young renters are living large
DESCRIPTION
Slow economy makes rentmore affordable in primeCharlotte neighborhoods.TRANSCRIPT
91o 68o
Clouds: Slight chance for a straythunderstorm. 14C
PANTHERS PRESEASON STORYLINESThe Peppers effect and Michael Vick are amongthe topics David Scott will be watching as thePanthers prepare for training camp. SPORTS
The essential guide to CharlestonAll the basics – plus some great tips – for theperfect weekend getaway. TRAVEL
Ask Amy...........4EBooks ................3EClassified ..........1FCrossword........4EEditorial .........20AHoroscope .......4EMovies...............5EObituaries ........3BSports................1CTravel ...................1IDeliveryAssistance or toSubscribe...800-532-5350
By Elizabeth Leland
Lexi Haas wants to run.
Up the stairs, around the dance stu-
dio, across the soccer field, the way her
sisters and brother and friends run. In
sandals, tied up in sneakers, twirling,
gliding, skipping, stomping, running
on her own bare feet.
She wants to give away her wheel-
chair, and the 2 1⁄2-pound weights that
keep her legs from jerking uncontrol-
lably. She wants to quit her therapy ses-
sions and do simple things most of us
take for granted.
Lexi is 7 and all she really wants is to
be like other children.
But Lexi can’t, because she has a rare
form of brain damage caused by jaun-
dice. Her mother and father have de-
voted all of her life to finding a way to
fix what’s wrong. Now they’re taking
the biggest step. They will kiss Lexi
goodbye early Wednesday and trust
their daughter to a neurosurgeon who
will operate on her brain, hoping to win
back a part of her life stolen shortly af-
ter birth.
Every morning, before the sun peeks
through the window, Lexi is ready to
get up. But she can’t walk and she can’t
talk. She has cerebral palsy and a move-
ment disorder called hyperkinetic dys-
tonia. Yet she’s so smart she placed fifth
among 100,000 students in a national
French exam.
She lies in bed, making squeaky,
chirpy sounds until her mother hears.
If her mother doesn’t wake up, Lexi will
sometimes lose patience and try to get
up herself. Thump. She falls on the
floor.
Fighting to get Lexiup and running
“I feel like we’ve been given this amazing child,” Susan Haas says about Lexi Haas,who has a complication of jaundice called kernicterus. “She’s got something tosay. She’s got an amazing brain in there, and I want people to know that.”
PHOTOS BY TODD SUMLIN – [email protected]
If Lexi has something to tell her parents, Susan and Ken Haas,she spells out words by pointing to letters on a magnetic board.This day, she wants to wrestle with her brother.
She’s 7, and she can’t walkor talk. Her body jerks
wildly. Her brain surgerythis week may be the
first one of its kind.
SEE LEXIAND HERFAMILY
“You deserve a biglife,” Susan Haas tells her 7-year-olddaughter. Watchvideo of them asthey prepare forWednesday’ssurgery and seemore photos atcharlotteobserver.com/local
SEE LEXI, 6A
© 2009 The Charlotte ObserverVol. 140, No. 207
+
SUNDAY • JULY 26, 2009 • $2.00SUNDAY • JULY 26, 2009 • $2.00 charlotteobserver.com••• +Price varies by county C D E F
THINK YOU KNOWCHARLOTTE?The stories behind the road names.CAROLINA LIVING
10 ways to save on back-to-schoolshoppingMoneyWise
SAVE
$128WITH COUPONS
INSIDE
By Rob Christensen
RALEIGH — President Obama’s trip to Raleigh onWednesday is the latest indication of an intense andunusual political battle in the middle of summer inNorth Carolina – the fight over the president’s planto overhaul health care.
It’s July in a nonelection year, but the state’s politi-cal machinery is fully engaged, complete with letter-writing campaigns and bus tours. Rallies, phonebanks and door-to-door canvassing are under way,TV commercials fill airwaves, and petitions appearbeside ripe tomatoes at farmers markets.
The flurry of activity comes as Obama tries to per-suade Congress to pass a health reform plan by theend of the year.
Though the health care debate is national, it is par-ticularly loud in North Carolina, a state with a con-centration of moderate Democrats that both sidessee as persuadable, particularly Sen. Kay Hagan.
N.C. keyin health overhauldebate Obama’s visit to Raleigh Wednesdayhighlights state’s swing position.
SEE HEALTH CARE, 4A
By Peter St. Onge and Jim Utter
In a U.S. District courtroom this month, Charlottelawyer William Diehl launched a defense of his client, Jeremy Mayfield, by targeting the NASCARdrug policy that led to the driver’s suspension thisyear.
