I use all the transit options in Charlotte. NC Speaker Tim Moore is wrong. | Opinion

Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@charlotteobserver.com.

A rider’s take on Charlotte transit

Regarding “People scoffed, but Speaker Moore may be right about NC transit spending,” (Jan. 27 Opinion) and related articles:

Regarding Charlotte’s transit plan... I ride the light rail every day to work and on weekends to avoid parking issues in popular areas. I use the sprinter bus to go to the airport, as well as other buses when needed. I also ride my bike on the greenways, sometimes for fun and sometimes to go to the store.

I disagree with N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore and others who advocate for putting more money into roads. Last month in Charlotte Moore said that for him to support Charlotte’s proposed $13.5 billion transportation plan it would need to be “focused on road capacity.” He said the plan spends too much on things like rail transit, buses and bike lanes.

But this is about options, not changing habits. Having options allows people like me to leave my car (yes I have one) at home. I don’t have to worry about traffic or parking issues. But if I didn’t have the option of using the light rail, I would be in my car, stuck in traffic, and paying for parking.

Sure, the current light rail won’t help those who don’t live near it, but more lines will give those people options in the future, along with a bus system that takes us to those out-of-the-way places.

The pandemic changed the way we work and the number of riders fell because many people now work from home. But the situation of everyone working from home may not be permanent — or it may change in a way we don’t know yet.

Ride the light-rail at rush hour heading to uptown or to UNC-Charlotte and you’ll find daily commuters, not just those going into town for fun. Charlotte did a great job connecting attractions and interesting neighborhoods along the Lynx Blue Line. And look at all of the development that has occurred along the line. Charlotte is continuously growing and we need to prepare for the future.

There are statistics out there that show more roads lead to more traffic, not less. Compared to other countries, public transportation in the U.S. is underfunded. But If we give riders safe, reliable and nice quality transit, like they do in other countries, people will ride.

Joseph Hoff, Charlotte

My childhood UMC was a safe haven

The writer is a Belmont University professor who grew up in North Carolina.

When I was a boy — a little gay kid, though I didn’t know it at the time — I loved my church, First United Methodist in Maiden, N.C. I could imagine no sweeter music than its congregation singing hymns. I could imagine no fairer light than that cast by the stained glass in the sanctuary. The playground at Maiden Elementary School might have been torture, but church was a safe place.

So it is with bone-deep sadness that I report that on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023 First United Methodist in Maiden voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church, mostly because some Christians do not want to extend ordination and marriage to LGBTQ folk.

The genius of John Wesley, father of Methodism, was his ability to think and act outside the box. When the hidebound, class-bound Church of England neglected large swaths of the British people, Wesley held services in Lincolnshire cemeteries and at the entrances to Cornish coal mines — wherever he could find an audience. To do all the good he could he adapted to new circumstances. He taught that the love of God was broader than the measure of the human mind. Unfortunately, two centuries later, large segments of the religious group he most influenced do not share Wesley’s love and flexibility.

It’s sad when people love dogma more than their daughters, smugness more than their sons, an illusory purity more than real people. As one of my wise friends said, it’s as if my childhood imploded. The little kid who loved First Methodist, Maiden in the ‘50s and ‘60s has been retrospectively rejected, made invisible. My heart goes out to those adults who now find themselves exiled from their goodly heritage, from a tradition which had nourished them and their grandparents. And I fear for LGBTQ children in my hometown who, as a result of the Jan. 22 vote, now have one less safe place.

Douglas Murray, Nashville, Tenn.