The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 25

WEDNESDAY MAY 20 1998 Section (The (Charlotte (Observer OZONE AT CODE ORANGE See the new and improved weather 18C For what you APPROACHING can do to UNHEALTHFUL help reduce MODERATE pollution coa nada OP wwwcharlottecomobserverlocal Trolley rings a bell with City Council Road-fixing money may come from state funds Seepage 4C ley was worth millions of tax dollars Failure to put it to the people Jackson said would deepen the between uptown backers and opponents Only council member Don Reid supported and proposals In the end both plans lost 8-3 Much to the pleasure of Charlie Baker who rode the trolley Saturday with his wife a terrific amenity and I enjoyed the heck out of the Republican said get going with By DAN CHAPMAN Staff Writer all but certain a trolley will run through uptown Charlotte Tuesday a solid majority of City Council members turned back attempts to slow the uptown push Eight of the 1 1 elected officials voted against a public referendum on the worth They also defeated a move to slice more than half the $20 million public cost Trolley boosters literally jumped with delight after the pivotal votes is the most significant event in this city since the revitalization of Fourth Ward historically gushed historian Dan Morrill who has long trumpeted is that the trolley will Neither of the two anti-trolley proposals would have outright scuttled the project But they would have slowed or possibly killed it Council member Tim Sellers wanted to delete almost $12 million from the cost He argued that since property owners along the proposed path would benefit handsomely from the project they should shoulder much of the cost Besides Sellers said that money would buy about 36 miles worth of much-needed city sidewalks Fellow Republican Mike Jack-son wanted the public to decide via referendum whether the trol spend the $197 million requested to transform the part-time trolley-as-novelty project into a people-moving economic-development engine for uptown Now the trolley runs weekends and special days from South End to Stonewall Street If as expected the council approves the trolley as part of its $9338 million budget June 15 the trolley would continue across Stonewall Street through the Convention Center and up to 12th Street A 70-foot swath of uptown Charlotte with two tracks trolley stations and a bikeway would be carved between College and Brevard streets Roughly $79 million would be needed to build the bridge across Stonewall Street and upgrade the Convention Center money that would come from hotelmotel and food taxes The city would tap its piggy bank for the estimated $93 million needed to lay the rest of the tracks The rest of the initial start-up costs as well as a bundle of potential trolley amenities and operating costs would be borne privately Mayor Pro Tern Lynn Wheeler who has shepherded the trolley through council hopped up and down after the votes were cast Once calm she preached caution not a done deal until the final budget is approved June Wheeler said the probability the project going to cost some big bucks too But the overall cost to taxpayers could be mitigated substantially by the actions Tuesday of the Charlotte Center City Partners The uptown development group pledged $1 million for the trolley and promised to raise at least another $2 million from businesses like NationsBank and BellSouth votes while not binding clearly show a majority of council members are willing to Reach Dan Chapman at (704) 358-5 1 68 or danchapc harlottecom A WINNING WAY WITH STUDENTS Pollutants not gone just hiding Report: Little things eroding environment By BRUCE HENDERSON Staff Writer harder now to see smell or touch the pollutants that taint Mecklenburg County says a biannual report released Tuesday But the little things from growing numbers of cars to looming piles of garbage are eating away at the quality of life says the 1998 State of the Environment report Most pollution it says now comes from large numbers of small sources that will be magnified by time warning signs are here if we only look and listen: the poor water quality in (Mountain Island McDowell Cove and Little Sugar Creek the traffic congestion commuting time the loss of readily accessible green space the brown cloud over the city during winter inversions inability to see nearby Crowders Mountain in the summer the report says In an unusually blunt assessment Mecklenburg County Department of Environmental Protection officials say the county has passed the time in which easing congestion preserving open space or cleaning waterways will be simple or cheap Their report repeats'many of the recommendations made since 1987 Among them are a cleanup of Mecklenburg creeks recently endorsed by county commissioners forming a regional air-pollution authority and county solid-waste board and sampling groundwater for contamination in areas dependent on wells basically the same throughout the said director John Barry getting to the point now of saying either going to do it or not going to do Among conditions the report documents: Overall quality in lakes and streams disguises the fact that five of the eight major creeks have ratings of fair or worse No 1 spot in nation for blacks: Charlotte Magazine rating elicits mixed local reaction By BOB MEADOWS Staff Writer the best place in the country for blacks At least reported in the latest Essence magazine The June issue ranked 20 cities using several criteria including the percentage of black population household income overall unemployment rate and the cost of housing Charlotte also scored well because of the Afro-American Cultural Center and last conference on race The city ranks just ahead of Washington DC Detroit Philadelphia and Cleveland Atlanta often considered a mecca for blacks ranked 16th The magazine quotes Judith Diamond executive director of the Charlotte YWCA people who buy homes here love their