The Official Charlotte, NC Discussion Thread
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Where are Charlotte’s black chefs?
Core members of Soul Food Sessions talk about its purpose, and where they hope it will go. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
Food & Drink
Why doesn’t Charlotte have black chefs? It does, and these 5 want to make sure everyone knows
By Kathleen Purvis
kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com
September 28, 2017 11:35 AM
Where are Charlotte’s black chefs?
Oh, they’re there, all right, working in food trucks and as personal chefs, running pastry programs and cooking on the line in restaurant kitchens.
The problem isn’t that Charlotte doesn’t have black chefs. The problem, several of them say, is a lack of visibility. Only a few own their own restaurants, and hardly any have had the top job in fine-dining kitchens. They’re rarely seen in the lineup at farm-to-fork dinners and restaurant events.
Why are there so few black executive chefs? “You think you know why,” says Gregory Collier, chef/owner of The Yolk in Rock Hill. “But we all call out different reasons.”
Among those reasons: Some say younger African-American cooks struggle to feel at home in restaurant kitchens, where there may be no one else who looks like them – and where the brash culture can make it hard to tell whether the chef yelling and pushing is racist, or simply pushing them to be better. Fewer still make it to top positions, where they’re in charge of the menu. Others say it’s hard to get the financial backing it takes to open fine-dining restaurants.
When Collier opened his own restaurant, he made it a breakfast and brunch place, because he thought it would be easier to gain trust if he started with food that people expect to be simple:
“I’m going to cook grits and eventually, I’ve got you eating duck confit grits.”
Jamie Barnes says he opened a food truck, What the Fries, because he wanted to make his own decisions after being a sous – an assistant chef – at several high-end restaurants.
“As a sous (chef), you have a lot of ideas. A little frustration builds up,” he says. “A lot of guys may have a job, a basic job – a line cook, a steakhouse. You want to show you know more.”
Last fall, Barnes decided to do something about that.
Soul on a roll
He got together with a group of black chefs, including Collier, Michael Bowling, his food truck partner Greg Williams and Bonterra pastry chef Jamie Suddoth, and created Soul Food Sessions, a series of dinners that have become among the most interesting meals in town.
Ask Bowling “Why all black chefs?” and he’ll say: “Y’all don’t ask when it’s all white chefs. We can do food that’s just as good.”
In the beginning, it was just going to be one dinner. Barnes was getting frustrated. He wanted a chance to climb out of the truck and show he and Williams could do more than fries and a mean burger. Barnes’ specialty is actually Mediterranean cuisine, but that doesn’t happen much in his daily life: “Nobody wants grilled octopus off a food truck.”
He went to Collier and to Bowling, who has bumped around the restaurant scene from Washington to Charleston to Charlotte.
“Jamie said, ‘Why don’t we have black dinners? Where are we? It can’t be because we’re not talented,’ ” says Collier.
So the small group put together a dinner last October at Collier’s Ayrsley location, @dawn (now closed). They turned out a fine-dining menu that took stereotypes of black cooking, such as collards, watermelon and fried chicken, and turned them on their heads with the techniques of haute cuisine: Sauteed collards beside striped bass, crispy chicken skins with a watermelon hot sauce, chicken tagine.
They called it Soul Food Sessions, “to kind of trick people,” Barnes says. “They see African-American chefs and they think ‘typical soul food.’ Fried chicken and macaroni & cheese and all that. We came to the conclusion that soul food is whatever you cook from the heart, from your soul.”
The first dinner was $45 and they quickly sold out its 42 seats, mostly by word of mouth. Then, when the day of the dinner came, demand suddenly exploded.
“People were at the door, emailing me, calling us, trying to walk in,” Bowling recalls. “And we were like, ‘We could do more with this.’ ”
So they did: A second dinner, held in February at Luca Modern Italian, highlighted mostly African ingredients and styles. A third, in June at Heirloom, showcased tomatoes and summer produce. The fourth, held Tuesday at Project 658 on Central Avenue, served 80 people with a Caribbean-inspired menu.
Each dinner has gotten bigger, and the makeup of the crowd has shifted, the chefs say. The first dinner drew a heavily white crowd, but as word got around, the events began to draw more African-American and younger diners. By Tuesday’s dinner, it was evenly split between black and white and had an array of ages. It sold out in a week, and had a waiting list of 30 to 40.
Collier remembers looking out from the kitchen during that third dinner at Heirloom and being startled.
“I was like, ‘What is happening? People who look like me are coming out, and they get it. They get it.’ ”
The food at the third dinner aimed high. Two guest chefs, famed seafood chef Keith Rhodes of Wilmington and Gullah cuisine expert B.J. Dennis of Charleston, joined Bowling, Barnes, Collier and Suddoth, along with mixologists DiSean Burns and Justin Hazelton.
