Connections: A Study of Strategic Trends and Needs in Charlotte-Mecklenburg by Tracy Russ 2005

8/9/2019 Connections: A Study of Strategic Trends and Needs in Charlotte-Mecklenburg by Tracy Russ 2005

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A Study of Strategic Thinkers, Core Themes & Critical Questionsin the Charlotte Community

C O N N E C T I O N S

Do we have the imagination, the

passion, the drive that it will take

to make the most of what we

have as a city, as a region?


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by Tracy Russ

Russ Communications Group

for Foundation For The Carolinas

November, 2004

copyright, Tracy Russ, 2004

O N N E C T I O N S


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Introduction 4

The 6 Themes

The Role of Intent and Vision 6

The Importance of Virtual Civic Space 8

The Importance of Physical Civic Space 13

The Ordinariness of Building Social Capital 18

Finding a Balance Between Individual Leadership and Process 20

Let Diversity Reign! 23

Perceptions and Roles: Foundation For The Carolinas 26

Recommendations 31

Bang for the Buck: Whats Happened 34

Executive summary 37

Bibliography 43

About the author 45

Contents


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I N T R O D U C T I O N

The Charlotte regional community is blessed

with forward-thinking and dedicated leadersand citizens. We are a banking center, yes, but

our human capital, people who have bold ideas and the

creativity, tenacity, skills and heart to move a community

forward are our greatest asset, and we should invest in

them at every opportunity, every time, and every place

we can. This document is one such investment, offered

to the community as a catalyst to light the imaginations

of leaders and citizens in Charlotte and the region.

We are, citizens and leaders alike, in the midst of livinghistory a city and region of untold potential is bursting

up around us. We have great people, economic

resources, a prime location. But, do we have the

imagination, the passion, the drive that it will take to

make the most of what we have as a city, as a region?

Can we embrace our own future and get

comfortable with the fact that the engine weve built is

powerful, and might take us for a wild ride once

in awhile, but can also take us to fantastic, wonderful

places? Yes, we can, if we choose to.

Over the last 4 years, Foundation For The Carolinas

(FFTC) and the Charlotte community have invited a

number of leading thinkers in the fields of civic

engagement, social trends, human studies and economic

development to share their message, knowledge and

observations.

These thinkers have included:

Danielle Allen, FFTC 2003 Annual Meeting speaker

David Chrislip, author, On Collaborative Leadership Richard Florida, author, Rise of the Creative Class

Claire Gaudiani, author, Sacred Text and Philanthropy

James Gilmore, author, The Experience Economy

Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks

William McDonough, author, The Hannover Principles

Susan Crites Price, author, Instilling Philanthropy

in Family Legacies

Robert Putnam, author, Bowling Alone

Each of these people has provided opportunity andcatalyst for our community to learn and reflect on core

values and concepts. The community has asked for,

and received, a vast amount of information and

learning not only of data, but substance around our

community identity, how we interact and make

decisions, and where we are on a continuum of

modern civic practices.

But we have failed to set what we have learned in

any kind of context, discovering and documenting

common themes and lessons learned from this

collected body of knowledge.

Further, our time spent with many of these thinkers

has led to a flurry of activity, each pursued without a

strategic approach that considers how these calls for

action might fit together within a broader community

context.

4 / C O N N E C T I O N S

O N N E C T I O N S


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C O N N E C T I O N S /

Connections is intended to attempt to set these lessons

in a useful context that might reveal commonalities

and articulate what the community has learned and

done as a result of these learnings.

The process of research for and writing of Connections included:

reading and review of original texts by each of the

subject matter experts, including the speeches and

presentations offered to the Charlotte community

telephone interviews with the subject matter experts

interviews with 24 local community leaders chosen

to represent a range of backgrounds, interests and

perspectives in the community individual and small group reviews of drafts in the

final stages of writing

It is hoped that this paper will provide a basis for

Foundation For The Carolinas to strengthen and

augment its role as a thought leader in the community

and region. Connections will be made available to

other capacity institutions in our community to

ground and catalyze future initiatives, strategies and

guide use of resources.

Do we have the

imaginat ion,the passion, thedrive that it willtake to make the

most of what wehave as a city,as a region?


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R

ichard Florida ends his 2002 book, Rise of the Creative Class, by outlining a series

of key challenges to modern society. The most important challenge, he states, is to

answer the question, What do we really want? What kind of life and what kind

of society do we want to bequeath to coming generations? It is the first part of the

question that rings most authentic for reflection in this community what do we, in

Charlotte, really want as a city and community? 2002 FFTC Annual Meeting Speaker

William McDonough told us that design is the first signal of intent, so to borrow from

McDonough, what are our true intentions as a city, and how can we design the ways we

make decisions, allocate resources and create change to realize those intentions?

Theme 1

Define our intent,create our vision of ourcommunity



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Or, on the darker side, do we already do

exactly that, either by choice or incident,creating a future while wearing what Jane

Jacobs (author of the landmark 1961 book, The

Death and Life of Great American Cities), calls the

dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by

ignoring or suppressing the real order that is

struggling to exist and be served.

The question Florida raises was at the front of the

minds of the 21 participants in the Charlotte

Grassroots Civic Lab project (the precursor to theCrossroads Charlotte project) as they asked, what

course will Charlotte-Mecklenburg chart over the

next 10 years as it deals with issues of access, equity,

inclusion and trust in the community? We are

blessed to be a thriving city, in a region projected to

continue its prosperous path, but our intended

destination remains unclear.

We, as a community, have thus far failed to success-

fully construct the needed virtual civic space

(discussed later in this study) to attempt an answer to

this question, and as a result, both leaders and grass-

roots citizens are unable to articulate a common

vision of our future together, either within the

City of Charlotte or in a broader regional context.

David Chrislip, author of Collaborative Leadership,

advises us that if there is no agreement about the

vision for the city or region, create an initiative

whereby citizens can explore and agree on future

needs and directions.

But our work isnt done when we create this vision.

If we were to find a way to assemble a vision of our-

selves in the future, a set of needs and directions

that could guide our decisions, what then would be

the challenge? 2003 FFTC Annual Meeting speaker

Dr. Danielle Allen (her speech was entitled Talking

to Strangers) tells us that a sense of reciprocity is a

key attribute of healthy societies, meaning that asense of sacrifice is required as people in societies

give up some portion of control or power. Can we

acknowledge that truly communal decisions benefit

some citizens at the expense of others, even when the

whole community benefits, and that some of us will

have to sacrifice (power, access, money) to create a

mutually beneficial shared future?

Our timing for thinking about our future is good.

Modern theories of evolution point to long, slowperiods of relatively static existence for most organ-

isms, interspersed with often cataclysmic, dynamic

bursts of adaptive change. In the midst of change,

some organisms thrive while others slowly falter in

the cycle. In Charlotte, our physical, demographic,

social and cultural growth tracks this natural pattern

we are in the midst of rapid change, but instead of

merely being adaptive (which we must be) we have

the opportunity to choose our next evolutionary

state, or to at least choose the degree of deliberate

influence we exert on that state.

Leaders and citizens alike sense a lack of common

vision and purpose for the citys future, yet recog-

nize that we are at a decision point on our historic

timeline. Generally, we look down the road and

remain confident in our communitys continued

prosperity despite growing pains that have included

environmental degradation, a tangling of traffic

congestion, struggles over demographic and cultural

diversity, a chasm between new and old Charlotte

social and cultural institutions, and a conflict

around our system of public education and its place

in our priorities. Our visiting experts have told us

its time for Charlotte to call the question: what kind

of community do we want?


