General News

Here’s another paradox from the COVID-19 pandemic: People drove less, but the streets got more deadly. That’s especially true for pedestrians, a new report from Smart Growth America shows. “Dangerous by Design,” the group’s annual report highlighting pedestrian fatalities, shows that over 6,500 people were hit and killed while walking in 2020 – a 4.5% […]

Neighborhood Defenders Katherine Levine Einstein, David M. Glick, and Maxwell Palmer Available in paperback from $24.99 Hometown Inequality Brian F. Schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes, and Raymond J. La Raja Available in paperback from $34.99 One of the favorite mythologies of American politics is that local government is the closest thing we have to direct democracy. […]

Charlotte’s losing three football fields a day worth of trees – or, at least, we were from 2012 to 2018. But after four more years of a torrid building boom, no one can say with any certainty whether that loss has accelerated, slowed down or remains unchanged. The city of Charlotte hopes to soon begin […]

Bucket of Doom. A slasher movie from the 1970s? The latest season of Fortnite? No, but for many homeowners, it might be something equally thrilling – an effective, inexpensive and safe way to control mosquitos. Five-gallon buckets are often a source of standing water where mosquitos can breed. This simple idea turns that around so […]

As the Charlotte Area Transit System continues struggling to fill bus driver positions, the agency could soon implement bus service cuts to deal with the shortage and create a more reliable schedule. For months, CATS has been dealing with a flood of unscheduled sick days, which the transit agency has blamed on a “loophole” in […]

Dr. Lori Thomas Our community’s challenges extend past any one silo, organization or jurisdictional line. Public education systems address hunger, health, homelessness, and other impacts of poverty. Our jails and prisons are mental health and substance use treatment facilities. Our workforce development efforts must circumvent fragmented transportation, distant and still unaffordable housing before people can […]

One of Charlotte’s quintessential suburban communities has big plans to transform itself into a dense, walkable, mixed-use center. Greenways, sidewalks, protected bike lanes and transit would replace the car-choked expressways and huge parking lots that dominate the auto-centric area now. We’re not talking about Ballantyne or SouthPark. Leaders in University City — Charlotte’s second-largest employment […]

You’ve surely seen them, but you might not have noticed them—roadside signs with a big “Z,” indicating an upcoming public hearing on zoning at an interminable City Council meeting. Most of us know that zoning exists. Perhaps we even know it involves planning and land use. But for many of us, the specific details are […]

CATS chief John Lewis on Wednesday shed new light on the reasons that his transit agency’s buses increasingly are late or don’t show up, saying that drivers using their allotted paid sick days are leaving the agency without enough workers to operate routes and contributing to unreliable service. At a meeting of elected officials from […]

A far-reaching new plan could shape Charlotte’s transportation infrastructure for decades to come, reorienting a car-dependent, sprawling Southern city towards a denser, transit-oriented, bike- and pedestrian-friendly future. Charlotte City Council approved the Strategic Mobility Plan on Monday in a 9-2 vote, with council members Tariq Bokhari and Ed Driggs voting no. The plan was developed […]