It went on through seven courses and three cocktails, from Bowling’s seared scallop with confit tomatoes and smoked tomato water to Barnes’ short ribs with tomato bordelaise. Collier still savors the memory of Rhodes’ crab cake with ham hock succotash.
“Even for me, it was revelatory,” he says.
Order up: Jobs
If it was just dinner, that would be fun enough. For the organizers, bonding in the kitchen, the chance to push each other with their cooking, is a part of the experience. More chefs have joined up, including more women: Selasie “Sam” Dotse (doe-CHAY), a Ghanaian line cook who has worked at several local restaurants including Luca and RockSalt, has become a regular, and Quientina Stewart, a chef-instructor at Johnson & Wales, joined the lineup at the Caribbean dinner. Burns, formerly of Stoke, and Hazelton of 5Church create intricate cocktails, often using N.C.-made liquors.
“That’s the idea, for us to step back and present other chefs,” says Barnes. As more African-American cooks and mixologists have gotten involved, they’ve pushed to find people who weren’t on their radar.
“People just want to take part,” Bowling says. “It’s a party in the kitchen. We’re trying to soak it all in.”
Now the organizers are reaching for a bigger mission: They don’t just want to use the dinners to show the level of food they can cook. They also want to show younger black cooks a path to bigger success.
Elena Lundy, a culinary teaching assistant at Johnson & Wales, helps to plate Gregory Collier’s salt cod napoleon, the first dish at last week’s Caribbean-themed dinner.
Kathleen Purvis
A 2014 study by the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance found that African-Americans are 16% of the national hourly restaurant employees, but only 7 percent of its managers.
Food service is drawing high enrollment among black students. At Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, about 38% of 1,101 culinary students are African-American; at Central Piedmont Community College, 43.6 percent of culinary students are black. But when those students come out of school, says Quientina Stewart, they often don’t see people who look like them in management.
“If you don’t see that, you don’t think, ‘Oh wow, I could achieve that.’ If they don’t see chefs achieving, it’s like they’re not really there.”
Varied challenges
Collier was raised in Memphis in a tough neighborhood. He grew up, he says, learning to stand up for himself and push back when confronted. In a restaurant kitchen, where the atmosphere can be physically brusque and demanding, he struggled to learn what might be racially motivated and what was a chef simply doing his job by pushing him.
He remembers one job where he almost came to blows with a head chef who kept bumping into him in the kitchen. But after talking with others, he decided it wasn’t aggression, it was the rush of working fast in tight quarters.
“(Chefs) have to do that,” says Collier, who is now the chef himself. “You have to get your point across. Because of how I grew up, it was difficult for me to know the difference.”
)
Selasie “Sam” Dotse grabs a shot of one of her plates at last week’s Soul Food Sessions dinner.
Kathleen Purvis
At Tuesday night’s dinner, when Bowling was introducing the course by Dotse, he noted that she plans to leave Charlotte in December to look for bigger opportunities in California. This is what Soul Food Sessions is about, he said:
“When cities lose talented people for lack of opportunities, it’s a problem,” he said. “We have to scratch, claw and dig to get the top jobs. Latino chefs, Asian chefs, black chefs – they’re not getting the opportunity to move up. That’s what’s up to us, to help these young chefs find a way where they don’t see one.”
A key: “Familiarity breeds familiarity,” Bowling said in an earlier interview. “If I call a chef looking for an executive chef candidate, who’s he going to recommend? Someone he knows, someone he’s worked with.”
The goal now is to make Soul Food Sessions more than just an occasional dinner. The group has applied for status as a nonprofit, and they’re adding a catering arm that will help them raise money for scholarships and mentoring programs for minority culinary students. They’re planning another dinner at the holidays, and hoping to put on six dinners next year.
Members of the group say white chefs in Charlotte have been supportive, particularly those in the Piedmont Culinary Guild, an organization of local chefs and food producers. Luca Annunziata and Clark Barlowe have turned over their restaurants for dinners and guild members like Marc Jacksina have reached out to help.
Soul Food members emphasize that the aim isn’t to push aside other chefs. It’s to make a bigger world for all of them.
“I need people to know, not just the black chefs, all the guys,” says Collier. “We have a million faces. Stop judging us on appearance and start looking at the food.”
Doing it Charlotte-style
So why does Charlotte need Soul Food Sessions? A lot of cities have more complicated racial histories, and there have been other dinners focusing on the black culinary story, such as the national dinner series Blackness in America, led by Nigerian chef Tunde Wey, and a 2015 dinner in Charleston that commemorated enslaved chef Nat Fuller.
Those dinners have different missions, though. They’re more about dialogue and sharing experiences. The Soul Food Session events feel more celebratory, more about creation and community.
