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Mary Newsom

Biography

Mary is a lifelong newspaper journalist who spent several decades at The Charlotte Observer as an editorial board member and columnist, concentrating on Charlotte regional urban and suburban growth, planning, urban design, transportation and land preservation. She left the Observer and joined the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in 2011. She had a year-long Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University 2007-08, and in 2005-06 was a Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Miami. Newsom retired from the insitute in 2018 as Director of Urban Policy Initiatives, and is now a freelance writer in Charlotte. 

Education

A.B. Journalism UNC Chapel Hill

Expertise

Urban and suburban issues, Charlotte region and North Carolina politics and government, writing, editing and journalism.

Stories by Mary Newsom

Growth challenge dwarfs the streetcar spat

February 7, 2013
Since Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx gave his State of the City speech Monday, most publicity has focused on his remarks about the proposed streetcar and about a proposal in the legislature to remove...

Tracking neighborhood trends just got easier
January 10, 2013
Since 1993 the City of Charlotte has tallied information about some (and in later years all) city neighborhoods, in its regular Quality of Life reports. But this year major changes are afoot for the...

Matthews at the crossroads: Can it grow up, instead of just grow?
December 6, 2012
When I moved to Charlotte more than 30 years ago, Matthews was the suburb. Years of attracting people looking for a small town and a private getaway have built a fabric of large lawns and scattered...

Vision of Paris future evokes Charlotte’s past
November 6, 2012
PARIS – I saw the future in Paris. It looks a lot like uptown Charlotte circa 1989, but with flashier architecture. In the French capital earlier this year, I visited La Défense, the huge development...

Streetcar part of new, larger transit dilemma
October 31, 2012
The big picture may have gotten buried Tuesday as Charlotte City Council members chewed on, and chewed and chewed on, different alternative revenue strategies that might enable the city to build the...