Our visiting experts have told us - its time for Charlotte tocall the question: what kind of community do we want?


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The concept of civic space is oft repeated in the study materials and during interviews

conducted for Connections, whether by direct reference or inferred. Civic space is

where divergent and often conflicting ideas meet for airing and perhaps resolution,

where the capacity for good information, processes and facilitated discussion can connect

with the means for outcomes of those discussions to create change in the community.

This space may reside within, but is not the same as, shared community physical space,public buildings and venues. Yet, the lexicon of civic space borrows from the physical.

How many times do we speak of being at the table, or opening doors of access to decision-

making, or stakeholders being connected in our attempts to assign physical attributes

to processes of relationship and trust building? We recount being moved by a powerful

speech or discussion; our wheels start to spin in an engaging conversation.

Theme 2

The importance ofvirtual civic space



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The interplay between physical and civic

space is powerful and symbiotic. We pull

the lever in the voting booth, but the

phrase connotes, of course, not just the physical

booth, but the concept of participatory democracy

brought to life in a physical sense. In spite of declining

voter turnout, lets remain cognizant that millions

upon millions of people across the U.S. continue to

vote in elections because they feel a visceral connection

to guiding their individual and collective futures

they are actively engaging inside civic space. This

point of view, of course, begs a question: can we

improve the quality of civic space so that more citizens

participate in charting their futures? Experts like

Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer of AmericaSpeaks answer

with a resounding yes, and point to models like

the 21st Century town meeting as one path to go

down for communities seeking to build just such

improved space.

Civic space as an abstract concept meets very real

literal transformation in many aspects of our localhistory. The story of 15-year old Dorothy Counts

entering Harding High School in 1957 in Charlotte,

thus beginning this communitys drive to integrate

public schools, is an excellent example. Counts

experience was quite literally a dangerous physical

journey, but it was the metaphorical value of those

steps that have enduring meaning and power.

Suddenly, the community was changed the result

of a struggle that had occurred in civic space and

manifested in the physical.

The Levine Museum of the New South and the

Community Building Initiative triumphantly tapped

the power of this civic-physical transmutation in the

COURAGE exhibit visitors were inside a physical

space, but what they experienced was much, much

more than this, which is why the sum total of the visit

is described as transforming by many. What might

result as the sum total of these experiences? We have

yet to see.

Civic space cannot be built without community

stewards; institutions, organizations, and people

whose role it is not only to actively create and main-

tain the civic space, but to advocate for its use to

address the communitys most essential issues.

Further, these stewards must be catalysts for creation

of a shared community vision, guardians of itsintegrity, and orchestrators of its link to real imple-

mentation (but they cannot be the implementers for

reasons discussed below) they do this in civic space.

Virtual civic space provides the means to mitigate the

traditional power relationship of dominance and

acquiescence as Dr. Danielle Allen put it in her

2003 Charlotte address, in favor of a political

friendship (Allen) which invites both the powerful

and the powerless to participate in a relationship ofreciprocity, each asking the other for sacrifice that

leads to shared growth. Where does this happen?

When listening, dialogue and action happen in an

environment of trust here is where we find civic

space. It is where connections between spiritual and

material consciousness meet.

Susan Crites Price, author of Instilling

Philanthropy in Family Legacies, tells us that youth

and children should be actively sought to participate

in civic space, saying that involving children early

means that they will be much more likely to be

engaged as adults these will be our next donors,

board members and civic leaders.


Can we improve the quality of civic space so that morecitizens participate in charting their futures?


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Civic space works best when it is created

intentionally, providing the means and

structures for the formulation of sharedcommunity values, decisions on priorities, and

allocation of resources (tax dollars, private invest-

ments, grants) that support decisions based on those

priorities. Often, civic space is referred to as civic

capacity or social infrastructure. If it is true that, as

McDonough asserts, design is the first signal of

intent, then the Charlotte community must be just

as intentional about designing and creating virtual

civic space as it is new arenas, schools, libraries and

parks.

Building civic space has a special set of challenges.

Today, Chrislip tells us that that role of convener

remains crucial, and, being the optimistic and

hard-working people that we are (as Gilmore

describes us), there are a number of initiatives and

organizations in the community that are about the

business of building civic space, including (note: this

is not an exhaustive listing, but a sampling at right):

Within this listing, a discernment can be made

among those initiatives that are crafted to focus on

creating civic space as purely an end goal, and those

that create civic space as a by-product of engaging

citizens in turning the communitys attention to a

particular concern or issue; herein lies one of the

core challenges in building civic space. Its very

difficult to create the kind of capacity in a

community that can stay focused on process, that can

remain as a true convenor, because most efforts

become derailed when they begin to take on an

advocacy role that emerges from that convening

capacity, says David Chrislip.

Theme 2

The importance of

virtual civic space

NAME NEXUS OF INITIATIVE

American Leadership Forum The Lee Institute

Community Building Initiative Community Building Task Force

Congregational College Mecklenburg Ministries

Crossroads Charlotte Foundation For The Carolinas,

Knight Foundation,

Community Building Initiative

COURAGE exhibit Levine Museum of the New South

Hometown Stories The Moving Poets

If I Were the Mayor Kids Voting

Multi-Media challenge

P.O.S.T. youth dialogues Partners in Out of School Time

(P.O.S.T.)

The Region Speaks The Lee Institute

United Agenda for Children The Lee Institute; the Childrens

Collaborative; America Speaks

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The Charlotte community must be just as intentional aboutdesigning and creating virtual civic space as it is new arenas,

schools, libraries and parks.Indeed, our own experience, most recently with

Voices & Choices of the Central Carolinas, bears

Chrislip out and shows that our attempts thus far to

build civic space have met with mixed success.

Originally conceived as a civic capacity-building

institution, Central Carolinas Choices (later known

as Voices & Choices) was created in 1997 to engage

citizens (in the region) in building a shared vision of

the future. Gradually, the organizations missionbegan to evolve towards advocacy of quality of life

across a 14-county area, specifically, environmental

issues related to land use, transportation patterns,

air quality, water quality, and open space

protection.

This transformation was a nascent presence at the

1998 Regional Environmental Summit, for which

Central Carolinas Choices lent its regional credibility

and facilitation expertise. But in the fervor to dosomething following the Summit, Choices became

the fulcrum of activity around content-specific

advocacy, ceding its role over a number of years as

an issue-neutral convener and facilitator to the

emerging Lee Institute, Foundation For The

Carolinas and others.

My overall impression is that in the 1995 - 1997

time frame, the community (Charlotte region) was

discovering that cross-collaboration in decision-

making is important, and that there were several

attempts to get a shared community strategy going,

but none of those ever really took, says Carolyn

Lukensmeyer. Most people have said that many of

those efforts brought people together and identified

issues, but didnt have strong enough links to

decision-making processes, thus there was a great

action plan from participants, but the work didnt

filter up to leadership circles. As an example, Voices

& Choices was a structure to carry the ball, and I

would say a lot came out of that, but the places in the

community that hold the most resources and

decision making power never adapted to that

agenda. The disappearance (of Voices & Choices)

might be ok, but only if there is a clear transfer toother institutions, she says.

The thing is, when these efforts fail, there is such a

long period of recovery because in an effort to create

social capital through these initiatives, we expend so

much of it, in terms of human connections, credibility

and energy, not to mention money and other hard

resources, says Chrislip. With this admonition in

mind, our community would be wise to learn from the

lessons of Voices & Choices as we launch a new roundof engagement initiatives (Crossroads Charlotte and

United Agenda for Children, primarily) aimed at

creating virtual civic space.

