I sat next to former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot during this morning's panel discussion at Hope in the Cities' annual Metropolitan Richmond Day. Toward the end of our gig on the panel, I leaned over and elbowed Vinroot. "You seem more like a Gamecock than a Tarheel," I said. He burst out laughing.
He definitely came out swinging, albeit in a good-natured way. I was too busy wondering what I was going to say as part of the panel that followed Vinroot's breakfast keynote, but Michael Martz at the Times-Dispatch delivered the goods, as usual: The former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., minced
no words today about why the local governments of the Richmond area
need to work together. If they don’t, he said, Richmond will lose the battle for jobs,
investment — even college sporting events — to competitors such as
Charlotte. “We are competing with you for things that are good for our
community,” Richard Vinroot said today at a breakfast meeting of Hope
in the Cities at the Richmond Marriott Hotel. Regions that aren’t unified compete at a disadvantage with
Charlotte, he said. “That is not a mistake we are going to make — we
have bought in on the regional concept.” First elected in 1991, Vinroot helped bring about the renaissance of
Charlotte by insisting on regional cooperation with the localities
around the city, including those in neighboring South Carolina. He said he was inspired by Andrew Young, a civil rights leader who
was then stepping down as mayor of Atlanta. “He said, ‘Don’t make the
mistake of thinking you are mayor of Charlotte, when what you really
are is mayor in a region that will sink or swim together.’“ Vinroot received a standing ovation from an estimated 600 people at
the breakfast meeting, which was followed by a community dialogue and
panel discussion focused on trust among regional leaders and residents.
The panel discussion was a lot of fun. For some reason -- perhaps my dual roles in leadership development and weblogging -- Hope in the Cities asked me to join former mayoral candidate and civic player Robert Grey; VCU professor emeritus and UR Senior Fellow John Moeser; and Vinroot at the dias.
I have no idea what I said. Presumably, it was interesting.
