Simply Cheris. . .

 When you look at other Black women mayors across the country, like Keisha Lance Bottoms and Lori Lightfoot, don’t you feel proud? Like Black women lead.  Then, you remember you live in Charlotte and Vi Lyles is your mayor.  Real tears.  Lyles was super invisible at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic . She hasn’t kept her campaign promises and sat back while Charlotte Mecklenburg Police gassed protesters during a peaceful march in Uptown.  (Why is she not on the ballot so I could vote against her? Next year, y’all/) But earlier this month,Lyles and members of Charlotte City Council made total asses of themselves when they visited a local bar.  This is what the Charlotte Observer reported ,  The initial reservation was for 6 p.m., then it started getting pushed back, DeLoach said. The council members, along with Mayor Vi Lyles, City Manager Marcus Jones, and other city employees showed up at 7:45 p.m., she said. Also in attendance on Monday night was...

If the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery haven't taught us the importance of local elections, I don't know what it will take for us to learn that lesson. Yes, the federal government is a dumpster fire right now. But we're touched by what the people in our front yard do. Stream the latest City Council meeting here . (Starts at 5 p.m. today)  And a lot of times, those touches are more like punches to the face. Take Charlotte, for instance, during this global pandemic,   our mayor was basically MIA . When protests started in the Queen City,  Mayor Vi Lyles finally showed up. She wanted to talk. She talks a lot. As well as the Charlotte City Council. Charlotte has been talking since the 2016 uprising after the killing of Keith Lamont Scott by CMPD. Lyles was a city council member during that shooting.  She proposed a seven-point plan to reduce racial and class divisions in the city, parts of which were approved by the council. Present...

What happened to protesters in Uptown Charlotte was city sanction attempted murder. Yep. I said it with my whole chest. Tuesday night, Queen City Nerve live streamed the attempted murder of peaceful protesters and y'alls police chief doesn't know who gave the order to shoot pepper balls, flash bangs and tear gas at unarmed people. According to WBTV, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police chief Kerr Putney addressed a crowd who wanted answers about the deployment of chemical agents on protesters Tuesday night. Chief Putney addressed questions from the community. When he arrived, he expressed his frustrations with police brutality and had a question for the crowd. “I understand the frustration. I have it too. But I want to know, what do we really want to do about it?” Putney said. The crowd had many questions about why Tuesday night’s incidents were allowed. "Who gave the order?” Someone in the crowd asked about tear gas being deployed during Tuesday prote...

Hey, Vi. Girl, where have you been? There's a whole pandemic going on and the citizens of the City of Charlotte, the ones you duped, I mean who voted for you and swallowed your campaign promises,  haven't heard a word from you. Let's face facts, Charlotte mayors are figure heads. The city manager and council run the city. Clearly the police too, but we'll get there in a minute. Not only have you been missing, but you've changed.  I was proud in 2017 that my adopted home of Charlotte, NC had its first woman mayor who was African American. But my grandma was right, all your skin folk aren't your kin folk. But you tricked me, sis. I remember when you stood for something. Following the  shooting of Keith Lamont Scott  in September 2016, (Lyles) proposed a seven-point plan to reduce racial and class divisions in the city, parts of which were approved by the council. It's four years later and here we are—again. So, you sat out the pandemic and whil...