We have much to celebrate and much to draw on

in our quest to build civic space. By and large,

Charlotte leaders in government, business, and the

non-profit sectors are highly capable and committed

to their community our institutions have

resources, are largely free of corruption and

generally collaborative. Our citizens see their

community as moving forward, with challenges

facing us this is a much preferable environment to

build civic space than in a dying city or region.

Were not digging our way out of a hole, were

building a strong foundation.



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But still, leaders and citizens who attempt to engage

in public discourse and crafting of policy are lacking

the systems and civic infrastructure to put these well-

meaning and well-intended energies to work effi-

ciently. There is a mis-match at play in Charlotte

between individual human capacity, social capital,

and our own systems for decision-making our civicspace needs are greater than our current capacity.

Jim Gilmore, author of The Experience Economy

and the 2004 FFTC Annual Meeting speaker, tells

us we have no time to waste. I call it the Minkowksi

Space, after a physicist who describes change and

opportunity as a cone of future possibilities that is

three dimensional, charted from time, place and

movement axis. There are certain social capital

needs that will be impossible to meet if you dontspend your money more rapidly they will be

impossible to do in the future because the opportunity

will be gone the cone is smaller. Your goal should

be to do it so well that it becomes a source of revenue

as other communities seek to find out how you did

it, how you created this space so brilliantly.

Theme 2

The importance of

virtual civic space

There is a mis-match

at play in Charlotte

between individualhuman capacity, social

capital, and our own

systems for decision-

making our civic

space needs are

greater than our

current capacity.



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Jane Jacobs describes cities as organic entities, composed of physical-economic-

ethical processes active at a given time within a city and its close proximities. The

importance of the physical attributes of our civic environment to our citys social,

economic and cultural growth have been underscored by nearly all of the thinkers we

have invited to the Charlotte region.

Our own history is rife with examples of changes in physical space creating patterns of

long-term impact on our civic space. The impact of the destruction of the African-

American Brooklyn neighborhood in Second Ward is still recounted as a part of thereason we continue to struggle with issues of trust between races in Charlotte. This

particular example reinforces Allens contention that many current societal issues have

their roots in the lack of a shared history in a community. What was desirable urban

re-development to the white power structure in Charlotte in the 1960s and 1970s meant

wholesale disruption of homes, churches and businesses to African-Americans.

Theme 3

The importance ofphysical civic space



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In remarks to a group of Charlotteans in 2002,

Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam said that

sprawl is the underlying cause of decline in

social capital in rapidly-growing areas like yours

you spend too much time in the car, and thus, less

with each other. Our physical growth more people,more neighborhoods, more roads, more shopping

centers, located in low-density configurations, has

proven to be both our blessing and burden.

On the positive side, our physical environment has

much to do with our continued growth and prosperity.

On a small scale, uptown Charlotte, which is where

many newcomers form an impression of the community

and is thus part of our welcoming ritual, continues

to look and feel more like a micropolitan, with auniversity campus, housing, restaurants, entertain-

ment venues and offices being added every year. On a

macro scale, our climate and temperate weather give us

a natural advantage in attracting newcomers and

retaining current residents.

We are a community that always has sought to grow

and build its way to a better future, but our

penchant for pursuing world-class status through

large-scale physical projects might need to include a

more balanced approach. Charlotteans want to

improve, and arent afraid to reach, but are we

reaching for the right things? During Richard

Floridas 2003 engagement in Charlotte, a

gathering of city leaders hosted by UNC-Charlotte

was asked to choose, at the end of a day-long inter-

active session, what the MOST important to do

item was for the Charlotte region to ensure its

vitality as a Creative Class metropolitan area.

Its important to note that Florida is not anarchitect or social scientist, but an economist. Its

also important to know that the day had involved

extensive discussion of Floridas three pillars of a

successful Creative Class city and economy:

Technology, Talent, and Tolerance. But he had

added a fourth: Place. By this, he meant parks,

streetscapes, open air venues, markets, pedestrian-

friendly neighborhoods, historic landmarks and

other physical amenities.

Participants had a variety of choices from which

to choose their top priority, including: a technology/

research institution (it was noted that this has happened

at UNCC), a major corporate re-location, a major

sports arena, and a modern art museum among others.

All of these options were beaten out as the top choice

by public spaces. Public space was defined as parks,

plazas, entertainment venues, pedestrian malls, and

the like. Indeed, Jacobs chooses sidewalks as the first

area of study in her book, and describes them as having

the following functions, which today we would clearly

categorize as elements of social capital: safety, contact

with others (both like and unlike ourselves) and

assimilating children.

Theme 3

The importance of

physical civic space



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The link between design of physical space and

environmental, social and cultural health is central

to McDonoughs theories on sustainability and

architectural design. In his description of the

Museum of Life and the Environment under devel-

opment in South Carolina, he says that one of themuseums core values is to offer a new model for

the interaction between people and place, in this

case, with the natural environment. McDonoughs

keen observation that design is the first signal of

intent reinforces the notion that if we intend to

address issues of equity, levels of social capital and

trust, then we must pay attention to the physical

design of the spaces and places in which we learn,

play, shop, work, worship and come into both

deliberate and coincidental yet innately meaningfulcontact with each other.

The discussion of place leads tointeresting places,

reflected in observations from the experts around

our communitys identity, both the ways in which we

can and do self-identify, and the ways in which we

are identified and described in and to the outside

world.

If there is confusion about who is a part of the we we

talk about, we have ourselves blame in part. But to be

fair, we suffer from a severe case of what I have termed

Historic-Onset Geographic Sybillitis (H.O.G.S.)

That is, our rich history and tremendous growth in

recent years have conspired with our world-class

aspirations to produce a civic identity crisis.

We want to identify to the outside world as a region

when its desirable to do so as an economic develop-

ment tool (and rightly so), yet we seem mystified and

even angry when the city of Charlotte is confused on

CNN or in national print media by name with

Charlottesville, VA, Charleston, SC and others.This adds fuel to the fire of questions around what

kind of community we want simply because we are

unable to consistently define what community we

speak of, and this makes a difference. The

Experience Economy author Jim Gilmore asks,

what is your welcoming ritual as a city? One is

tempted to respond by asking, from which tribe?

To take one very simple indicator: our community

is concurrently self-defined as a city of 800,000, aregion of 1.1 2.3 million (and 8 14, 15 or even

16 counties) while we toss about community labels

and institutional names that lend even further

obfuscation: The Charlotte Regional Partnership,

Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Bobcats, The Queen

City, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Foundation For The

Carolinas, Centralina, the Piedmont. One has only

to take a drive from one end of the region to the

other, say from Catawba County to Union County,

SC to viscerally discern the difficulty in articulating

a common identity for such a large geographic area

the terrain changes rapidly from rural to urban,

and with this, corresponding changes in priorities,

views on the future and how best to get there.

We must pay attention to the physical design of the spaces andplaces in which we learn, play, shop, work, worship and

come into both deliberate and coincidental, yet innatelymeaningful contact with each other.



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D

uring interviews, Jim Gilmore observes

that, in general, the Carolinas has a

favorable impression in peoples minds,

yet I sense that you (meaning residents of bothNorth and South Carolina) draw a much finer

distinction between your cities than outsiders do

what it means to be from Charlotte is little different

from what it means to be from the Carolinas (either

North or South) to many outsiders. My advice is

dont be afraid to be Carolinians.

Chrislip concurs, counseling that the Charlotte

region, as with so many regions around the country,

is struggling with how to articulate where the lines ofdelineation are, and who is included, but this is an

evolutionary process the answer is more clear now

than it was 10 years ago in Charlotte. Its an organ-

ically emerging definition it doesnt seem to lend

itself to trying to sit down and define.

