CHARLOTTE — As the turmoil at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the reversal on controversial Interstate 77 toll lanes took center stage this week, Charlotte’s top leader is speaking to Channel 9 about how the city is reacting and moving forward.
Channel 9’s government reporter Joe Bruno sat down with Charlotte Mayor Rob Harrington to hear his thoughts about the headlines this week.
Joe Bruno: It’s been a really challenging week, regardless of whether you were for or against the toll lanes, for or against the firing. I think collectively, Charlotteans are trying to catch their breath right now. What is your assessment of the vibes of this city?
Mayor Rob Harrington: Yeah, I mean, obviously, our focus at the city has been on, you know, 77 South. You know, of course, you’re aware of all the other stuff that’s going on around you. I mean, I think on 77 South, what my goal was to make sure we had a process for council to be heard and to hear itself, and for us to hear from residents. And yeah, Monday night was, you know, difficult decisions, difficult conversations. But we had, I think it was, 57 Charlotte residents or folks who wanted to be heard. They were able to be heard. Council had a, I thought, straightforward and rational discussion amongst itself. I was really happy, I guess, proud of the way that that council had that discussion, and I think we ultimately made a, you know, a difficult decision, but I think a decision that I hope will move Charlotte forward. So, yeah, difficult week, but I think that’s what we sign up for when we when we when we sign up to lead, and I think we’ve come through that, and now I think really the important thing is that we move forward as a community and put things in place to make sure that we’re able to move forward as a community and to lead as elected and appointed officials.
Joe Bruno: How can you guys move forward? What do you want some of these people to know who, you know, or real have genuine concerns about the project?
Mayor Rob Harrington: I mean, from my own perspective, I want folks to know that that we heard them, that we heard them. We had to make a decision going forward. We tried to hear from the entire community, from all the sectors of the community, but we recognized going into that that yes, there are there’s a whole lot of historical matter that’s involved in this. There are parts of town, particularly the parts of town that are bisected by the existing Highway 77, that have had, you know, there’s a great deal of of historical of pain of concern about how parts of town have been treated, and I think it was important for us to hear from folks that have those concerns, with a focus on hearing from folks who live in those neighborhoods. Clearly, it’s not an issue that we were all going to agree on, but I think it’s our responsibility to hear from folks, make those decisions, and then perhaps most importantly, come up with a way to move forward, and I think we have that way to move forward.
Joe Bruno: And you’ve been very careful to be the referee in this process, to bring people together, to make sure both sides are talking to each other. You’ve been careful to, you know, kind of not tip the scales one way or another. Are you fine with council’s decision? Are you in favor of what they did in signing off on this project?
Mayor Rob Harrington: Yeah, you’re exactly right. I mean, I think it’s been important for the mayor in our system to be the convener, to make sure that voices got heard. I’m excited about where we’re going with, with obviously the concerns that have been expressed by, by residents. I think we do have an opportunity here to drive communities forward. We’ve got significant investment that’s coming from the state. I know there’s back and forth about, you know, gee, will the state come through? That’s why it was so important for us to have a binding commitment from the state. That was important for council. It’s one of the things that we worked on really hard over the last couple of weeks to make sure that we could present to council and present to the community binding commitments from the state to move forward with the investments in the community, and so I’m, I am, you know, I remain someone who wants to be the convener, and as you put it, the referee. But I’m excited about looking forward, and I think it’s our responsibility to be relentlessly forward-looking in this process and in other processes.
Joe Bruno: Let’s turn now to the superintendent, the school system. Some people don’t realize city council has nothing to do with schools, and city council doesn’t, and you have nothing to do with the CMS board, but you’re still the leader of the city, and you know how people are feeling right now. What do you want to say to people who are questioning whether the school board made the right decision, whether the school board can function?
Mayor Rob Harrington: You’re exactly right. This is not, you know, the city is separate from the schools. The county is separate from the schools, but I completely understand that folks are looking at all of us and saying, what’s going on? My strong belief there is we just have to keep the focus on the kids. The school system exists to benefit and educate, you know, kids from pre-K to 12th grade. I think over the last two years, from what I can see on the outside, they’ve done an increasingly good job on that. Sometimes we don’t recognize the successes when you’re right here in the city, but the scores are, the achievement levels are up. I’m sure they’re not completely even, but they’re certainly up. We should celebrate that, and through all of the, you know, distractions around us, we need to keep our focus on those students. And if we keep our focus on the students, we’ll be fine.
Joe Bruno: In terms of CMS, there is one little tie the city has. You have that million dollars for the at-home program. It’s on hold. Staff says they’re going to ask more questions before releasing the funds and bring it back to you in council. Are you okay with that timeline? What are some of the things that you want to know?
Mayor Rob Harrington: I think that’s appropriate. I mean, I think we have to find out again. My focus, I think our focus, my focus as a resident is on the students. You mentioned families and teachers, but is on the success of the students, and I think we need to make sure all of us who are, you know, making investments in ours is relatively discreet and small. We need to make sure that the investments will pay off for the benefit of the kids.
Joe Bruno: To wrap things up, now this is probably the hardest week, toughest week for you as mayor so far. Not for anything you’ve personally done, but just in terms of everything that has happened in Charlotte. What do you see your role is during all of this? What do you want to do? What kind of person do you want to be for Charlotte?
Mayor Rob Harrington: I mean, I think we need forward-looking. I think we need to be, you know, sort of as calm as we can be under the circumstances. You know, leaders get paid, get selected to lead, and I think we have to lead through this process, overall, on all of these issues. But we also need to be optimistic. There is so much good going on in this community. We’re going to make incredible investments. We are making incredible investments in transit, in other transportation matters. There are reasons that whatever the number in a given year, 140 folks are moving to this region. It’s pretty spectacular numbers, because people see the things that Charlotte is able to do, and Charlotte, as a community, continues to do amazing things. We have to look for the ways to continue to do those things together. If I look at this 18-month period, nothing more than making sure that the community manages through challenging decisions and incredible opportunities to embrace them together for the benefit not just of the 100-plus folks who are moving here every day, but for the folks who’ve lived here and made this city what it is. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world, and we need to see it that way.
Charlotte City Council will continue to have hard conversations next week.
On Monday, they will consider a teen curfew and a data center moratorium extension.
The mayor says he wants to hear from residents about all of it.
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