That policy, according to Diehl, was so open-ended NASCAR could administer any penalty forany substance it deemed dangerous, even if a driverdidn’t learn it was banned until after a positive test.“If they decide to ban Coca-Cola or coffee or orangejuice, their argument is, we can,” Diehl said.
NASCAR’s response? We can, but we wouldn’t.Drug policy experts say NASCAR’s substance-
abuse rules, unlike those of other sports, allow thegoverning body to make those same kind of on-the-fly calls regarding testing protocol and punishment.The result, experts say, is a deeply flawed program.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State health policy professor and anadviser to sports organizations. “For a sport that pro-motes itself as being red, white and blue, these rulesare almost Stalinist. It’s un-American.”
SEE NASCAR, 11A
Mayfield’s caseexposes questionsin NASCAR rulesSome drug policy experts see holes:‘Program falls apart all over the place.’
as a busboy at a nearby bar. Monta-gue – who interns for the Panthers– plans to spend the afternoonplaying Xbox 360 at the $375,000house the roommates started rent-ing in December.
“We love living here,” said Mon-tague, who graduated with Bran-tley and a third roommate fromUNC Chapel Hill last year. Thethree rent the house for a total of$1,000 per month.
The recession and poor housingmarket have given some youngCharlotte residents a chance to livein some of the city’s prime loca-tions. As homeowners struggle tocover costs, younger people aregaining newfound access to some
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS LIVING LARGESlow economy makes rentmore affordable in primeCharlotte neighborhoods.
T.ORTEGA GAINES – [email protected]
Andy Brantley (left), 24, and Eli Montague, 23, are UNC ChapelHill grads and roommates renting a house in Myers Park with athird roommate for a combined $1,000 a month.SEE RENTERS, 10A
By Cameron Steele
It’s 3 p.m. on a recent weekday,and Andy Brantley, 24, and EliMontague, 23, are relaxing on blue,oversized couches, watching“SportsCenter” on a 40-inch, flat-panel TV.
Montague’s SUV is one of theonly cars left on Idlewood Circle, aquiet, tree-lined street betweenPark Road and Freedom Park.Most of the neighbors are at work.
Brantley will have to leave in acouple hours for his part-time job
10A Sunday, July 26, 2009 ••• charlotteobserver.com • The Charlotte ObserverFROM PAGE ONE
of Charlotte’s traditionally eliteneighborhoods by renting nicehomes for cheap prices, somehousing experts say.
Brian Augustine, a real es-tate agent for Elite Team Prop-erties, which specializes inprestigious neighborhoods likeMyers Park, said more youngpeople are living the high life,as high-end homes that costmore than $400,000 sit on themarket for months withoutselling.
The Charlotte-area housingmarket has faced widespreadtrouble. The number of single-family detached homes sold inMecklenburg County duringthe first quarter fell 52 percentfrom a year ago, according toMarket Opportunity ResearchEnterprises.
But the high end has been hitespecially hard: Sales of pricierhomes fell more sharply, with a65 percent decline in the pricerange of $350,000 and above,according to the Rocky Mountfirm that compiles data fromcourt records. And county-wide sales have really stalledfor million-dollar-plus man-sions: Only 12 sold during thefirst quarter, an 83 percent de-cline.
That means homeownersare more willing to rent andless picky about whom theyrent to, Augustine said. Home-owners are scrambling to washtheir hands of “unsellable”homes. Some bought fixer-up-pers that won’t sell, while oth-ers moved and are stuck with afirst house that hasn’t attracteda buyer.
Many of these peoplechoose to rent for less thantheir monthly property costs,which opens the door foryounger people – often consid-ered the scourge of establishedneighborhoods – looking fordeals.
“It’s a golden opportunityfor young people … to rent inthese nicer neighborhoods. It’sjust golden, really golden, forpeople to rent across theboard,” Augustine said.
Valerie Mitchener, owner ofHM Properties,said her real es-tate and propertymanagementcompany is rent-ing “way morehigh-end proper-ties now than lastyear.” She saidshe hasn’t rented to young peo-ple yet but can see how it’s eas-ier for them to rent in MyersPark now with stalled high-endhome sales.
Mitchener’s young niece hastaken advantage of the chanceto live in an area that wouldusually be out of her pricerange; she is renting a nicehouse in Dilworth with threeroommates.
Prestige more than size
Many young renters aredrawn more to the prestigious
feel of the area than the size ofthe house they rent.
Montague’s 1,400-square-foot house isn’t exactly aMcMansion, but its Myers Parksurroundings give his post-col-lege, pre-professional life amore established feel than anapartment would have, he said.Houses on the street rangefrom $350,000 to $800,000.