While it is certainly true that many cities and

regions share similar tendencies with regard to self-

identification and outside identity, its also true

that despite the fact that Baltimore, New Orleans,

Nashville and other cities which we view as peer

cities are, in fact, also at the center of what Neil

Peirce and Curtis Johnson have named CitiStates

(1995 Peirce Report) that retain very distinct

identities of their own.

During interviews for Connections, many local

leaders identified regionalism as one of the key

challenges facing our leaders and citizens. To be

sure, collaborative planning of transportation andland use needs, aggressive marketing of the regions

economic development advantages, climate and

distribution networks are desirable. But perhaps a

component of the regionalism discussion should

include a healthy dialogue on the who and where

is included in all of our iterations, our faces, not

only to the outside world, but to ourselves.

There is another issue related to our civic identity

that is important to note, and this is our hyper-propensity for comparison to other cities,

communities and regions as we seek to craft our own

identity.

In the interviews with local leaders, there were a

number of comments of the ilk that we dont want

to be like Atlanta, and we need to be more like

New York, or Chicago, DC or Austin to attract

people. While there is a good case to be made for

the value of comparison as a way of benchmarking

our own pursuit for world-class recognition, there

is also a self-defeating pitfall here.

Theme 3

The importance of

physical civic space



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To make use of an analogy, in sports, athletes in

competitive racing are taught to let your eyes lead

you, meaning that you should look where you want

to be, not where you dont want to be. In white waterrafting, for instance, staring at a boulder in a river

while trying to avoid it will almost inevitably lead to

your boat crashing into that very boulder, rather

than the clear path ahead. Race car drivers, runners,

cyclists and other athletes look past what is immediately

around them, and focus in the distance on where

they want to be. We can describe a similar phenomenon

with our visions of our community. What kind of

place are we trying to be, and can we lift our heads to

focus on getting there, rather than fixating onvisions of other communities, positive or negative?

Over and over again, the experts said that their

experiences in the Charlotte area were very positive

we have a very positive story to tell, and we should

be about the business of finding the things that are

distinct about your community, those things that

cant be found anywhere else, and making it a part of

your story to the outside world, says Jim Gilmore.

Rather than assiduously trying to avoid being

another Atlanta, lets talk about being Charlotte,

and get intentional about articulating and

describing who we are now, and what kind of

place we aspire to be.

Rather than assiduously

trying to avoid being

another Atlanta, lets

talk about being

Charlotte, and get

intentional about

articulating and

describing who we are

now, and what kind of

place we aspire to be.



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When we discuss social capital, civic capacity and concepts around trust and

relationship building, examination shows that, consistently, the speakers

counsel that relationship building doesnt have to be grandiose, relying onmaster projects, initiatives and visioning processes. The most successful can begin with

what Dr. Allen calls the ordinary techniques of friendship, talking to strangers as

example. Richard Florida says, I would like to see broad support for a great number of

community initiatives and programs. Charlottes challenges might best be addressed by

1,000 smaller efforts rather than 1 or 2 massive projects, he says.

Theme 4

The ordinarinessofbuilding social capital



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E ven the title of Dr. Robert Putnams book,

Bowling Alone suggests the significant

impact of ordinary encounters on levels of

social capital. Florida discusses the multi-faceted

connections that people create in coffee shops,

corner markets, and parks, saying that neighborhood

networks are a citys irreplaceable social capital.

This observation should not be taken to discount the

value of a widely-held community vision derived

from what Lee Institute speaker David Chrislip calls

collaborative engagement of citizens. In fact, com-

munity process and civic engagement have a close

relationship with random acts of kindness that

include Allens advice to overcome childhood

admonitions on talking to strangers. Indeed, in an

AmericaSpeaks 21st Century town hall, participants

must talk to strangers as they dialogue and problem-solve with tablemates its a part of the events design.

During his Charlotte engagements, Chrislip cites

large civic visioning processes in Denver and

California as models of collaborative leadership,

and notes that initiatives like these can lead to

revolutionary change in the culture of the

community. Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, comment-

ing on her visionary work in the field of electronic

town meetings, says that we must develop the

nationwide infrastructure that is needed for citizens

to participate in governance and has worked

to engage citizens in processes addressing

re-development of the World Trade Center, Social

Security, national health care coverage, and

childhood obesity.

Both of these experts recognize the vitality of large-

scale process that enables citizens from a spectrum

of backgrounds to get involved in decision-making,

nurturing their sense of shared community risk,

possibility and opportunity. Crossroads Charlotte

offers just such an opportunity for this community

over the coming year and beyond, but the

Foundations Front Porch grants initiative might

rightly be viewed as a companion effort to

Crossroads Charlotte, both serving different ends of

the spectrum of social capital building as more and

more people are invited to encounter each other in

civic and physical social space via different paths.

Dr. Lukensmeyer reminds us that a goodly portion

of the magic of AmericaSpeaks events, hallmarked as

large-scale, media-friendly, sophisticated tools for

citizen engagement, lies in the power of the face-to-facediscussions that happen between people at tables during

the meeting. It is at this level that the exploration of

people unlike myself (Florida) takes place and trust

begins. The little things matter large-scale engagement

efforts are no substitute for knowing your neighbor.


The little things matter large-scale engagement efforts areno substitute for knowing your neighbor.


20/48

David Chrislip states that, of all the threads that run through US culture, the most

pervasive and influential is that of the power and the freedom of individual achieve-

ment. Florida concurs, saying, we are steeped in the myth of Horatio Alger.

The climate for decision-making in the Charlotte area has shifted over the last 10-15 years

from a model in which several significant business and political leaders crafted and

implemented a vision of the communitys future toa model yet to be defined. Common

wisdom is that the old way of doing things is giving way to a new model based on

collaboration and consensus-building, wherein power is no longer held at the top by a few

select, but shared in a system in which the grassroots have increased leverage in wielding

civic muscle. This view was described in the Charlotte Peirce report (Neil Peirce and

Curtis Johnson, 1995).

Theme 5

Defining a balance betweenindividual leadership and processthe scales of change



21/48

Almost a decade past publication of the Peirce

report, Dr. Lukensmeyers concept of an

electronic town meeting has finally found

root, leading to a call for an AmericaSpeaks event in

which the community would arrive at a set of decisions

protecting the health and well-being of children andyouth via a facilitated, shared engagement process.

Earlier interactive events (the 1997 Environmental

Summit, the 1997 Community Building Task Force

Something Has Begun event, the 2000 Leaders

Caucus on Open Space, and others) designed to

support shared decision making have also bolstered

the belief that a new way is being crafted for the

community to set priorities, make decisions and

allocate resources. Crossroads Charlotte and the

United Agenda for Children town hall will add tothis list of civic engagement initiatives.

Civic engagement and leadership is one of six driving

forces of the Crossroads Charlotte scenarios. In these

glimpses of possible futures for our community, the

more positive scenarios (Class Act and Eye to Eye)

highlight descriptions of shared decision-making and

shared power, while the less desirable scenarios

(Fortress Charlotte and The Beat Goes On) paint a

picture of disengaged citizens and isolated leaders.

So, by accounting of what we have done in terms of

civic engagement processes and by virtue of what we

articulate as part of a desirable future, we see civic

engagement as a positive development in our quest

for leadership.

Where are we in that quest? In this context of changing

leadership patterns, the current reality is somewhere

in between the inspired, all-powerful and capable

leader and rule by enlightened, engaged masses.

