The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and RecruitMilitary are presenting the Hiring Our Heroes veteran job fair and opportunity expo on Thursday, June 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Charlotte Motor Speedway (in the ballroom of The Speedway Club, 5555 Concord Parkway South, Concord). This is a free event for military veterans, including personnel who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, veterans who already have civilian work experience, members of the National Guard and reserves, and their spouses.
So far, 46 exhibitors and hiring companies have signed on to participate, including Verizon Communications, Bank of America / Merrill Lynch, Kellogg, Chiquita Brands, The Home Depot, Wells Fargo, Convergys, Ettain Group, State Farm, Lash Group, Oracle, and many more. Click here for more details and to register to attend. You can also see what people are saying about RecruitMilitary, the military-to-civilian recruiting firm putting on this job fair, by visiting their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/recruitmilitary.
The Charlotte Chamber held its annual Economic Outlook Conference yesterday at Charlotte Convention Center. You can read The Charlotte Observer article, "CEOs see slow economic growth in 2012," to learn what executives from five of the country's largest businesses and the Federal Reserve had to say about the economy. I just wanted to share one of the Observer's photos here because it shows how much money was in the room yesterday, which you can see from the six esteemed gentlemen on the stage (each of the corporations they represent are either headquartered in Charlotte or have a large presence here). There were also numerous CEOs, presidents, and other top executives in attendance.
Pictured from left to right: Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; David Carroll, senior executive vice president of Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement Services for Wells Fargo; Brian T. Moynihan, president and CEO of Bank of America; Dan DiMicco, chairman and CEO of Nucor; Christopher Kearney, chairman and CEO of SPX; and Jim Rogers, chairman and CEO of Duke Energy. Photo by Jeff Willhelm/The Charlotte Observer. Click here to see full gallery.
I saw a cool new TV commercial tonight in which Charlotte, specifically its Uptown buildings, is the star. Verizon has rolled out a national campaign to promote how its "network of technology, people, and ideas" is benefiting businesses and communities. In the commercial featuring Charlotte, it highlights how the city is using "Verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs, making communities greener."
The creative premise of the commercial shows a series of Uptown buildings being honored as employee of the month inside their respective offices. Those include the new UNC Charlotte Center City Building and NASCAR Hall of Fame, among others. Watch the video below.
If you visit the Verizon website dedicated to this campaign, verizon.com/plus, and click on the "Energy" tab, it takes you to several resources, including white papers and case studies on smart grid and cloud technology. There's also a link to Envision Charlotte, an initiative led by Duke Energy's Smart Energy Now program that uses digital grid technologies to display real-time energy data throughout Uptown, to create awareness and encourage behavioral change. The goal of this initiative is to cut energy use in Uptown by up to 20 percent by 2016. Several major corporations and organizations have partnered with Duke Energy on this, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Verizon, Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, and others.
Plans for Envision Charlotte have been in the works for the past year, and the campaign officially kicked off last Friday (click here to read The Charlotte Observer article). Below is a video from last year, in which former President Bill Clinton announces Envision Charlotte at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. He's joined on stage by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Mayor Anthony Foxx, and Charlotte Center City Partners President Michael Smith.
All of this strengthens the momentum Charlotte has been building over the last few years to grow its energy sector. Several local leaders want the city to be known as an energy hub as much as it is known for banking, and the motivation behind energy is propelled by the possibility of job creation, in addition to environmental sustainability.
Wells Fargo, which recently completed its conversion of Wachovia signs and banking locations to Wells Fargo nationwide with Charlotte and North Carolina being the final changeovers this month, is throwing the largest cultural arts festival I think this city has ever seen. The Wells Fargo Community Celebration takes place this Saturday in Uptown Charlotte, featuring more than 60 performances and events, and it's all free to the public.
