City Smart: State unemployment benefits to streetcar ridership

• Legislative hypocrisy. North Carolina has the stingiest unemployment insurance benefits of any state in the country: Our unemployed receive the least amount of money for the shortest period of time. In fact, last week, the House passed a bill that would force those filing for unemployment benefits to prove that they applied for five jobs a week (versus the current two). However, there’s a legitimate argument to be made that the legislators who are so concerned about the unemployed sitting around wasting taxpayer money are sitting around wasting taxpayer money themselves. We are entering historic territory for how late the budget is passed, with another deadline extension this past week (the third this year). As lawmakers continue to draw pay and per diems past the typical adjournment period, some predict they could cost tax payers an additional $2 million with the latest extension.
• Better stock up on your food truck fun now. Word on the street (okay, in the Business Journal) is that Food Truck Friday will need a new location in the future. The owner of the lot as well as the property housing the Common Market South End is in negotiations to build a new regional headquarters for Dimensional Fund Advisors. DFA is a Texas based investment firm that announced this summer that it would bring its regional headquarters to Charlotte, creating 316 jobs.

• Randall Kerrick will not be retried. Last week the judge declared a mistrial in the trial of officer Randall Kerrick for the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell. After speaking with jurors in the case, the attorney general’s office announced it will not re-try the case. In his statement about the case, Attorney General Roy Cooper advocated for more consistent and better training for law enforcement to save lives in the future.

2 Happy Things

• Streetcar ridership is exceeding CATS’ initial projections by 67 percent. On average, about 1,500 people climb aboard every weekday.

• Last week, on August 26, we celebrated the 95th anniversary of women’s suffrage with Women’s Equality Day. Make sure that fight wasn’t wasted – go vote! Early voting for the primary starts this Thursday, September 3rd.

1 Random Thing

Today at 7 p.m., #WTFwevote and the Axios Charlotte are teaming up to bring you a fun and interesting Mayoral Candidate’s Forum at the McGlohon Theater at Spirit Square. Did you know that McGlohon was originally First Baptist Church? It was restored and opened in 1980 as Spirit Square. The theater is named in honor of the legendary jazz pianist, the late Loonis McGlohon of Charlotte, pictured below.

Photo credit: Food Truck Friday image via Charlotte’s Got a Lot and Loonis McGlohon via the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.