Lynn Wheeler, former Charlotte leader, dies (02-26-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:18] Again, thank you so much for listening and almost to the day. I'm not really clear on when Lynn Wheeler was the Mayor Pro Tem. I was the reporter during the arena fight, which went back to you know, 2000-2001 timeframe and took a couple of years to actually finally I think he had dropped off a family member. I think his son or something was at the rehab, and he met some woman there, and then she accused him of sexual assault at his house. So, you know, a lot of the city leaders were not huge fans of George Shin after that,

[00:04:20] and they were not interested in building him a new arena,

[00:04:23] and there was a lot of pushback.

[00:04:24] And at the time, again, there was a sizable Republican

[00:05:24] And so the people who were most adamantly against it turned out and voted against it. And so the thing went down. George Shin then moved the team and there was a city council election.

[00:05:32] And I remember that night at the Grady Coal Center in uptown or midtown,

[00:05:42] where everybody would gather back in those days, all the campaigns would gather,

[00:05:45] all the reporters would gather, and the elections officials would be there, and

[00:06:44] Bird's wife was in tunnels. And then of course, the NBA awarded Charlotte a team but gave it to as Keith Larson used to call him

[00:06:48] Bobcat Johnson, Bob Johnson, the founder of BET. And that ended

[00:06:55] up being the issue that cost Lynn Wheeler her seat. She was

[00:07:00] mayor pro tem. And she was the arena issue. But she had also, she was the chair of the Economic Development Committee. She did a lot, like you look around and a lot of the growth that Charlotte is seeing right and we would do a segment that she called Word on the Street with Lynn Wheeler. And so it was all sorts of, you know, behind the scenes stuff, rumors, scuttlebutt, all these, you know, movers and shakers and stuff. And this is really what she was very good at. She was a source for so many reporters as well.

[00:09:42] And she would do these networking parties at her house,

[00:09:47] dinner parties and such, you know, off the record types of conversations. I thought it was, they were good events. And I met a lot of people and she was instrumental in helping people network, especially young people, young reporters that were in town trying to learn, you know, how stuff worked and who made it work, that kind of stuff. So I'm forever indebted to her for that.

[00:11:02] And I appreciate her and rest in peace, Lynn Wheeler,

[00:11:05] and prayers and condolences and comfort In Waynesville and always at CarolinaReadyness.com, veteran owned Carolina Readiness Supply. Will you be ready when the lights go out? This right up in the Charlotte Observer, I noticed the byline included Jim Morrill who has retired from the Charlotte Observer. He now does some work for the Assembly.

[00:12:21] But this is one of those things where in media they call them obit pieces, a passion for Charlotte, and a passion for public service. Without her often behind-the-scenes leadership, Charlotte would not be the city it is today. She was a native of Richmond, Virginia. She was elected to the City Council in 1989, the same year as McCrory. She went on to serve as Mayor Pro Tem and Chair of the

[00:13:41] City's Economic Development Committee. At that's, it seems crazy to me that it was 20 years ago. She became a political

[00:15:02] analyst for WBT radio. She did, hey, maybe you have heard by now DraftKings Sportsbook is coming to North Carolina. It's coming soon. On March 11th, to be exact, DraftKings is one of America's top-rated sportsbooks with same-game parlays, money lines, and props. The best features like odds boost and live betting and social betting groups where you can share your bets with your friends in real time.

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[00:16:28] your cash whenever you want. whether we wanted to call a female town and i think we can't come out to that issue that made me don't know the first time component to it with that i did not think that financially charlotte needed to take on a large project uptown i thought still don't think that

[00:17:40] also we all really enjoyed the college p.m.

[00:17:43] at tabola right that came better were notorious, right? We all knew about them. Right. And so yeah, between the ownership and the players and then the product that they were putting out on the court, it wasn't it wasn't I mean, it's better. It was better. They were winning more games back then they are winning now obviously, but but no, at

[00:19:01] the time, it wasn't what people were expecting from a team that

[00:19:05] was hitting up the taxpayers for Tambola, we didn't have to go uptown. Right. So, I mean, part of this, though, it gets to much larger issues of growth and development because, and it even traces back to the state's annexation laws that were eventually undone

[00:20:21] in 2011 and 2012.

[00:20:23] But, you know, Charlotte annexed in all and it blows up the entire home to office business model. So, I mean, it's another example of sort of the government thinking that it can do a good job centrally planning stuff. But also remember, they threw in a whole bunch of sweeteners to try to get people to vote

[00:21:41] for that arena deal also, right?

[00:21:43] They did the Mint Museum Project, the Beckler Museum, pulled back all their money and he eventually dropped out of the race. But that was their punishment. Now of course he came back, ran again, got in and became mayor and then went to prison. Yeah, all that. Uh-huh. Yeah, quite a time though. Yeah, so there were a lot of the members, and there was a big organized campaign against

[00:23:01] the arena vote too.

[00:23:02] A lot of conservative activists, Mike Costano was Lynn or, yeah, it was. It was Lynn, if not Lynn and Pat Mumford. And they're literally talking about how it's not a long time. My last little comment on that, do you know how many US dollars I have spent in that uptown Coliseum? Does they build it? No, I've not monitored your bank accounts. None. I have yet to walk through the doors. Yeah, well, but I will say Russ, there was a lot of other people that have, you know? Well, I know. I know. Yeah, I mean, and that's

[00:25:43] what they built. Like, so they wanted to go in a certain direction. They wanted the city out of governing that city. And then you have to leave and build another city someplace else. Is that what Republicans and limited government folks and conservatives are destined to do all the time? To just have to keep rebuilding cities, rebuilding cities because they become too left wing and then they get shut out of governance.

[00:27:02] These are questions I asked myself.

[00:27:03] I know there are no real answers. have made it all possible, Tyler2Construction, SuffolkPunch Brewery, Queen City Canine. And so they've already done the kickoff. It's underway. You can go to charlotte-kawanas.org and get all of the details there. And to get your dog into the contest. Got an email here from Chip who says, Pete, would you please comment on how running for

[00:28:21] office in Charlotte has changed since Lynn Wheeler was active? When Lynn first ran yeah, I think you were You were involved in local organizations civic groups I talked a lot about this last week, right Kiwanis being an example of the civic organizations you do a lot of this work and you get out there and you meet people You're involved in the party and that sort of stuff But also, you know back then

[00:29:42] There you know the sort of the power brokers in the city