Swerving wildly left and right I struggled to stand on the yard-long board suspended by 15-foot-long ropes. I needed to maneuver to the next such swing, then the next, then to three separate looped ropes, and finally to navigate three tire swings before I dropped to a 12” round slice of a log without touching the ground. As I cautiously placed my foot through the next looped rope, I saw ahead my athletic daughter and her boyfriend looking like Looney Tunes cartoon characters as they wrangled to make it through the swings and progress to the top of a climbing rope, ring a bell and declare they had completed the ropes course. We were at The U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. A recreational and Olympic training facility with ropes courses, mountain biking, hiking, zip lining, and rock climbing, it features whitewater rafting in a recirculating river of rapids. There are cafes, craft beers and live music on 700 acres of land.
It occurs to me that navigating our changing climate is just as precarious as a ropes course. First, we need to reduce our CO2 emissions to do whatever is possible to slow global warming, and second, we need to prepare ourselves, our families and our neighbors for the inevitable changes coming to our back yards. Predictions of sea level rise over the next few decades range from 10 inches to 10 feet globally, but the U.S. trouble spot will be the southeast Atlantic coastal region. As towns and municipalities on the coast begin to experience more frequent flooding, king tides, and storm surges there will be a substantial migration of people toward higher land. The smart folks will not wait for their property to be claimed by the ocean but will sell out early and invest elsewhere. It is predicted that Charlotte will see an influx of 75K to 100K people looking for a drier life.
Charlotte will not be without her own climate problems. Heavy downpours have increased by 86% since 1950. By 2041, Charlotteans will see at a minimum an extra month per year where temperatures climb above 95 degrees F. By the end of the century, if the current trend of global warming is not significantly curbed, North Carolina is expected to have the climate of towns on the Texas-Mexico border.
A World-Class City
The Whitewater Center is only one of Charlotte’s world-class distinctions where economic growth and business development are flourishing. Forbes puts Charlotte 8th on its list of the next biggest boom towns in the U.S. and no. 18 on their list of best neighborhoods for Millennials. The buildings of the beautiful “uptown” skyline house the financial center of the southeast. Based on value of loans and other assets held by banks headquartered there, Charlotte is the third largest banking center in the country with New York and San Francisco being numbers one and two respectively. Charlotte has attracted corporate headquarters for aerospace and defense companies. The State-of-the-art North Carolina Research Campus fosters collaboration between eight universities and at least six companies searching for the secrets to longer life. Carolina Panthers, an NFL team is headquartered in Bank of America Stadium, and the NBA team, Charlotte Hornets, owned by former NBA player Michael Jordan, is at Spectrum Center. At least 40 colleges and universities call Charlotte home including Johnson Wales University with its globally recognized College of Culinary Arts. Thrillist.com described Charlotte as a “formidable foodie city,” and lists over 20 outstanding restaurants in the area including the flagship restaurant of 5Church Group, owned in partnership by Bravo’s Top Chef celebrity, Jamie Lynch.
According to City-Data.com, “Distribution and banking are the two major forces responsible for the emergence of Charlotte as a major urban center.” Due to its proximity to a wide variety of commercial enterprises Charlotte has matured as a distribution and transportation center for the entire region. The Amtrak hub, The Norfolk Southern and The CSX Transportation train systems link 27,000 miles of rails between Charlotte and 23 states in the eastern half of the country. The Charlotte Intermodal Terminal, a fully operational inland container staging and storage facility, runs trains directly to the ocean port of Wilmington making Charlotte a major shipping hub. Although located 175 miles from the coast, it is the only inland port run by the Port Authority. In fact, more than half of the population of the United States can be reached from Charlotte within one day by vehicle, or one hour’s fight time. With its relaxed southern charm, Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 6th busiest in the world in terms of aircraft movement, and the 11th busiest in the United States ranked by passenger movement.
Reducing Emissions
Charlotte is the third-fastest growing major city in the United States. With more than three million people living within a 50-mile radius and more on the way, Charlotte has an immense responsibility to look forward and plan for climate resilience. When President Donald Trump announced his decision in June 2017 to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, Mayor Jennifer Roberts of Charlotte, NC, quickly responded saying, “Climate change is an issue that affects us all and we do not have time to wait for a new administration.” In their Strategic Environmental Action Plan, Charlotte has made an admirable commitment to “become a global leader in environmental sustainability, balancing economic growth with preserving our natural resources…” Soon to be voted on by the City Council, this plan delivers practical short, medium and long-term actions to deliver deep reductions in carbon emissions, and “To become a low-carbon city by 2050, spanning all sectors, to bring city-wide greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 tons CO2e per person annually [the current average in the country is 16 tons].” Certainly they will attain this lofty goal. The city council has passed more visions and plans than one can read, and they seem to be accomplishing much of what they have set out to do.