Wells Fargo, which now employs about 20,000 people in Charlotte and nearly 30,000 in the state thanks to its acquisition of Wachovia, has partnered with the Arts & Science Council (ASC) and Charlotte Center City Partners for this all-day celebration. There will be live art demonstrations, a street festival featuring LEGO sculptures, a chalk art competition, stage plays, dance shows, and concerts such as those by Nicci Canada and headlining act, jazz great Branford Marsalis.
Wells Fargo is also underwriting free admission into several Uptown cultural facilities on Saturday, including: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Discovery Place, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Levine Museum of the New South, McColl Center for Visual Art, The Light Factory, and more. Plus, the celebration will commemorate the opening of the Wells Fargo History Museum in Three Wells Fargo Center, which honors Charlotte and North Carolina's rich banking heritage in addition to telling the history of the San Francisco-based bank.
The main hub for the activities will be the Levine Center for the Arts, so you'll want to make your way there Saturday as a starting point. CATS Gold Rush, the free center city trolley on wheels, is operating a special route to help attendees maneuver easily to the various facilities and events. You can find a detailed list of all of Saturday's events here on the ASC's website, including this printable event guide and information on parking.
I've been following the national news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement over the last three weeks or so. And as the rallies and protests spread from New York to other major cities like Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, so did the national media's inclusion of those cities in its coverage. But I hadn't been hearing any mention of Charlotte. Surely the citizens of this country's second largest banking city would get involved, right?
Well, the Occupy Charlotte movement appears to have been quietly building momentum for about two weeks, and this past week and this weekend made its biggest showing yet. An estimated 500 protesters gathered in Uptown Saturday and marched from the old City Hall on East Trade Street to the Bank of America headquarters on Tryon Street. Some even slept outside overnight to continue the rally today. So Charlotte's efforts finally got mentioned in news stories by The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, and others over the last 24 hours.
Supporters of Occupy Charlotte gathered in Uptown Saturday. Photo by Enid Valu.
Occupy Charlotte protesters reportedly will also march to the Charlotte City Council meeting Monday. So you'll likely see a lot more local coverage in coming days.
Like many of you, I'm curious to see how this movement progresses nationally and what the overall objectives are. I know the participants are largely rallying against the corporate greed that has ruined this economy, but Occupy Wall Street--and the groups that have spun-off--have been criticized for not having a conventional leader nor a clear organizational structure.
As for Charlotte, I'm a little skeptical about the impact the movement will have here because this city does not have a strong history of successful grassroots organization in the name of protests. This has long been a buttoned-up town. And despite what many across the country might say about the evils of the financial industry, the big banks--Bank of America and Wachovia-turned-Wells-Fargo--have done a lot of great things for this city. You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you, but at the same time a lot of people are already starving (and have lost their jobs and homes) because of some of the greedy and shady practices banks and other big corporations engaged in for years.
Keep up with the Occupy Charlotte movement at these links:
The third edition of Who's Who In Black Charlotte will be unveiled at a networking reception this Thursday, June 16, 6-8:30 p.m. at Wells Fargo Atrium in Uptown (301 S. Tryon St.). The book chronicles the achievements of African-Americans in the city, primarily focusing on their professional careers, and also spotlighting some of the companies and organizations that do a great job with diversity.
I wrote a few of the "Interesting Personalities" articles in the book, where about a dozen or so people were chosen to be featured, each of them interviewed and profiled in two-page spreads. Other profiles in the book are shorter, about the length of a standard bio. And then there are sections on companies, and tribute stories, which are in-depth history pieces. It all comes together to highlight Charlotte's African-American culture in a way you don't often see in mainstream publications. At about 200 pages, it's a tall, coffee-table-style book. It's also a good book for our youth to see, so they can learn about the wide-range of career possibilities that exist, that might be far from what they can imagine in their current surroundings.
Who's Who In Black Charlotte is produced by Who's Who Publishing, a Columbus, Ohio-based company that publishes these books in 25 cities across the country that have large African-American populations. The Charlotte book debuted in 2008 (I wrote for that edition), while cities like Atlanta have been published for more than a decade. However, as resourceful as these books are, I look forward to the day when they aren't needed. When minority groups will be featured more regularly and prominently in mainstream publications. But for now, they are a valuable tool.
