Your vote matters. Top 5 issues facing our mayor and city council.

Let’s start with a definition of local – for now, I’m referring to the city council, county commission, and school board. They are all elected, by you, or at least some of you.

In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 17.1% of the population elected the leaders we currently have. In some form or fashion, they are responsible for allocating money – your money – that they have collected in the form of income tax, property tax, sales tax, other taxes and fees. They allocate these funds through a budget, based on recommendations from city/county managers and the superintendent.

There will always be more things to fund than there are funds available. That’s where the politics come into play – the who, what, where, when, why and how we distribute that money comes down to priorities, vision, and leadership.

This fall, we have city and school board elections. These are the top issues for the mayor and city council:

(1) Transit

The street car gets all the attention, but the city’s transit plan includes light rail and buses. The city is part of the conversation about roads, highways, and bike lanes. Building new modes and paths for transit and maintaining the ones we have cost money.

Planning how we get from one place to another is one of the city’s responsibilities. Planning it well, is all of our responsibilities. It’s on us to tell the city how we currently get around and how we want to get around in the future.

(2) Public Safety

As a community, how do we keep people, all people, safe?

It’s about how much privacy we want to give up in the name of public safety. It’s about the role that race and education plays in policing. Do you want the police to wear body cameras? Do you think that law enforcement officials need more racial bias training? Or training on how to handle confrontations? Do you think we should use drones to investigate? What about drones for monitoring?

Training and equipment costs money. Who we train requires thoughtful leadership. Look no further than the Kerrick trial for why all this matters so much. It is literally a matter of life and death.

(3) Development

Who builds what and where is all about zoning.

Do you want more apartments? Do you think buildings should plan for parking? Do you think planned neighborhoods should have sidewalks and trees? These are all things that are impacted by local government.

Is it important to you that we have a healthy mix of housing prices across city? Do you want people to be able to get to work in less than 2 hours one way? If yes, then you care about affordable housing that is distributed evenly. These are tough conversations that must be led by our elected officials.

(4) Jobs

The city is also involved in recruiting new employers, retaining the ones we have, and creating the infrastructure necessary for all businesses to thrive in Charlotte.

Whether they do that through job training programs (for a skilled work force), incentives (for recruitment), or government contracts (creating demand), the city has a lot of tools in their toolbox for economic development.

(5) Opportunity

This issue is particularly relevant right now. In terms of upward mobility, Charlotte came in 97 out of 100 cities included in a recent study.

Upward mobility measures the chances that someone born in the bottom 25th percentile of income has of reaching the top 25th percentile. It’s harder to make it to the top from the bottom in Charlotte than in 96 other cities.

The “American dream” is statistically harder to make happen in Charlotte than in other cities. It’s serious enough that the city and county have formed a task force to study causes and what available solutions can be implemented. The task force is not about improving our rankings, it’s about improving lives of the people who live here.

In a recent study about local elections, the Knight Foundation states, “voting is perhaps the quintessential indicator of civic engagement and a well-functioning democracy.” On one hand, participating in elections is about boring things like what pot-holes to fix and who gets parade permits. On the other hand, voting is also about who and what matters to us as a community.

That’s up to you, or at least the 1 out of 5 of you reading this that will actually vote.