Support for Carolina Impact comes from our viewers and Wells Fargo (VO) Wells Fargo, has donated 390 million dollars... (Mom) Honey like I said, you get your own room.

(VO) to support housing affordability solutions across America.

Doing gets it done.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- Just ahead on Carolina Impact.

- Building a light rail style rapid transit system without the light rail.

I'm Jeff Sonier in Raleigh.

We'll show you how they're saving money and saving time by building bus rapid transit instead.

- Plus, we'll learn about a program working to eliminate the digital divide through collaboration and we meet a group of young people learning life lessons in the ring.

Carolina Impact starts right now.

- [Announcer] Carolina Impact, covering the issues people and places that impact you.

This is Carolina Impact.

- Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

Charlotte's transit system faces a lot of big decisions this year about the future of light rail rapid transit and how to pay for it.

But a former CATS CEO says maybe it's time to refocus on better bus service too with projects that serve more passengers and cost taxpayers less money.

Carolina Impacts Jeff Sonier and videographer Doug Stacker, are in Raleigh where construction starts soon on North Carolina's first bus rapid transit line.

- Yeah, we're out here on New Bern Avenue, one of Raleigh's busiest highways in the future location of Raleigh's newest rapid transit project.

And while Charlotte struggles with the question of how to pay for new light rail, well Raleigh's question is why build light rail if you don't really need light rail?

(upbeat music) - And the five mile stretch, it does go pretty far.

- [Jeff] Transit planning supervisor Het Patel takes us for a future ride.

- I would say it's gonna get us close to light rail as it can.

- [Jeff] On Raleigh's less expensive light rail alternative.

- The stations are gonna be level boarding again to make that easier for people to get on and off the bus.

- Looks like light rail.

- It does.

- Yeah.

- It can serve as a lower cost option to provide a similar type of level of service.

(horn blowing) - [Jeff] Which brings us to downtown Raleigh's Union Station, which by the way is a lot nicer than Charlotte's Amtrak station, but we're not here on this weekday morning to hop a train.

Instead we're listening in as planners explain to train passengers about bus rapid transit or BRT.

- And that one ends in Garner?

- Well I think we got some maps for ya.

- Oh good.

- There's garner here.

This one goes to Cary.

- And we're trying to educate the general transit riders as well as other residents about the option of what bus rapid transit will provide.

They'll be running every 10 minutes and then 15 minutes during the off peak.

- [Jeff] Patel is surrounded by BRT route maps and diagrams of BRT stations and that BRT future video.

- We have a dedicated median running transit way, which is where those dedicated bus lanes are physically separated from general purpose traffic and again providing that higher level of transit service so that the buses can stay on time and on schedule.

- [Jeff] And these will run right down the middle of some of Raleigh's busiest streets and highways?

- They will run right down the middle of a median on one of our main corridors that has high ridership right now.

(mellow music) - In fact, New Bern Avenue is Raleigh's busiest bus route, Route 15, where workers use the bus to get to and from their jobs downtown or here at Wake Medical Center.

The Route 15 bus is also transportation for hospital doctors appointments and for shopping trips to Walmart at New Hope Commons.

And this is where Raleigh is investing almost a hundred million dollars in 10 modern new BRT stations and miles of new BRT lanes.

Raleigh building first where transit riders need it most.

- And our goal I think now is 99 miles within by say 2030, 2033, something like that.

- [Jeff] Tim Gardiner is a transit planner for surrounding Wake County where that 99 miles of BRT will stretch out in four corridors reaching Raleigh area riders all over the map and all for a BRT budget that's billions less than light rail.

- We want to build the entire network and the whole network has to be affordable.

It's more of about making sure that you have access to getting from where you live to where you work, getting to where you wanna shop, that sort of thing.

And when we were including the higher dollar projects like the light rail that the model was running out of money and so therefore we were never in a situation, we're spending more money than we have.

And so, that's not really on the table for us.

(mellow music continues) - [Jeff] What Raleigh is building instead is similar to this BRT system in Indianapolis that we visited last year with light rail style stations, plug in electric buses and bus only lanes, replacing medians on many highways, multiple BRTs to multiple locations at a much lower cost.

It's much more of a transportation project in Raleigh than anything else.