The unveiling reception usually draws a who's who type of crowd, ranging from the people being honored and their supporters, to representatives from corporate sponsors, to elected officials, and other prominent people in the city. So it's a good opportunity to network. Tickets for the event are $50, which you can purchase online, and that includes a copy of the book. There will also be hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar, and a performance by R&B/hip-hop singer Ida Divine.
I always say that eight out of 10 people I meet in Charlotte aren't from here. I can't say that my 80 percent theory is scientific, but I'm sure you would agree that Charlotte has a lot of newcomers and transplants. I've lived here for almost six years now and because of the work I do I've gotten to know the city really well. But it's easy to get caught up in the present and future and not know much about a place's history. There's no better way to learn Charlotte's story than by visiting the Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers exhibit at Levine Museum of the New South. The award-winning exhibit that debuted in 2001 has just been renovated and updated to reflect the past decade.
Levine Museum tells the history of the New South, which is defined as the period from the end of the Civil War (1865) to today. Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers is its permanent exhibit, located on the first floor, so if you've ever visited the museum you've likely journeyed through it. It's a large exhibit that literally guides you through Charlotte's history from when cotton fields dominated the landscape in the late 1800s and early 1900s to how the economy changed that eventually led to the businesses that built the skyscrapers we see in Uptown today. Or as the museum folks say, it goes from "farm to factory to finance." And along the way, you experience cool artifacts and features such as equipment from a cotton mill, a replica of an old Belk department store, a lunch counter that tells the story of Civil Rights Movement-era sit-ins, the history of integrating schools, the plight of factory workers, how Duke Energy became the largest utility company in the country, and more.
Levine Museum has been celebrating its 20th anniversary since the beginning of the year, and things ramped up this week with an elaborate and festive gala, "Taste of Time," on Thursday that drew hundreds of people, including some of the city's most prominent figures. This week also saw the reopening of Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers, which underwent a three-month renovation. It now contains an additional 750 feet of gallery space, primarily comprised of the new end section, titled "Whirlwind of Growth, 1970s-2010s." In this section, which largely reflects the changes Charlotte has experienced since 2001, you see how the big banks got bigger--Bank of America and Wachovia--and how the latter was acquired by Wells Fargo. You also see how Charlotte has become one of the South's most diverse cities.
A replica of the Bank of America Corporate Center stands tall in Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers.
The exhibit also now features many new interactive components with touchscreen technology. There's the "Remix History" feature, where you can play with digital graphics on flatscreens to manipulate historic photos (it reminds of how the folks at CNN slide things around on their big screens when telling the news). There's also "Picture Yourself in History," where you sit in front of a green screen and have your picture taken to place yourself into an historic moment. The computer allows you to email the photo to yourself so you can have a keepsake (look for these to pop up on people's Facebook pages).
But before you get to all of the cool new stuff at the end of the exhibit, you get to experience a new 10-minute intro film. Sitting in the theater at the entrance to the exhibit, you can watch a video that I guarantee will tell you some stuff about Charlotte you never knew. But you'll likely recognize the names of the voices narrating the film--former Bank of America chief Hugh McColl, NASCAR pioneer Humpy Wheeler, and radio personality Ramona Holloway.
On Tuesday I attended a media tour for the reopening of Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers. Below is a few minutes of video I captured that showcases the new section at the end. Levine Museum historian Tom Hanchett points out some of the new features; then I wander off a little on my own.
You should make sure to check it out for yourself, which you can do tomorrow (Sunday, May 1) during the museum's 20th Anniversary Community Celebration. The free event takes place 12-5 p.m. and you'll be treated to exhibit tours, music and dance performances, multimedia art, photography, family activities, and birthday cake. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., 704-333-1887, www.museumofthenewsouth.org.
