##01
DECEMBER TO
REMEMBER
The month can
launch and sink
playoff hopes for
Panthers and NFL
contenders 1C
Volume 31 No.
The Voice of the Black Communis
ODen
aims in
Cemar
CR]^
Uptown dub incident
highlights lingering
doubts about inclusion
By Cheris F, Hodges
clierisJiodgesfs thecharloneposicmi
Maybe it’s just a perception or just sour
grapes.
Black partiers feel uptown doesn’t wel
come them with open arms and with the
CIAA basketball tournament two months
away, organizers and city officials face an
ufdiill battle to derail that train of thou^t.
It doesn’t help that a swirl of e-mails
accuse an uptown club of being racist, either
Center City Partners President Michael
Smith said he hopes that is a mis(»nception
about uptown.
“Not being able to walk in those shoes it’s
hard for me to be fully able to access it,”
Smith said. “But we are aware that percep
tion is out there.”
Now isn’t the best time for the dty to have
a PR problem uptown. In February the
CIAA tournament will bring upwards of
100,000 African Americans to the city and
the bulk of events will be hosted uptown
For a week, the uptown crowd is going to
vastly different than what many businesses
Please see PERCEPTIONS/2A
Seven students
punished for
Bush protest
By Daniel Bayer
TliECAROUSA PEACEMAKER
HAMPTON, Va. — Seven Hampton
University students were disciplined for tak
ing part in the Nov 2 “World Can’t Wait:
Drive Out the Bush Regime” nationwide
protests on campus.
Unlike their predecessors in the dvil
ri^ts era, who faced an entrenched white
power structure bent on preserving segrega
tion, the Hampton students faced a univer
sity administration they say actively woiks
to discourage, if not outright prevent, stu
dent activism.
Rease see HAMPTON/3A
HERE, KITTY
Legendary stage and
screen star Eartha Kitt
embrace child-friendly
roles in movies and
television/1 D
SANTA’S
CAUSE
Black St. Nick is a
rarity in Charlotte-
area shopping
centers/1 B
i
>1.00
€l)avlottemusfi
ford sd
Also serving Cabarrus, Chester, Mecklenburg, Rowan and York counties 5
WEEK OF DECEMBER 8-14, 2005
MUST DO WITHOUT CITY WATER, SEWER
PHOTO/CUHTIS WILSON
Leonard Mauney checks on his private water pump outside his home in the Dixie com
munity in Southwest Mecklenburg. Residents have pushed for the city of Charlotte to
extend water and sewer service to the area, but city officials say the cost is prohibitive.
A pipe dream
Charlotte services elude low-income rural communities
By Virlanda Miller
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POH'
In the Dixie and Bm*jhiE
communities, Charlotte
water and sewer services
are a dream.
The problem? TheyHvein
an unincx)rporated area that
isn’t high on the dty’s
annexation priority list.
Located in southwestern
Mecklenburg County with
in sight of Charlotte-
Douglas International
Airport, Dixie/Berrjhill is
bounded by Uie Catawba
River to the west, 1-85 to the
north, 1-485 to the east, and
Rock Island Road, Shopton
Road and Steele Creek Road
to the south. According to
the 2000 Census, 4,036 resi
dents and an elementary
school — which also has no
access to city water and
sewer service — call this
rural area home. It’s most
famous son is U.S. Rep. Mel
Watt (D-N.C.), chairman of
the Congressional Black
Caucus.
Leonard Mauney is a
Dixie resident. The retiree
said he has lived in the area
all of his life, and built his
current home in 1973. He
tests his well water once a
year.
“Water is so full of iron it
eats up everything,”
Maimey said “If you get a
Rease see RURALTZA
Black women fear HIV’s
spread continues unabated
PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS III
HOLIDAY CHEER: Storytellers Kali Ferguson, Cheryl “Sparkle"
Mosley and Soahfi Umoh were part of the Afro-American Cultural
Center’s Jazzy Holiday celebration last week in Charlotte.
By Gordon Jackson
THE DALLAS EXAMISER
DALLAS, Tfexas — When Helen
Thmer Gddaibeig found out 17
years ago that she had contracted
full-blown AIDS, she wanted to
“dig a hole, crawl in and puli in the
dirt cai top of me.”
Ihrough 10 years of being HIV
positive, Desiree has had several
phases of losing her will to live.
“Personally the emotional part is
overwhelming,” said Desiree. “You
Fewer N.C.
residents
have health
insurance
Study: Numbers slide
from 2000-04; Urban
counties fared better
By Herbert L. White
herb.white& tftecharlottepostcom
Fewer North Carolinians have access to
health insurance, according to a study
The proportion of residents imder age
65 who lacked health insurance for at
least a year rose from 15.3 percent in
2000 to 17.5 percent in 2004, according to
a UNC-Chapel Hill survey The percent
age of non-elderly residents without
insurance vaiied from 13.9 percent in
Wake County to 28.3 percent in Tyreil
County researchers say
Lack of health insurance is a particu
larly acute problem in eastern N.C. Eight
of the 10 counties with the hipest pro
portion of uninsured residents live east of
Interstate 95.
In “County Estimates of the Number of
Uninsured in North Carolina: A 2004
Update,” researchers calculated unin
sured rates for state residents under age
18 and between ages 18 and 64.
"The uninsured have few reasonable
cost options for health care, sometimes
forcing them to ignore medical cxinditions
until they become an emergency” said Dr.
G. Mark Holmes, co-author of the study
Please see EASTERN/7A
Poet keynotes
blaek eleeted
officials fete
By Herbert L. White
herbM>hite(&iheclu3rlottepost£(m
Poet and author l^likki Giovanni will be
the keynote speaker for the
National Black Caucus of
Ijocal Elected Officials
luncheon today at the
Westin Charlotte hotel.
The limcheon, which
starts at 11:30 a.m., will be
held during the National
League of Cities’ Congress
of Cities in Charlotte.
Giovanni
Giovanni is «cpected to speak aroxmd
12:30 p.m. She is expected to discuss the
Please see CHARLOTTE/7A
just get so stressed out that you
want to give
Whether diagnosed with HIV, a
retrovirus that causes AIDS, or
having the disease in its full
capacity Goldenberg and Desiree
are not alone. In fact, they are part
of a fri^tening development of
where the disease is spreading.
Medical Alert: There’s a new face
or “poster child” of HIV/AIDS. It
has been morphed over the past
See HIV/6A
the box
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Millions More
hosts forum
Hie Millions More Movem^t-
Charlotte will hc»t its first com
munity coalition forum Saturday
The forum will be held Saturday
at 9 a m. at Little Rock AME Zion
Church, 401 North McDowell St.
Organizers will address issues
related to education, economic
development, health care, hous
ing, law and justice and youth
“We need to mobilize pec^le to
action,” said Gardine >Mlson, pres
ident of MMM-Chailotte.
Herbert L. White
Sexy attire rx) ally for
women in management
positions, study finds 8C
LifelB
Religion 8B
Sports 1C
Business 8C
A&E1D
Happenings 6C
INSIDE
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