Articles

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 […]

Just a few hours before he would give the biggest speech of his career at the Democratic National Convention, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was using his expanding political capital to pitch a group of community and business leaders on the merits of political consolidation between the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. His proposal to […]

Air quality continues to be Mecklenburg County’s biggest environmental problem, says the county’s latest State of the Environment Report. Ozone pollution is the particular weak spot, the report says, rating that indicator “poor” – the only such rating in the report. It took Mecklenburg County until the summers of 2008-10 to meet the 1997 national […]

Earlier this summer, I visited a Uwharrie pitcher plant bog at the right time to spot an interesting wildflower in bloom – swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnate). Similar to the bright orange butterfly weed seen on many roadsides, this version of milkweed is considerably taller, and instead of a vibrant sunset-orange color, it is a more […]

Using nature as a model, a team of UNC Charlotte students and faculty has designed an energy-efficient house that includes a network of small pipes in the walls and ceiling, a type of concrete made from coal-burning waste and a complex dashboard control. The team from three different UNC Charlotte colleges unveiled its design for […]

Who doesn’t prefer a park to asphalt or concrete? What would you rather see, a parking place, or a park? That’s the impulse at the heart of International PARK(ing) Day. The yearly event has artists and other citizens transforming parking spaces – temporarily – into more people-friendly places. The event began in 2005 when workers […]

The event Tuesday afternoon was billed as Mayor Anthony Foxx hosting a “roundtable discussion on Regionalism & Reinvention” but it was, at heart, a dignified pep rally for consolidation. Head cheerleader was Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson, formerly mayor of the unconsolidated Louisville and then of the consolidated Louisville-Jefferson County, Ky. Abramson described the years […]

The word “sustainability” and its associated derivatives are thrown around with abandon to describe everything from architecture to Jay-Z’s diet. But what does it mean, really? Tuesday, I attended a panel discussion where experts discussed how Charlotte could move toward a more sustainable future. There was talk of sprawl and ozone, policy and transit. Statistics […]

Welcome, Democrats! You have received loads of material on restaurants, sights and the strange habits of the locals. Here is a primer quick enough for you to digest while you spoon through your breakfast grits. First and most important, Charlotte is not some other city. It is not by the sea (that’s Charleston), it does […]

Amy Hawn Nelson, a Mecklenburg County educator with a strong record in improving the academic outcomes for at-risk students, has been named director of UNC Charlotte’s Institute for Social Capital. She replaces Sharon Portwood, the first director, who stepped down in December 2011 to return to full-time teaching at the university. The Institute for Social […]