More fun with the Growth Machine (and Mary Newsom)

Photo from Agility Nut.

From this piece, "It's just an old building sitting on pricey dirt: In other cities, the Coffee Cup would be treasured -- but not here," about the coming demolition of a local institution, the Coffee Cup, in favor of new development:

They think it will make a difference if the Historic Landmarks Commission asks the City Council to designate the Cup, a modest soul food diner built in 1946, a historic landmark. They think it will help if the council does name the place a landmark.

They're dreaming.

Naming the Coffee Cup a historic landmark could delay the demolition up to a year. Tops. And what's a year to Atlanta-based Beazer Homes, which owns the Coffee Cup property? It's a Fortune 500 company. Its Web site shows 20 developments for sale in the Charlotte alone. A year is nothing.

Do you think things as squishy as racial integration or history or memory matter to a corporate bottom line? Analysts looking at earnings growth and stock prices don't give a rip about some Tea Cup place somewhere in Charlottesville, South Carolina.

The Cup's a goner.

How can I be sure? A better question is how can anyone not be sure? This is Charlotte.

To be fair, I'm not going to say Charlotte is a city where nothing matters but money. This is a city where many things matter to many people -- among them race relations, history, and even good collard greens and cornbread. But in Charlotte one thing trumps all those other things, and that one thing is making money.

Property values trump all

The property holding the Coffee Cup was valued for tax purposes in 2005 at $822,000. That year the building housing the Coffee Cup was valued at $1,200. That pretty much says it all.Beazer Homes owns about 20 acres in the vicinity and intends to build a 400-unit residential and retail complex. It said last month it will raze the Cup. Beazer has told Coffee Cup owners Gardine Wilson and Anthony McCarver they can stay in the place rent free until Dec. 15.

The land is already rezoned for high-intensity development. The city sponsored that rezoning in 2003, part of its efforts to turn the West Morehead Street corridor into a more welcoming place.

It's a good goal. Except that zoning the Coffee Cup property to allow up to a 10-story building pretty much seals its fate. If you can build an expensive, multi-story building, sooner or later someone's going to do it.

Also see "Charlotte's Coffee Cup Owners Ordered To Vacate Restaurant," from WSOC-TV.

Although this is really an issue everywhere, and has to do with "the intensification of land use and the increase in rents" that is the focus of local economic development policies, real estate interests, and local elites.
WSOC-TV photo.
Index Keywords: Growth-Machine