Nooze Hounds: City Council District 5 Rep-Elect Marjorie Molina
Episode 58
On episode 58 of the Nooze Hounds podcast, Ryan Pitkin sat down with Marjorie Molina, the newly elected District 5 representative on Charlotte City Council. Molina beat out a crowded field of Democrats in the May 17 primary and will run unopposed in the July general election.
Molina will fill the seat left open by Matt Newton, who vacated it in order to run for district court judge. You can revisit Episode 57 to hear Ryan’s discussion with Dante Anderson, who will fill the seat left vacant by Larken Egleston in District 1.
In this episode, Marjorie Molina explains how spending nearly 20 years living in Charlotte, more than half of which in east Charlotte, led her to engage in community work and eventually decide to run for office.
Molina originally applied to fill the District 5 seat vacancy left by John Autry in 2016, though current at-large member Dimple Ajmera was appointed to that seat. This year, however, was the first time Molina campaigned for an elected seat on council.
Pitkin and Molina discussed some of her goals upon joining council in September in relation to the specific needs of District 5, which encompasses much of the Monroe Road, Independence Boulevard and Albemarle Road corridors, running out to far-east Charlotte and bordered to the north by University City.
The two talked about the upcoming Eastland development and how to ensure the diverse array of immigrant business owners and workers are included in the coming economic growth rather than displaced, as well as the differing needs of residents in the more rural areas of far-east Charlotte, where a lack of infrastructure is what drives anxiety around development.
Remember you can catch Nooze Hounds on Spotify and other places where you find podcasts, and be sure to check out Queen City Podcast Network for a slew of other great Charlotte podcasts that aren’t quite as good as ours but pretty damn close. Find past Nooze Hounds episodes here.
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Dear Ryan,
I enjoy and value the journalism you’re doing with Queen City Nerve. It’s so important to have tough journalism covering government at all levels. In that regard, I wanted to respectfully challenge your policy not to endorse political candidates because you “don’t trust any of them.” I worry that this promotes a defeatist attitude that some may use as an excuse not to vote. When one political party increasingly expresses a willingness to subvert democracy for its own power, and when in most races there is clearly one candidate superior to another, I believe it’s worthwhile to state as much for the record. People need to believe that electing more Democrats means a better chance for progress than staying home and complaining that you can’t trust anyone.
Having said that, keep up the good work.
Tim Foskey
Plaza Midwood
don’t say gay? who gives a damn. how about some concrete decisions on over taxation and inflated property values. this isn’t leadership this is hogwash.