General News

TreesCharlotte summit focuses on city tree canopy

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is cosponsoring the fifth annual Urban Forestry Summit by the nonprofit group TreesCharlotte on Sept. 20 at UNC Charlotte Center City. The aim of the event is to share information and discussion about topics relevant to Charlotte’s urban forest. The event is free and open to the public but registration […]

Speeding suburbanization south of Charlotte – what’s a planner to do?

Although Charlotte is rapidly growing, the area just south of the city is growing even faster. From 2000 to 2014, Charlotte’s population grew 43 percent while that of unincorporated Indian Land more than tripled. Lancaster County Planning Director Penelope G. Karagounis. Photo: Mary Newsom Indian Land is in the Lancaster County, S.C., panhandle – a […]

Who’s moving in? Out? Symposium takes a look

Many parts of the Carolinas, including the Charlotte region, are seeing a huge influx of newcomers. Who’s moving in, and from where? How are they reshaping decades-old demographic patterns? For instance, Census Bureau numbers released in 2014 showed that New York sent more new residents to Mecklenburg County than did any other state, followed by […]

Bring the beach to the Piedmont

Summer is winding down. Kids are heading back to school. Days will soon be shorter than nights. Labor Day weekend marks the end of peak season at the beach, but birders and fishermen flock to the coast in fall. If you plan to visit Kitty Hawk, Hatteras or Bald Head Island in the coming weeks, […]

Funds can help save farmland from development

Agriculture and agribusiness account for one-sixth of North Carolina’s economy and employees, and more than 17 percent, or $84 billion, of the $482 billion Gross State Product. It’s no wonder farmland preservation is viewed as important to the future of our state. One way agricultural lands in our state are being protected is through Voluntary […]

Mecklenburg recycling: What do you do? Know? Want?

Categories: General News Tags: ENVIRONMENT, Survey

Update: This survey has closed. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is helping Mecklenburg County’s Land Use and Environmental Services Agency (LUESA) learn about county residents’ recycling practices and preferences. The institute has worked with LUESA on an annual phone survey for 11 years. This is the first year in which an online component has been […]

City pigeon found a new home in the countryside

Categories: General News Tags: Birds, Nature

Over the years, some interesting birds have turned up at our farm in the Uwharries. Mama keeps her feeders stocked all winter, and she’s been rewarded with species that will set a Piedmont birder’s heart aflutter: an evening grosbeak, a black-headed grosbeak, and the extremely rare yellow-headed blackbird. This summer, she had another unusual visitor: […]

Good cop or bad cop? #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter?

[highlightrule]What’s going on in our nation? Why? And what should we do about it?[/highlightrule] What’s going on in our nation? Though most of our systems aspire to fairness, people of color consistently experience disparate outcomes, compared to Whites. Racial disproportionality occurs across all systems – education, child welfare, health care, housing, employment, banking and finance […]

With mill preserved, new effort saves Loray’s village

Although Brian Miller grew up in Charlotte, he always felt drawn to Gastonia’s Loray Mill village, where his mother lived as a child. The 30-block neighborhood with about 500 small houses surrounded the historic Loray Mill, site of a bloody 1929 labor strike that claimed the lives of Gastonia Police Chief Orville Aderholt and union […]

In 2016, housing remains out of reach for many

For workers in Mecklenburg County, it has become even harder to afford housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s latest Out of Reach report. The 2016 report documents the gap between wages and fair market rents (for standard-quality rental units) in communities across the United States.[i] The fair market rent takes into account […]