North Carolina has the second largest solar capacity in the nation. The Charlotte-based, Duke Energy Company, is currently accepting bids for projects totaling 680 MW of renewable energy capacity. In 2018, to encourage customers to sign on for solar energy, the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved a $62 million solar rebate program.
Since 2011, Envision Charlotte, a first-of-its-kind public-private collaboration, has been dedicated to “Making Charlotte’s urban core a living laboratory. The organization explores and tests programs to improve sustainability, resilience, economic competitiveness and quality of life that can be measured, scaled and replicated beyond the urban core and in other communities.” Its first initiative garnered a commitment of 20% energy usage reduction for 61 of Charlotte’s largest downtown government and commercial buildings. To date this extremely successful effort boasts $26,000,000 in energy bill savings, and a 19% reduction in carbon emissions. In 2015 the Obama administration selected Envision Charlotte to expand their model to a national scale by hosting city leaders from ten U.S. urban business communities, helping them develop their own local initiatives.
When the EPA cited NC for its dangerous air quality in the early 2000’s, Charlotte knew that it needed to reduce the number of cars traveling into downtown. Ultimately, this led to the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan which focuses on a pedestrian oriented city center. Along with streetcars, a dock-less bike share program, and a rapid transit bus system, the primary element of the plan is the impressive light rail system, the first in North Carolina. Almost 19 miles of rail, The Lynx Blue Line began operating in 2007. The Charlotte Area Transportation System is pursuing 3 more rail lines utilizing existing shipping rails: one west to The Charlotte Douglas Airport, one southeast to the city of Matthews, and one northwest to serve nearby Lake Norman. While relieving congestion, smog, and greenhouse gas emissions, this plan will deliver area travelers into all segments of Charlotte’s neighborhoods for business, shopping, sports, recreation, entertainment events, and art exhibits.
American Forests Foundation listed Charlotte 2nd in its 2013 list of “10 Best Cities for Urban Forest.” Obviously, Charlotte already knows the value of trees. When a government does its calculations to determine its “net-zero emissions”, the amount of CO2 absorbed by its trees is subtracted from the amount of CO2 emitted by its cars and industries. As part of Charlotte’s efforts to address climate change, the 2017 Charlotte Urban Forest Master Plan set a goal of increasing the tree canopy cover to protect one-half of Charlotte by the year 2050. To accomplish this goal, residents are being educated about the care of trees, and big changes are happening in the deforestation practices of development.
Preparing for Resilience
As expressways and widened thoroughfares cut through the city in the mid-1940’s to 1960’s businesses were encouraged to leave downtown for new building sites in cheap farmland at the edge of the city. As strip malls and communities popped up little attention was paid to nature. Charlotte’s neural web of streams and creeks became polluted, eroded, straightened and built over. Low and flat, flood plains were easy targets for building, but structures built in low-lying areas are at great risk of being flooded. Nature spends thousands of years creating flood plains to allow periodic flood water to expand into low-lying areas, and she doesn’t easily give up her claim. In recent years, with larger and stronger storms, serious flooding has become more frequent and will continue to be more intense as our climates change.
In 2000, the federal government passed The Disaster Mitigation Act 2000, or DMA2K, requiring state and local governments to create mitigation plans. Having a plan pre-positions communities to be more apt to receive FEMA funds before and after disasters strike. It also makes them eligible for federal money offered to match local funding for hazard mitigation improvements. In 2005 Charlotte/Mecklenburg (Charlotte and Mecklenburg County) passed its own Hazard Mitigation Plan which was approved by the federal government, and most recently updated and approved in 2015. Funded 75% federally and 25% by a fee levied on all area water customers, this plan includes a land buy-out program with three options. There’s an “annual” buyout which buys properties based on the overall flood risk, a “quick-buy” which purchases structures in the immediate aftermath of a destructive flood eliminating the need to wait for slow-moving federal funds, and an “orphan” buyout which buys properties not meeting the criteria for a federal buyout, but that are adjacent to other properties already bought out. This encourages the last homeowners in a high-risk neighborhood to relocate so roads can be demolished, deterring anyone from living in the area, and allowing the site to be restored to its natural floodplain. Since 1999 Charlotte/Mecklenburg has removed more than 400 homes, apartments, and businesses from flood prone areas. Where flood plains have been restored streams can now expand temporarily in heavy rains potentially saving lives, reducing emergency response costs, and cutting down on pollution entering the waterways.