- Absolutely, it's a way to manage the growth that we know is coming, right?

- [Jeff] And Raleigh planning supervisor Bynum Walter says spreading out multiple BRT's to more Raleigh area neighborhoods also shares the positive growth that BRT brings with it.

- Well and it's really important that not only rich people who can afford to buy outright on the corridor or get access to the BRT, right?

Everybody should be able to, you know, that should be attainable for every kind of household in Raleigh, that they can live close to the BRT.

We have a number of projects on the go in the New Bern corridor already with affordable housing developers who are gonna be building units along the New Bern BRT corridor.

We know that as BRT is implemented those quarters will become more desirable.

There'll be more demand there.

- [Jeff] Back in Charlotte, there's also demand for better bus and transit service.

Just not enough money right now to pay for.

Charlotte's Light Rail, Silver Line from the eastern corridor alongside Independence Boulevard to the western corridor ending near the airport and Amazon, will cost $8 billion alone, which is three times more than Raleigh's entire 99 mile BRT system.

Would you build BRT or would you build light rail on Independence Boulevard, if it was your decision today?

(chuckling) Former CATS CEO Ron Tober chuckles at the question because for Charlotte, BRT instead of light rail is sort of back to the future.

- In fact, it was part of the original plan.

Original plan had bus rapid transit using these lanes that you see here on Independence.

There was also bus rapid transit plan to the West corridor.

- [Jeff] Tober warns that the current Silver Line light rail plan simply won't carry enough riders to justify the huge cost until it also generates huge South end style development next to those expensive tracks.

- What I'm afraid of is that there's been more concern about developing and not enough concern about ridership and the development of the bus system has not kept pace.

- [Jeff] That's partly why bus ridership in Charlotte has dropped 75% over the past nine years and why those who still ride the bus in Charlotte don't really benefit when CAT spends billions on light rail instead.

- And the thing that is discouraging for me is that CATS in its bustley has a set roughly the same number of buses that we had in 2007 and a lot of the people that use the bus system are dependent on it or it's their primary mode of transportation.

- [Jeff] Where else would be BRT work in town from your perspective?

- Well, Wilkinson Boulevard I think is another potential location and again, that was part of the original plan.

Central Avenue could be if it's done right.

- [Jeff] And Tober adds that like lots of other cities from this decades old BRT system in Cleveland to these brand new BRT lanes in San Francisco.

BRT versus light rail in Charlotte doesn't have to be an either or decision.

You don't think they're mutually exclusive?

- No.

- You can have BRT successful here?

- Yes.

And rail too.

There is a leadership transition going on in the CATS and so I think that that's a big question mark as far as what the future holds.

- One more thing here in Raleigh, building BRT instead of light rail doesn't just cost less and serve more passengers, it also takes less time.

They'll break ground on the new BRT project here on New Bern Avenue in a couple of months and the expected finish date is 2025, which means commuters on this busy thoroughfare will have a rapid transit option in about two years.

Amy.

- Thanks so much Jeff.

If you'd like to learn more about Bus Rapid Transit in Raleigh, there's a link on our website, pbscharlotte.org with maps and videos of the Raleigh project.

You'll also find a link with the latest information on Charlotte's future Light Rail, the Silver Line.

Here at PBS Charlotte, we're proud to be celebrating our 10th anniversary season of Carolina Impact.

It's always our goal to bring you the best local stories about people, places, and issues impacting our region.

As part of our 10th anniversary, we're revisiting some of those unique stories we've brought to you in the past.

This next story is an update on one we brought you about four years ago.

Carolina Impacts Jason Terzis catches us up with E2D, eliminating the digital divide.

- [Jason] It's about people helping people.

- It's something that can be solved in the next 10 years.

- [Jason] And a nonprofit helping those in need.

- It's a wonderful scene, the tight-knit community that we have here in Charlotte.

- [Jason] And other nonprofits.

- Ensuring that every single household in Mecklenburg County has access to technology and to the internet.

- It's definitely much more than a laptop.

I think that just more so the icing on the cake for us.

- [Jason] With a major local corporation playing an essential role.

- We've probably provided close to 14,000 laptops.

- [Jason] And at the center of it all students doing the work, earning a paycheck as well as valuable real world experience.

