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District 5
Nancy Carter Soft-spoken Democrat Nancy Carter isn't one to seek the spotlight or the soundbite. Carter, 56, says her goal is to make living on Charlotte's east side "healthy and delightful." If re-elected, Carter wants to spend her second term bringing economic stability and jobs to east side areas like Albemarle Road and Eastland Mall, to name a couple. She says that will mean working with the city's new economic development office and finding reuses for abandoned buildings like the former Hannaford's and Upton's on Albemarle Road. Carter says she wants to organize neighbors and use city resources to approach national and international developers and encourage them to invest or reinvest in the area.
Carter supports the city's affordable housing plans, but says she'll make sure her district doesn't become the locale for all of the city's affordable housing, and that the projects it gets blend in well with current neighborhoods.
Carter said her key push will be the development of a variety of types of housing on the east Charlotte transit corridor and working with planners and developers to guide the creation of mass-transit-oriented village centers along Independence Boulevard. She also plans to continue to lobby for the creation of more parks for the district.-
Alan Wells Charlotte City staff will likely be relieved if Republican Alan Wells is defeated on November 6. Wells has been one of the staff and council's toughest critics, so much so that he is now regularly appointed to city committees on initiatives he takes issue with in order to head him off before he gets good and revved up.
Wells, 62, is one of Charlotte's most concerned citizens, and at times his quests for truth and common sense have single-handedly improved the way city government functions, like the time he stopped the needless demolition of a renovated home near completion in the Belmont neighborhood.
"I am tenacious like a bulldog," said Wells, a semi-retired businessman. "Once I get on an issue, I always see it through to a resolution."
In his 10 years as an activist, Wells has dealt with nearly every city department, and knows his way around better than some sitting council members. Wells has served on the capital budget advisory committee, the new arena committee and the affordable housing implementation task force, to name a few.
If elected, Wells wants to "cut all the pork from the general budget and spend tax dollars wisely" by using a zero-based budget process, rather than simply refunding everything funded the year before. Wells also wants to concentrate on building and improving programs to recruit businesses to Charlotte and retain the ones already here.