Analysis of the opinions offered to us by visiting

experts shows that perhaps the middle ground on theleader-group process continuum is not a bad place

to be Horatio Alger has his place, but the civic ship

is decidedly different in the new millennium. There

are a couple of reasons for this conclusion.

First, if one takes as a given that our community,

with its faults and challenges (most notably evident

in our struggles with race, ethnicity and equity), is a

successful New South city, we have to acknowledge

that the model of a powerful few setting community

priorities while the rest of the population provided

the horsepower served well to take us along a path of

at least economic prosperity. The proof is in the

numbers: people want to live here, people of many

backgrounds, and socio-economic positions are

moving to the city in droves.

Second, even in the current push for more inclusive

decision making, for citizen engagement, for shared

power structures, the call for these tools, and their

philosophical underpinnings, can be traced back

to a few individuals. Chrislip acknowledges this

phenomenon, saying that, in every example of

successful collaboration we (Chrislip and Larson)

encountered, there were people who served as

catalysts one or more people who had the clear


Even in the current push for more inclusive decision making,for citizen engagement, for shared power structures, the callfor these tools, and their philosophical underpinnings, can betraced back to a few individuals.


22/48

Theme 5

Defining a balance between

individual leadership and processthe scales of change

vision, or the energy to get people moving, or the

words to inspire imagination, or the influence to

marshal the resources, or simply the nerve to call

the meeting. In the beginning, collaboration isfueled by individual acts.

Do these individuals act alone? Of course not they

are skilled in leveraging the resources of larger

networks and organizations. Individual and organi-

zational strengths work to enable each other in

successful systems. As Florida observes, whereas

one person can write brilliant software, it takes large

organizations to consistently upgrade, produce and

distribute that software.

Lukensmeyer has built this enablement into the

AmericaSpeaks model, requiring that leaders,

individuals, in a community ask for the type of

broad community engagement process that

AmericaSpeaks designs. Leaders must appear at the

forefront of the effort, accepting their role as a

community leader even as they offer the reins of

choice and power to multitudes of citizens who are

perhaps engaging for the first time in decision-making. As an example, Washington, DC Mayor

Anthony Williams has now used the AmericaSpeaks

model for the third year in a row to set municipal

budget priorities. Would a grassroots citizen with the

same idea see that idea into reality? Doubtful, but a

well-placed, energetic, powerful individual leader

can, and Mayor Williams did.

In Charlottes enthusiasm for process and

collaborative decision-making, it will be important

not to forget the role of the individual visionary

leader even as we explore new ways to guide

discussion, priority setting and resource allocation

in our community that are open to what Chrislip

calls both the usual and unusual suspects.



23/48

Nearly every expert interviewed for this study commented that their perception of

the Charlotte area had been formed around archetypical Southern images: a

majority white population, a slow pace, a genteel culture, a parochial, somewhat

unsophisticated but charming personality and fine being that way, thank you. But these

perceptions changed as experiences with the community brought opportunities to see and

hear what it really means to be the New South poster city.

Theme 6

Let Diversity Reign!

C O N N E C T I O N S / 2


24/48

Dr. Allen recounts that, before I came I thought of

it a lot like Savannah, lots of history, this sort of

nostalgic place, and I was surprised and impressed

that it is youthful and forward looking.

My only contact with Charlotte had been the air-

port prior to my time there, and so, the comfortable

rocking chairs matched perfectly with what I thought

of the city. When I got there, however, I have to say

I was very pleasantly surprised by the diversity I saw,the energy of those I met with, and the presence of

so many committed community leaders, says Susan

Crites Price.

I was impressed at howcosmopolitan Charlotte

feels now most of my contact is with ALF

(American Leadership Forum) Fellows, which may

not be representative of the whole region, but still,

much more cosmopolitan than it used to be, says

David Chrislip.

Census data shows that we are, in fact, a much more

diverse city now then 10 years ago, and trend analysis

predicts that by 2014, whites will form approxi-

mately 55% of the population and non-whites 45%.

If we followed Jim Gilmores advice to let

serendipity reign lets go find the fabric of the

experience economy in Charlotte and took a drive

out Central Avenue from uptown Charlotte we

would see Asian and Latino businesses and neigh-borhoods that were non-existent 10, or even 5,

years ago. If we were to take Dr. Allens advice and

talk to someone we dont know while on our trip,

wed be much more likely to hear a language other

than English in reply as the chart below shows:

Theme 6

Let Diversity Reign!

English 560,787 26%

Spanish or Spanish Creole 45,064 392%

French or French Creole 4,570 32%

Vietnamese 4,154 259%

German 3,434 42%

African languages 2,731 NA

Arabic 2,459 151%

Chinese 2,388 201%

Greek 2,327 40%

Korean 2,208 205%Gujarati 1,565 NA

Cambodian 1,143 91%

Laotian 1,028 NA

Russian 961 758%

Other Asian languages 937 NA

Hmong or Miao (Laos) 771 NA

Italian 755 51%

Other Indic languages 715 NA

Tagalog 707 177%

Japanese 705 2%

SPEAKERS AGE 5 + INCREASE SINCE 1990Languages spoken in

Mecklenburg County -

2002

(source: The Charlotte ObserverAugust 18, 2003, from 2002 U.S. Census projections)



25/48

Its not news that were becoming an increasingly diversecommunity, yet we have really just begun to factor this seachange into most of our thinking about our institutions,

both public and private.

Its not news that were becoming an increasingly

diverse community, yet we have really just begun to

factor this sea change into most of our thinking

about our institutions, both public and private. In

many ways, the private sector has a much better grasp

on the diverse marketplace what it takes to woo

minorities as customers. Witness the explosive

growth in specialty food stores, professional servicesand media outlets focused on the Asian and Latino

population over the last decade. But even as were

figuring out how to appeal to a diverse customer, we

havent figured out how to activate and retain

an active, diverse citizenry. One local interviewee,

an African-American and partner in one of

Charlottes mainline law firms laments that, We

can get new people here, new black professionals,

but we cant keep them they come for awhile, and

then go to D.C. or Atlanta. To borrow from JimGilmore again, our welcoming ritual seems to be

working, but the follow-through is lacking, which is

why Richard Florida tells us that, Anything building

and promoting tolerance and a celebration of

Charlottes diversity would be good investments, in

my opinion.

In the non-profit and government sectors, the

community struggles with gathering the resources it

takes to support a diverse population a range ofcultural, linguistic, economic and social challenges

are evident throughout the Charlotte area. Yet, this

diversity is exactly what most of the visiting experts

remarked upon as being one of our most visible,

surprising traits. And this is where authenticity

lives being around people and environments that

are unlike your own, says Richard Florida, and

when I ask young people, people who could live and

work anywhere, the kind of people youre competing

for, what they want, what they say is I want to live in

a place thats authentic.

Authenticity stemming from our newfound diversity

could be one of our strongest selling points topotential newcomers, because it is sustainable. Our

communitys diversity is real, is growing and will

continue to grow for the foreseeable future. If we

were to promote, celebrate and tell the outside

world that Charlotte not only welcomes diversity,

but is actively seeking it out, we may have found a way

to build civic space that could complement important

physical spaces such as airports, university

campuses or entertainment districts as a world-class

asset. What do we need to find our identity and apath to a place on the list as one of Americas Great

Cities? Its right in front of us let diversity reign!



26/48

During interviews with Charlotte-area community leaders for Connections, five words

emerged that encapsulate what the role of FFTC is, and should be, in the community. Ihave listed them in the order that they seemed to be prevalent in the comments gathered

rather than a strict quantitative listing, and have offered excerpts from interviewees that

best typify these impressions. Overall, Foundation For the Carolinas enjoys a very positive

image in the community mind the comments offered reflected the kinds of thinking that

might be offered to a reflective best friend on the part of nearly all leaders interviewed.