- It's amazing, you know, the experience that I've gained at E2D is better than any regular high school job I may have gotten, you know, working fast food or retail.

- [Jason] And it's all happening at a place where you might least expect it.

- So this space is donated by AVID Exchange and it's a lab that E2D can use for the work that they do to serve the community.

- [Jason] E2D short for Eliminate the Digital Divide was created nearly a decade ago with one simple goal.

- E2D was established in 2013 to create opportunities to resolve the digital divide for as many families in North Carolina as possible.

We primarily do our work by refurbishing donated corporate laptop computers and getting 'em back out into the community to families with need.

- [Jason] E2D founder and president Pat Millen created the program leaving his two plus decade career in sports marketing behind.

- Well, it's a great story actually.

My daughter was 12 years old about 10 years ago and she came home from school one day and said, "Dad, every assignment we get at school presumes there's a computer in the home and I know there are kids at this school that probably can't afford 'em, they can't do the work and that's not fair."

And then she said, "What are we gonna do about it?"

- [Jason] So Pat went to work calling everybody he knew in the corporate world, asking companies what they did with their old laptops.

- And many of them didn't have a really great answer for that.

- [Jason] When he got a hold of executives at Lowe's, he found the perfect partner.

- As a nationwide retailer, we don't exist without the community.

So it's critically important to us as an organization to help out.

- [Jason] Lowe's began donating its used laptops and on the receiving end at E2D high school students.

(upbeat music) - Maybe a different shot where.

- [Jason] When we first brought you this story four years ago, students at Garinger High School were going through the multi-step process of cleaning, refurbishing and reinstalling updated software before sending them off to underserved families within CMS.

- So, right now I'm just putting in the hard drive and I'm just closing the back and changing some other settings that we are required to do.

- [Jason] Since then, the program has exploded with E2D taking up some prime real estate right in the middle of the AVID Exchange Music factory.

shelves of laptops, power cords, hard drives and other supplies are all here with students doing all the refurbishing.

- The students that are here today, we hire from largely Title one high schools.

We hire these kids, we train these kids, we employ these kids, we pay 'em better than two times minimum wage to work in this lab.

- And they're really learning critical skills so that those can not only help with the work that they're doing now, but that sets them up for success and a potential career path as well.

- [Jason] It's no wonder that for every 10 jobs that come open, E2D gets about 300 applications.

- So the kids that work in this lab go on to one of two primary roads.

One, they go directly into IT and get phenomenal jobs right outta high school, 50, $60,000 a year.

Others go straight to college and we've got kids at some of the best colleges in the country.

- The tech that I learned here, just in terms of working on computers, I did not know much of it.

I was all trained onsite about everything, but I've always been interested in computers and I've actually been looking into getting an information technology degree.

- [Jason] In the last couple of years E2D has also started giving laptops to a Apparo, a nonprofit that works to help other nonprofits by providing technology in business process solutions.

- We were started with a grant from Microsoft and operated for a number of years as Aspire, but then became a Apparo, which is the Latin word to help.

- It's funny because our board has been on our case about just like securing our technology, needing better laptops, needing better cybersecurity.

- [Jason] What started as a simple idea a decade ago has grown into something of a community lifeline.

- We did 150 computers in 2013, our first year.

Last year we did 150 computers every four days.

- It's a community, the interconnectedness of nonprofits, partners, for-profits like Lowe's who are extremely involved in the nonprofit community, especially veteran space, which we're obviously in is just, it's impressive to see.

- [Jason] Connecting the community with connectivity or as E2D likes to say, changing lives one laptop at a time.

For Caroline Impact, I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- Thank you so much Jason.

During this last round of handouts by E2D and Apparo six nonprofits received a total of 30 laptops.

It's amazing the good that happens when organizations collaborate.

Our next story involves amazing young people and mentors who care deeply about these eight to 17 year olds.

Dyme Boxing Jr is a non-profit amateur boxing club in Charlotte where young people learn more than just how to stay fit physically.

Videographer Russ Hunsinger brings us the story.

- 33.

(punching) - [Speaker] Boxing, it's an art.

- [Speaker 2] It is challenging.

- Rip the bag open, hard punches.

- [Speaker 3] Hard work, dedication, discipline.

