearing people with firearms to deter the sympathizers of this rally with firearms.

Edited September 23, 2017 by SgtCampsalot