Montague and Brantley pay$350 per month each, andCameron Easley, the thirdroommate, pays $300.
That’s about half the month-ly rent for the average apart-ment in Charlotte, which is$725 per month for a one-bed-room, a March industry mar-ket report indicates. Still, apart-ment prices are the lowestthey’ve been since 2005, andmany apartment landlords arewilling to cut deals to in an at-tempt to halt the climbing va-cancy rate.
Montague, whose familylives in Charlotte, said he andhis roommates found theirhouse after his dad introducedhim to a co-worker who hadbought the house to fix it upand then sell it early last fall.But then the recession hit andthe owner, who declined to beinterviewed, decided to rentthe house to help take the stingout of mortgage payments andproperty taxes.
It’s been a great deal forMontague and his roommates.None of them has a permanentjob right now, and Montagueand Brantley make about mini-mum wage.
Brantley said that for suchcheap rent, there’s plenty ofroom in the three-bedroom,one-bathroom house. He andhis roommates don’t even use
the dining room, screened pa-tio, playroom or basement,opting instead to hang out inthe living room or kitchen.
“It’s really pretty spacious,”Brantley said, “and it’s an awe-some, central location.”
Central to the neighborhoodbars, that is. The house is a five-minute cab ride from neigh-borhood hangout Selwyn Puband Montford Drive hot spotssuch as Andrew Blair’s andBrazwell’s.
That’s a perfect spot for thethree fraternity brothers whomoved to Charlotte so theycould remain close to friendsas they looked for jobs.
‘For Sale’ signs helped
UNC graduate Brynn Hard-man, 23, said she and her threeroommates found their rentalnear Myers Park High Schoolby driving around the neigh-borhood and knocking ondoors of houses that had “ForSale” signs in the yard.
They knew that no one wasbuying because of the pooreconomy and were set on liv-ing in Myers Park, said Hard-man, who works for a pharma-ceutical company in Charlotte.When she and her roommates– University of Georgia gradu-ates Emily Howard, KatieFletcher and Lindsay Bissell –spotted a home in the area thatwas for sale by owner, theyasked the owner if he’d be will-ing to rent to them.
He was, and the women nowpay a total of $1,700 per month– or $425 each – for the$595,000, three-bedroom, two-bath house that’s 2,300 squarefeet. The landlord, whocouldn’t be reached for com-ment, even left behind furni-
ture for the women to use.“It’s such a homey neighbor-
hood. We lucked out,” Hard-man said.
She said she spends most ofher weekday evenings goingon runs through the tree-cov-ered area. Although someneighbors might worry aboutpeople her age being too loud,Hardman said the group triesto be respectful of thosearound them.
The women haven’t had any“outrageous” parties at theirhouse “yet,” Hardman says,though they do routinely havefriends over to drink cocktails– or “pregame” – before head-ing out to bars or day parties atLake Norman.
Charlotte resident AndyPressley, 38, who lives downthe street from Hardman and
her roommates, said he and therest of his neighbors have en-joyed getting to know thewomen. Hardman said anothercouple who lives on their streetinvited her to swim and sun-bathe by their pool.
That’s a more neighborly at-titude than some local housingexperts expected. Augustinethinks the increased ability foryoung people to rent in eliteneighborhoods could antago-nize homeowners who’ve hadhouses in those neighbor-hoods for generations. He saidsome neighborhoods – espe-cially newer ones such as PiperGlen – try to restrict who canrent a home there.
Rusty Bryson, president ofthe Myers Park HomeownersAssociation, said that’s not thecase in Myers Park.
“The neighborhood hasbeen historically associatedwith wealthier homes, but thetruth is it has a range of diversehomeowners now,” he said. Hesaid that change isn’t a result ofthe recession and poor hous-ing market, but is a gradualshift that’s occurred over thepast decade.
But Bryson does think therecession has allowed neigh-borhoods like Myers Park tocompete with uptown apart-ment prices.
“Uptown apartments whichused to be affordable to20-year-olds aren’t anymore,so they’re turning to areas likeMyers Park,” he said.— STAFF WRITER STELLA M. HOPKINS AND
STAFF RESEARCHER MARION PAYNTER
CONTRIBUTED.
LIVING THE AFFORDABLE DREAMRENTERS• from 1A
T.ORTEGA GAINES – [email protected]
Roommates Andy Brantley (left) and Eli Montague, 23, are renting a house in Myers Park, along with another roommate. “We love living here,” says Montague.Many younger people are better able to rent in Charlotte’s traditionally elite neighborhoods as homeowners struggle to cover costs and offset debt.
Mitchener