If you ever wanted to understand the complexities that make up the public school system today, just look at the two largest headlines coming out of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools right now. And perhaps the way in which we share these stories says more about us than the events.
On Friday night, a fight broke out at the Butler High School versus East Mecklenburg High School basketball game. Allegedly, two parents and their daughter attacked a school resource officer, who is paid to keep the peace at events such as this. A camera crew from WCNC NewsChannel 36 (Charlotte's NBC affiliate) was at the game recording footage for the night's sports coverage, and ended up getting the entire brawl on tape. The video, which is embedded below, has gone viral, popping up on websites and newscasts across the country for the last three days.
Fast forward to Monday morning, and a group of Charlotte business and philanthropic leaders, known as the CMS Investment Study Group, unveiled a five-year, $55 million plan to help improve performance at West Charlotte High School and the seven elementary and middle schools that feed into it. West Charlotte High has a 51 percent graduation rate. Repeat: Almost half of West Charlotte's students aren't graduating. Titled Project L.I.F.T. (Leadership and Investment For Transformation), this new effort will "focus on enhanced teacher and school leadership quality, more time spent on task (including extended day, out of school time, and pre-kindergarten programs), access to technology, and policy changes that will allow school leadership more freedom." A news video of the announcement is embedded below as well. Click here to read the press release announcing Project L.I.F.T.
It's a tale of two stories. One gave Charlotte a black eye. The other gave Charlotte one more reason to be admired by other cities. I wonder if Monday's story will spread like wild fire across the Internet like Friday's did. Probably not. Instead of people not wanting to look away from the train wreck, I hope the community will soon take seriously this collision course we're on with a future filled with large, uneducated segments of the population. Like the behavior in the fight video, it starts at home.
Hats off to the Charlotte corporations and foundations that have already made hefty pledges to Project L.I.F.T., totaling $40.5 million so far:
Belk Foundation: $1 million
Foundation For The Carolinas: $2 million
Wells Fargo Foundation: $2.5 million
Duke Energy Foundation: $5 million
Bank of America Charitable Foundation: $10 million
C.D. Spangler Foundation: $10 million
The Leon Levine Foundation: $10 million
Click here if you would like to contribute to the cause.
In the Sunday edition of The New York Times, the venerable newspaper reviews Banktown: The Rise and Struggles of Charlotte's Big Banks, a book released this month that was written by The Charlotte Observer reporter Rick Rothacker. The Times review is quite lengthy and you realize it's as much a book review as it is a business article and that this book is as much about Charlotte as it is New York. It was, after all, Charlotte that was home to two of the country's biggest banks, becoming an unlikely financial district that puzzled New Yorkers.
As is evident by the review, titled "Big Banking, Southern Style," the book contains a lot of what we in Charlotte have known for quite a while, such as how Bank of America and Wachovia's Tryon Street rivalry built their balance sheets while simultaneously building this city. And then there's the ugly reminders:
“Bank of America and Wells Fargo remain formidable corporate players in the city,” Mr. Rothacker says, and Charlotte also possesses a range of other financial firms. But it remains to be seen, he says, “whether or not the city can replace the salaries of high-paying bank jobs” that it has lost.
The Times review goes on to say that Banktown reveals a lot of details from court documents and securities filings, as well as provides great insight from Hugh McColl. But in the most stinging line of the review it states:
The “Banktown” saga has all the elements of a compelling tale of high finance. Unfortunately, the writing fails to rise to the drama of the occasion.
Banktown is available at many major bookstores and at Amazon.com.
You've been hearing a lot lately about how increasingly deadly and powerful Mexican gangs and drug cartels are becoming, and how they're impacting the U.S. border. Well, in the August issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, it reveals how over a three-year period Wachovia was used by drug cartels to launder money. Several U.S. banks are implicated, but Charlotte-based Wachovia, which is now own by Wells Fargo, sits atop the heap. It's reported that Wachovia handled $378 billion (yes, billion) in illegal funds for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. And that's said to be the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history.
