Articles
Read more about report This is the fourth State of the Environment report article. Others examine water quality, air quality and land preservation. Recycling rates are rising, and per capita disposal rates in landfills are down substantially, according to Mecklenburg County’s 2012 State of the Environment Report. The report rates all four indicators in the […]
Remember the Y2K or “Millenium Bug” that was supposed to hit on Jan. 1, 2000? Planes were going to fall from the sky, banks would close and we’d never be the same, because none of our computers would boot up that morning. Health care faces its own Y2K milestone moment. Jan. 1, 2014, is coming, […]
In any other time, the request might not have been so hard. But a nonprofit developer’s plea last week to use $2.3 million in city money from federal grants to help repair Charlotte’s historic Mecklenburg Mill came after a recession and a brutal, lingering downturn. It also came after the City of Charlotte had already […]
Downtown Salisbury has been named one of “10 Great Neighborhoods” for 2012 by the American Planning Association through its program, Great Places in America. APA’s flagship program celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning. The only other Southern cities honored were Memphis and Baton Rouge, La. Joe Morris, Salisbury’s director of community planning services, […]
So, how did it go? When I thought about it the next day, it all felt like a dream. I had – with plenty of help – organized Charlotte’s second PARK(ing) Day event in recent memory. The first, also created by UNC Charlotte students, was in 2008 in an uptown parking lot. This year’s was […]
With three of the four indicators rated “fair,” Mecklenburg County’s land resources have room for improvement, according to the county’s latest State of the Environment Report. The 2012 report rates four categories of environmental Indicators for land resources: climate change and wildlife, nature preserves, greenways and facility planning. The report did rate climate change and […]
We talk quite a bit in the conservation community about invasive species and the threats they pose to habitats and ecosystems.We have to deal with invasive species on conserved lands, typically invasive plants like kudzu and privet, which can spread rapidly and choke out native vegetation. However, other invasives have had an even broader impact […]
By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had become sensitized to the environmental damage caused by harmful human practices, particularly the use of pesticides and DDT, following Rachel Carson’s 1962 pivotal book on this issue, Silent Spring. Carson was an eminent biologist, ecologist, and writer at a time when women in the fields of science and research […]
The fourth quarter 2012 Charlotte Business Confidence Index report, released Sept. 28, shows Mecklenburg County business leaders’ optimism about economic prospects declined compared to their expectations for the third quarter. The overall index value of 52.3, a decrease of 3.1 points compared to the third quarter, remains positive on business confidence, with the index above […]
Have opinions about how development should look along the hoped-for next leg of Charlotte’s light rail line? Thursday is the first of three public workshops scheduled to help planners as they draw up area plans for six* of the 11 station areas. All three meetings will be 6-8 p.m. at Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church, 101 […]
Most water quality indicators in Mecklenburg County are “good,” but its streams are not as clean as they should be, says the county’s latest State of the Environment Report. Three of four environmental indicators in this category are rated “good” and either trending up or stable. The fourth, “streams,” is rated “fair” but stable. Read […]
In the Western United States, fire season generally runs from April to September. This year has seen historic fires. The largest wildfire on record in New Mexico started in the Gila National Forest in May, eventually growing to nearly 300,000 acres. A record heat wave in June helped spur the Waldo Canyon fire, Colorado’s most […]