neighborhoods very safe I still know people who lock their Lifetime Charlotte resident Sylvia Grier disagrees with the ranking a city with vast opportunities that blacks are still being kept said Grier a management consultant though a major metropolitan area our ills our discrimination problems are not Lisa Crawford who calls herself an for says the city is attractive because of its economic opportunities a great time to come because you can get in on the ground floor of happening said Crawford a lifelong resident opening a restaurant later this month not a great place for single women but if looking at career opportunities to get into the niches and grooves to start a business then a great DAVIE HINSHAWStaff never seemed like a job It was always so much fun for says Janet Ludwig (right) who was named 1998 Charlotte-Meck-lenburg Teacher of the Year on Tuesday how I feel about my job now I truly She teaches kindergarten at Sedgefield Elementary Before the awards ceremony Tuesday night Ludwig reads part of Stephanie (left) writing journal to the class Story page 3C Baseball study answer all the questions MORE BASEBALL plans to talk with local elected officials business leaders and Don Beaver trying to buy the Minnesota Twins and move them to North Carolina The study suggests that businesses and fans would buy 10000 seat licenses enough to raise $30 million fora stadium but only one-third of what some uptown leaders envisioned That likely means more would have to come from taxpayers already taking sides Aaron Howse 33 a free-lance photographer is ready to buy season tickets and But some economists say Charlotte just big enough It would be the smallest market in Major League Baseball and the smallest with three big league franchises would be a love affair with it for a short said NC State University economist Michael Walden the long run the demographics have to be there to support a The Charlotte Regional Baseball Partnership is now trying to find public and private money for a ballpark that could cost at least $200 million and that could require $60 million or more from taxpayers Over the next two to three months it By FOON RHEE Staff Writer Charlotte would embrace a brand-new big league baseball team playing in a trendy uptown ballpark most agree The real question: Would the allure last? Or would it slide into the downward spiral strangling clubs in most small markets? The answer clear from a feasibility study that helped set up baseball debate Max Muhleman the sports consultant who did the study said Tuesday that Charlotte has the potential to be one of strongest markets How baseball fares in large and small markets 5C Results of the charlottecom poll on whether the ready to support a team 2B Please see POLLUTION page 4C Please see BASEBALL page 5C Please see ESSENCE page 5C Our page in history: May 20 Meek Dec Day Ceremony to remember signing 223 years ago A smash? god-awful Technical wizards save this lizard film lacks heart humor REVIEW GODZILLA GRADE: STARS: Matthew Broderick Jean Reno Maria Pitillo WRITERS: Dean Devlin Roland Emmerich DIRECTOR: Emmerich RATING: PG-13: Violence mild profanity RUNNING TIME: 139 minutes By LAWRENCE TOPPMAN Movie Writer I miss the guy in the rubber suit Sure the much-awaited is technically superior to any giant iguana movie ever made as slick and scary as both installments of from which it borrows liberally: Big Daddy thunders around like a cross between a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus and the baby Godzillettes come to them later) pounce like velociraptors But the heart and humor in this $120 million excuse for merchandising hyped more ruthlessly than any heavyweight summer movie? the message? The technologically clumsy Japanese Godzilla movies of the and were about ecological concerns People related to each other and to the creature the signers at the old Mecklenburg County Courthouse on Fourth Street watch a re-enactment of the signing Their hope is keep the date that heritage alive are trying to celebrate the character and strength of the progressive citizens of this city and county that to this day is still said Dottie Coplon a board member of the Hezekiah Alexander Foundation which with the Mecklenburg Historical Association hosts the yearly celebration The date which flies on the NC state flag once was a big deal in these parts It drew presidential speeches developer Edward Dilworth Latta used May 20 1891 to launch his new streetcar suburb of Dilworth Ann Pressly whose ancestor Matthew McClure was a signer remembers that during the 1950s and '60s the county took a holiday on May 20 or what became known By DAVID PERLMUTT Staff Writer They gathered on a warm day that May 19 1775 unified in their support for the brewing revolution Hours before the 27 Mecklenburg members began arriving word came that British soldiers had attacked Americans a month earlier in Lexington Mass Eight died The Revolutionary War was on in earnest and the spirit lost on those meeting in Charlotte The next day May 20 more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was drawn up in Philadelphia those men wrote their own declaration proclaiming the county and of Great Britain Today 223 years later dozens of Mecklenburgers many direct descendants of the signers will gather at noon at Polk Park on The Square to pay tribute to that revolutionary spirit From Trade and Tryon walk to the obelisk 100 years old today that memorializes the event and even if he was just a man in a costume The new is about nothing but spending and making money It has actors without charm characters without depth jokes without wit science without brains action without a hint Coming Friday In the section Lawrence Toppman and Dean Smith two Godzillophiles explore the film history of Japan's famous lizard More online Watch movie trailers read other reviews and stories plus learn history wwwcharlottecomjustgo See GODZILLA page 4C Please see PATRIOTS page 5C i.