Turns out REBIC keeps a stuffed possum in its office, in honor of the frequent “Possum” awards it gets from my yearly Urbies column.
As those who read my Urban Outlook column know, every year I give out Urbies and Possum awards. The possum looks like this: 
REBIC is the local developers’ lobby, a.k.a. the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition. It gets mentioned now and again, and so far it’s batting 1.000 in always being adorned with the dead marsupial. Our archives show they received their last possum on Oct. 30, 2005, when I wrote:
"REBIC: The local Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition lobbying group, like any of us, is entitled to present its views to elected officials. But REBIC's views seem to outweigh other folks’. It has tried to weaken just about every environmental protection and open space preservation proposal to emerge from local government. In 1998 it even opposed sidewalk requirements as “too much of a good thing.” In 1999, Huntersville proposed a voluntary pilot project to save rural land. REBIC blasted that gnat with cannon fire. In a shamefully misleading tactic, its lobbyists got legislators to kill the idea by telling them it was an impact fee, which it wasn't at all."
REBIC, which used to concentrate on Charlotte-Mecklenburg, has branched out in recent years and now has staffers who also lobby in Union, Cabarrus, Gaston, and across the S.C. border in York, Lancaster and Chester counties. It was REBIC’s guy in S.C., Tim Morgan (brother of Charlotte Chamber chief Bob Morgan) who brought in the possum to REBIC offices and, to my delight, let me visit it and snap its portrait there.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Possum hunting
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11 comments:
Mary,
That must have been a real Wiley Coyote and Sheepdog moment in your office.
The only question is who is who.
Tim Morgan and REBIC are an example of how politics work in this burg.
Some years ago the Board of County Commissioners created the Citizen's Capital Budget Advisory Committee. Originally the committee was to advise on capital budget priorities and costs.
Interested citizens apply for a limited number of positions, as they do for any other citizen's committee for the county, CMS, Charlotte.
REBIC has always worked to have a member on the committee. More recently other advocacy groups have worked for their members to become chosen. These members are not concerned about the county as a whole, but only their particular piece. REBIC would be concerned about growth, and a particular piece, open space, they work very hard to avoid increases in set asides there.
Another example is FLAME, an organization formed in the southwest of Mecklenburg to advocate for more schools. Michael Murdock received an appointment to the CCBAC. He along with others advocated for particular schools. At one point the committee was working on a proposal for a long term construction schedule for CMS. Instead of doing that, Michael, with the help of others, subverted the committee process to make a recommendation supporting FLAME's position on schools. Later Michael became the chair of the CCBAC.
Late last year I had occasion to ask him about why he would subvert the process when the opportunity to help the whole county was available - his answer - "I got my school didn't I?"
Expand this thought process to many involved in government, including REBIC, the various Chambers, and other advocacy groups and you will understand our problem.
REBIC is just bad news, period. They advocate for real estate agents and builders and don't care at all about anyone else. They hide behind "affordability" but really only want to rape the land and protect the rapists. Along with the tax-phobic republican horde around here they are a big reason Charlotte will continue to be Atlanta-light.
Charlotte never met a developer it didn't like...but with all due respect Mary, The Observer has always been one of the main suck-ups to business and developers. A perfect example is the "Urbie" awards. You (rightly so) critized the monstrosity that is Imaginon in your blog, but then turned around and gave it an Urbie. I know the paper is part of, and supported by, the business community and so has to ride the fence on alot of these issues...but saying on one side of your mouth that unrestrained devlopment is hurting our environment, and then kissing up to the devlopers on the other side strains your credibility.
It is frustrating the level of influence that REBIC and the Uptown Development Corporation have on our elected officials. What can ordinary citizens do to counter that? We don't have the time or resources to fight them. The only otion is to elect truly independant officials on city council and the county commission. Maybe we can start our own concerned citizen watch dog group to alert citizens when we are getting another con job from REBIC and the Uptown Development Group.
A couple of responses:
First, the stuffed possum is in REBIC's office, not mine. I reworded the post to make that clear.
And to answer Rebecca, I can't control what 250 other journalists here do, and wouldn't even try. Sometimes they write things that make me cringe, too, though I think we're generally more accurate than most of the other news media around, especially on complicated issues.
It's correct, though, that the Observer historically has been supportive of the business establishment. (If you ask the business establishment, though, they'd say all we do is attack them. Go figure.)
I know there is/will always be conflict between the editorial side and the business side of most papers, which is probably a good thing like separation of church and state...and I think most reporters try to be fair...I just wish the average joe had an advocate against taxes and over delvelopment and crowded schools, etc etc. I think reporters champion the average joe, but the "Top Dogs" who run/own the paper are friends with, play golf with, send their kids to private school with, all the other "Top Dogs" in real estate, education, banking, et al -- they are part of the very establishment that is taking advantage of the average joe. So even though your heart may be pure, Mary, you can understand the skepticism some of us have as to purity of motive of the paper as a whole...
though I think we're generally more accurate than most of the other news media around, especially on complicated issues.
Mary, I would say that you get scooped on a regular basis by some other local journalists like Tara Servatious. The Charlotte Observer appears to do more cheerleader as opposed to real journalism.
It's pretty telling that REBIC is actually proud of receiving an "award" for bad practices. Any normal organization or corporation would be ashamed.
The real estate and building industries are incapable of feeling shame, however, especially in a market such as Charlotte metro where there is currently a "gold rush" mentality. Their entire business model is based upon exploitation, destruction, greed, buying of political influence, and complete disregard for social responsibility.
The dead possum is quite visionary...REBIC truly is the roadkill of the human race.
To the previous anon:
Actually REBIC merely has a different POV and set of priorities that you do. They are paid to advocate on behalf of developers. They are not bad people, they merely have a different view of the world than you do. Please try not to be so intolerant and hateful.
Do you really want to hurt REBIC's reputation? Do you really want to help working class Americans in Charlotte?
Force all builders and contractors in CharMeck to use Basic Pilot if they want to get building permits.
REBIC can get away with most of their tactics because in some way or other they spin government efforts as new taxes (which they usually are.)
The general public hates new taxes. That's way REBIC wins and you loose.
Forcing the developers and builders to use Basic Pilot takes away their ability to use illegal labor. Make them defend THAT. Make REBIC say that they want to be able to use illegal labor. Make them say they need that cheap labor rather than legal, law abiding labor.
The general public would be on your side.
Oh wait, the Observer, the Democratic City Council, and the Democratic County Commission all refuse to do anything to control the illegal labor supply in our community. They refuse to force government contractors to truly verify their employee’s legal status. They refuse to enforce safe housing ordinances to prevent houses becoming illegal "motels". They refuse to do pretty much anything productive.
I'm not trying to change the subject to illegal immigration, but if you want to hurt REBIC, you need to go after them where it hurts. Since they and their members are in an industry that has a large percentage of illegals, that would be one way to do it.
My guess is you'll just continue whining.
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