Perceptions and Roles:Foundation For The Carolinas



27/48

1. Funder

Clearly, the funding and philanthropic fiduciary responsibilities of the Foundation are first and foremost in

most minds, and will remain the core of the Foundations identity and continue to be what it brings to the

community table. But, perhaps there is room for more adventurous philanthropy. The Experience Economy

author Jim Gilmore says, there are a lot of great foundations in dead cities and encourages our community to

move boldly, counseling FFTC to become self-liquidating, on the premise that, Charlotte has certain social

capital needs that will be impossible to meet in the future if you dont spend more rapidly today whats

possible today is impossible tomorrow. While this might be viewed as extreme, the idea has merit in that, if

we accept the Gould notion of biological evolution and apply it to civic growth, there is logic to expending far

greater resources during some times of our communitys history than others, as opportunity or crisis

demands.

One interviewee stated that, I wish the Foundation had more discretionary dollars to do some creative

philanthropy in the community, some things that might be viewed as risky the Foundation supports

wonderful work, but I feel that it might be hampered sometimes in pursuing really cutting-edge initiatives.

2. Convener

Many of those interviewed offered the word convener to describe Foundation For The Carolinas, and

thought of this role as being one of the most valuable. The Foundation is generally viewed as a fair player and

broker, able to bring together resources, organizations, people and ideas in an objective environment.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this role, however, is Foundation For The Carolinas unique ability to

declare, by virtue of convening, that an issue, concern or aspiration is officially on the civic agenda.

Somebody needs to be able to reflect whats going on in the community, without being too close to agencies,

or specific causes, and I think the Foundation does that, even if it doesnt come out and say explicitly that it

does this, by calling together people on an issue who have different perspectives, states one community

leader.

When I say convener, I also mean that the Foundation can sit in the bully pulpit in the region, and werelacking that kind of leadership in many ways right now. But the Foundation can, and does, I think, step out

front, uses its reach in a way that I think is increasingly difficult for the business community to do here any

longer because their concerns are more global now, says another leader in the region.

Another interviewee cautions that, we walk a dotted line being a convener we dont want to get political, or

compete with agencies like the Arts & Science Council or United Way, so its always a balancing act.



28/48

3. Facilitator

The Foundation enjoys not only a privileged position to call for the gathering of resources, organizations,people and ideas, but also the perception that it can manage these components forward to action through

process. A primary example of this convener/facilitator continuum is the current Crossroads Charlotte project.

Foundation leadership decided that Social Capital was to be a part of our civic conversation, and so it was.

Then, with the Knight Foundation acting in support, it facilitated, through a capacity it had developed called

the Community Building Initiative, a process by which the community could respond and take action.

4. Think tank/thought leader

The community looks to the Foundation to serve as a sort of generator and repository of civic consciousness

and vision, removed far enough away from the business of doing business that Charlotte is known for to

be able to study the community from a long-term, strategic vantage point. This capacity, however, is perhaps

the most under-utilized, and to be fair, this might be because it is the role that is most distant from our

current notion of institutional leadership as active, as doing something.

I think the Foundation is viewed as a place where key priorities are set and attention is focused, and this

attention can be flexible as the communitys needs change, but more and more, the Foundation is set up as

the place where thoughtful consideration can take place. I wonder sometimes if they have the capacity to do

as much of this as we want them to, offers one local leader.

Carolyn Lukensmeyer also commented on this aspect of the Foundations role in the community, saying that,

Given all that is going on, and where the community is, does the Foundation have adequate structure to

support the thought leader role?

Another interviewee commented that he wished that when outside speakers are brought in, that they were

available to a wider audience, saying, were they (the speakers) made available to enough people?

5. Capacity builder A citys civic capacity is called upon, and its depth can be measured, when crisis erupts, or when special

opportunities emerge for which quick action must be taken. The Foundation is seen as the key player in

the community for supporting and maintaining the kind of civic capacity that enabled Charlotte to

avoid race riots in 1997 with the creation of the Community Building Initiative, and for moving the

community to address key issues affecting its future as with Partners in Out of School Time ( P.O.S.T.),

Crossroads Charlotte or United Agenda for Children.



29/48

During a recent visit by Cincinnati area leaders to the Charlotte area, a Connections interviewee told the

visiting delegation that, I think that the most important thing for you (Cincinnati) to do is to take your

community foundation and position it as THE place to go to as the center of discussion and resources wecouldnt have done what weve done with Community Building Initiative without the Foundation taking on

that capacity building role.

Other interviewees offered more specific thoughts around the capacity-builder role:

I wish the Foundation would provide more training opportunities for those of us in non-profit

management, more brass tacks around outcome measurements for example. In my work, its hard to say

what you do in a quantifiable way, and this is true of others in non-direct service. The Foundation could

be at the forefront, bringing in some people to help us discuss this.

As a young leader outside of the city of Charlotte, I was inspired early on by Foundation leadership to

reach out, to think more regionally, and I think this capacity is something that has helped me in my work

and this meant a lot to me personally, this nurturing of regional thinking, and it has meant a lot to the

communities I work in as well.

Another interviewee offered the perspective that the Foundation might also enhance capacity of a more

individual nature, saying that, There is a need for a program to develop individuals capacity to give help

more people see the needs in the community and how they can give, maybe even more than they think they

can give.



30/48

Commentary

There is a definite discernible tension around how active FFTC should become as a change agent in thecommunity, and the strategies that might be employed to affect change. Those with close ties to FFTC are very

conscious of its obligation to clients, or funders (more risk averse), while those outside that circle would like

to see FFTC grow into a stronger leadership role (less risk averse).

It will be important, in this consultants view, that the Foundation very carefully, but energetically, tread the

dotted lines between its obligations and fiduciary responsibilities to grantors and its perceived role as a change

agent and catalyst, and in this regard, for it to acknowledge more directly that it has, and will, fill some, one,

or all of these roles at different points in the communitys history.

The Foundation should be more overt about this acknowledgement than it has been, primarily because thecommunity needs, is thirsting for, strong leadership. While the Foundation cannot be the only answer, it can

and should firmly grasp the civic leadership reins that have been ever so slowly allowed to loosen from the

communitys grasp. Somewhere in the mix of funder, convener, facilitator, thought leader and capacity

builder, there is a sophisticated role for leadership that might properly be called the active convener

role not an advocate of specific issues, but not a totally benign benefactor either.

Our community is at a critical place vast resources at hand, very capable individual leaders, and capacity

for visionary growth. But, we have a leadership vacuum that muffles our ability to fully make use of these gifts.

Our weak mayoral system of government means that political leadership is tied to traditional service delivery

or reactionary politics. Meanwhile, our uptown business leaders must necessarily cast broader gazes as their

spheres of influence grow broader and broader nationally and globally. Citizens are left to wonder: who is

left to lead?



31/48

The following recommendations vary in scope and focus, and are intended to reflect the

thinking ideas springing from information and concepts in Connections. I have divided

them between those that are Foundation-focused and those that are community-focused.

Foundation-focused recommendations

1. Set a process in motion to fully describe and articulate the various roles of Foundation For The

Carolinas in the community, locating the Foundation on a benign/activist continuum of identities and

resulting actions. In doing so, I recommend that the Foundation very carefully protect and

preserve its position as the communitys convener and that it articulate that position and repeat it to staff,

Board, funders, grantees and the community at large. The process should start with dialogues with

grantees, members of the Board, staff and key community leaders and end with a document that

promulgates these identities and roles clearly, acknowledging that a balance among all of these roles is

reality. Incorporate and define how the Foundation can become an active convener.