)
The original members of Soul Food Sessions pose for photographs after Tuesday night’s dinner at Project 658 on Central Avenue. The group hopes to do more dinners, including in other cities.
Kathleen Purvis
While the unrest last fall following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott may be one reason the dinners have gotten such good receptions, Bowling says, he thinks that’s not really it.
“We think part of the reason it’s been embraced is because we’re who we are. We all have diverse followings. You get a little from all of us.”
Collier also thinks it may be easier to start something like this here than in older Southern cities like Charleston or New Orleans.
“The history doesn’t pull so strong here,” he says. “Charlotte thinks it doesn’t have an identity. It’s evolving into what it is.
“Maybe it’s easier to do it here, because stigma isn’t what defines us here.”
Core members of Soul Food Sessions talk about its purpose, and where they hope it will go. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
Food & Drink
Why doesn’t Charlotte have black chefs? It does, and these 5 want to make sure everyone knows
By Kathleen Purvis
kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com
September 28, 2017 11:35 AM
Where are Charlotte’s black chefs?
Oh, they’re there, all right, working in food trucks and as personal chefs, running pastry programs and cooking on the line in restaurant kitchens.
The problem isn’t that Charlotte doesn’t have black chefs. The problem, several of them say, is a lack of visibility. Only a few own their own restaurants, and hardly any have had the top job in fine-dining kitchens. They’re rarely seen in the lineup at farm-to-fork dinners and restaurant events.
Why are there so few black executive chefs? “You think you know why,” says Gregory Collier, chef/owner of The Yolk in Rock Hill. “But we all call out different reasons.”
Among those reasons: Some say younger African-American cooks struggle to feel at home in restaurant kitchens, where there may be no one else who looks like them – and where the brash culture can make it hard to tell whether the chef yelling and pushing is racist, or simply pushing them to be better. Fewer still make it to top positions, where they’re in charge of the menu. Others say it’s hard to get the financial backing it takes to open fine-dining restaurants.
When Collier opened his own restaurant, he made it a breakfast and brunch place, because he thought it would be easier to gain trust if he started with food that people expect to be simple:
“I’m going to cook grits and eventually, I’ve got you eating duck confit grits.”
Jamie Barnes says he opened a food truck, What the Fries, because he wanted to make his own decisions after being a sous – an assistant chef – at several high-end restaurants.
“As a sous (chef), you have a lot of ideas. A little frustration builds up,” he says. “A lot of guys may have a job, a basic job – a line cook, a steakhouse. You want to show you know more.”
Last fall, Barnes decided to do something about that.
Soul on a roll
He got together with a group of black chefs, including Collier, Michael Bowling, his food truck partner Greg Williams and Bonterra pastry chef Jamie Suddoth, and created Soul Food Sessions, a series of dinners that have become among the most interesting meals in town.
Ask Bowling “Why all black chefs?” and he’ll say: “Y’all don’t ask when it’s all white chefs. We can do food that’s just as good.”
In the beginning, it was just going to be one dinner. Barnes was getting frustrated. He wanted a chance to climb out of the truck and show he and Williams could do more than fries and a mean burger. Barnes’ specialty is actually Mediterranean cuisine, but that doesn’t happen much in his daily life: “Nobody wants grilled octopus off a food truck.”
He went to Collier and to Bowling, who has bumped around the restaurant scene from Washington to Charleston to Charlotte.
“Jamie said, ‘Why don’t we have black dinners? Where are we? It can’t be because we’re not talented,’ ” says Collier.
So the small group put together a dinner last October at Collier’s Ayrsley location, @dawn (now closed). They turned out a fine-dining menu that took stereotypes of black cooking, such as collards, watermelon and fried chicken, and turned them on their heads with the techniques of haute cuisine: Sauteed collards beside striped bass, crispy chicken skins with a watermelon hot sauce, chicken tagine.
They called it Soul Food Sessions, “to kind of trick people,” Barnes says. “They see African-American chefs and they think ‘typical soul food.’ Fried chicken and macaroni & cheese and all that. We came to the conclusion that soul food is whatever you cook from the heart, from your soul.”
The first dinner was $45 and they quickly sold out its 42 seats, mostly by word of mouth. Then, when the day of the dinner came, demand suddenly exploded.
“People were at the door, emailing me, calling us, trying to walk in,” Bowling recalls. “And we were like, ‘We could do more with this.’ ”
So they did: A second dinner, held in February at Luca Modern Italian, highlighted mostly African ingredients and styles. A third, in June at Heirloom, showcased tomatoes and summer produce. The fourth, held Tuesday at Project 658 on Central Avenue, served 80 people with a Caribbean-inspired menu.
