General News
How smart is your city, really?
TORONTO – Maybe the game-changer is 3-D printing. Or maybe it’s robotic cars and “autonomous driving,” an innovation that may well mean we’ll never again have to learn to parallel park. Maybe it’s “the Internet of everything” – the idea that sooner or later almost everything will be connected via the Internet. It’s obvious big […]
Asphalt for cars or a place for people?
One lucky parking spot in NoDa gets to become a park for eight hours this Friday. From 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. volunteers will transform a space on North Davidson Street into a place for many people, instead of a place for one car. In doing so, they’ll make sure Charlotte once again joins an […]
Charlotte-area residents invited to chart the region’s future
Charlotte-area residents will have an additional opportunity to voice their opinion on the region’s growth. The Centralina Council of Governments added a fourth Mecklenburg County workshop, and a second location, to the “CONNECT Our Future” planning program at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at Mahlon Adams Pavilion in Freedom Park. The public workshop is one of […]
Don’t derail transit areas with an auto mall
A University City-area rezoning petition quietly winding toward a public hearing Monday raises serious questions about whether the city can stand behind its plans for transit-friendly development along the proposed Blue Line Extension light rail line. The case also highlights this fact: Today, almost all the properties in the station areas north of the NoDa […]
For our future: Make Charlotte a welcoming city
The last five years have been among the most challenging in the nearly 250-year history of Charlotte. The Great Recession erased the mythology that our community was invulnerable to the vicissitudes of national economic fortunes. Home construction, property values, business investment, and community philanthropy plunged downward at rates not seen since the Depression. Unemployment rates […]
Yellow-fringed orchids
This wet summer has brought out a number of wildflowers we rarely see, or at least not in great numbers. Recently, I saw one of my favorites blooming en masse in Montgomery County – the yellow-fringed orchid. This beautiful wildflower blooms from late June to early September, so they were just past peak but I […]
For our future: Make Charlotte a welcoming city
By Owen Furuseth The last five years have been among the most challenging in the nearly 250-year history of Charlotte. The Great Recession erased the mythology that our community was invulnerable to the vicissitudes of national economic fortunes. Home construction, property values, business investment, and community philanthropy plunged downward at rates not seen since the […]
Charlotte’s old buildings to get new study
The City of Charlotte will take stock of its historic buildings and neighborhoods over the next few years, thanks to a federal Historic Preservation Fund grant. The $20,000 grant will help the city’s planning department hire a consultant for a comprehensive historic resources survey. The city will pay $30,000 in matching funds. The survey, the […]
Two-century-old mill site may be landmarked
Four properties proposed for historic landmarking will go before the Charlotte City Council on Monday – from the ruins of a Colonial-era grist mill site to a 1960s Modernist home. At its Monday night zoning meeting, the council will decide whether to designate the Long Creek Mill Ruin near Beatties Ford Road and Huntersville-Mount Holly […]
Two-century-old mill site may be landmarked
Four properties proposed for historic landmarking will go before the Charlotte City Council on Monday – from the ruins of a Colonial-era grist mill site to a 1960s Modernist home. At its Monday night zoning meeting, the council will decide whether to designate the Long Creek Mill Ruin near Beatties Ford Road and Huntersville-Mount Holly […]