[title_1]
What does the 'Great Resignation' mean for Charlotte?
   January 25, 2022
Sydney Idzikowski

More people than ever are voluntarily leaving their jobs. This phenomenon, known as the Great Resignation, is happening in nearly every employment sector and across a broad range of income levels. Fueled by the pandemic, changes in how we work, increasing work demands, other opportunities and more, workers of all types are looking for a change. 

Records started shattering in the heat...

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An ‘economic halo’ for rural churches in North Carolina
   January 11, 2022
Ely Portillo

In small towns across North Carolina, churches function as more than places of fellowship and gathering for people — they’re also de facto economic engines. 

...

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Explore everything from residential segregation to how much trash you generate with new maps
   December 15, 2021
Ely Portillo

Which parts of Charlotte use the most water? Where is our growth eating up whatever vacant land is left in Mecklenburg County? Where are the racial, economic and other dividing lines that crisscross our community?

You can answer these questions and more with the updated Quality of Life Explorer maps published online today. A joint venture between...

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How are Housing Choice Vouchers distributed across Southeastern Cities?
   October 29, 2021
Katie Zager
Providence Adu

This research was used by USA Today for an investigative series called 'Segregated by Section 8.' The series is available online here (subscriber-only...

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New maps let you explore patterns of income, racial segregation and more
   September 20, 2021
Ely Portillo

Where you live in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County might reflect your race, income, education level, how old you are and even how likely you are to be in an area where eligible streams are adopted for clean-up. 

Newly updated maps from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer let...

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Part 1: How the Blue Line Extension changed Charlotte development
   September 7, 2021

Nathan Griffin

The pandemic has transformed so much about the world, including how we work, where we work, and how we commute. As a result of these shifts, Charlotte area transit use has fallen to less than 50% of pre-pandemic levels.

And while debates continue on whether these effects are permanent or temporary, city planners are pushing for transit expansion.

The ambitious “Charlotte Moves...

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Data that show why Charlotte houses are so expensive - and scarce
   July 28, 2021
Ely Portillo

Buying a house in the Charlotte region has, in many ways, never been more challenging. Buyers face a dizzying array of obstacles: A historic supply crunch, skyrocketing prices and homes that sell faster and faster each month. 

The reasons are numerous. Housing supply never fully recovered after the 2008 economic crash and Great Recession drove homebuilders out of business; pandemic-...

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Supporting Charlotte’s minority-owned small businesses
   June 29, 2021
Angelique Gaines

A study released this week by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute sheds light on the unique challenges minority-owned small businesses face and how the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community can better support these enterprises, which are key to community well-being and wealth-building.

Defined as businesses with fewer than 500...

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Poverty suburbanization and job access: A new study tests ‘spatial mismatch’
   June 16, 2021
Ely Portillo

Does where you live — and what jobs you have access to — influence whether you work, and how much you earn?

The long-held “spatial mismatch” theory posits that inner city unemployment and poverty has been driven in large part by the increasing physical separation of inner city residents from job opportunities, as suburbs boomed and employers dispersed away from urban cores. As Black...

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Wall Street-backed landlords now own more than 11,000 single-family homes in Charlotte
   June 9, 2021
Ely Portillo, Justin Lane

For decades, the single-family home rental market was a small-scale industry, made up almost entirely of local landlords who rented out a few houses they bought as investment properties, or perhaps inherited, or held on to after relocating.

But the years since the Great Recession have witnessed a dramatic shift, as Wall Street-backed rental companies moved in to...

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