A mint's worth of difference

At this point, anyone who claims there's not much difference between Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter is either willfully ignorant or just not paying attention.

Anthony's thinking is comprehensive, expansive and forward-looking. Lassiter's is small, narrow and fixated on the past.

Anthony talks about the challenges the community faces and the opportunities the city has. Lassiter mainly talks about himself.

Anthony consistently shows how enthusiastic he is about the prospect of becoming mayor of his hometown. Lassiter at times makes you wonder whether he even wants the job. (We'll be posting in more detail on this point.)

The differences fell into clear focus this week, especially on Wednesday, when the candidates took part in two debates: at Pinehurst Golf & Country Club and at Queens University. (The Queens debate was rebroadcast Thursday morning as an episode of "Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins" on WFAE-FM; you can download the broadcast here.)

But for now, a few observations.

There is no 'i' in 'mayor'

Anyone else notice that Lassiter's default position when answering a debate question is to talk about himself?

"I helped revitalize Wilkinson Boulevard."

"My role on the committee matches my personality."

"I think I clearly made the point."

"That's an example, on a small scale, of the kinds of things I've done."

Now, any candidate will spend at least some time talking about what he's done and what he plans to do. What's curious about Lassiter, though, is how seldom his self-references relate to any coherent vision or plan for his term in office.

Take that last quote. He was referring, again, to his work with the community organization Helping Empower Local People (HELP) to aid students from low-income neighborhoods. All fine and good, but Lassiter never gets around to explaining just how his involvement, however praiseworthy, is germane to his run for mayor. Is he suggesting a citywide volunteering program? Consolidation of agencies, as with the Mayor's Mentoring Alliance? We never know; he doesn't say.

Contrast that to Anthony's approach. He's specific, and his ideas dovetail with a coherent vision of a better Charlotte. His experience growing up in west Charlotte and getting ahead through education relates directly to his pledge to spend time every week tutoring students. His firsthand experience living in a neighborhood with limited opportunities led him directly to champion the business corridor initiative to expand opportunities for low-income neighborhoods.

And when Anthony does talk about himself, it's always in the context of how his actions and plans would improve life for the city's residents and help Charlotte reach its potential.

Consider the differing responses to a question about what political office each might seek after winning the mayor's race.

Anthony, in part: "This endeavor of running for mayor of this city is all about trying to make this community what it really can be."

Lassiter: "I thought after my time on the school board, I'd be done. I thought after serving on City Council, I'd be done. But then Pat McCrory said he wasn't going to run for re-election, and I recognized that my skills and abilities were needed to lead this city." (Emphasis added.)

Can you imagine a more vivid illustration of the differences between the two? Nary an "i," "me," or "my" from Anthony. Pretty much nothing but that from Lassiter.

Earlier in the day, at Pinehurst, Anthony had directed a richly deserved barb at his opponent: He said he wanted to take the 'i' out of the mayor's office.

Lassiter drops ball on streetcar funding

The streetcar project reared its head again, this time in a series of questions about the plan and funding for it.

Anthony, who supports the project, accurately observed that the city had known since last year that the original funding source, the half-cent sales tax for transit, wasn't going to raise enough money in a sagging economy -- which of course made a new funding source necessary.

Lassiter claimed in a rebuttal that the streetcar project was always going to be funded through Tax Increment Financing, a common tool by which governments use property tax revenue from development connected to a project to pay off the debt the government assumed in building the project.

This was not true. Anthony said so. Lassiter, given a chance to respond: "I think I clearly made the point." He did. He was clearly mistaken.

Temper, temper, Mr. Lassiter

Maybe he was just tired. But man, was Lassiter peevish at the Queens debate.

More than once, he snapped at Mike Collins because he was confused about the format. (This is starting to become a pattern.)

He responded snidely to an audience member who interrupted him, correctly objecting that Lassiter was talking about ground-level ozone when he had asked about carbon emissions.

Finally, after the initial portion of the debate, Anthony got out of his chair and walked, hand extended, over to where Lassiter was sitting. Lassiter shook Anthony's hand but otherwise didn't budge. Nice.

Milan? Really?

One of the stranger questions of the night came last: If Charlotte were a person, who would be its (her?) mentor?

Anthony responded to that knuckleball as well as he could: Charlotte needs to set its own standards. We can learn from other cities on specific things, but ultimately we have to chart our own course. We don't want the sprawl of Atlanta. We don't want the urban grime and density of New York.

Lassiter agreed that we shouldn't aspire to be like Atlanta, then blurted out this: Charlotte can learn from "some of the great cities of Europe ... cities that understand scale and longevity," such as -- ready? -- Paris and Milan.

Ahem.

First off, it's hard to imagine any meaningful or useful parallel between the Queen City and the City of Light, or the City of Really Expensive Shoes. Last we checked, Paris had pretty much settled its transit debate, for instance. And if there are any major lessons to be gleaned on such topics as public safety, air quality, transportation and affordable housing, one would think we could learn them just as easily from, say, Pittsburgh.

Second: Milan? Really? The old European city that looks like Hong Kong with nicer architecture?

We don't for a second believe that John Lassiter thinks Charlotte ought to organize a Chamber of Commerce junket to Milan. We do, however, believe that John Lassiter pulled that particular answer out of his keister.

Parting shot

We'll let Anthony have the final word: "I believe we have an urgent moment in our community ... We're going to have to align our community to take on old problems and to find new solutions to those problems."