General News

Podcast: How parking can strangle a city, and what to do about it

Abundant, convenient, cheap — or even free — parking, right where you want it, so you can drive up to your destination and find a space right by the door. Sounds great, right? Maybe so — unless that abundant parking is killing your city. Donald Shoup is a distinguished research professor at UCLA in the […]

Garden journals offer a window into our changing world

Categories: General News Tags: ENVIRONMENT, Gardening

At the beginning of 2021, I was on the hunt for an app to help me keep better records of my vegetable garden. After exploring several options, I decided they were all too cumbersome and fussy. If I provided all the information they demanded, I worried I’d spend more time on data entry than digging, […]

A transit tax vote (maybe). Gaping budget holes. Recovering ridership? Key transit trends to watch in 2022

With 2021 fading into the blessed rearview mirror, it’s time to take a look ahead at what transit controversies, developments and questions are looming further down the track in 2022. The past year was, once again, wracked by the pandemic and uncertainty about how — even whether — Charlotte can fund the infrastructure to move […]

Explore everything from residential segregation to how much trash you generate with new maps

Categories: Data, General News, Maps Tags: Maps, Quality of Life

Which parts of Charlotte use the most water? Where is our growth eating up whatever vacant land is left in Mecklenburg County? Where are the racial, economic and other dividing lines that crisscross our community? You can answer these questions and more with the updated Quality of Life Explorer maps published online today. A joint […]

Charlotte leaders start wrestling with state transportation budget shortfall

Charlotte leaders say they won’t know the full impact of a nearly $12 billion funding shortfall for state road improvements until sometime next year, but a pair of projects in University City give a hint on what the funding gap might look like in concrete terms. Think delays for needed roads, bridges and interchanges, plus […]

Charlotte’s new focus on regionalism in transit brings more people to the table, but can they all agree on a vision?

If all the pieces fall into place, some day in the future a new light rail train will pull out of the station at the Central Piedmont Community College Levine Campus in Matthews and head south into Union County. It will turn down a two-lane country road lined with pine trees; run alongside U.S. 74, […]

Natural wonder: Reflecting on leaves, sky and more

Categories: General News Tags: ENVIRONMENT

Editor’s note: As we approach the climax of the hectic holiday season, let’s take a minute to step back and reflect on that natural wonder all around us in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. At the beginning of November, I challenged myself to pause for a moment every day to contemplate and appreciate something […]

Five things to watch as Charlotte grows in 2022

Categories: General News Tags: DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING

Despite the pandemic and economic uncertainty, 2021 was a banner year for Charlotte, with major developments announced, a long-awaited new vision plan for the city and big – if uncertain – steps towards a new transit plan. The city’s growth isn’t expected to slow in 2022, but the ways in which Charlotte grows could change. […]

Technology, sensors and AI in design

Imagine this scenario: Building designers are trying to figure out why pedestrian traffic at one spot in an airport terminal past the security checkpoints is consistently snarled. A decade or two ago, the designers might sit in the terminal, counting passengers with a clicker, and trying to get a select sample to answer a few […]

As projected construction costs surge, state road money dries up

New projections from North Carolina’s Department of Transportation show the state is $12 billion short on funding its next slate of transportation projects — nearly double the gap reported earlier this year. It’s a serious shortfall that’s expected to leave plans for roads, bridges and other infrastructure throughout the state waiting on the drawing board […]