Each dinner has gotten bigger, and the makeup of the crowd has shifted, the chefs say. The first dinner drew a heavily white crowd, but as word got around, the events began to draw more African-American and younger diners. By Tuesday’s dinner, it was evenly split between black and white and had an array of ages. It sold out in a week, and had a waiting list of 30 to 40.
Collier remembers looking out from the kitchen during that third dinner at Heirloom and being startled.
“I was like, ‘What is happening? People who look like me are coming out, and they get it. They get it.’ ”
The food at the third dinner aimed high. Two guest chefs, famed seafood chef Keith Rhodes of Wilmington and Gullah cuisine expert B.J. Dennis of Charleston, joined Bowling, Barnes, Collier and Suddoth, along with mixologists DiSean Burns and Justin Hazelton.
It went on through seven courses and three cocktails, from Bowling’s seared scallop with confit tomatoes and smoked tomato water to Barnes’ short ribs with tomato bordelaise. Collier still savors the memory of Rhodes’ crab cake with ham hock succotash.
“Even for me, it was revelatory,” he says.
Order up: Jobs
If it was just dinner, that would be fun enough. For the organizers, bonding in the kitchen, the chance to push each other with their cooking, is a part of the experience. More chefs have joined up, including more women: Selasie “Sam” Dotse (doe-CHAY), a Ghanaian line cook who has worked at several local restaurants including Luca and RockSalt, has become a regular, and Quientina Stewart, a chef-instructor at Johnson & Wales, joined the lineup at the Caribbean dinner. Burns, formerly of Stoke, and Hazelton of 5Church create intricate cocktails, often using N.C.-made liquors.
“That’s the idea, for us to step back and present other chefs,” says Barnes. As more African-American cooks and mixologists have gotten involved, they’ve pushed to find people who weren’t on their radar.
“People just want to take part,” Bowling says. “It’s a party in the kitchen. We’re trying to soak it all in.”
Now the organizers are reaching for a bigger mission: They don’t just want to use the dinners to show the level of food they can cook. They also want to show younger black cooks a path to bigger success.
Elena Lundy, a culinary teaching assistant at Johnson & Wales, helps to plate Gregory Collier’s salt cod napoleon, the first dish at last week’s Caribbean-themed dinner.
Kathleen Purvis
A 2014 study by the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance found that African-Americans are 16% of the national hourly restaurant employees, but only 7 percent of its managers.
Food service is drawing high enrollment among black students. At Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, about 38% of 1,101 culinary students are African-American; at Central Piedmont Community College, 43.6 percent of culinary students are black. But when those students come out of school, says Quientina Stewart, they often don’t see people who look like them in management.
“If you don’t see that, you don’t think, ‘Oh wow, I could achieve that.’ If they don’t see chefs achieving, it’s like they’re not really there.”
Varied challenges
Collier was raised in Memphis in a tough neighborhood. He grew up, he says, learning to stand up for himself and push back when confronted. In a restaurant kitchen, where the atmosphere can be physically brusque and demanding, he struggled to learn what might be racially motivated and what was a chef simply doing his job by pushing him.
He remembers one job where he almost came to blows with a head chef who kept bumping into him in the kitchen. But after talking with others, he decided it wasn’t aggression, it was the rush of working fast in tight quarters.
“(Chefs) have to do that,” says Collier, who is now the chef himself. “You have to get your point across. Because of how I grew up, it was difficult for me to know the difference.”
Selasie “Sam” Dotse grabs a shot of one of her plates at last week’s Soul Food Sessions dinner.
Kathleen Purvis
At Tuesday night’s dinner, when Bowling was introducing the course by Dotse, he noted that she plans to leave Charlotte in December to look for bigger opportunities in California. This is what Soul Food Sessions is about, he said:
“When cities lose talented people for lack of opportunities, it’s a problem,” he said. “We have to scratch, claw and dig to get the top jobs. Latino chefs, Asian chefs, black chefs – they’re not getting the opportunity to move up. That’s what’s up to us, to help these young chefs find a way where they don’t see one.”
A key: “Familiarity breeds familiarity,” Bowling said in an earlier interview. “If I call a chef looking for an executive chef candidate, who’s he going to recommend? Someone he knows, someone he’s worked with.”
The goal now is to make Soul Food Sessions more than just an occasional dinner. The group has applied for status as a nonprofit, and they’re adding a catering arm that will help them raise money for scholarships and mentoring programs for minority culinary students. They’re planning another dinner at the holidays, and hoping to put on six dinners next year.
Members of the group say white chefs in Charlotte have been supportive, particularly those in the Piedmont Culinary Guild, an organization of local chefs and food producers. Luca Annunziata and Clark Barlowe have turned over their restaurants for dinners and guild members like Marc Jacksina have reached out to help.
