General News

What if the future is not just a continuation of present trends, but looks radically different? That’s the vision of Curators, a collective of young, multinational designers who hope to develop new, innovative and sustainable ways of life in Charlotte. Join us as we talk about two pilot ideas they want to see happen in […]

No spiderworts. No asters. No threadleaf ironweed or liatris. Very few brown-eyed Susans and even fewer green beans. That was the sorry state of my garden last year. No, it wasn’t weather-related, it was rabbit predation. My neighbor and I noticed a rabbit hanging around our yards last winter. One of its back legs was […]

There’s consensus in the new crop of local transportation plans: Whether we’re talking about trains, buses or roads, we’ll have to cross county borders and state lines to fund and operate an effective transit system. But in the traditionally siloed Charlotte region, how do we actually create some kind of regional entity — and who […]

TALKING POLICY IN THE QUEEN CITY FOURTH ANNUAL TALKING POLICY IN THE QUEEN CITY Friday, February 11, 2022 A Virtual Event, Free and Open to the Public The Fourth Annual Talking Policy in the Queen City event will mark the 20th anniversary of UNC Charlotte’s Public Policy Doctoral Program. Public policy experts will converse about […]

Charlotte’s proposed $13.5 billion Transformation Mobility Network is in limbo. City staff and council members seem paralyzed about when to approach Raleigh — and with what message. Congestion relief? Economic development? Economic mobility? There is, however, another way. The city can just build the plan itself, or more realistically build part of the plan itself. […]

Update: The deadline to apply for the fourth cohort of Gambrell Faculty Fellows has been extended to April 15. Interested faculty can download the application materials here. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is seeking the fourth cohort of faculty fellows to research issues related to economic mobility in the Charlotte region, with support from The […]

More people than ever are voluntarily leaving their jobs. This phenomenon, known as the Great Resignation, is happening in nearly every employment sector and across a broad range of income levels. Fueled by the pandemic, changes in how we work, increasing work demands, other opportunities and more, workers of all types are looking for a […]

Charlotte City Council on Tuesday approved two auto-centric developments in transit-oriented zones along the Blue Line light rail, a move some advocates fear will set a bad precedent as the city tries to move away from its dominant car culture. The developments — a Fifth Third Bank on Woodlawn Road with a drive-thru and a […]

Pedaling through uptown last week alongside cars and pedestrians, I felt something that I’ve rarely felt before on city streets: Relaxed. That’s because I was riding not in lanes of traffic or in a tiny, painted “bike lane,” but in a full-sized, two-way, striped and painted lane for bicycles, separated from cars by a concrete […]

In small towns across North Carolina, churches function as more than places of fellowship and gathering for people — they’re also de facto economic engines. [Read the full report: ‘The Economic Halo Effect’] That’s one of the key findings of a new research report by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, in partnership with The Duke […]