Public Safety

By Fatima Rodriguez Caba

In 2019 and 2020, homicide rates within Charlotte rose by 45%.

This rise motivated the City of Charlotte to implement the Alternatives to Violence program within the Beatties Ford Road corridor. The corridor includes historical landmark neighborhoods and sites, Black-owned businesses and Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte’s only historically Black college. While rich in community, history and culture, the corridor has borne the burden of historical discrimination and marginalization (e.g., redlining, predatory lending), resulting in a lack of socioeconomic development and resource investment– leading to disproportionately higher rates of poverty, crime and violence within the corridor […]