General News

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 […]

[highlightrule]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. [/highlightrule] 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 the scattered […]

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 […]

Ever notice how the full moon always rises at sunset and sets at sunrise? This wondrous byproduct of planetary alignment gives us long nights of landscapes silvered by the sun’s reflected light. Even in my urban neighborhood, the moonshine casts strong shadows. In the evenings surrounding the Harvest Moon in September, my garden seemed especially […]

If you’re much of a birder and you ever use playbacks to attract a bird, you know there’s one sure way to get a variety of birds to come out. Play the song of an eastern screech owl. Songbirds are one of their favorite prey species, yet those little guys don’t give up without a […]

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and its PlanCharlotte.org web publication have been awarded a $15,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to continue their work as citywide organizers of a series of Charlotte neighborhood City Walks each May. The walks are inspired by the work of urban observer and writer Jane […]