Soul Food members emphasize that the aim isn’t to push aside other chefs. It’s to make a bigger world for all of them.
“I need people to know, not just the black chefs, all the guys,” says Collier. “We have a million faces. Stop judging us on appearance and start looking at the food.”
Doing it Charlotte-style
So why does Charlotte need Soul Food Sessions? A lot of cities have more complicated racial histories, and there have been other dinners focusing on the black culinary story, such as the national dinner series Blackness in America, led by Nigerian chef Tunde Wey, and a 2015 dinner in Charleston that commemorated enslaved chef Nat Fuller.
Those dinners have different missions, though. They’re more about dialogue and sharing experiences. The Soul Food Session events feel more celebratory, more about creation and community.
The original members of Soul Food Sessions pose for photographs after Tuesday night’s dinner at Project 658 on Central Avenue. The group hopes to do more dinners, including in other cities.
Kathleen Purvis
While the unrest last fall following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott may be one reason the dinners have gotten such good receptions, Bowling says, he thinks that’s not really it.
“We think part of the reason it’s been embraced is because we’re who we are. We all have diverse followings. You get a little from all of us.”
Collier also thinks it may be easier to start something like this here than in older Southern cities like Charleston or New Orleans.
“The history doesn’t pull so strong here,” he says. “Charlotte thinks it doesn’t have an identity. It’s evolving into what it is.
“Maybe it’s easier to do it here, because stigma isn’t what defines us here.”
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
I don't know if there are any Earthgang/J.I.D, fans in here but here you go. Going to check these dudes out.
J.I.D. & EarthGang on November 15 at 8 p.m.
J.I.D. & EarthGang on November 15 at 8 p.m.
RennisDeynolds
I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds!
What's the job situation like in the area? I know it's a big finance hub now and I know it's not top far from research triangle park...
is the cost of living low? Seems like i might need to make a move
is the cost of living low? Seems like i might need to make a move
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Hold up a minute Charlotte brehs, Imma let you finish but I wanted to state that rain ain't stopping GHOE!!
Aggie Pride
Martha
Aggie Pride
Martha
He says tiny house project is quirky, affordable. Neighbors say it will hurt values.
Developer Kelvin Young believes his planned “tiny house” community in northwest Charlotte will create an affordable place for first-time home buyers or for people downsizing. But to neighbors, Young’s Keyo Park West is a threat to their property values. They are asking City Council to stop it. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
Business
He says tiny house project is quirky, affordable. Neighbors say it will hurt values.
By Steve Harrison
sharrison@charlotteobserver.com
October 08, 2017 5:43 PM
To developer Kelvin Young, his planned “tiny house” community in northwest Charlotte will create an affordable place for first-time home buyers or for people downsizing.
But to neighbors, Young’s Keyo Park West is a threat to their property values. They are asking City Council to stop it.
“We have been hanging out there for 60 years in Coulwood,” said Robert Wilson, who lives a half-mile from Young’s planned tiny house neighborhood off Cathey Road near Paw Creek Elementary. “All of a sudden this little building started coming up and no one knew what it was. Then it started looking like a house.”
Young’s Keyo Park West would have 56 tiny houses if built out, with the smallest homes – 500 square feet – selling for $89,000. The median home price in Charlotte is about $190,000.
Young is piggy-backing on a national trend of people buying tiny houses, which has been popularized by TV shows such as HGTV’s “Tiny House, Big Living.” In many cases, those homes are truly tiny, with as little as 200 square feet. Keyo Park West would have small homes, but Young’s use of “tiny homes” is in part a marketing strategy.
Wilson, who spoke before council members in opposition to the project in September, said Keyo Park West should be regulated like a mobile-home park.
“You specifically designate areas for mobile homes, and this is no different,” he said. “We want this stopped. We aren’t against (zoning that allows three homes per acre). We are just talking about these types. It will greatly diminish our property values.”
The nearby neighborhood was built in the 1950s. Though only 8 miles from uptown, it’s still a mostly rural area. Homes are appraised at between $175,000 and $250,000.
Developer Kelvin Young inside a tiny house at his tiny house development in Coulwood on Cathey Road. Young’s Keyo Park West would have 56 tiny houses if built out, with the smallest homes – with 500 square feet – selling for $89,000.
Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
But Young said neighbors don’t understand his project. While TV shows often celebrate tiny homes on wheels, the Keyo Park tiny homes are built on concrete foundations. He said they are no different than a single-family home, only smaller.
The city of Charlotte said that’s correct. Ed McKinney, the interim planning director, said the tiny home that’s been built qualifies as a single-family home. The city doesn’t require that single-family homes be a certain size.
“To be clear, they are only tiny houses in the marketing name only,” McKinney said. “Many of the tiny houses that people are familiar with (from TV) are on wheels. And the only place you can do that now is in an RV park, and you have to have a site zoned for that.”
