The examples across the pages on African-American Population, History of the Latinx population, History of the Native American Population, History of the Asian Population show how diverse the solutions for change and the options can be. Many existing ideas are already one step into the right direction towards a more culturally inclusive city and should be extended. The goal is to diversify the city and population to an extend, where cultural participation of everybody is possible, visible and apprechiated. Changes in Economy & Infrastructure and Housing & Education are important, in order to desegregate the city. This is going to foster communication and open up new cultural and transcultural spaces. More diverse ownership of restaurants, bars and other cultural facilities in downtown Charlotte will also foster cultural diversification, but avoid just placing some people of different ethnicities on what currently is white ground. It is supposed to mix and diversify.
The diverse ownership and distribution of small shops, cafés, restaurants are also supposed to avoid gentrification and while downtown has to be transformed into this more communal space, it has to happen in favor of small, local businesses and more importantly culturally diverse and not predominantly white businesses. It is important to support already existing small shops/restaurant and also make sure prices will remain affordable for everybody.
Community centers are of huge importance and working with some of the named institutions and different cultural and religious groups is going to avoid a whitewashing of those centers. Community centers are going to offer language classes, have programs for children and teenagers, but also give older people space and the option to participate and share their culture. Festivals are of great importance, because they lead to high visibility, however, their impact has to be made long-lasting by preventing said cultural groups from vanishing from the public eye afterwards.
Certain spaces, like skateparks and parks, as well as diverse bars and cafés are planned to be inclusive and an urban space, where different cultures encouter each other, and overcome racial and cultural barriers. Murals, signs and monuments of diverse groups and especially Native-American presence, illustrate and educate about a rich cultural past and will change the city image towards more cultural diersity.
As the example of the Asian Herald shows, cross-community newspapers should be supported more, extended and founded, as they reach many readers and manage to educate people about other cultures, but also foster community.
To coordinate all of this, we propose a cross-cultural community board, that is designed to foster communication between various gultural groups, organizes events and community activity and informs the whole population. The board should consist of members out of all the various diffeent ethnic and cultural groups and support and organize cultural events, but also help giving those people from different backgrounds a voice in politics and society in general.
Vision for Charlotte 