Buy-outs have provided more than just flood protection. Flood plains reduce erosion and filter pollutants. Water quality is improving in The Catawba River where Charlotte gets its drinking water. In the 4,500 feet of revived streams, branches and tributaries, waterfowl and wildlife are returning. After the first wave of buy-outs, The Hidden Valley Ecological Garden was built. Where homes have been demolished in the Dunlain Neighborhood of Country Club Heights area, the remaining residents’ physical labor was matched with city funding and a community garden was created for fresh, healthy food. The 187 miles of mostly paved recreation trails constructed in the revived stream channels, are now greenways connecting all parts of the city. A Section of Little Sugar Creek, the former site of a mall, is now the Midtown Urban Greenway where people sit on restaurant patios for dinner or drinks and look out over the cool creek and tree-covered trail.
People-First Planning
“Charlotte is setting itself up to be a world class city, and for it to truly be a world class city it must take care of its people first. But Charlotte has for too long left [low-income] residents behind. And in the face of climate change, which is already happening, these communities are being over-burdened by these layered issues. Our ability to effectively deal with climate change is directly correlated to the health of our community.” – Nakisa Glover, Charlotte community organizer and climate justice fellow at the Hip Hop Caucus
With more people moving into the uptown and surrounding areas for the high paying jobs, rents are rising and the underprivileged are being displaced. The land purchased for the new light rail system was in part negotiated with the promise that low-income residents who had no access to cars would be able to easily reach downtown jobs, vendors, and services. The actual result over the last 10 years is that “transit-oriented development” along the rail system has grown faster than anyone predicted with luxury apartments and condos, and sky-rocketing land prices.
The Charlotte/Mecklenburg area has 141,000 impoverished residents. With more than 25% of these people having no high school degree, many households are living on the brink. Low-income people are the least able to cope with climate change. Food will become more expensive as some farmers scramble to adjust and others go out of business altogether. Water will become scarce as floods and sea-level rise contaminate water tables. Hotter summers and colder winters mean families often must choose between food and heat or air conditioning. In fact, one major climate disaster can destroy a community’s chance at economic development for years or even decades. If businesses never reopen, jobs are lost, and for the under-employed that can be devastating, causing them to be pushed into poverty.
As do many of the older cities in the U.S. South, Charlotte has a dark history of bulldozing over the dreams and prosperity of its Black citizens and a calloused indifference to the housing and needs of its poorest people. Residents have expressed the feeling that the affluent and elite citizens of Charlotte have more to say about how to plan for climate change in low-income communities than the people living there. Recognizing that a community’s citizens should be involved from the very beginning of planning to ensure that efforts and investments succeed, The North End Smart District plan was created. For eight historically low-income Charlotte neighborhoods, the modern urban planning model seeks to include the voices of their residents and community leaders. With collaboration of government, community organizations and business entities, the plan uses technology and data to inform decision-making for enhancing their communities. Government and community resources will provide jobs training, housing resources, public transportation, youth programs and medical services. Each neighborhood will become a hub for development, attracting activities including sports, restaurants and entertainment venues, and local, national, and international businesses, many minority owned. Focusing on non-white and lower-income homeowners, Solarize Charlotte, an all-volunteer run program, uses neighborhood relationships and nonprofit networks to offer discounts on solar installations and connects homeowners to tax savings and low-interest loans. Natural environmental improvements are being made including educating residents about tree planting and care, and “spraygrounds” as heat relief for children.
Conclusion
The lively, growing, international city of Charlotte is moving in the right direction to prepare itself for the area’s environmental challenges. The city’s goals for drastic CO2 emissions reductions are being accomplished by conscientious building practices, a comprehensive transportation vision, and increased forms of renewable energy. Its buy-out program with stream restoration and tree planting will create a safer and cooler city, and its inclusion of its low-income residents in planning puts Charlotte on the path to truly be a global leader in navigating through the ropes of climate change.
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References
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