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Action Alert: Charlotte City Council slashes critical funding for bike, pedestrian, and street safety

Take Action! for CIP and bikes

We need your voice before Monday!

Last week, we were shocked to see a narrow majority of Charlotte City Council Members vote in support of Council Member Watlington’s surprise motion to cut $65M from the proposed capital budget for the next two years.  

Here’s what they voted to cut:

  • Sidewalk funding slashed from $50M to $20M
  • Funding for Strategic Investment Areas slashed from $55M to $30M
  • $5M eliminated from Center City Transportation Improvements
  • Corridors of Opportunity funding reduced from $25M to $20M 

Council also referred Council Member Ajmera’s motion to increase bike funding by $2M to a committee that was to discuss and vote on it this past Monday. In what appears to be a gross oversight, that didn’t happen. 

Why it matters

This means significantly less funding over the next two years to make our neighborhoods safer for walking and biking. It will significantly slow progress toward becoming a city where people of all ages and abilities can safely get where they need to go without having to drive a car. This is not the right direction for Charlotte! 

And time is running out. City Council is scheduled to adopt the annual and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) budgets on June 10.

Take action

We urge you to email City Council now and ask them to restore the $65M in funding that was cut from the budget last week and add at least $2M to the current $8M allocated for the bike program. 

It’s especially important the Council Members that voted to cut this funding hear from you. These include Council Members Watlington, Brown, Mayfield, Ajmera, Johnson, and Bokhari. 

Here are their email addresses:

Thanks in advance for your help!