Young, who is African-American, believes some of the opposition is due to race. The residents near his tiny house are mostly white, and Young said he thinks people are afraid the tiny homes will be bought by black residents.
“We have the most coolest, most eclectic group of people on earth,” Young said about people who have inquired about the homes. “We have 22-year-olds to 72-year-olds. People are moving from uptown, Ballantyne and Pineville. A lot of people think it’s a bunch of young people. But they are people who say, ‘I don’t need all of this.’ ”
Young has so far built one 500-square-foot tiny house on Cathey Road. He has sold it for $89,000 – $69,000 for the house and $20,000 for the land.
The house has a small bedroom in the back with a bathroom. The front room is a combination kitchen and living room.
He has two other lots nearby that Young said are under contract. One is for a two-bedroom house that costs $138,000. The other is for a three-bedroom house with a garage for $170,000.
Kitchen inside developer Kelvin Young’s tiny house development in Coulwood on Cathey Road. Young is piggy-backing on a national trend of people buying tiny houses, which has been popularized by TV shows such as HGTV’s “Tiny House, Big Living.” In many cases, those homes are truly tiny, with as little as 200 square feet. Keyo Park West would have small homes, but Young’s use of “tiny homes” is in part a marketing strategy.
Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
The city isn’t sure whether Young will be able to build-out his community on the rest of the 19-acre parcel. The council’s Transportation and Planning committee discussed Keyo Park West last month and plans to review the tiny homes again in November.
Young, a former self-described house-flipper, doesn’t own most of the land. It’s owned by Sackville Currie and Malvina Currie, who have a Fort Lauderdale address. Young said he owns the piece of land where the first tiny home was built and recently acquired the other two parcels. He said he will buy the others when contracts are signed.
The Keyo Park West website says prospective buyers must pay a $4,000 non-refundable deposit to reserve a lot.
McKinney said Young has not submitted any plans for his neighborhood, which must comply with city rules on setbacks, streets and sidewalks.
“That would still go through all of our technical review,” he said. “It’s hard to know if all this is for real.”
Young’s tiny home proposal comes as the city is trying to quickly build more affordable housing. After the Keith Scott protests, council members pledged to build 5,000 new housing units in three years, instead of the previous goal of 5,000 units in five years.
Kim Skobba, an assistant professor of family planning, housing and consumer economics at the University of Georgia, has taught a class on tiny houses. She said the popularity of TV shows such as “Tiny House, Big Living” shows people are interested in the idea of owning a tiny house.
“However, having an interest in tiny houses might not translate to community acceptance,” she said. “Opposition to affordable housing, regardless of the form, is common, so I guess I am not too surprised to see pushback on tiny homes.”
There are no income requirements for Keyo Park West, so it’s possible a $100,000 affordable tiny home could be bought by someone earning $80,000 who just wants a simple life.
Chris Galusha of the American Tiny House Association said the Keyo Park West homes are not true tiny houses because they have large lots and the houses themselves are comparatively large. He said he doesn’t think they would affect the property values of older single-family homes nearby.
“People are afraid their property values will drop,” he said. “But a 400- to 600-square-foot home will never be appraised with people across the street. Because of the size, those tiny homes will never be in the same appraisal.”
Wilson doesn’t agree.
“The laws are so loose and ambiguous,” he said. “It doesn’t take into consideration this is a new genre. Just because the land is zoned for (three houses per acre) doesn’t make it right.”
Developer Kelvin Young believes his planned “tiny house” community in northwest Charlotte will create an affordable place for first-time home buyers or for people downsizing. But to neighbors, Young’s Keyo Park West is a threat to their property values. They are asking City Council to stop it. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
Business
He says tiny house project is quirky, affordable. Neighbors say it will hurt values.
By Steve Harrison
sharrison@charlotteobserver.com
October 08, 2017 5:43 PM
To developer Kelvin Young, his planned “tiny house” community in northwest Charlotte will create an affordable place for first-time home buyers or for people downsizing.
But to neighbors, Young’s Keyo Park West is a threat to their property values. They are asking City Council to stop it.
“We have been hanging out there for 60 years in Coulwood,” said Robert Wilson, who lives a half-mile from Young’s planned tiny house neighborhood off Cathey Road near Paw Creek Elementary. “All of a sudden this little building started coming up and no one knew what it was. Then it started looking like a house.”
Young’s Keyo Park West would have 56 tiny houses if built out, with the smallest homes – 500 square feet – selling for $89,000. The median home price in Charlotte is about $190,000.
Young is piggy-backing on a national trend of people buying tiny houses, which has been popularized by TV shows such as HGTV’s “Tiny House, Big Living.” In many cases, those homes are truly tiny, with as little as 200 square feet. Keyo Park West would have small homes, but Young’s use of “tiny homes” is in part a marketing strategy.
