Happy Friday Y’all - 

The year is winding down. The United States is officially eliminated from the World Cup, the final election of the year is over after Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff yesterday, and Queen City Nerve has published their “Best in the Nest” awards.

Also, as you can tell, we’ve been experimenting with the send date and time of this newsletter. As a new publication, we’re trying to balance day jobs, deadlines, and what our metrics tell us. We’d love to have your feedback:

Without further ado, here’s what’s in this issue:

• Jesse reviews Lee Street Theatre’s Godspell in Salisbury

• Sarah continues her series on respect at the restaurant

• Matt goes to the movies to review “She Said”

• Sam write about why Democrats are having voter turnout problems in Charlotte.

Thanks for reading!

This Week’s Stories

On the Record

We’re trying something new: a weekly, exclusive on-the-record quote from a local leader about a big issue facing Charlotte. Today’s quote is from Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston about why he voted against a pay increase for Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones:

I voted against the city manager’s compensation package this year because it is exorbitant. I joined a cohort of council members who proposed a smaller compensation increase. That proposal did not garner enough votes. 

To be clear, our city manager, overall, does an excellent job. In the market of American municipal governments, Charlotte has a reputation as being one of the most well-managed cities around. In conversations with my colleagues on council, there seems to be consensus on areas the manager excels and where growth is needed. Where I differ from my colleagues who voted in the majority is that I believe we owe it to our employees and tax-payers to pragmatically compensate our CEO. Our final decision was made based on anecdotal assumptions about the market supply and demands of municipal administrators. The City Manager’s compensation should be based on data that guides pay-equity within our organization and is empirically explainable to our tax-payers. I commit to doing that in future evaluations.

Shoutout

Thanks to Queen City Nerve voters for naming our sister publication Soccer Sheet the runner-up in the Best Web Blog category, and for voting Sam the runner-up in the Best Journalist category.

Free Stuff

Uptown Farmers Market, located at 300 S. Davidson Street across from First Baptist Church, is open for the last day of the year this Saturday. It opens at 8 AM, rain or shine, and goes to 12:30 PM. The market will return on January 14, 2023.

Final Thoughts

I’m so glad the People’s Market is back in our lives, and their new space (in the former Earl’s Grocery on Elizabeth Ave.) is the logical extension of their bigger, former space on East Blvd. If you’re thinking of going to either of the great shows at Visulite this weekend - Jump, Little Children plays as part of their final tour tonight, a great Talking Heads cover band plays Saturday - why not drop by People’s Market beforehand?

Whatever you do, have a great weekend!

Sam

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