But sometimes it can be a surprise, as well, as was the case with last week's cover on which a number of randomly, and not-so-randomly, selected portraits of Lake Norman neighbors who died in 2011 filled it in mosaic fashion. Talkers didn't print pictures of everybody, but did print every photo it could find of northern Mecklenburg residents who died last year. The portraits were from the two north Mecklenburg funeral providers, which just happen to be located in Huntersville.
One avid reader of the Citizen wrote in that we omitted a friend of his, John McKay, who was a tireless volunteer who also spent many hours helping visitors to our fair area at the Visit Lake Norman visitors center. Granted, Talkers didn't know everything about everybody who had obituaries posted on the Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home and Sam James Funeral Service Web sites, but some stood out and were further featured on an inside page. One could argue that former Cornelius Mayor Harold Little was a glaring omission.
And you'd be right.
But a caller to the Citizen office Tuesday suggested that the paper was racist for not having more than a couple of photos of African-Americans on its cover. Seems as though just about anything can get you labeled as a racist these days, including the fact that, apparently, most African-Americans in these parts go to Charlotte or elsewhere for their funeral services. Short of an exhaustive search through the archives of every funeral home in a 50-mile radius, these are the photos that were found locally.
Except for 9-year-old Nikko Pinkney (seventh row, third from left). He, too, had his funeral performed outside of the area, but his mother, so grateful for the Citizen's coverage of his death, which pointed out the contradictions of racism, provided us with a photo of his happy, beaming face.
Talkers may be a lot of things, but racists they are not.
Nervous neighbors
Talkers couldn't help but notice the rising opposition by residents of the Monteith Place neighborhood in Huntersville to a mental health facility proposed by Carolinas Healthcare System at N.C. 115 and Verhoeff Drive.
The arguments are the same as always — it will destroy property values, it will bring traffic through the neighborhood, etc., etc. What they are really saying is what they don't say ... they don't want mental patients next door.
The acreage once was home to the Huntersville Oaks assisted living center, which was moved a block to the west on Verhoeff. The property is now zoned Neighborhood Residential and is situated across one street from an industrial park, across another from a college campus and next door to a medical residential facility.
Talkers know that buyers must always beware when they purchase a home next to an open field. Something is going to be built there. And when it's zoned for a use similar to what was there for a half-century, it's probably going to be more of the same.
The object lesson here is another Huntersville neighborhood, Melbourne, which fought a church building on land it bought next to the subdivision. The main objection: the church wanted to sell off an outparcel to McDonald's. The residents won and the church sold the land to a developer, who built a hulking apartment complex there instead of a pastoral church facility. And then the new owner sold off an outparcel to ... McDonald's.
Be careful what you fight against, because you just might win.