Wilson, who spoke before council members in opposition to the project in September, said Keyo Park West should be regulated like a mobile-home park.
“You specifically designate areas for mobile homes, and this is no different,” he said. “We want this stopped. We aren’t against (zoning that allows three homes per acre). We are just talking about these types. It will greatly diminish our property values.”
The nearby neighborhood was built in the 1950s. Though only 8 miles from uptown, it’s still a mostly rural area. Homes are appraised at between $175,000 and $250,000.
Developer Kelvin Young inside a tiny house at his tiny house development in Coulwood on Cathey Road. Young’s Keyo Park West would have 56 tiny houses if built out, with the smallest homes – with 500 square feet – selling for $89,000.
Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
But Young said neighbors don’t understand his project. While TV shows often celebrate tiny homes on wheels, the Keyo Park tiny homes are built on concrete foundations. He said they are no different than a single-family home, only smaller.
The city of Charlotte said that’s correct. Ed McKinney, the interim planning director, said the tiny home that’s been built qualifies as a single-family home. The city doesn’t require that single-family homes be a certain size.
“To be clear, they are only tiny houses in the marketing name only,” McKinney said. “Many of the tiny houses that people are familiar with (from TV) are on wheels. And the only place you can do that now is in an RV park, and you have to have a site zoned for that.”
Young, who is African-American, believes some of the opposition is due to race. The residents near his tiny house are mostly white, and Young said he thinks people are afraid the tiny homes will be bought by black residents.
“We have the most coolest, most eclectic group of people on earth,” Young said about people who have inquired about the homes. “We have 22-year-olds to 72-year-olds. People are moving from uptown, Ballantyne and Pineville. A lot of people think it’s a bunch of young people. But they are people who say, ‘I don’t need all of this.’ ”
Young has so far built one 500-square-foot tiny house on Cathey Road. He has sold it for $89,000 – $69,000 for the house and $20,000 for the land.
The house has a small bedroom in the back with a bathroom. The front room is a combination kitchen and living room.
He has two other lots nearby that Young said are under contract. One is for a two-bedroom house that costs $138,000. The other is for a three-bedroom house with a garage for $170,000.
Kitchen inside developer Kelvin Young’s tiny house development in Coulwood on Cathey Road. Young is piggy-backing on a national trend of people buying tiny houses, which has been popularized by TV shows such as HGTV’s “Tiny House, Big Living.” In many cases, those homes are truly tiny, with as little as 200 square feet. Keyo Park West would have small homes, but Young’s use of “tiny homes” is in part a marketing strategy.
Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
The city isn’t sure whether Young will be able to build-out his community on the rest of the 19-acre parcel. The council’s Transportation and Planning committee discussed Keyo Park West last month and plans to review the tiny homes again in November.
Young, a former self-described house-flipper, doesn’t own most of the land. It’s owned by Sackville Currie and Malvina Currie, who have a Fort Lauderdale address. Young said he owns the piece of land where the first tiny home was built and recently acquired the other two parcels. He said he will buy the others when contracts are signed.
The Keyo Park West website says prospective buyers must pay a $4,000 non-refundable deposit to reserve a lot.
McKinney said Young has not submitted any plans for his neighborhood, which must comply with city rules on setbacks, streets and sidewalks.
“That would still go through all of our technical review,” he said. “It’s hard to know if all this is for real.”
Young’s tiny home proposal comes as the city is trying to quickly build more affordable housing. After the Keith Scott protests, council members pledged to build 5,000 new housing units in three years, instead of the previous goal of 5,000 units in five years.
Kim Skobba, an assistant professor of family planning, housing and consumer economics at the University of Georgia, has taught a class on tiny houses. She said the popularity of TV shows such as “Tiny House, Big Living” shows people are interested in the idea of owning a tiny house.
“However, having an interest in tiny houses might not translate to community acceptance,” she said. “Opposition to affordable housing, regardless of the form, is common, so I guess I am not too surprised to see pushback on tiny homes.”
There are no income requirements for Keyo Park West, so it’s possible a $100,000 affordable tiny home could be bought by someone earning $80,000 who just wants a simple life.
Chris Galusha of the American Tiny House Association said the Keyo Park West homes are not true tiny houses because they have large lots and the houses themselves are comparatively large. He said he doesn’t think they would affect the property values of older single-family homes nearby.
“People are afraid their property values will drop,” he said. “But a 400- to 600-square-foot home will never be appraised with people across the street. Because of the size, those tiny homes will never be in the same appraisal.”
Wilson doesn’t agree.
