Don't Back Down

According to an article in today's Charlotte Observer, at some point in the next two years or so, our fair city will lay tracks along Elizabeth Avenue for a streetcar to make its way outside of the so-called urban core and introduce a new sort of growth to Charlotte. Sounds good, right? Sure it does. It mostly sounds good to me because we live way out on the East Side near Eastland Mall and it's long been rumored that any plans for a streetcar will (eventually) make their way out Central Avenue and to the mall. I harbor no illusions that it will make it to my house or anything, but to that fancy new transit center in the mall parking lot would be nice. So what's the problem?

The problem is that according to this same article (not linked because of the Observer's policy of pulling articles after a short while online), since no federal funds will be available for this line, the North line will get priority over the streetcar line, meaning that even though they lay track in the next couple of years, it will be sometime around 2019 until cars start running, and it will be 2023 until the "full line" is open. There isn't an explanation of what the full line is, but I would suspect that might just mean it's running all the way to Eastland. Maybe it's me, but I'm thinking that even having a plan for something like that is just stupid.

Something more than ten years ago, I didn't even live in Charlotte. Just over eight years ago, I didn't live in a house (I wasn't homeless, I lived in an apartment). Something around five years ago, I didn't have high-speed access. Just under four years ago, I wasn't married or didn't have kids (they came in a bundle package). A little over a year ago, the house wasn't paid off. Does anyone seeing where this is going?

While it would be ridiculous to say that Eastland Mall was vibrant when I moved to this part of town in 1996, it was in a whole lot better shape than it is now. It had no missing anchors. Not long thereafter, a Hannaford opened at one end of the parking lot. That's right, there were two grocery stores in the same parking lot. Now one of them is closed entirely and the other is an "indoor flea market". One of the anchor stores (JCPenney) turned into a discount outlet, then closed entirely. It is now a mish-mash of stores. Another (Dillard's) has shuttered one level and turned into a discount outlet on the other. A third (Belk) is in the process of a "Store Closing" sale as I write this entry.

While most of the spots for stores in the mall are taken up, they are increasingly in use by local outlets, not by major-market tenants. The bookstores that used to be there are gone. Even the usual culprits you find in a food court have moved along, to be replaced by unknown names. Not saying that all of these developments are bad, just that they are. A lot can happen in ten years, and this plan starts to develop in twelve. Now I'm not against the number twelve, but planning for something to start in twelve years? That just makes no sense at all. By then, the city will need to build another arena.