2. Create a Foundation For The Carolinas Fellows program, a think tank of leading experts in the

community that meets once a year to outline and discuss key challenges facing the community. Add to thismembership our visiting experts, and invite them back on a regular basis to assist us in assessing our

progress and evaluating new ideas for the community. As a part of this effort, Foundation Fellows could

conduct pre- and post-interviews with all visiting experts from this point forward and publish these

interviews along with their presentations, speeches, etc.

3. Devote more resources and, if necessary, a targeted fund-raising effort, towards enhancing the

Foundations convening and thought leadership roles in the community. Current efforts in civic

engagement in the Charlotte community that are being supported by the Foundation are perfectly timed

to highlight the need for this role, and timing given the weight and scope of the types of issues the

community is facing further build the case for this capacity. Added to this is the arguable reality that theFoundation is not only uniquely, but singularly, positioned in the community to play this role.

4. Create a High-Risk Civic Venture Philanthropy Fund, perhaps with a name like Foundation2 tofund particularly bold, but unproven initiatives in the community that address specific needs. Grantees

from this fund might not have to meet the same requirements as traditional grantees, and might be a part

of experiments in evaluation and assessment that could later be expanded if successful.

Recommendations



32/48

Foundation-focused recommendations (contd.)

5. Continue to develop and support a Youth Philanthropy Program to follow up on Susan CritesPrices recommendation during her time in Charlotte and begin to unleash the power of philanthropy

in future generations. Model programs exist in other communities in the nation and should be studied

for replicability in our area.

Community-focused recommendations

1. Embrace the Big Idea. If we want a city that is energetic, able to compete for the worlds best and

brightest, and able to support a continually improving quality of life in a competitive global economy and

environment, we will need to take some bold steps stemming from Big Ideas in Charlotte.

Our reticence to embrace ideas that will never work or are too risky leads to a culture of civic timidity

and a nearly palpable stifling of creative energy. We have to learn to imagine energetically, to pursue new

ways of thinking aggressively, and expand our threshold for risk.

I recommend that we create a juried competition managed by an Office of Big Ideas, perhaps in

conjunction with an existing event like the Southern Summit, to render cutting-edge, inspiring ideas

about our communitys future from all sectors of the community.

The Power of the Big Idea is prolific in the stories of great societies, great nations, and Great Cities

indeed, much of the identities of some of these entities has coalesced around Big Ideas. Consider John

F. Kennedys call to put a man on the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, a call that

inspired an entire nation, not merely because of the specific idea itself, but because a leader essentially

said that is a good thing to pursue a Big Idea this is now recognized as a defining American moment.

We need to cultivate and nurture our capacity for this type of thinking in Charlotte.

Imagine:

What if, tomorrow morning, we picked up The Charlotte Observerto read that a coalition of Charlotte-

area corporations had announced a program called Education 1 in which they were going to send

every single high school graduate in the county to college if they chose to go and give sufficientfunds to make teacher pay in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system #1 in the nation, not in 10

years, or 5 years, but next year?

What if, Charlottes regional elected officials appeared on stage together at a major public event to

announce that not only would we have effective mass transit, but that the region was going to pursue

the goal of making a car-less ride possible from one end of the region to the other by 2025?



33/48

What if, in 2008, on the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Charlotte was

chosen to host a world gathering of civil rights leaders, because it had become a model community for

race relations? And what if someone in our community proposed just such a gathering in 2004?

And, what if, one person had an idea to move a culinary school to Charlotte, a person who was not

a traditional leader and outside of the pool of usual suspects, and this idea became reality? Or that

Charlotte was going to be a world financial center, or would have an NFL team? Welcome to our

present Johnson & Wales, Bank of America and Wachovia, and the Carolina Panthers are testament

to the power of the Big Idea lets create more.

2. Use the 10th anniversary of the Pierce Report in 2005 as the occasion to launch an effort, every

10 years, for the community to do a broad-spectrum self-assessment, and publish the results. The

resulting look at our community could yield a reflective look at our broad needs, opportunities,

obstacles and serve as a benchmarking document. Elements of initiatives like the United Agenda for

Children, Crossroads Charlotte, Advantage Carolina and others could serve as baseline data. However,

the hybrid of data analysis and qualitative information gleaned by Pierce and Johnson in 1995 should be

the goal, such that the picture presented is a balance of poetry and prose.

3. Identify critical periods and defining moments in Charlottes history that need to be explored andfor which common histories must be written that properly take into account differing perspectives.

Begin with the Brooklyn story as an example. Create a Defining Moments community initiative that

would allow teachers in public and private schools to imbed this work in a curriculum of study that would

trace historic, economic, social, political and spiritual impacts in these defining moments. From this

work, a shared history would begin to emerge and the model used for assembling this history could be

used to document our community in current events.



34/48

Without exception, interviewees for Connections responded that the Foundation For The

Carolinas should continue to bring in speakers of the caliber offered to the community

over the last 4-5 years and said that the speakers were catalytic in many cases. In gauging

the effects of having brought in these experts, I submit that two measurements are

valuable:

One - the level to which dialogue and conversation in the community is affected and shifts,

from even the use of key words to entire concepts and ideas;

Two - the direct cause/effect relationship that can be traced from community initiatives to

individual speakers.

Bang for the BuckWhy Bringing in Outside Speakers is Worth Doing



35/48

On the first point:

It is clear that the concept and lingo around Dr.

Robert Putnams social capital studies have seeped

into conversations across the community, showing

up in conference rooms, chambers, public meetings

and other conversations as well as columns and

letters to the editor in The Charlotte Observer and the

Charlotte Post. Social capital is the basis of much of

Foundation For The Carolinas grant-making, and

its level of health is now a broadly-shared communi-

ty priority. Dr. Richard Floridas creative class

concept has been cited by numerous interviewees as

having particular resonance for those thinking about

the communitys economic future. Clearly, when

dialogue about our communitys future includes

phrases like this, an impact has been made, but more

importantly, the saturation of these ideas shows that

we listen to those we bring in, and use what we have

learned. Specifically, numerous significant initiatives,

or at least effects on initiatives, can be traced back to

the work and offerings of our outside experts, which

leads to the second point.

A catalog of effects drawn from interviews conducted

for Connections includes the following while notall of the speakers were specifically mentioned, most

interviewees commented that the sum total effect of

the speakers had been influential to them in their

work. I have listed them below in a rough order of

appearance in the community.

Dr. Robert Putnam the Age of Social Capital in

Charlotte is upon us, and its influence can be seen

in everything from the Crossroads Charlotte project

to the United Agenda for Children to numerousother civic initiatives. Social capital is now firmly

entrenched in Charlottes lexicon, and it remains to

be seen what the net effect of having the concept as a

part of our thinking will be ultimately. Three

specific effects of Putnams work in the community

can be discerned:

1. The focus of Foundation For The Carolinas

grant-making in Social Capital as one of three

priority areas. These grants are distributed across a

range of agencies and grantees and this focus has

caused social capital to emerge prominently as a

measurement of our communitys overall quality of

life.

2. The creation of Crossroads Charlotte began when

the Foundation convened a group of community

leaders to devise a project-based response to the

Charlotte communitys low ranking in levels of trust

between races on Putnams Social Capital survey.

3. The creation of Front Porch grants to support

small-scale social capital projects in the community.

Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer of the experts cited in

this study, Dr. Lukensmeyer has spent the most time

in the Charlotte community, having first visited the

community shortly after the genesis of Central

Carolinas Choices in 1997. The current United

Agenda for Children effort has its roots solidly in

Dr. Lukensmeyers connections to this community.

In 1998, Dr. Lukensmeyer included a group of 6Charlotteans in a national retreat held in Racine,

WI to discuss the status of civic engagement in the

United States in 1998. Attendees included:

Madine Fails, President of the Urban League of

the Carolinas

Bill McCoy, then executive director of the UNC-

Charlotte Urban Institute

Betty Chafin Rash, then Executive Director of

Central Carolinas Choices Tracy Russ, then Project Manager of Central

Carolinas Choices.

Bill Spencer, then President of Foundation For

The Carolinas



36/48

This experience proved to be the start of a long

connection between the Charlotte community and

Dr. Lukensmeyers AmericaSpeaks organization. In

2002, I led a Charlotte delegation of volunteer

facilitators to AmericaSpeaks New York City electronic

town hall involving over 4,000 citizens. The event,

entitled Listening to the City was designed to

engage citizens in making decisions about what could

and should happen as re-development of the World

Trade Center site took place. Dr. Anne Udall,

Executive Director of the Lee Institute, was among

these volunteers. Seeing the power of the electronic

town hall experience to engage citizens and create

and agenda for community change, she returned to

Charlotte, and with the leadership of Lynnwood

Foundation President Cyndee Patterson, moved to

make an electronic town hall for Charlotte a reality,

this one centered on the needs of children and

youth in the community and entitled United Agenda

for Children.

William McDonough for nearly two years after

McDonoughs visit to the Charlotte community, his

remarks were the most visited portion of the

Foundation For The Carolinas website. His remarks

around sustainable design and community were

inspirational enough for regional leaders to ask him

to serve as lead architect for the Museum of Life and

the Environment, now under development in South

Carolina. One elected official in the region cited

McDonoughs comments as inspirational, reinforcingtheir own views that the proposed Mecklenburg

County greenway was vital for the communitys

future.

Dr. Richard Florida Floridas message resonated

with the Charlotte community, and his creative class

language has been used repeatedly in discussions

about future economic development in the region

since his time here in 2003. The Salisbury

Committee of 100 has recommended that Creative

Class-focused economic development become a

core priority in that community, while the Charlotte

Chamber has asked a group of young business leaders

to devise specific strategies for attracting and retaining

members of the Creative Class to the area.

David Chrislip Chrislips work with the American

Leadership Forum now continues with the fourth

class of ALF Fellows in the Charlotte region begin-

ning work, much of it based in Chrislips work on

collaboration. The region now has a network of

leaders who are trained in using collaborative action

to move their communities forward, and this

capacity will prove to be of great value as the region

continues to grapple with issues related to growth,the environment, transportation, education and

economic development.

Dr. Danielle Allen while no direct initiative has

resulted from Dr. Allens time in the Charlotte

region, several interviewees noted that her contention

that much of Charlottes current issues with racial

trust were due to a lack of shared history was

impactful. Specifically, those interviewed who were

in some way connected to the Levine Museum of theNew Souths COURAGE exhibit stated emphatically

that Dr. Allens thoughts helped set the exhibit in

context for planning and facilitation. Dr. Allens

work has also been credited with moving

conversations with participants in Community

Building Initiative projects forward, providing

context and content for participants.

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The Role of Intent and Vision

Richard Florida ends his 2002 book, Rise of the Creative Class, by outlining a series of key

challenges to modern society. The most important challenge, he states, is to answer the

question, What do we really want? What kind of life and what kind of society do we want

to bequeath to coming generations? It is the first part of the question that rings mostauthentic for reflection in this community what do we, in Charlotte, really want as a city

and community?

In 2002, architect William McDonough began his remarks to the Foundation For The

Carolinas Annual Luncheon by saying, Design is the first signal of intent. McDonough

went on to demonstrate that sustainable communities, economies and even buildings are

sustainable because those who design these systems intend for them to be sustainable as a

primary objective sustainability isnt an outcome, its the objective.

So to borrow from McDonough, what are our true intentions as a city and community, and

how can we design the ways we make decisions, allocate resources, and create change to

realize those intentions? Can we find the right combination of people and civic tools to

create a truly shared vision of our communitys future and get intentional about making that

vision a reality?

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The Importance of Virtual Civic Space

The concept of cultural civic space present in a community is one oft repeated in the studymaterials. This space may reside within, but is not the same as, shared community physicalspace, public buildings and venues. Yet, the language around civic space borrows from thephysical. How many times do we speak of being at the table, or opening doors of access todecision-making, or stakeholders being connected in our attempts to assign physicalattributes to processes of relationship and trust building?

Civic space is where divergent and often conflicting ideas meet for airing and perhaps

resolution, where the capacity for good information, processes and facilitated discussion canconnect with the means for outcomes of those discussions to create change in the community.

Civic space works best when it is created intentionally, providing the means andstructures for the formulation of shared community values, decisions on priorities, andallocation of resources (tax dollars, private investments, grants) that support decisions based onthose priorities. Often, civic space is referred to as civic capacity or social infrastructure. If, asMcDonough asserts, design is the first signal of intent, then the Charlotte community must be

just as intentional about designing and creating social civic space as it is new arenas, schools,libraries and parks.

The Importance of Physical Civic Space

In Jane Jacobs landmark book 1961 book, the Death and Life of Great American Cities, the authordescribes cities as organic entities, composed of physical-economic-ethical processes active at agiven time within a city and its close proximities. In this excerpt, Jacobs establishes the linksbetween social patterns and physical ones. Not surprisingly, the importance of the physicalattributes of our citys social, economic and cultural growth have been underscored by nearly allof the thinkers we have invited over the last three years.

The link between design of physical space and environmental, social and cultural health iscentral to McDonoughs theories on sustainability and architectural design. Again, his keenobservance that design is the first signal of intent reinforces the notion that if we intend toaddress issues of equity, levels of social capital and trust, that we must pay attention to thephysical design of the spaces and places in which we learn, play, shop, work, worship and comeinto deliberate and coincidental yet innately meaningful contact with each other.

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The Ordinariness of Building Social Capital

When we discuss social capital, civic capacity and concepts around trust and relationshipbuilding, examination shows that, consistently, the speakers counsel that relationship buildingdoesnt have to be grandiose, relying on master projects, initiatives and visioning processes. Themost successful can begin with what Dr. Allen calls the ordinary techniques of friendship.

Even the title of Dr. Robert Putnams book, Bowling Alone suggests the significant impact ofordinary encounters on levels of social capital and Florida discusses the multi-facetedconnections that people create in coffee shops, corner markets, and parks, going so far as to say

that neighborhood networks are a citys irreplaceable social capital.

The experts recognize the vitality of large-scale process that enables citizens from a spectrum ofbackgrounds to get involved in decision-making, nurturing their sense of shared communityrisk, possibility and opportunity. Yet, as Dr. Lukensmeyer reminds us, a goodly portion of themagic of AmericaSpeaks events, hallmarked as large-scale, media-friendly, expensive tools forcitizen engagement, lies in the power of the face-to-face discussions that happen betweenpeople at tables during the meeting. It is at this level that the exploration of people unlikemyself (Florida) takes place and trust begins. The little things matter large-scale engagementefforts are no substitute for knowing your neighbor.

Defining a Balance Between Individual Leadership and Process

The climate for decision-making in the Charlotte area has shifted over the last 10-15 years froma model in which several significant business a

Connections: A Study of Strategic Trends and Needs in Charlotte-Mecklenburg by Tracy Russ 2005

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