Investing in the West End + COVID vaccines for kids

Good afternoon Charlotte, and happy Friday! I’m Hannah Lang, the banking and finance reporter at the Observer, subbing in for Kristen once more.

My iPhone tells me it’ll be close to seventy degrees and sunny on Sunday — perfect trick-or-treating weather. If you haven’t yet locked down your Halloween plans for the little ones, we’ve got you covered with a list of the best trick-or-treating neighborhoods in Charlotte.

I’m planning on throwing on a pair of cat ears myself and handing out full-sized chocolate bars so all the kids in my neighborhood will think of me as “the cool house” for the rest of the year. Here’s hoping the subsequent sugar rush doesn’t leave my adult neighbors with a very different impression.

One administrative note before we jump in: the Afternoon Observer will not run this Monday, Nov. 1. We’ll be back in your inbox Tuesday with the latest Charlotte headlines.

Here’s the news you need to know today:

1. How a century-old building feeds hopes for reshaping Charlotte’s Historic West End

A 100 year-old building that sits on .28 acres of land might not sound like much. But to Dianna Ward and others in the Historic West End, the building at 1800 Rozzelles Ferry Road is at the center of what many hope is a spark of future investment into this part of Charlotte.

Sankofa Partners, a developer in which Ward is a 38% owner, bought the vacant building in 2019. A longtime resident of the West End, Ward said there was a need for more commercial activity in an area that was seeing an explosion of new homes and people.

“There hadn’t been a lot of investment on the west side. People hadn’t really been paying attention to it,” Ward said. “People were waiting for someone to be the first.”

Last week, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation said it has given $450,000 to the Charlotte chapter of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, a community development nonprofit. In turn, LISC used the money to provide low-cost financing and technical assistance to Sankofa.

The Knight Foundation isn’t the only organization providing funds for investment in the West End. Fifth Third Bank announced yesterday that it would commit up to $20 million in lending, investment and philanthropic support to the economic revitalization of the historically Black neighborhood.

Read more about development in the West End from reporter Gordan Rago here, and more on Fifth Third’s announcement from Hannah Lang (yours truly) here.

2. Family of Charlotte man killed by police appeals after judge rules shooting justified

The family of a Charlotte father fatally shot in 2017 during a six-second confrontation with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police has appealed a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the officer involved.

In a 20-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad of Charlotte said Officer David Guerra acted reasonably — and legally — on Sept. 6, 2017, when he twice shot Ruben Galindo.

In throwing out the lawsuit filed by Galindo’s partner, Azucena Zamorano Alemana, a month before it was to go to trial, Conrad ruled that Galindo’s actions met the legal standard necessary for Guerra to kill him.

Charlotte attorney Luke Largess, who filed the lawsuit for Zamorano, told the Observer on Wednesday that he believes Conrad’s ruling will be reversed.

Observer legal reporter Mike Gordon explains the case here.

3. I-485 toll lane update: Here’s what to know about work on bridges in south Charlotte

Despite a previously announced two-year delay on the Interstate 485 toll-lane project, work on new, larger bridges along the corridor in south Charlotte and Mecklenburg County is moving right along, state highway officials said this week.

• On Aug. 31, the Elm Lane bridge opened with an extra travel lane, a 12-foot multi-use path and an 8-foot sidewalk as part of the I-485 project.

• And work is well underway on a four-lane Ballantyne Commons Parkway bridge — between Tom Short Road and the Raintree neighborhood — that will replace the existing two-lane bridge.

Get your full update on traffic, bridges and toll lanes — exclusively for Observer subscribers — from reporter Joe Marusak here. Joe works to keep Charlotte drivers in the loop with this occasional series on Charlotte-area highway projects. If you’ve got a question about one on your daily drive, you can find his email listed above the article.

And in other traffic news: Charlotte drivers might want to avoid northern Mecklenburg County, where the Carolina Renaissance Festival is creating hours-long traffic jams. Neighborhood Facebook groups are full of complaints about the “horrible” backups on Poplar Tent Road —more on that here.

4. StarMed letting parents pre-book COVID vaccine appointments for children

Parents in the Charlotte region can now sign up their children for a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

StarMed Healthcare this week opened its website to pre-book an appointment for children ages 5-11. The move comes after a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted Tuesday to recommend a pediatric dose of the vaccine.

The CDC will meet next Tuesday to decide on fully authorizing the vaccine for children, said Dr. Arin Piramzadian, chief medical officer at StarMed Healthcare.

StarMed expects to start giving out its first doses by Thursday. Reporter Gordon Rago has the details here.

Roughly 71% of adults in North Carolina have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and about 67% have been fully vaccinated. You can read a full update on COVID case numbers, vaccines and hospitalizations in North Carolina here.

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