Also playing a role is Charlotte-based Bank of America. This is depicted in a scene during an incident in 2006 when law enforcement search a jet at an airport in Mexico: They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else. The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp.
The article says that Wachovia, which federal prosecutors charged, ignored signs that drug cartels were funneling money through its banks. It also goes on to state that since 2006, more than 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related battles that have occurred mostly along the 2,000-mile border that Mexico shares with the U.S.
Read more about the Bloomberg article by clicking here.
An MSNBC/Forbes.com article reveals the top 10 companies that are currently listing the most job openings nationwide. Three of them have strong ties to the Charlotte area: second-ranked Lowe's is headquartered in nearby Mooresville, sixth-ranked Bank of America is headquartered here, and tenth-ranked Wells Fargo considers Charlotte its East Coast banking hub after acquiring Wachovia. Click here to read the full story.
The Quail Hollow Championship tees off in Charlotte next week, and everybody's abuzz now that Tiger Woods has committed to play in the tournament. It's going to be interesting to see what the atmosphere is like--how composed is Tiger, will the fans behave, are the paparazzi going to set up camp? I can only think back on better days, like when Tiger came here and won the tournament in 2007. That week was memorable from start to finish, beginning with Tiger's famous pairing with Michael Jordan and Skipper Beck in the Wednesday Pro-Am.
I saw The Aluminum Show on Friday night at the Knight Theater. After reading it described as a combination of the Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, and Stomp, I figured it would be action packed but wondered if I'd actually enjoy it. I did.
Aluminum ducts (or materials resembling them) fill the stage and during their movement I found myself often wondering "Is somebody inside of those?" or "How did they do that?" The performance is a mixture of song, dance, humor, and acrobatics. It's not necessarily a show for the high-brow theater-goer, but it's entertaining. Plus, the cast keeps the audience involved by frequently jutting out into the seats and sending items to be bounced around. These seem to come at just the perfect time, right before the on-stage visuals are on the brink of becoming monotonous.
Photo from aluminum-show.com
The show is only about an hour and 10 minutes long and, with no intermission, it goes by rather quickly. The Aluminum Show plays through January 31 and it provides a great opportunity to check out the new Knight Theater, located at the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus in Uptown. Click here for more information about the show.
There's a lot of excitement leading up to the opening of the new Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture. As part of the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus in Uptown Charlotte, the new Gantt Center represents a vision that started more than 35 years ago.
The Gantt Center is holding its Community Celebration on Saturday, October 24, which will be an all-day and all-night grand opening event. In this week's issue of Creative Loafing (October 14-20 edition), you can read the article I wrote that chronicle's the significance and potential impact of this new $18 million facility. The building itself, which stands where the historic Brooklyn neighborhood once thrived before being razed in the name of urban renewal, is a work of art. Click here to read the article.
Also, the Gantt Center held Media Day today. Below are a few photos I snapped while I was there.
The Blumenthal Center's Education Institute holds "Get to Know" workshops throughout the year to give you insight into some of the upcoming plays, musicals, and other events that come to the Blumenthal's theaters. On Friday, I took a few teenagers from a youth group I work with to the Get to Know Street Beat workshop at the Johnston YMCA in NoDa. I captured this 30-second video of the group of artists that were there breakdancing and playing music on trash cans, a small sampling of what you'll experience when Street Beat comes to the Knight Theater October 21-22. This can also be your chance to check out one of the first shows at the beautiful new Knight Theater that's opening at the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus in Uptown.
At this workshop, guests were asked to bring household items to act as drums. It was adorable seeing the little kids there beating on pots and pans (good luck to the parents trying to tell them that they can't do that at home). The performers also led the crowd in sessions that taught them some of there moves.