- Dyme Boxer Jr. is about developing and mentoring children.

- When I first started Boxer I was 11.

(bell ringing) My first competition was back in 2021.

It was my first ever fight and I won the tournament.

- I've seen his confidence though from zero to a hundred.

His mentality, his patience, concentration and focus.

The exercise regimen, he loves that.

- [Evrence] I train four days outta the week.

- Gotta put in good work.

If you don't put in good work, it's gonna show in the ring at some point.

- The biggest thing I had worries about was that he would take aggressive behaviors to school.

But it actually had the opposite impact.

He's not aggressive in the way that I thought he would be.

- My arms were very tired and they worked me, but, I'm proud of it.

I'm proud and I'm happy that they work you like that.

Your will is what carries you through life and stress is unavoidable.

You're not gonna live stress-free.

So, I'm happy that they taught me that as well.

- The influence that he's had from the male instructors here, I can tell he walks with his head a little higher, his chest out a little bit more.

- Keep everything down, all right?

(upbeat music) - It's a marvelous thing a child comes into Dyme boxing with no particular training, no idea of boxing.

And to be able to watch them, to be able to see them grow and to mature is a phenomenal thing.

- I feel a sense of relief and a breath of fresh air when he comes into the gym because I do know that other kids in here care about him as well as his coaches.

- My number one philosophy in the ring and outside the ring is always ready.

All I want them always ready to throw punches, always ready to defend themselves with punches in the boxing ring and take that same mentality with developing their own place in the world.

Always ready.

We have an eclectic mix of people in this gym.

We have male role models as well as female role models.

- I think I enjoy the camaraderie.

I really enjoy like getting to know everybody, all the new members when they come in, I like helping them out.

You know, if they don't know something or if like they need help, I enjoy like really, you know, being a friend they can say like, oh that's a familiar face type of thing.

- They encourage each other to push through.

That's kind of what we build here within our program but focusing on that community aspect, that community development.

Boxing can sometimes be scary to the naked eye because you just feel like you're hitting somebody.

But I think what the parents have seen is like the kids want to be better based on seeing all the rest of the kids progressing as well.

(upbeat music) - I've never worried about getting hurt.

The coach is not going let you do something that you don't want to do.

- We pride ourselves on safety.

Like we make sure to tell the kids to eat a proper and nutritious meals.

We also tell them to keep hydrated.

We also make sure that they are keeping check up with their doctors.

- Good.

- Box has taught me a little bit of restraint, just have to have a little bit of self-control over any moment.

- His academic performance has increased, his behavioral issues have decreased.

- I have more self-esteem now.

- Taught me that even when it get hard you still, you know, keep going.

Pushing yourself.

Hard work takes you far.

- [Mostafa] I'm just proud of my son.

I want him to know that we are here for him throughout this whole process.

We are not gonna give up and we just want to encourage him to do the best he can and be the best he can be.

- One of the things I want the kids to gather is community, camaraderie, discipline and just having a space that they can let their hair down.

- We've had some good success stories, those that have gone off and done good things in the world, done good things in the boxing ring as well.

But the greatest success stories are those that have been able to be for productive members of society.

(upbeat music ending) - What a great program.

Thank you so much Russ.

You can learn more about Dyme Boxing Jr on our Carolina Impact page at pbscharlotte.org.

Finally tonight, do you recall flipping through the pages of your favorite catalogs and magazines when you were a kid?

Seeing the latest fashions from around the world, reading the stories about movies and Hollywood stars?

Here in Charlotte, a young entrepreneur has brought back the glory of reading those early magazines along with hard to find books that highlight the black experience.

As Carolina Impacts Bea Thompson explains Archive Charlotte began because a little girl fell in love with an era that existed before she was born.

(mellow music) - So I've always been around this stuff and never knew that it was a part of me until I moved out and still gravitated towards it.

- [Bea] Take a look at how a dream in the head of a little black girl became a reality and she became a female entrepreneur for culture.

Welcome to Archive Charlotte.

It can be described as a black-owned coffee shop, slash book nook, slash community gathering place for history and nostalgia.

Archive Charlotte is located on the historic West side at Beatties Ford Road in LaSalle Street.

- Cheryse nice to meet you.