“The laws are so loose and ambiguous,” he said. “It doesn’t take into consideration this is a new genre. Just because the land is zoned for (three houses per acre) doesn’t make it right.”
Goodbye, Bobby: Iconic Charlotte air-conditioning character is moving away
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Charlotte actor J.R. Adduci, who plays Bobby in the Morris-Jenkins commercials, is leaving the compnay to pursue his career in Hollywood. David T. Foster III dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com
Local
Goodbye, Bobby: Iconic Charlotte air-conditioning character is moving away
By Jane Wester
jwester@charlotteobserver.com
October 08, 2017 2:48 PM
Charlotte TV won’t be the same without Morris-Jenkins commercials featuring the character “Bobby” – really James Roy Adduci, an actor with stage and screen credits beyond the commercial business.
In a new Morris-Jenkins commercial, Mr. Jenkins and Bobby are shown together in the HVAC company’s truck, where they’ve filmed a number of commercials. Mr. Jenkins gives Bobby a parting gift of $100,000 and wishes him luck in his next adventure in Hollywood.
Morris-Jenkins confirmed to the Observer Sunday that Adduci really is moving to Hollywood, and he won’t be making Morris-Jenkins commercials anymore.
The reaction on Twitter was swift.
“That’s a horrible thing to tease if not true,” one user said.
wait. is this really the end of bobby in the morris-jenkins spots? that’s a horrible thing to tease if not true.
— Gretchen Voth (@gretchenvoth) October 8, 2017
Adduci has been appearing as Bobby in Morris-Jenkins commercials for at least six years, according to YouTube. Over the years, he sang songs from “Frozen,” played with Play-Doh and showed off a very bad haircut.
Clearly, he’ll be missed.
Did that Morris Jenkins commercial just insinuate that was Bobby’s last commercial?
— Rebekah Smith (@bekahswa) October 8, 2017
Charlotte actor J.R. Adduci, who plays Bobby in the Morris-Jenkins commercials, is leaving the compnay to pursue his career in Hollywood. David T. Foster III dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com
Local
Goodbye, Bobby: Iconic Charlotte air-conditioning character is moving away
By Jane Wester
jwester@charlotteobserver.com
October 08, 2017 2:48 PM
Charlotte TV won’t be the same without Morris-Jenkins commercials featuring the character “Bobby” – really James Roy Adduci, an actor with stage and screen credits beyond the commercial business.
In a new Morris-Jenkins commercial, Mr. Jenkins and Bobby are shown together in the HVAC company’s truck, where they’ve filmed a number of commercials. Mr. Jenkins gives Bobby a parting gift of $100,000 and wishes him luck in his next adventure in Hollywood.
Morris-Jenkins confirmed to the Observer Sunday that Adduci really is moving to Hollywood, and he won’t be making Morris-Jenkins commercials anymore.
The reaction on Twitter was swift.
“That’s a horrible thing to tease if not true,” one user said.
wait. is this really the end of bobby in the morris-jenkins spots? that’s a horrible thing to tease if not true.
— Gretchen Voth (@gretchenvoth) October 8, 2017
Adduci has been appearing as Bobby in Morris-Jenkins commercials for at least six years, according to YouTube. Over the years, he sang songs from “Frozen,” played with Play-Doh and showed off a very bad haircut.
Clearly, he’ll be missed.
Did that Morris Jenkins commercial just insinuate that was Bobby’s last commercial?
— Rebekah Smith (@bekahswa) October 8, 2017
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Breakin' Convention 2017 | Blumenthal Performing Arts
So again for the 3rd and possibly last year... the Breakin Convention is in Charlotte this weekend. The International HipHop Festival.
I went to the opening party tonight and it was lit. Met a lot of the artist and it was off the chain (taking it back to the early 00s).
A lot of the shyt is free and there are still tickets for the show performances
Martha
So again for the 3rd and possibly last year... the Breakin Convention is in Charlotte this weekend. The International HipHop Festival.
I went to the opening party tonight and it was lit. Met a lot of the artist and it was off the chain (taking it back to the early 00s).
A lot of the shyt is free and there are still tickets for the show performances
Martha
@Call Me James post up breh
good looking out!
It's pretty good, but the COL is rising higher than payWhat's the job situation like in the area? I know it's a big finance hub now and I know it's not top far from research triangle park...
is the cost of living low? Seems like i might need to make a move
Commuting sucks too if you live/work in the wrong places. I'm loving it but wifey and I have been hella lucky
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
The COL is out of control now. It's best to commute at this point.
It really depends on How much you're willing to spend, if you have kids, area, age, roommate or live alone and how much space you'd like.
That said unless you're living uptown or PM the COL is fairly reasonable for a city.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
I'm with you on that. I really am thinking about moving somewhere in the Southside because there's some good affordable places there. fukk uptown man lol.