Now that it has been officially announced that Lowe's Home Improvement will not renew its track sponsorship of Lowe's Motor Speedway, I feel like I should suggest some companies that should take over the naming rights. Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the track, says that if a new sponsor isn't found by the time Lowe's contract ends at the end of the year, the track that hosts three NASCAR races a year will go back to its former name: Charlotte Motor Speedway. That was the track's name for decades before Lowe's purchased naming rights in the late 1990s.
Sure, Charlotte Motor Speedway conjures up nostalgia for longtime racing fans, but I think we need something more exciting. Here are my top-five suggestions for naming rights, assuming that any of them can afford the $6-$9 million annually that's rumored to be asked for in the deal.
5. McCrory Motor Speedway: Since the seven-term Charlotte mayor isn't seeking reelection, this would be a great way to remind people that he was a big projects kind of guy.
4. Lance Crackers Motor Speedway: This Charlotte-based company has been producing tasty snack packs for nearly 100 years. And since the products are affordable, the company continues to do well during a recession--it recently posted record revenue for the second quarter of 2009--so it could afford the naming rights. And it could give away peanut butter crackers at races to spur ticket sales.
3. Wells Fargo Motor Speedway: They nabbed our beloved Wachovia for pennies on the dollar and are already reaping record profits. Time to pay up. Plus, this would be another way to show their commitment to the area (don't worry about the criticism that would likely come from the federal government if the bank spent this kind of money on sponsorship right now).
2. Jordan Brand Motor Speedway: Come on MJ, we know you can afford it. Plus, you could probably find a way to market the first pair of Air Jordan racing sneakers. I know you're getting your money together as you consider buying the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson, but I think the speedway would be a more lucrative--and less risky--investment.
1. Harris Teeter Motor Speedway: There's one of these grocery stores on just about every major street in Charlotte, so they already have a loyal following (and the company is headquartered in Matthews). I can just see VIC cardholders (annoyingly) waving their key rings at races. And fans from around the country will be able to say they're going to the race this weekend at "The Teet."
According to a new study by SNL Financial, Bank of America is now the largest U.S. bank, ranked by assets. The Charlotte-based bank has total assets of almost $2.5 trillion. Before the recent acquisition of Merrill Lynch, BofA would have been ranked third. Even though the Merrill Lynch deal has proved to be an ongoing headache as New York's attorney general has led an investigation into the massive executive bonuses ML dished out, at least we can take pleasure in knowing we're number one. Take that New York! And Ken Lewis has won...for now.
BofA knocked off former number one JPMorgan Chase (New York), which is now second on the list with $2.17 trillion in assets. Citigroup (New York) is third with $1.9 trillion; Wells Fargo (San Francisco), which acquired Wachovia at the end of the year, is fourth with $1.3 trillion; and HSBC (Mettawa, Ill.) rounds out the top five with $467 billion.
After watching picturesque, historic, and inspiring images of President Barack Obama's inauguration and celebration all day yesterday, I awoke to much of the same this morning. But CNN broke a little from the round-the-clock coverage and recap of the events to offer some other news, though still related. When talking about the troubling economy Obama has inherited and that we're all facing, CNN flashed a simple graphic that contained this information:
Bank stock prices decline since election day Citibank 81% Bank of America 79% Wells Fargo 59%
That's how much value the three big banks have lost in just two and a half months. While analysts (and loud talkers) like Suze Orman stress that the state of the stock market is separate from the state of the economy, saying that Americans shouldn't rest their everyday economic concerns and fears on how Wall Street is doing, you can't help but worry. Especially here in Charlotte. We've all been anticipating the previously announced job cuts at Bank of America due to their acquisition of Merrill Lynch, and cuts at Wells Fargo because of their purchase of Wachovia. With BofA and Wells Fargo's stock prices continuing steep declines since their major deals, it's only reasonable that we should expect even more changes than previously announced.
If you paid attention to Obama's inaugural speech yesterday, he told us it's only going to get worse before it gets better. I say it's time we all got serious about this economy. Serious, not scared. Do things differently than you had in the past. The partying is over. And I don't think Obama will even get a honeymoon.
