General News

Mecklenburg County’s population of white-tailed deer has ballooned in recent years, as residents of Charlotte and other towns can verify with frequent sightings of deer gamboling and grazing in backyards, gardens, parks and greenways. At the same time, deer hunting in North Carolina’s most urbanized county has also expanded, in part through specialized hunts. The […]

[highlightrule] Learn more about KEEPING WATCH on HABITAT for 2017[/highlightrule] Walk into Ernie McLaney’s backyard in southeast Charlotte and for a moment, you may forget you are in a neighborhood of more than 6,000 residents. It’s a serene and private place, enclosed by trees, shrubs and a fence and lined with a curlicue paver path. […]

The KEEPING WATCH initiative enters its fourth year with a focus on wildlife habitat in the urban ecosystem. Beginning with an opening reception Feb. 24 at UNC Charlotte Center City, KEEPING WATCH on HABITAT will offer three months of programming through May 27. Organized in 2013 by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and the UNC […]

Should the regional transit commission take on the operating costs of the Charlotte streetcar? Former Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx makes that suggestion during an interview in which he reflects on his tenure as U.S. transportation secretary. Foxx says he’s proud of making lemonade out of lemons at the department, of pushing it to better consider […]

Charlotte for years has had a love-hate view of Atlanta, with civic leaders envying their fellow southeastern metro for its big-city status, achieved decades earlier than Charlotte’s. But sprawling growth and traffic congestion in the Georgia capital city fuel a We Don’t Want To Become Like Atlanta counterpoint. Last year a Charlottean became Atlanta’s planning […]

[highlightrule]Can lower South End survive the large-scale cookie-cutter development now ravaging South End and NoDa? Charlotte can learn some lessons from another Millennial magnet city, Des Moines. Yes, Des Moines. [/highlightrule] In post-election America, consensus seems as unreachable as the lost land of Atlantis. Republican “Middle America” has triumphed over the Democratic coastal regions, and […]

My husband’s cousin lives on a farm abutting Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. (As my friend Sam says, everyone should have family so well placed.) Like the Uwharries, it’s a landscape of rolling topography punctuated with rocky outcrops, and the park is fragmented by villages and farms. Trails traverse a patchwork of public and […]

Imagine: Charlotte neighborhoods with their own master plans to care for their trees. A citywide initiative to pinpoint neighborhoods with few trees and then help get trees planted there. A dependable, dedicated source of public money to care for Charlotte’s street trees. Assistance for low-income homeowners who can’t afford to give proper care to large […]

By Mary Newsom Choices made decades ago ruled out the preservation of large-scale green belts or farmlands in Mecklenburg. This is the story of how that came about. You can drive south down Dixie River Road beyond the venerable Dixie Grill & Grocery and for 2 miles you’ll see only woods, a few driveways and […]

If your agency or organization would like an affordable, reliable way to gauge public opinion and attitudes, participate in the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s Annual Survey of Mecklenburg County residents. Participating agencies pay only for the questions they want to ask, as a way to share the cost of conducting the survey. The cost also […]