Articles
Malmö, Sweden, may seem a lot farther away than Minneapolis, where a local delegation of Charlotte Chamber and other civic leaders recently visited to get ideas for urban development, but in today’s global culture, it is much closer than one might think. I spent a memorable week there during an 18-day study tour, exploring five […]
North Carolina is a beautiful state filled with unique features. The state’s majestic mountains, picturesque Piedmont farmland and tranquil beaches provide a variety of habitats and recreational opportunities. This diversity makes it a marvelous place. With the spectacular beauty of our mountains and coast in North Carolina, the Piedmont often receives less recognition. The Uwharries […]
In this new series, PlanCharlotte visits planners from around the 14-county Charlotte region. In this first installment, we head east to Albemarle. Much of the Charlotte region is fast-growing, but Albemarle’s population has remained flat. Keith Wolf has been with the city’s planning department since 2004 and planning director since 2011. He talked about economic […]
The KEEPING WATCH initiative, a three-year collaboration of historians, writers, artists, scientists and environmental experts, has gained more funding support. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation awarded UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture $10,000 to support the program. The initiative – whose key partners at the College of Arts + Architecture and the UNC Charlotte […]
Concerns about pedestrian safety in South End – and the rest of the city as well – prompted the Charlotte City Council on Monday to order a closer look at what might be done to speed improvements. Council members’ concerns come after a spate of negative publicity about Charlotte walkability. A national report last month […]
PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and our most recent installment here.) Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design retrofits, many of them nominated […]
With the real estate market on the rebound, construction crews and renovators are hard at work in Charlotte neighborhoods. The city’s six historic districts are no exception. The number of applications for additions or renovations on properties within the historic districts, averaging about 200 a year, has risen every year since 2010. In 2014, says […]
I’ll admit it – I was a little delirious. The first day of summer year before last, I was out at first light, pacing the driveway and cradling our elderly Jack Russell in my arms. He’d been in a slow decline for months, but when he took a sudden turn for the worse, I knew […]
Is “urban agriculture” possible in a city like Charlotte? Can backyard chickens and rooftop gardens solve urban hunger? The public will get a chance to consider those questions – and sip martinis crafted from local ingredients – at the June 13 KEEPING WATCH Clean Martini Screens. The event, free and open to the public, will […]
I’ve been in and around the housing field for a long time, and I’ve seen mountains of housing statistics, data and quantitative analysis, everything from vacancy rates to under-construction tallies to eviction research. Often all these numbers, while important, get lost because they are just too voluminous and multifaceted to really comprehend. The average person, […]
Wilmore resident Kris Steele knew his neighborhood was a food desert, an area with little access to fresh food. But it didn’t hit him what that meant until he saw neighborhood kids streaming in and out of the corner convenience store carrying bags of candy. To get there, the kids walked past a rusting chain-link […]
PlanCharlotte.org is asking readers to nominate spots in the Charlotte region that need a design makeover. (See our first installment in this series here and our most recent installment here.) Urban designers Keihly Moore and Alex Borisenko have launched a website, www.completeblocks.com, where they’re proposing a series of urban design retrofits, many of them nominated […]