- [Bea] For the owner Cheryse Terry the seeds for this cultural hub were first planted as she grew up with her adopted older parents, devoted church members who raised her to respect all and to always seek knowledge.

- So I was old people chirrun, they call it, and a church girl.

And I was able to like stand and do like youth sermons and I took it serious, I was never scared, but I always understood the power of fellowship.

- [Bea] That child of old people was very observant from reading and loving the magazines of her parents' era to embracing vintage clothing, homes, and furniture.

- So I initially started collecting Ebony and Jet magazines from the seventies, around the time she would've been in her twenties and I thought it was cool the bell bottoms, the platforms and just black living.

- [Bea] Over time she created a collection that sparked the beginning of her online shop selling vintage magazines and books and starting an online book club.

Yet she knew there was a next level.

- I crowdfunded $40,000 in 40 days to get this.

- [Bea] And with that, Archive Charlotte became a reality with writing help from friend and college professor Takiyah Harper-Shipman.

- When she was ready to start crowdfunding, she came to me and she was like, "Can you help me with the language in writing up the crowdfunding?"

A lot of it really does come down to teasing out like all of the important components of like, what are your core values?

What do you plan to do with the money?

How do you plan to be sustainable?

(mellow music) - [Bea] The space pays homage to black history and culture.

You can see it in the montages of classic magazines and books for sale in the store down to the custom wallpaper ala Cheryse in the bathroom.

- So these first two rows, everybody's looking directly at you and then- - [Bea] Made from old magazine ads and pictures of African Americans dressed to the nines.

But the real impact is felt by the customers who say they have found their niche.

- I actually was just online and I googled black coffee shops in Charlotte and this came up.

- One, I think the coffee is incredible.

That's one, but also just kind of the environment of just being able to kind of come.

- Where you at in there?

- I'm at 44, just getting to page 44.

But I come for the familial experience.

Come to learn a little bit about the black experience, the black culture through literature, through magazines, through articles, through books.

You come in a stranger and you leave like family.

- See y'all later.

- It feels like home.

It feels like community.

- [Bea] For one new to the city, finding a comfort space and finding books is akin to finding a treasure.

- The Souls of Black Folk, I always wanted to buy it never did, but I'm so glad I got this edition.

And then just any of these, I don't see 'em anywhere, any book that I find every time I come in here, I'm like, what a like find- I just don't even know how to describe it really.

It's like a kismet.

- You can come in and have coffee and you can pick up a magazine or pick up a book.

And I can't wait to kind of bring my family back here.

And we spent an afternoon in the city and enjoy these vibes.

- I brought it for you actually to see.

- Oh okay.

- [Bea] The little girl who grew up with no heat or air conditioning in her west side Charlotte home, one that burned down leading to the loss of her own family memories.

Well, she knows the hardships of the unhoused outside her business doors.

- Having that experience of my physical history being wiped away with one fire, I thought about the unhoused people that don't have access to photography or who's documenting their life, like they matter, they have importance to us and to a history.

- [Bea] So she invites them in and she takes their pictures to display in Archive Charlotte because it is their city too.

- I never want, especially my people to feel othered.

This is a nice new shiny thing and oftentimes we can get this thing and forget about what's going on outside.

- [Bea] The mom of three is proud to be able to employ her teenage daughter while exposing her girls to building a business and making dreams come true.

She also knows this small corner of the world is filling a need in the community.

- Where in Charlotte can you go during the daytime and it's majority black people of all generations without it being an event or a restaurant?

So I feel like archive answered a need in that sense.

I'm so glad that y'all came, it's so nice to meet you.

- [Bea] And from the looks of it, it's a sentiment shared by those who enjoy this cozy corner of the world.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Bea Thompson.

- Thank you Bea.

We'd love to learn about your amazing stories hanging out in your neighborhoods.

Please send us your story ideas to stories@wtvi.org.

Well, I'm sorry, but that's all the time we have this evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We always appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing you back here again next time on Carolina Impact.

Goodnight my friends.

(mellow music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.

Support for Carolina Impact comes from our viewers and Wells Fargo (VO) Wells Fargo, has donated 390 million dollars... (Mom) Honey like I said, you get your own room.

(VO) to support housing affordability solutions across America.

Doing gets it done.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.