General News

A set of almost deserted railroad tracks runs from uptown Charlotte through Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson. In fast-growing, highly congested north Mecklenburg, people see those tracks and ask: Why not use them for mass transit? For more than 20 years, that’s what the county’s transit plan has proposed: Use the tracks for a commuter rail […]

Where you can afford to live influences much of the rest of your life: Access to schools, medical care, fresh groceries, air pollution levels and, ultimately, your chance to get ahead and climb the ladder of economic mobility. The Charlotte region continues to grapple with rising housing costs that contribute to segregation and inequality. That’s […]

Charlotte is one of the fastest growing city in the United States. With the city’s expanding population and surging development, there is a need for revolutionary changes to address the growth of the coming years. Over the past year, a group of multidisciplinary designers called “Curators“ have been working on a macro- and micro-level to […]

You’ve no doubt heard this advice – keep a buckeye in your pocket so you can rub it for luck. I can see how this shiny, lumpy “nut” became a talisman. It has grooves that beckon your thumb. I’m thinking its power actually has less to do with luck than with a calming effect. Think […]

It’s been a tough year already for big ideas in Charlotte. First, the city’s ambitious goal of a referendum for a 1-cent sales tax to fund a massive, $8 billion to $12 billion transit and mobility plan was thrown into question after worries emerged about whether the legislature would let it on the ballot and […]

Sometimes I feel as if I’m watching a play. It’s one I’ve seen before – performed many times in different venues. It’s called “The City Wakes Up To Its Future.” We have now reached the penultimate act. I’m referring, of course, to the recent cyclone of activity that’s swirling around Charlotte’s proposed 2040 Comprehensive Plan […]

Contributing writer Martin Zimmerman interviews Sarah Hazel, recently appointed as Chief Sustainability & Resiliency Officer for the city of Charlotte. Sarah Hazel comes to the Strategic Energy Action Plan team from a six-year tenure on the city manager’s staff, where she worked on a wide range of initiatives including SEAP program development. She now manages […]

Neighborhood activists fighting to preserve single-family-only neighborhoods, Charlotte City Council members worried about gentrification overwhelming historically Black neighborhoods and developers who want to stop any notion of new regulations like inclusionary zoning don’t often end up on the same side of an issue. But that’s the case in Charlotte, where concerns about the city’s proposed […]

Back in late 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the world – it looked like 2020 would be the year for plans to guide our community’s growth for the next several decades would coalesce. What happened? Well, the pandemic, of course. But a couple of key plans have also run into […]

Down the middle of Hawthorne Lane at the corner of East 8th Street, the dust is just settling on the new LYX Gold Line Extension tracks. When the line opens later this year, it will be the first time a streetcar has rumbled down this block since 1938. Still, the legacy of that old streetcar […]