Articles

When we think about jobs coming to Charlotte, we may think of the flurry of press releases, photo ops, and political backslapping that all accompany a big announcement. Yet despite the role the city plays in promoting job growth, jobs are not spread evenly across the city’s seven Charlotte City Council districts. Since jobs are […]

Red clay. It’s the bane of Piedmont gardeners. Heavy and lumpy when wet, it dries as hard as a terra cotta pot. We spend bundles of money on soil conditioners to make it friable. We complain about it as much as the English do about chalk, the highly alkaline soil found throughout much of the […]

The most recent count of homelessness in Mecklenburg County—undertaken on one night in January— found overall homelessness had decreased by 36 percent since 2010. The same count also found a 9 percent decrease since last year, even as the county’s total population grew. Click on image to download the full report. The findings are outlined […]

Is Jim Garges, Mecklenburg County’s normally ebullient director of parks and recreation, fretting right now? He might be, and for much the same reasons that Janette Sadik-Khan worried eight years ago as commissioner of the massive New York City Department of Transportation. For Sadik-Khan, the summer of 2008 was when her staff decided to gamble. […]

Develop a historical asset map. Improve physical connections to public spaces and neighborhoods. Conduct a business needs assessment. Explore whether to list the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places. Those were among more than two dozen proposals for improving the neighborhoods just west of uptown Charlotte, near Johnson C. Smith University and the […]

One reason North Carolina had more Rosenwald Schools than any other state is the strong advocacy for their construction by Charlotte’s George E. Davis. Davis was the first black professor at Biddle Institute, now Johnson C. Smith University. He taught mathematics, science and sociology during his 35-year tenure there. He became dean of the faculty […]

[highlightrule]A handful of these historically significant Mecklenburg buildings survive in conditions ranging from splendid restoration to painful decline. But all are reminders of how grit and hard work, coupled with philanthropy, can create important change. [/highlightrule] Newell Rosenwald School quietly endures at the end of Torrence Grove Church Road in northeastern Mecklenburg County, its declining […]

Are you new to North Carolina and looking to discover one of the state’s great main streets? Or are you a life-long resident searching for a new place to explore? Or do you want other North Carolinians to know about the great places in your town? Welcome to the fifth annual Great Places in NC […]

[highlightrule]You probably know places you like. And you probably don’t know whether they’re MUDD-O, R-22MF or UR-2(CD). A new approach to zoning lets us envision places we like and then come up with ordinances that allow us to build them—without the arcane sets of letters and formulas.[/highlightrule] If I described a well-known locale in Charlotte […]

Charlotte’s historic and well-loved streetcar No. 85 may have left town for a sojourn at the N.C. Transportation Museum, but another relic of public transportation history may be about to get a shot at local renown. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission is restoring a 1972-vintage bus in hopes it can somehow be put to use […]

As you may be aware, Charlotte is beginning a long-overdue rewriting of its zoning ordinance. To be sure, zoning tops many people’s list of the most boring and obtuse topics. So it’s easy to understand why this multiyear process might fail to generate much public enthusiasm or desire to participate. But zoning is much more […]

Lurking silently beneath the beauty of Charlotte’s tree canopy is a persistent problem with ailing trees. The issue significantly affects the city’s efforts to preserve and replenish its most treasured amenity. Major challenges include: Tree diseases The stresses of an urban, high-rise environment on uptown street trees The age of the tree canopy, particularly in […]