Luxury is as luxury does

How Charlotte cleaned Orlando's corporate clock
by Bruce Stephenson

November 17, 2005

'Emeka Okafor considered taking the trolley to work," the Sentinel reported, "a luxury Charlotte's forward now has in the Bobcats' new downtown arena." Sad irony! While Rich DeVos, one of the wealthiest men in the world, demands a $350 million arena with luxury boxes, Charlotte residents have the "luxury" of riding streetcars. To add insult to injury, the Queen City's trolleys will link to a light-rail system funded with millions of dollars in federal funds originally slated for Orlando.

In 1999, after the Orange County Commission voted 4-3 against light rail, I wrote, "The commission's 1950s approach to transportation has reduced the region's potential to a sprawling mass of paved mediocrity." Seven years later, Charlotte is cleaning our clock because its elected officials could think "outside the box." Two decades ago, they envisioned a 21st-century city worthy of corporate investment, and it paid off. For every Fortune 500 company with headquarters in Orlando, our North Carolina rival boasts four.

Charlotte's two corporate giants, Wachovia and NationsBank, invested heavily in transforming the city's derelict downtown into a bustling corporate and cultural center. More than 20,000 citizens have repopulated the downtown and, more important, it is a sustaining mix of different income levels. Restored Victorian-era neighborhoods lodging bank executives stand near revamped public housing built on the "New Urbanist" guidelines followed at Baldwin Park. With the trolley-light-rail system as an anchor, a slew of new projects offer a rich urban lifestyle in which the auto is an option, not a necessity. Finally, light rail gives planning director Debra Campbell her most important tool for managing growth in the next 50 years.

Fortunately, Central Florida has, at last, unveiled a vision to challenge Charlotte -- Orlando Region 2050. A product of the myregion initiative, Region 2050 presents an alternative to our auto-dominated development pattern to house the 4.2 million new residents the region will gain by 2050. Instead of subdivision sprawl, population is clustered in urban centers and New Urbanist neighborhoods accessed by light rail, high-speed "bullet" trains, and bikeways. By building up rather than out, 850,000 acres of natural lands are preserved, oil consumption drops and $66 billion is saved in infrastructure costs. The key, of course, is whether citizens will relinquish the status quo and accept, as Gov. Jeb Bush contends, "a new reality" in "energy demand."

Bush's desire to drill for oil in the Gulf's hurricane alley is not only risky, it is an aside to the real issue -- energy efficiency. Two-thirds of oil consumption comes from driving, so a development pattern that replaces auto trips with transit, walking or biking is an essential investment. Think of the returns: less road rage and oil dependence, a more physically active citizenry, a more competitive economy, and maybe even the luxury of building a new arena for poor Rich DeVos.

Bruce Stephenson is a professor of environmental studies at Rollins College.